Dinan mufflers and appalling service

[PunjabiM3]

I spoke with Dinan again today and there is a delay due to the tips. I am hoping we get this resolved soon. I have a week left until I am leaving for Arizona; 1800 mile drive along hwy 101 and Cali hwy 1. I have decided I am going to call a local shop and set up an appointment for late next week to get the stock rear pipes welded on the stock muffler as a backup. As always never rely on anyone because chances are more often than not that you will get left in a tight spot if you do. Hopefully Dinan will come through but if not I do not want to get to next Friday (day we leave) and not have any muffler to put on! Perhaps it will be OEM BMW FTW for the time being...

[aus]

Might as well have the shop open it up and do the stock exhaust mod. It might just be what you're looking for.

[smmmurf]

If you do go back to stock mufler, please post videos of your car with the pipe and HFC! Or maybe I can hear it when you drive down as I am in Pleasanton and heard you will be in the NorCal area in another post.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by leemik

This industry is fully of delays it seems..

I've ordered stuff where it took so long I forgot I ordered it when it gets delivered 6 months later lolz..

It's frustrating as hell but we are at their mercy if we want the part... sometimes it makes me very hesitant to even put an order in anywhere because things take so long..

For all those people that say "it's the industry deal with it" my remark to that is this: it is this way because that is what YOU guys accept. If you never remark about poor experiences and delays then a company will never clean up their act. Look at all the shit that went down with 360 Forged a year ago. It is only because customers and potential customers (myself included) spoke up on various forums and it was only then that something came about. When we are spending thousands and thousands on exhausts and wheels we should expect better. If I did the same in my line of work I would be bankrupt if I followed the same practices.

I will give Dinan the benefit of the doubt because I may end up purchasing some more of their products, but it has been a very stressful experience thus far. Much different from my experience with Gintani or for that matter when I purchased my Eisenmann Race back in 2008 (or my Fabspeed HFC's and x-pipe, my AWE HFC's and mufflers for my 997, etc etc)...

[PrePharm]

That really sucks! Good luck with them!

[leemik]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

For all those people that say "it's the industry deal with it" my remark to that is this: it is this way because that is what YOU guys accept. If you never remark about poor experiences and delays then a company will never clean up their act. Look at all the shit that went down with 360 Forged a year ago. It is only because customers and potential customers (myself included) spoke up on various forums and it was only then that something came about. When we are spending thousands and thousands on exhausts and wheels we should expect better. If I did the same in my line of work I would be bankrupt if I followed the same practices.

I will give Dinan the benefit of the doubt because I may end up purchasing some more of their products, but it has been a very stressful experience thus far. Much different from my experience with Gintani or for that matter when I purchased my Eisenmann Race back in 2008 (or my Fabspeed HFC's and x-pipe, my AWE HFC's and mufflers for my 997, etc etc)...

I've been doing this mod game for over 15 years.. sometimes the shop is just 2 guys in a garage making a part.. I always remark when something takes way too long or when service is good too.. I don't hold back (you can search for old threads started by me).. it's just the way this industry is. Sure if you were serving fast food and you took 3 hours you'd wouldn't be in business for long but this is not fast food..

I can tell you this much however, if parts and service were actually fast and trouble free I'd be a lot more broke than I am now

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by leemik

I've been doing this mod game for over 15 years.. sometimes the shop is just 2 guys in a garage making a part.. I always remark when something takes way too long or when service is good too.. I don't hold back (you can search for old threads started by me).. it's just the way this industry is. Sure if you were serving fast food and you took 3 hours you'd wouldn't be in business for long but this is not fast food..

I can tell you this much however, if parts and service were actually fast and trouble free I'd be a lot more broke than I am now

It's not like I ordered this yesterday and am whining about it not being here. I called to order this on March 16. Tomorrow is April 2 and I leave here April 9. I have never in the past experienced such a headache on trying to get an exhaust here. The point is this: if you do NOT have the item in stock and it is going to be a while before it is available, why not say so in the first place? When I ordered my Eisenmann Race in 2008 I was told it will take 2-3 weeks to get to you. Fine no problem. When I ordered the Gintani about 2 months ago I was told it will be 7-10 days because they have to fabricate the system since none were in stock. I appreciated the fact that I was told WHEN I ORDERED that the system will take some time.

In this case, I was NEVER informed that it will take this long. It was almost one week AFTER I placed my order that Dinan finally told the dealer and I that the systems were out of stock and that they will be done by Friday (March 26). At that time I spoke directly to Dinan and they told me the exhaust should ship by Monday or Tuesday (March 29,30). The days came and went and today when speaking to Dinan again I was told "there were 8 systems that were built and your order happened to be #9 on the wait list." Sad that I am told this two weeks after placing my order but they did say they are working on it and will try and have it shipped out tomorrow (Friday) or Monday. That is of course if the tips pass QC. If they go out tomorrow they will get here on Tuesday. If Monday, they will get here on Wed. I leave next Friday. The car is my daily driver and it is decommissioned until that exhaust gets here since I took the Gintani mufflers off today so I can sell them to the local buyer. As long as they get here prior to the move then it is ok I guess...

[mPlasticDesign]

I got a great idea. Since you are practically driving right by Dinan Headquarters, why not just arrange to stop by there on the way and have it installed free of charge for your inconvenience? Just drive to CA w/o any cans....oh, and get some earplugs for that leg of the trip!

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by ///Metak

I got a great idea. Since you are practically driving right by Dinan Headquarters, why not just arrange to stop by there on the way and have it installed free of charge for your inconvenience? Just drive to CA w/o any cans....oh, and get some earplugs for that leg of the trip!

Damn straight! Maybe they will be nice enough to package the stock one for me and secure it to my roof so I can drive down from NorCal to Arizona OG style!

[mPlasticDesign]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

Damn straight! Maybe they will be nice enough to package the stock one for me and secure it to my roof so I can drive down from NorCal to Arizona OG style!

Secure nothing to your roof..... ship it to your new address! Good Luck!

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by ///Metak

Secure nothing to your roof..... ship it to your new address! Good Luck!

LOL I was joking around about the roof part. I highly doubt Dinan would do the install for free anyhow.

[mwlmd]

Why not just keep the Gintani on and sell it locally in AZ after your Dinan arrives at your local AZ dealer? Gintani sport is very easy to sell.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by mlaynemd

Why not just keep the Gintani on and sell it locally in AZ after your Dinan arrives at your local AZ dealer? Gintani sport is very easy to sell.

Because I have a buyer here for my asking price. No point in taking the Gintani sport all the way down and then going through the entire selling process again...

[Fen335i]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

Because I have a buyer here for my asking price. No point in taking the Gintani sport all the way down and then going through the entire selling process again...

That's the stand up thing to do...and I applaud you for it. You already made a deal with a guy and are honoring it..

[stryker1]

couple of comments, yes tuners have a bad rap of sometimes not following thru on promisses, ie due date of manufactured parts, and shipping dates.

I remember when i had my A3 audi this tuner in cali was just beating around the bush when it came to shipping my body kit.

To the guy that spoke bad about active auto works, i am surprised to hear you had a bad experience, i have nothing but good to say about them,

I was able to get the price i wanted for my full exhaust, the service was awesome, and last but not least my xpipe and signature system is amazing.

Maybe i am the lucky few who have the tuner/manufacturer right in his back yard.

Back to the subject at hand punjab get your money back and call active ask for Omar or jean i bet you a $100. you will have a system with in 3-5 days

[PunjabiM3]

Well still hasn't shipped. I called Dinan about 30 min ago and they are trying to check the status and are supposed to give me a call back. This means the EARLIEST they may ship will be Monday and will not get here until Wednesday at the earliest. Again, my 1800 mile drive begins on Friday afternoon. Luckily I called today and made an appointment with a local shop to have the stock rear pipes welded back on to the stock muffler. I have a feeling that I will be running the stock muffler on the car for the drive down as I have lost most of my hope.

[H Bomb]

well i never had the problems you are having. only thing i had to do was wait a long time for a rebate once. other then that they have been great to me. on that note i know not to order something i want right away unless my guy has it in stock and that goes for any company.

on a side note even though every person on this board hates dinan on a worldwide note they sell alot of stuff and with the 20% sell there stuff goes pretty quick and as someone mentioned there not big manufacter like other muffler places that only do mufflers.

i don't blame you if you don't want to wait. but if you decide to wait for it you won't be sorry it is the best sounding one with no drone in my op. i have the midpipe and muffler and it sounds so sick and never drones.

sorry for your troubles, good luck

[doba_s]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

I have had the Dinan mufflers on order for my e92 M3 for over two weeks. Initially they were out of stock when their 20% off sale started, and after speaking to my dealer and also Dinan correctly we came to find out that the mufflers were in the process of being built and that they were completed being made this past Friday (March 26).

At that time Dinan told me and also my dealer that they are ready to go and will be packaged over the weekend. Further, they stated that they WILL ship on either Monday or Tuesday (yesterday). Yesterday when my dealer called Dinan he was told that they are still working on one of the mufflers (don't remember if it was drivers or passengers side). I was like WTF they said they were all ready to go on Friday. I left Dinan a message a few days ago and NEVER received a call back. My dealer has also left a few messages with no definite time given on when these will ship out. Finally today I was able to get a hold of Chris at Dinan and was told that they are undergoing QC and he was not able to answer if they were packaged yet and ready to be shipped.

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that in over two weeks they are unable to make a set of mufflers for the e92 M3 especially given they are running a 20% off sale on their products. Normally I would not say shit but I am moving next week to Arizona from Seattle and am driving my car down. I obviously need to have a set of mufflers on my car since my stock muffler has the pipes hacked when I was running the Eisenmann Race. It also pisses me off because I have had a local buyer for my Gintani Sport for the past three weeks and we have been waiting on these Dinan mufflers to get in so I can take the Gintani ones off (car is a dd). Now I have not heard back from the buyer for the past 4-5 days. Anyone else experience such issues with Dinan? Is this common for them? Seems their customer service is lacking to say the least...

Sorry to hear that, but it is very common with Dinan.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by doba_s

Sorry to hear that, but it is very common with Dinan.

Thanks bro. Really sad that this is common with Dinan. Well tomorrow is Monday and I am keeping my fingers crossed. The most annoying part is that if it does not get here on time and I need to take the stock stuff to a decent shop for welding, it is an hour drive each way to take the stuff there and back. I will keep you guys posted.

[JCtx]

Had a bad experience with Dinan as well, and ended up not buying anything. Will never buy Dinan unless used (if at all), so it doesn't benefit them. Kept my stock system, painted it black, and called it a day. Didn't want any extra noise inside anyway, and I'm not going to buy blindly anymore, as 'drone' to some people mean more noise than stock, but to others until your ears are bleeding . Good luck.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Had a bad experience with Dinan as well, and ended up not buying anything. Will never buy Dinan unless used (if at all), so it doesn't benefit them. Kept my stock system, painted it black, and called it a day. Didn't want any extra noise inside anyway, and I'm not going to buy blindly anymore, as 'drone' to some people mean more noise than stock, but to others until your ears are bleeding . Good luck.

Wow bad Dinan experiences are quite common. I am going to get some quotes for the Bastuck muffler as well...

[A1 RDL]

I have had great experience with them. Hang in there, there products are worth the wait