I am very disappointed to say the least. Gary I will call you on monday as I spoke to Cal early last week complaining about this same thing, before even reading this thread, and he acted like he did not understand what I was talking about. I bout the entire kit from one of your vendors (o2 housing, down pipe, delete pipe, and cat back). The down pipe that was sold to me does not even fit my MR. What a mess. I will call you to see what we can do to solve this. I am all about customer service. This is your time to shine.

 

Bump....want to find out whether Gruppe-S will follow through on this.

Capt John Kim, US Air Force

 

Bump...has anyone had Gruppe-S follow through on their offer? I've emailed Gary (manager) twice without a response.

 

I haven't received a response.

 

neither have I...getting worried

Capt John Kim USAF

 

Hey guys,

Gary's been out sick.. so right now, if you guys are requesting for refund or some sort of compensation, please email me at cal@gruppe-s.com and I will fwd you guys the Helix warranty claim forms

If you did not purchase the Helix product from us directly, please contact the vendor where you bought the cat-backs from.

Again, this is for Cat-back warranty issues only.

Thank you

Cal

 

Cal,

What will you be doing for guys that had rear bumper melt?

Capt John Kim, US Air Force

 

Out of curiosity why do you list your name and the fact that you're in the Air Force after every post?

 

Hi guys,

Just wanted to remind you guys, that those of you who are having issues with the Helix cat-back exhaust system - please contact us DIRECTLY regarding warranty claims.

Reason being is I received a phone call today from someone who at first claimed to be the represenative of all members of EVOM (and then recanted). Of course I am not going to mention who this individual is, but I was a bit dismayed as I am fairly certain many of you who are working with us directly on warranty issues have not given permission for anyone to represent you!!

What I would like to make clear is that we would like to work with everyone on an individual case by case basis, because of the varying requests (some of you guys are happy having it fixed, some of you guys want a full refund etc.) for resolution.

Please direct any questions to either me or Cal on how to go about the warranty procedure. If there any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Once again guys, we're very sorry for the inconveniences we have caused. Being EVO owners ourselves, we consistently strive to bring the best products at the lowest possible prices to the EVO community, however sometimes things turn out bad. We are doing everything in our power to reach a happy resolution for everyone. Thank you for your patience, and please bear with us while we try to get everything sorted out.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Gary Huang
Managing Partner
gary@gruppe-s.com
510-783-5300
510-783-4300 fax

 

Gary,

I am shocked. Your true colors have now shown. Why are you twisting my words and dragging me through the mud? After trying unsuccessfully to get you reply to unanswered PMs and posts, I personally telephoned you to see if you were going to cover for rear bumper melt secondary to a known Helix exhaust defect. You said no. Later during the conversation you hummed and hawed, backtracked and then conceded it would be on a case-by-case basis. I never said I was representing the EvoM community. I clearly said that EvoM members were waiting for responses and have not received any and deserved to get a response, myself included. Case in point, my last communication with Gruppe-S in which Cal's PM (April 4) said he would get back to me:

"Hey John,

I will ask Gary and see what he wants to do.

I think we can probably replace the bumper for you with our own resource. I will get back to you soon.

Thanks

Cal"

He did not, hence my post #65 April 13th 1 week later. Posts by VTECH8TR & fishing_ndw also went unanswered.

Fast forward to today when I telephoned you about our unanswered PMs and posts. You ended the conversation by saying, "John, thank you for bringing this issue to my attention" Now, lo and behold you post your message today, twisting the phone conversation to portray yourself as the king of customer service and portraying me negatively. Why are you killing the messenger?

And to say that I am somehow representing EvoM is laughable. I lay no claim to heading a 30,000+ online community. I am guilty however of pressing for honest answers that we as Helix customers deserve. I did not get any. Obviously you've fallen flat and now you're picking on someone to blame.

So Gary, let's once and for all get this out in the open. Let's say a vendor rejects a customer's warranty claim for their damaged rear bumper. Now they turn to you. Will you cover the rear bumper or not? It's a simple yes or no question.

Thank goodness Vishnu displayed the kind of customer service and class that I was expecting. They paid for my hangers to be refitted to center the exhaust evenly. My rear bumper will be replaced and installed gratis even though Vishnu has nothing to do with Helix other than bundling it with their Stage 1 package. Gruppe-S however is the distributor of Helix and who ships to Vishnu. The purpose of my call was to see if you would offer other EvoM members the same level of service I received and deserve to. You said no.


Gary, let me count the ways why you won't be getting any more of my business:

1. You misrepresented and slandered me
2. You will not be upfront about whether rear bumper damage will be covered
3. Luxurybroker was not told of Helix exhaust issues (see his post)
4. Unanswered posts and PMs


Here is the last reason....something you said no to:


Capt John Kim, US Air Force

 

lol mine is worse then that

 

hard to decipher what that pic is of, could you please post a different one, maybe a little farther away?

 

Here it is....you can see that the left edge has melted away. You might notice little metallic pieces which is the aluminum foil I tried to apply as a temporary heat shield. It didn't work.

Willie, to answer your question, I am proud to be a Lancer Evo owner. I happen to be an Air Force active duty officer of which I am also proud to be a part of. This is just my way of shouting out to other active duty military.

Capt John Kim, US Air Force

 

Hi John. No need to get into he said she said. What I distinctly heard not once but 3 times was "I am calling on behalf of others in the EVOM community." But if you say this is not true, then I will also recant my statement!!

No harm done, I was just surprised because to the best of my knowledge (and based on what both you and Shiv have stated) is that your particular issue with the Helix Exhaust system has been addressed to your satisfaction (which resulted in a refund and the replacement of your bumper), so if you are not representing anyone, I didn't really understand why you were calling us after the issue has been addressed?? Sorry about this regardless.

That being said, I couldn't give you an answer even though you were tring to "back me into a corner" (your words, not mine) is because we really do have to take this as a case by case issue. There's many many reasons for this, from differing resolution perspectives of customers, various bodykits, modifications may cause bumper burning regardless of exhaust, bad installation, etc. etc. Therefore despite the hypothetical cases that you brought up, I really cannot give you an answer until everything is reviewed by everyone involved.

Once again sorry for the whole situation.

Cheers,

Gary
Gruppe-S

 

You can see the extent of the damage. The redline indicates where the left edge of the exhaust cut-out should be. The yellow line shows the extent of the damage.

Capt John Kim, US Air Force