ESS Tuning - Good Hardware, Frustrating Support

[e90_503]

Hi all,

I am writing this to share my subpar customer experience with ESS tuning. It has been frustrating and disappointing to say the least. I expected better customer service from a large, seemingly reputable company. On the bright side, the hardware is really nice...

Email chain and my supplied references are attached to this post - make your own judgement.

Order 8790 Dipstick Reference.pdf
Gmail - Order# 8790 - Supercharger Dipstick and Low Oil.pdf

Timeline:
1. Order#8790 purchased Sept 2023 - ESS refurb VT1-550 kit for S65 V8 M3.

2. Performed DIY install, dipstick showed full oil levels at install. This seemed odd to me but I did not question at this point in time seeing that it was a refurb unit, and the vent plug was missing (indicating to me the unit was pre-filled and a non-venting plug was shipped to keep fluid in). ESS was able to provide a replacement vented plug.

3. Blower unit was observed as loud, I recorded and sent a video over, ESS confirmed as normal.

4. Drove the car for approximately 2000 miles and performed fluid change a few weeks ago (June 2024).

5. The supercharger oil only drained approximately 1oz, and came out dark and cloudy. Note that the same full-level of oil was still registered on the dipstick prior to draining as compared to the initial install. My comment here is that my dipstick is visibly longer and has less hatches than what is shown in the pictures of the instruction manual - see reference.

6. I filled with 4 oz of new fluid and drained out to just make sure that there wasn't some sort of weird retention of fluid with the blower unit as a result of the location of the drain hose. With 4oz of fluid in the blower, the oil level reaches well beyond the "full" mark on the dipstick.

7. The recommendation from ESS was to fill to the max indicated marks per the dipstick, but I don't see how that would help if the wrong dipstick was provided. At some point this guidance changed from "use the dipstick" to "use 4oz" of fluid".
I have kept the fluid (mixed original 1oz with fresh 4oz for examination if needed. The fluid is cloudy and I am pretty sure there are metallic flakes in it, indicating damage from low oil.

ESS even had me reach out to Vortech with the guidance that Vortech would be providing a warranty on the refurb blower unit, but Vortech confirmed that they do NOT offer any support for refurbished units. The third party manufacturers are responsible for refurbishment and guarantee of the second-hand equipment. They confirmed that the packagers (ESS) are responsible for accessories because they will need to correlate with the custom bracketry, which Vortech does not design. Not even sure what the point of sending me off on this chase was really - what a waste of time. Ignorant of their own policies or just intentionally misleading? Hard to tell.

Overall I am the verge of financially writing this experience off and am expecting to ESS to not fulfill their support or warranty obligations. It is clear to me that whoever the customer-facing representative at ESS has zero intention to answer my question regarding dipstick part number and would rather spend weeks beating around the bush while complaining about their time being taken up. I am not sure if this is just out a sheer "stand-my-ground" attitude at this point, or if they are unable to support the older Vortech style unit and want me to go away quietly, I suspect the latter. Regardless of fault, the condescending tone and avoidance of direct questions is something you would expect from a local classifieds seller, not from a worldwide vendor. I can't imagine this is an isolated experience.

Thanks for reading.

[e90_503]

Nice reply today. I still don't understand why they want me to send the kit to Vortech, when Vortech themselves have said that they do not warranty refurbed kits. Pretty much sums up my experience.

I am not expecting any further updates at this point.

Best of luck to everyone out there.