This message is to warn fellow members about DRD Racing Heads of Santa Ana, CA.
I contacted them in April this year, ordered an engine and made a bank transfer to them for 50% of the cost for a 2276cc engine. I spoke to DRD on the phone several times, they seemed like straight ahead people, and I repeatedly informed them that I needed the engine at the start of September 2012 and that I needed it crated and shipped to my address in Sarasota, FL.
The guy I spoke to at DRD (name of Darren) repeatedly assured me that shipping would be as I requested and that my engine would be on their build schedule and delivered as I had requested.
In mid-October 2012, after repeated email messages and several phone calls, and then finally escalating to a more stridently worded email message, DRD finally tells me that my engine will be shipped.
However, the engine was not shipped until this past week (week of 10/29) and when I called the shipping company, I was told that it was on the way, and it would be delivered by a Tampa, FL shipping agent of theirs.
I get a phone call this past Tuesday (11/6/2012) telling me to "come pick up my crate, and I said no thanks, I paid for delivery to Sarasota. The guy on the phone says "no, the invoice I'm holding clearly states to hold for pickup". Then he says, "ok, we will deliver it on Friday 11/9/2012". So I wait all day for the delivery, and then I call the Tampa, FL agent back several times asking where their truck is. Each time, they tell me "the truck is no more than an hour away".
So at the end of the day, I start calling around to find out why there is no truck, no crate and no delivery. I finally call Stevens Global Transport in California, and they tell me that DRD has told them "no, the crate must be held in Tampa for customer pickup".
The crate weighs approximately 325 pounds or so, and oh yeah, Tampa is 120 miles away from where I live. So I attempt to call DRD Racing Heads and ask why the hell they are doing this. Their phone is busy all afternoon, but magically, Stevens Global Transport was able to contact them and are told to hold the crate ?
The bottom line here is that DRD Racing Heads were over 60 days late in shipping my engine, and now I find that they think it is funny to force me to drive to Tampa and pickup the crate.
So anyone reading this message should be able to determine that;
1) I paid DRD Racing Heads via bank transfers, and paid them every time they required payment.
2) I asked DRD Racing Heads for a shipping quote to Sarasota, and they told me $325, which I also paid via bank transfer. There was never any doubt about where the delivery was to be made.
3) Even during the 60 day late engine delivery time frame, they continued to produce other engines for other customers, which they admitted to ?
4) Their attitude towards questions, was to put it mildly, of irritation. Their customer service demeanor frankly sucks.
As a fellow club member, and to anyone who plans to build their own Speedster kit, I can only offer you my warnings about this company. As you can tell from my narrative, I am disgusted by how I have been treated.
I have dealt with other California VW engine builders in the past, and now I wish I had gone back to one of them instead of DRD Racing Heads.
