My Poor Kraftwerks Experience
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Joined: Jan 2015
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My Poor Kraftwerks Experience
I know this is going to be an epic post, but I really need to share this info and express my frustration with Kraftwerks. I feel more compelled to write this now because a fellow member Nik2k has reached out to me personally because he is now experiencing the same issue. I’m sorry to the mods if this isn’t the place for it, but since it revolves around my forced induction issue, I thought it was the most relevant section for it. Again I’m sorry for the long post.
My setup: Kraftwerks SC kit with C38-91 blower with 85mm pulley on 93oct
I will start on April 4th when everything started. I was at the tuner and it was the 4th dyno pull. About half way through the pull, I hear him let off the gas. He gets out and says the car stopped making boost. We thought a vacuum hose disconnected, but in fact the hub adapter bolt broke in half and the 85mm pulley was just lying there.
My installer (Wayne) is now informed and he begins to open the lines of communication with CJ in order to get the ball rolling. This was on Monday April 6th. After they shared a few emails back and forth, call tags were finally sent to Wayne for him to send back the parts on April 10th. Now mind you these calls tags are for UPS GROUND which will take about 4-5 days travel time from NJ to CA. I feel that in order to resolve my issue, parts should be overnighted at the expense of Kraftwerks, after all, it is THEIR kit that failed. In the meantime I also opened the lines of communication with CJ to find out more about the process, what my options were, and about down time. I even provided CJ with a thread stating that parts for another member were overnighted back and forth.
Here is the thread, post 82 to be exact. https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/713...r/page__st__75
Here is the response I got back from CJ about the process.
“Should the charger be perfectly fine then we simply receive the parts here, replace what is necessary and re-ship. Typically within 48 business hours or so. If there is an issue with the Rotrex unit itself, THEN it can take longer. SHOULD it require the claim to be escalated to Rotrex, here is a breakdown of the claim process and the options that are available:
A; You send in the head unit to us - We ship the item directly to Rotrex in Denmark – We wait for their judgment on the claim. There is no definitive time-frame for the claim process as each time tends to be a different as we have to factory in shipping time from you to our facility, shipping to Rotrex, their time needed for assessment during their current work load, issuing the assessment and potentially shipping product back to you. This process is typically 3-5 weeks.
B; You purchase a new head unit at a core charge which is set my Rotrex to keep the vehicle on the road – still send the head unit into our facility – we ship the item directly to Rotrex in Denmark – we wait for their assessment of the claim.
Outcomes:
Approved Status – If you choose option (A), then Rotrex gives us a credit for the unit and we ship you a brand new piece out of our stock once we receive that credit from them in our system. If you choose option (B), Rotrex will still issue the credit but we would in-turn use that credit to reimburse you for you had spent on the core charge.
Denied Status – If you choose option (A), Rotrex will issue a denied claim status with a short description as to the possible failure. They will in-turn, offer a 56% discount which we pass directly to you, the consumer, on a replacement head unit. You then have the option to purchase the head unit at that discount price. If you choose option (B), Rotrex will still issue us the credit but you would have already purchased the head unit at the core price which is the 56% discount that they offer and you would not be reimbursed for the core charge.
In either case, Rotrex will not send the original head unit back to our facility as each head unit is essentially destroyed during the inspection process. If denied via option (A) then your only option to continue to use the product is to purchase the head unit at the core pricing.”
So basically I am told that if I don’t want to wait I can buy a new SC unit at a 56% discount just to get back on the road faster and then hope that Rotrex approves my warranty claim. This is total BS in my eyes, especially when I just provided you with a thread stating that Kraftwerks overnighted a brand new SC unit to the customer to get them back on the road faster. They didn’t expect the customer to wait for everything to be diagnosed before finally sending them another unit, they actually did the right thing and gave the customer a new SC unit. Also pay close attention to the typical 48 hour window CJ mentioned in his initial email to me as that will be the next key point.
After a coupe emails back and forth with CJ, he informs me that the supercharger was received on April 16th and that himself as well as a Dr. Charles are going to inspect the SC unit to make sure it spins freely and that there are no other abnormal noises.
On April 21st I email CJ for an update and if they inspected the SC unit yet as it has now been well over the typical 48 hour window I was given for turn around time. He responds saying he believes it’s safe to clean, re-install new hub bolt and adapter and re-install it on the car. I ask if the parts will now be overnighted to aid getting me back on the road faster since it’s already been 17 days that the car has been down since the failure. He informs me that it will be sent GROUND (again) free of charge, but if I wanted it back faster, I would have to pay the difference. Needles to say, I am NOT happy to hear this. I thought it was quite petty to ask the customer to pay any extra shipping fees during this whole ordeal, but at this point I want my damn car back on the road so I agree to pay the extra $42 in shipping to get it into Wayne’s hands by Monday April 27th. If I didn’t do that, it would have been another 5 days shipping time to get the parts back to NJ from CA.
Ok so now the Monday April 27th arrives and Wayne informs me that he received the SC unit back along with all new pulleys, oil, and belt, ok great right? WRONG!! Kraftwerks put the BROKEN HUB BOLT BACK INTO MY SUPERCHARGER!! They also neglected to even include adapter! Like seriously WTF?!?! That was the whole damn point of me sending the SC unit to you!! It was for them to inspect it, ok nothing seems wrong with the unit, install a new hub bolt, new adapter, include all new pulleys, oil, belt, and send it back and they f***** it up!! How do two engineers inspect the SC unit and BOTH forget to install the new parts back onto the unit and then you just ship it out the door with the broken bolt put back in it? On top of that, I paid EXTRA SHIPPING costs to get it to Wayne faster only for it now to be sent back to Kraftwerks AGAIN to have the bolt and adapter installed. After this blunder, NOW Kraftwerks decides oh ok, we can overnight the SC back and forth because yeah, that was a pretty dumb mistake.
That mishap was the straw the broke the camel’s back, so I composed this email and sent it to CJ.
“Good Morning CJ,
I’m writing to you in hopes of finding an amicable resolution and to get a few things off my chest. I purchased your kit for $5,500 and given the price and the reputation, expected to be totally satisfied. I feel I’ve been fair, level headed and accommodating, but at this point, I feel I need to share my frustration and give the opportunity to turn this around for me, the customer. I understand that things can happen, but when we make mistakes…it’s how we handle those mistakes (as individuals and as a company) that would define us. With so many different people involved (install, tuner, kit seller, manufacturer of parts) I can see how the lines can get blurred and it’s hard to take accountability. In the grand scheme of things though, I would have to hold your company the most responsible for the breakdown in communication, time lost, and oversights though.
1) Amount of time to get the supercharger shipped from Wayne to Kraftwerks. Sending call tags for UPS ground services isn't really providing the quickest means necessary to get the product back into your hands and vice versa.
2) Asking the customer to potentially spend another 1,000+ on a new supercharger in hopes that they would be reimbursed, when a thread was provided that another customer received a new unit (overnighted) while the other one was being diagnosed.
3) Turn around time of the supercharger once it was in Kraftwerks hands. It arrived on a Thursday and wasn't shipped out until the following Wednesday, when it was stated that turn around time is typically 48 hours.
4) Asking the customer to then pay the difference in shipping if I wanted to get it back to Wayne faster.
5) Finally receiving the supercharger back only to find out it has to be shipped back to Kraftwerks and only at this point is it finally overnighted each way.
It already struck me as rather petty that if I wanted to get the kit back into my installer’s hands as quickly as possible, I’d have to shell out another $42 for that to happen…especially at nearing an $11K bill for getting all of this done. Then, to get it back quickly to only receive it with the same failed part and the hub adapter totally missing after TWO of your inspectors signed off on everything being okay was a real slap in the face. Furthermore, I’ve been without my car for nearly a month now. I purchased the kit, paid for it immediately, coordinated and paid for all supporting mods (clutch etc), ordered all upgrades, did all my homework and at the end, have been very patient. Wayne has been stuck with my car at his shop taking up space and if I didn't have another vehicle for transportation, I would have been shelling out even more money for a rental car.…the only parties not feeling any of the burden of the failure are the ones responsible for it.
As a sign of good faith and accountability, I am requesting that I be reimbursed for the additional shipping charges I was asked for to get the car on the road faster. At the end of the day, it’s small change in comparison to what’s being spent, but it would make me feel better about it and I could take my wife out to dinner as a consolation. I’m very active on most forums and share my reviews and experiences constantly. I have had nothing but great things to say thus far and would really hate to have to change that perspective if this whole ordeal left a terrible taste in my mouth.”
After that email I was pretty much blown off and never received a response back from CJ, nor was I reimbursed the $42 I spent in extra shipping when Wayne received unfixed parts back. It really shows how Kraftwerks does business and it seems like they could give a crap about getting their customers back on the road faster. I honestly, was hoping for a better outcome of this whole situation and simply reimbursing me the $42 probably would have kept this post off of a public forum, but he was warned and now they can deal with the bad publicity. This whole process took over a month to accomplish and it wasn’t even a full blown warranty issue. A matter like this could have been resolved in a matter of two weeks tops, if that. In the grand scheme of things, they really need to understand that people are spending A LOT of money on these kits, so the few extra bucks they could be spending in shipping to make things right for the customer would really go along way.
My setup: Kraftwerks SC kit with C38-91 blower with 85mm pulley on 93oct
I will start on April 4th when everything started. I was at the tuner and it was the 4th dyno pull. About half way through the pull, I hear him let off the gas. He gets out and says the car stopped making boost. We thought a vacuum hose disconnected, but in fact the hub adapter bolt broke in half and the 85mm pulley was just lying there.
My installer (Wayne) is now informed and he begins to open the lines of communication with CJ in order to get the ball rolling. This was on Monday April 6th. After they shared a few emails back and forth, call tags were finally sent to Wayne for him to send back the parts on April 10th. Now mind you these calls tags are for UPS GROUND which will take about 4-5 days travel time from NJ to CA. I feel that in order to resolve my issue, parts should be overnighted at the expense of Kraftwerks, after all, it is THEIR kit that failed. In the meantime I also opened the lines of communication with CJ to find out more about the process, what my options were, and about down time. I even provided CJ with a thread stating that parts for another member were overnighted back and forth.
Here is the thread, post 82 to be exact. https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/713...r/page__st__75
Here is the response I got back from CJ about the process.
“Should the charger be perfectly fine then we simply receive the parts here, replace what is necessary and re-ship. Typically within 48 business hours or so. If there is an issue with the Rotrex unit itself, THEN it can take longer. SHOULD it require the claim to be escalated to Rotrex, here is a breakdown of the claim process and the options that are available:
A; You send in the head unit to us - We ship the item directly to Rotrex in Denmark – We wait for their judgment on the claim. There is no definitive time-frame for the claim process as each time tends to be a different as we have to factory in shipping time from you to our facility, shipping to Rotrex, their time needed for assessment during their current work load, issuing the assessment and potentially shipping product back to you. This process is typically 3-5 weeks.
B; You purchase a new head unit at a core charge which is set my Rotrex to keep the vehicle on the road – still send the head unit into our facility – we ship the item directly to Rotrex in Denmark – we wait for their assessment of the claim.
Outcomes:
Approved Status – If you choose option (A), then Rotrex gives us a credit for the unit and we ship you a brand new piece out of our stock once we receive that credit from them in our system. If you choose option (B), Rotrex will still issue the credit but we would in-turn use that credit to reimburse you for you had spent on the core charge.
Denied Status – If you choose option (A), Rotrex will issue a denied claim status with a short description as to the possible failure. They will in-turn, offer a 56% discount which we pass directly to you, the consumer, on a replacement head unit. You then have the option to purchase the head unit at that discount price. If you choose option (B), Rotrex will still issue us the credit but you would have already purchased the head unit at the core price which is the 56% discount that they offer and you would not be reimbursed for the core charge.
In either case, Rotrex will not send the original head unit back to our facility as each head unit is essentially destroyed during the inspection process. If denied via option (A) then your only option to continue to use the product is to purchase the head unit at the core pricing.”
So basically I am told that if I don’t want to wait I can buy a new SC unit at a 56% discount just to get back on the road faster and then hope that Rotrex approves my warranty claim. This is total BS in my eyes, especially when I just provided you with a thread stating that Kraftwerks overnighted a brand new SC unit to the customer to get them back on the road faster. They didn’t expect the customer to wait for everything to be diagnosed before finally sending them another unit, they actually did the right thing and gave the customer a new SC unit. Also pay close attention to the typical 48 hour window CJ mentioned in his initial email to me as that will be the next key point.
After a coupe emails back and forth with CJ, he informs me that the supercharger was received on April 16th and that himself as well as a Dr. Charles are going to inspect the SC unit to make sure it spins freely and that there are no other abnormal noises.
On April 21st I email CJ for an update and if they inspected the SC unit yet as it has now been well over the typical 48 hour window I was given for turn around time. He responds saying he believes it’s safe to clean, re-install new hub bolt and adapter and re-install it on the car. I ask if the parts will now be overnighted to aid getting me back on the road faster since it’s already been 17 days that the car has been down since the failure. He informs me that it will be sent GROUND (again) free of charge, but if I wanted it back faster, I would have to pay the difference. Needles to say, I am NOT happy to hear this. I thought it was quite petty to ask the customer to pay any extra shipping fees during this whole ordeal, but at this point I want my damn car back on the road so I agree to pay the extra $42 in shipping to get it into Wayne’s hands by Monday April 27th. If I didn’t do that, it would have been another 5 days shipping time to get the parts back to NJ from CA.
Ok so now the Monday April 27th arrives and Wayne informs me that he received the SC unit back along with all new pulleys, oil, and belt, ok great right? WRONG!! Kraftwerks put the BROKEN HUB BOLT BACK INTO MY SUPERCHARGER!! They also neglected to even include adapter! Like seriously WTF?!?! That was the whole damn point of me sending the SC unit to you!! It was for them to inspect it, ok nothing seems wrong with the unit, install a new hub bolt, new adapter, include all new pulleys, oil, belt, and send it back and they f***** it up!! How do two engineers inspect the SC unit and BOTH forget to install the new parts back onto the unit and then you just ship it out the door with the broken bolt put back in it? On top of that, I paid EXTRA SHIPPING costs to get it to Wayne faster only for it now to be sent back to Kraftwerks AGAIN to have the bolt and adapter installed. After this blunder, NOW Kraftwerks decides oh ok, we can overnight the SC back and forth because yeah, that was a pretty dumb mistake.
That mishap was the straw the broke the camel’s back, so I composed this email and sent it to CJ.
“Good Morning CJ,
I’m writing to you in hopes of finding an amicable resolution and to get a few things off my chest. I purchased your kit for $5,500 and given the price and the reputation, expected to be totally satisfied. I feel I’ve been fair, level headed and accommodating, but at this point, I feel I need to share my frustration and give the opportunity to turn this around for me, the customer. I understand that things can happen, but when we make mistakes…it’s how we handle those mistakes (as individuals and as a company) that would define us. With so many different people involved (install, tuner, kit seller, manufacturer of parts) I can see how the lines can get blurred and it’s hard to take accountability. In the grand scheme of things though, I would have to hold your company the most responsible for the breakdown in communication, time lost, and oversights though.
1) Amount of time to get the supercharger shipped from Wayne to Kraftwerks. Sending call tags for UPS ground services isn't really providing the quickest means necessary to get the product back into your hands and vice versa.
2) Asking the customer to potentially spend another 1,000+ on a new supercharger in hopes that they would be reimbursed, when a thread was provided that another customer received a new unit (overnighted) while the other one was being diagnosed.
3) Turn around time of the supercharger once it was in Kraftwerks hands. It arrived on a Thursday and wasn't shipped out until the following Wednesday, when it was stated that turn around time is typically 48 hours.
4) Asking the customer to then pay the difference in shipping if I wanted to get it back to Wayne faster.
5) Finally receiving the supercharger back only to find out it has to be shipped back to Kraftwerks and only at this point is it finally overnighted each way.
It already struck me as rather petty that if I wanted to get the kit back into my installer’s hands as quickly as possible, I’d have to shell out another $42 for that to happen…especially at nearing an $11K bill for getting all of this done. Then, to get it back quickly to only receive it with the same failed part and the hub adapter totally missing after TWO of your inspectors signed off on everything being okay was a real slap in the face. Furthermore, I’ve been without my car for nearly a month now. I purchased the kit, paid for it immediately, coordinated and paid for all supporting mods (clutch etc), ordered all upgrades, did all my homework and at the end, have been very patient. Wayne has been stuck with my car at his shop taking up space and if I didn't have another vehicle for transportation, I would have been shelling out even more money for a rental car.…the only parties not feeling any of the burden of the failure are the ones responsible for it.
As a sign of good faith and accountability, I am requesting that I be reimbursed for the additional shipping charges I was asked for to get the car on the road faster. At the end of the day, it’s small change in comparison to what’s being spent, but it would make me feel better about it and I could take my wife out to dinner as a consolation. I’m very active on most forums and share my reviews and experiences constantly. I have had nothing but great things to say thus far and would really hate to have to change that perspective if this whole ordeal left a terrible taste in my mouth.”
After that email I was pretty much blown off and never received a response back from CJ, nor was I reimbursed the $42 I spent in extra shipping when Wayne received unfixed parts back. It really shows how Kraftwerks does business and it seems like they could give a crap about getting their customers back on the road faster. I honestly, was hoping for a better outcome of this whole situation and simply reimbursing me the $42 probably would have kept this post off of a public forum, but he was warned and now they can deal with the bad publicity. This whole process took over a month to accomplish and it wasn’t even a full blown warranty issue. A matter like this could have been resolved in a matter of two weeks tops, if that. In the grand scheme of things, they really need to understand that people are spending A LOT of money on these kits, so the few extra bucks they could be spending in shipping to make things right for the customer would really go along way.
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,757
Likes: 120
From: Waukesha, WI
I cannot say I am suprised.
Sorry to hear of your trouble. Let this be a lesson to all to just buy the TTS Kit without intercooler piping, and have a local fabricator make an intercooler kit for for your car.
I'm so tired of people getting burned by kraftwerks and skunk2.
Sorry to hear of your trouble. Let this be a lesson to all to just buy the TTS Kit without intercooler piping, and have a local fabricator make an intercooler kit for for your car.
I'm so tired of people getting burned by kraftwerks and skunk2.
Member
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,318
Likes: 7
From: Seattle, WA
Kraftwerks quality team really needs to get their stuff together. There has been too many recent incidents of QA approving things that haven't been thoroughly looked over with this new Kraftwerks kit. As someone who will be in the market for FI soon, seeing posts like these make me weary about purchasing from them. I hope they can step up on your case and compensate you for the loss of time and frustration that has been brought these past few weeks, good luck!
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,244
Likes: 4
From: Northern KY
Sorry to hear about all of your headaches - Definitely handled poorly. 
There have been quite a few of these bolts break lately, and to my memory it seems like they have all been the c38-91 blower. Is that correct?
That bolt & adapter are installed by Rotrex, at least that was the case on my c38-81. The blower was sealed in a box straight from Rotrex that appeared completely unopened, and that part & bolt were already installed.
I've got about 3000 miles on my -81 kit now. Have these all been early failures that we've seen?
There have been quite a few of these bolts break lately, and to my memory it seems like they have all been the c38-91 blower. Is that correct?
That bolt & adapter are installed by Rotrex, at least that was the case on my c38-81. The blower was sealed in a box straight from Rotrex that appeared completely unopened, and that part & bolt were already installed.
I've got about 3000 miles on my -81 kit now. Have these all been early failures that we've seen?
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 2,099
Likes: 17
From: Miami
I cant believe they shipped it back with the same broken bolt??? wtf?! 
and yes i have read a couple -91 kit bolt failures already. I asked John at LHT in Tampa if he has any issues with the 14 kits he has installed and tuned, and nothing as of yet. I wonder if all 14 kits he has done are -81 kits. But regardless of which kit, customer service really seems to suck over there at Kraftwerks. I really want this kit, but stories like this make me hesitant.
Sorry to hear your story man. Hope something can be done to help you out and get you back on the road with some reimbursement.
-Mike
and yes i have read a couple -91 kit bolt failures already. I asked John at LHT in Tampa if he has any issues with the 14 kits he has installed and tuned, and nothing as of yet. I wonder if all 14 kits he has done are -81 kits. But regardless of which kit, customer service really seems to suck over there at Kraftwerks. I really want this kit, but stories like this make me hesitant.
Sorry to hear your story man. Hope something can be done to help you out and get you back on the road with some reimbursement.
-Mike