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MY Bad Experience with NorthStar Performance


TheCaddyman

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When I first started in business I had customers that would complain about the fare for 1 hr to the airport and I smiled and kept my mouth shut dropped them off and said thank you and picked them up on thier return trip and heard them complain on the the phone to friends for another hour I should give them a discount, some of those people still ride with my company today and I bet they still complain.

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This is a review from a recent customer (Connnie's car, Chris is her husband) from Ohio.

Jake, Charity, and John, I just wanted to send this to say thank-you again for a superb resolution to Connie's Caddy it is so nice to have this car back in our fleet! Thanks to all of you for your hard work in such a short time to meet our schedule (Unbelievably quick turnaround!) and for resolving the tranny solenoid issue, which now makes the car more affordable to drive! We trailered the Caddy to within 40 miles of home, and then Connie stretched her legs. I lost her and didn't catch-up till we were almost home!

She is very happy, which as you know, if she’s happy we're all happy! Upon arrival at home, I did have to add two liters of tranny fluid to bring the level into the safe range. No other issues have surfaced. Job well done! Your hospitality, lodging arrangements, and other accommodations were greatly appreciated, and made our first trip to Canada a very memorable event!

Thanks to all! Sincerely, Chris & Connie G.

Englewood, Ohio USA</B>

Chris and Connie were amazing customers too- these are among the 99% that I was speaking about.

Edited by NorthstarPerformance
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Good information.

Compared to a new engine, it doesn't seem like a very high cost at all for the end user to fix an engine "RIGHT"

Good to hear from you.

:D

Agree. I love technical details on stuff like this.

I was intrigued to hear what the NSP response was going to be to an apology, but I guess we're not going to hear it. I thought this was going to wrap up with "okay, maybe I was impatient, and I apologize if I seemed impatient, but I'm glad I got my side of the issue out"; then we could hear the interesting response:

Prove me wrong here Caddy Man and you may wind up with an interesting response from me

Thats "THE CADDY MAN" i don't want the wrong person taking up my slack.

My reponse was going to be "I will eat the cost of the $165 for express shipping and you'd have the kit Monday morning so you'll have the studs ASAP at the $549 price." UPS is coming in about an hour, we have a couple orders going out anyways. If you would have proved me wrong (and I knew I was right this time) I would have done this.

No, I don't think I'll do that now.

"The Caddy Man"- courtesy can get you a long ways.

Thanks for the offer. Eating the cost would not be fare to you, I just wanted to no when the product would ship. Taking money from other businesses is not my thing.

Edited by The Caddy Man
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Well that will be that....

Thanks Jake for taking the time to provide excellent customer service, I look forward to dealing with you!!!

The Catty Man, the customer is NOT always right:

http://www.jamesmapes.com/articles/02_customer-not-right.htm

Even though we have the best of intentions, sometimes we miss the important details of customer service. We can't really walk in their shoes. So, yes, you have to assume the customer is always right. Maybe. The first time, and possibly the second time. Unless, of course, that customer is a complete, absolute, total, jerk. And then, you have to ask yourself the question, "How desperate for business am I?" Maybe you should burn your candle and fire the customer. The relationship you have with your employees and your customers reflects on the quality of your personal life. Why not imagine it the very best it can be and take the action to make it so?

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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Well that will be that....

Thanks Jake for taking the time to provide excellent customer service, I look forward to dealing with you!!!

The Catty Man, the customer is NOT always right:

http://www.jamesmapes.com/articles/02_customer-not-right.htm

Even though we have the best of intentions, sometimes we miss the important details of customer service. We can't really walk in their shoes. So, yes, you have to assume the customer is always right. Maybe. The first time, and possibly the second time. Unless, of course, that customer is a complete, absolute, total, jerk. And then, you have to ask yourself the question, "How desperate for business am I?" Maybe you should burn your candle and fire the customer. The relationship you have with your employees and your customers reflects on the quality of your personal life. Why not imagine it the very best it can be and take the action to make it so?

Your right again.

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Well that will be that....

Thanks Jake for taking the time to provide excellent customer service, I look forward to dealing with you!!!

The Catty Man, the customer is NOT always right:

http://www.jamesmapes.com/articles/02_customer-not-right.htm

Even though we have the best of intentions, sometimes we miss the important details of customer service. We can't really walk in their shoes. So, yes, you have to assume the customer is always right. Maybe. The first time, and possibly the second time. Unless, of course, that customer is a complete, absolute, total, jerk. And then, you have to ask yourself the question, "How desperate for business am I?" Maybe you should burn your candle and fire the customer. The relationship you have with your employees and your customers reflects on the quality of your personal life. Why not imagine it the very best it can be and take the action to make it so?

Your right again.

Yep I am right, Jake did try to make it the best it can be inspite of you... but unfortunately you didnt meet him half way being catty throughout.... He gave you the chance. This could have ended well for all involved. Hey no big deal you have 49 other cars to drive

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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Well that will be that....

Thanks Jake for taking the time to provide excellent customer service, I look forward to dealing with you!!!

The Catty Man, the customer is NOT always right:

http://www.jamesmapes.com/articles/02_customer-not-right.htm

Even though we have the best of intentions, sometimes we miss the important details of customer service. We can't really walk in their shoes. So, yes, you have to assume the customer is always right. Maybe. The first time, and possibly the second time. Unless, of course, that customer is a complete, absolute, total, jerk. And then, you have to ask yourself the question, "How desperate for business am I?" Maybe you should burn your candle and fire the customer. The relationship you have with your employees and your customers reflects on the quality of your personal life. Why not imagine it the very best it can be and take the action to make it so?

No problem. I'm glad this was brought to my attention. I DO care to have great customer service, very much so. There are things we can improve on and we will do so as the time and money provides- such as a better order tracking system. All in time I guess.

Good luck "The Caddy Man" with your Northstar project. Believe it or not, I wish you all the best.

Thanks to all members for their support.

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I consider anyone impatient who calls 10 minutes after placing the order to see if it's already been shipped out. It was shipped out the next day- UPS comes around once per day at approx 2:00pm. And then calls 6 times in the next two days to see where it is. I currently have one receptionist who has a lot to deal with. She provided the customer with the tracking number and I just don't understand what more we can provide.

UPS does not always keep up with their status. I check my parts orders with their online tracking and sometimes it does not update for a day or two depending on the method of shipping chosen. Fed-Ex is even worse.

My apologies to anyone whom does not understand why I cancelled the order, refunded the customers money, and replied with the message I did. He is welcome to place the order again but I don't want him calling 3 times per day asking where it is. This is why I recommended the express shipping for $100 more (to ship a kit express costs us $165 for express shipping, guaranteed next day at the customers door).

No complaint is good for business and I understand this. But unless we start our own shipping company we cannot be fully in control. As unfortunate as it is we have to wait for our parts too. We ran out of rear-main seals yesterday so a customers car had to wait. The order didn't come in on the expected date. We simply start working on another customers car in the mean time.

Charity called the customer to inform him his money was already refunded and the package delivery was reversed and he was already on the phone with PayPal- not even 20 minutes after I told him I was cancelling the order.

Simply stated, if you don't have 3-4, even 5 business days to wait sometimes for a stud kit to arrive, pay the extra money and order express. You'll have it the next day if you order by around noon. Yes it's expensive for shipping. We don't pocket that money- UPS gets it. Do a quote on UPS.com for express shipping a 15 lb. package in a 6" cube box from Langton, Ontario to anywhere in the USA. $165 is usually what the quote is. It's well worth it to wait if you have the time. If you're running a business such as the man above told me, and the business relies on that vehicle being on the road, and you're losing money because of down-time, order express.

I'm sorry to all other Caddy owners that they have to hear this- I just hope they can understand my point of view. Anytime you're dealing with the general public there's going to be 1 person in 100 who you simply can't deal with. The other 99 are why we're in business and successful and proud to be doing what we're doing.

I can add that does not only this vendor have a cost effective solution to our head gasket problem, he also has a solution to our front motor mount problem too. Given the small handful of vendors who support these cars and these engines, I think it is in all of our benefits to support and encourage these vendors.

Thanks Jake, and as I said, if my HG's ever fail, your company will be the first one that I call...

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Well that will be that....

Thanks Jake for taking the time to provide excellent customer service, I look forward to dealing with you!!!

The Catty Man, the customer is NOT always right:

http://www.jamesmapes.com/articles/02_customer-not-right.htm

Even though we have the best of intentions, sometimes we miss the important details of customer service. We can't really walk in their shoes. So, yes, you have to assume the customer is always right. Maybe. The first time, and possibly the second time. Unless, of course, that customer is a complete, absolute, total, jerk. And then, you have to ask yourself the question, "How desperate for business am I?" Maybe you should burn your candle and fire the customer. The relationship you have with your employees and your customers reflects on the quality of your personal life. Why not imagine it the very best it can be and take the action to make it so?

My head is spinning :huh:

Reading this, sounds like I would deal with Jake & his solution. unfortunately, I wouldn't know where to bring my car to install his product in NJ. unlink BBF, I do not look forwarded to anything related to this ;) - and hope my threads hold up. BTW, I still suspect some kind of electrical / grounding issue on the block that is causing the bolts to react & fail. - then again that's just me.

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  • 11 years later...

Hello folks,

I'm a Cadillac fan from Germany. My STS had the well-known overheating issues earlier this year.
I then found the solution from Northstar Performance on the Internet and was convinced that it would be a good investment to buy the stud repair set here.

In conclusion, however, I have to say that Mr. Wiebe's service is by no means satisfactory.
At first I had to wait over 2 months for the delivery without any further explanation, even though I had paid directly via PayPal. Inquiries in this regard were only answered very sparingly.

When I started the repair a few days ago, I noticed that the stud bolts are not dimensionally accurate. One of the studs had a belly in the middle and had to be cut to size.
In principle, inquiries regarding these manufacturing errors went unanswered.
Being aware of this inaccuracy, I found that the other studs went so easily into the new 5/8 "- 11 threads that it seemed a little strange to me.
The studs had partly different dimensions. To be exact, according to the screw table up to 0.15 mm (0.006 ") too little for the new 5/8" - 11 thread in the engine block.
As a result, it was not possible to achieve the 75 ft. Lbs. Torque recommended by Mr. Wiebe. to reach.
Rather, there was a risk of tearing out the new threads and ruining the engine block.
I'm not sure if this has happened to me with at least one stud bolt. That will be seen when the engine is reinstalled and hopefully starts up.

Aside from this unfortunate state of affairs, I still believe that the process makes sense. However, with dimensionally stable components. Maybe I was just unlucky and grabbed the toilet, as we say in Germany.

However, the question arises as to whether the torque of 75 ft. Lbs makes sense.

In the workshop manual, the original M11 screws are tightened as follows:

1st pass - 40 Nm (30 lb ft)

2nd pass - additional 70 degrees

3rd pass - another 70 degrees

4. Final Pass - final 60 degrees

(total 200 degrees)

... so significantly less than a whole further screw turn or a little more than half a screw turn.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to realize that starting from 40 Nm + a little more than half a turn, 100 Nm (75 ft. Lbs.) Certainly won't come out, and certainly not with the fine thread used.
So the cylinder head bolts certainly don't have to be 75 ft. Lbs. tightened to seal the engine in the area of the head gasket.
So I wonder what drove Mr. Wiebe to set such values.

Does somebody has any idea?

I would like to be instructed and I would be happy to receive feedback.

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