I wasn't slamming Cattman, nor was I claiming their products are a waste of money.

You have a rather myopic view of the world if you can't take into consideration the effects of weather on product life in locations beyond California.

May you enjoy your Cattman product forever!

 

There are locations beyond California??

 

I didn't know it rains and snows in your kitchen too. Nice comparison.

That sucks. Live and learn I guess.

Not quit sure if I understand what you mean. I'm saying that living in NY, I would expect things to rot quicker. Compare a 99 CA Max w/ 100,000 with a NY Max w/100,000 miles and the same components, which will have the more rusted and falling apart pipes? I think you know the answer to that.

 

All I was suggesting is that there are other regions of the United States (and Canada for that matter) where weather is a factor on vehicle condition. Take the whole eastern seaboard, the midwest US, Ontario, Quebec, the prairie provinces in Canada etc.

You are fortunate weatherwise living in California. I live on the Coast of British Columbia where it is mild in the winter. I expect my Budget y-pipe to last for years to come.

For those who plan on keeping their car for some time, don't buy an aluminized y-pipe, unless you live in California, lol!

 

Some parts of California get snow in the winter, parts of San Bernardino Mountains for example.

 

And closer to the Sierra Nevadas, Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta etc. etc. I guess those regions should buy stainless steel too.

 

I'm sure it's in the flex section, I think you heard it at the meet? No extra mods, just bad luck I guess, I haven't had chance to take it my my muffler shop guy to check it out and see what can be done, I'll post when I do that. I was was thinking it might be my Gen I's that's the reason I switched to Gen II's

 

Uh oh! I've had my altezzas on for a week now.....

 

You may be next to suffer from the beez, lol!

 

Update: I have now e-mailed Jeff 3 times asking if he'll reimburse me for shipping. The first two times he ignored my question. The third time he kind of ignored the question but mentioned that he questions the exhaust leak (the exhaust leak was my reasoning for why he should reimburse me). So yesterday I sent him all the pictures I showed you guys. No response yet. He has said he will refund my money but no response on the shipping reimbursement. Oh, here is his response when I mentioned that ALL CAPS appears unprofessional: " AS FOR CAP LOCKS SPELLING , I DON'T SIT ON THE COMPUTER ALL DAY SO SORRY IF YOU DON'T LIKE CAP LOCKS"

lol

 

Hehe send him a keyboad picture!!! with an arrow pointing to the CAPS button dont need to go to "computer schooll" to know how to use a keyboard

 

Jeff's obviously not a computer geek

 

Wow, that pipe looks like it's only worth 100 bux. This was going be my next mod. I would have to think very long before I would by from Budget. However, I have had plenty of things shipped to me through UPS and if they are in a long box they get damaged.

Did you have insurance on this when you bought it? It does make a difference as far as getting things cleared up or shipped back.

I would much rather deal with an american company and pay the higher price though. At least I will have some recourse if things go awry.

Good luck with it though.

 

hey potato, i have called the 1-800-256-4482 number it does indeed work!
So i suggest you give up on email and just call them at that number. Some woman answers so they seem to have a receptionist now.
Give it a try, maybe you should just ask them for a replacement pipe I dont see why give up on them totally.

I just ordered a y-pipe from them (doing so ASAP) afraid that if you send yours back they will send me your defective one this way i better the chances of getting a good one. Lets hope this is a weird occurrence from budget and they will live up to their name.

Now if they send me a bad one we will have to start an anti budget crusade on the forum

 

My observations of many online sellers, that I've dealt with in the past, is that they are good at replying to your emails until they've sold you the product. Thereafter, trying to get support for things becomes non-existent. It's a shame that people do this stuff. There are companies who are exceptions to this though. But most of the time, companies have this type of business practice.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Although, I've noticed lately, that even getting an email response or return phone call prior to the sale is getting shady. Poor business pratice.

 

Very true. New businesses go out of their way to be receptive to prospective buyers. After a while, when they are established and have gained a large clientele, they go down hill with customer service. They figured that people will stick with them forever despite all. That's a very bad assumption.

 

If shipping is the biggest thing holding up the return, just send it. They have to pay the cost of getting another one out too. In the industrial and most retail industries, the customer has to pay the shipping back. Sucks but how much could it cost if you do it ground? $20 at the very most? I guess you can continue to agrue with him (and probably keep aggravating him futher which doesn't do anything to help you get your part sooner). Or I guess you could have just eaten the small shipping fee and it would have been there or 3/4 of the way there already.

I would have tried to negotiate a deal where he sends a replacement out asap. Then you agree to send the replacement back asap. You might have to agree to terms such as if he charges your credit card for the new one and then he credits it back when they receive the defective unit. That way there is alot less waiting. But considering you commented on his caps in the emails, I don't know how willing he's going to be to help you now.

 

1.) I'm in no hurry.
2.) I don't want a replacement from them. They lost my business.
3.) Why should I have to pay $20 for their mistake?

 

In theory you shouldn't. In reality that's how business is done. If haggling with him is your idea of a good time, then by all means. But the fact is, he has your $ and you have a defective Y pipe. I don't see the great incentive for Budget to offer the shipping back. Unless it's specifically stated in any warranty info you have. He will probably just continue to ignore that shipping part or eventually just ignore you all together.

But I do hope you get refunded. I don't want to sound like I'm not supporting you

 

If im not mistaken and you have paid with visa you can always claim fraud and have Visa refund you the full amount, it is then up to them to negotiate with budget to fix this.

But in this case im inclined to agree that the shipping charge is on your head, 99% of companies charge you for shipping back to them. The only company ever to pay for my shipping charge was MAC when i sent em back my broken ipod.

Thats my 2c good luck

 

Woooooooooooooooo! Put on the brakes! Oh my gosh guys. You won't beleive this. After I sent pictures, he was a totally different man!!!!! His latest e-mail was a totally different tune. You won't beleive this. He apologized up and down, told me $#!+ was going to fly around the shop today since my pipe made it through 3 people and this is the best part: he told me he is refunding 100% of my money and he told me to keep the pipe! Awesome. I am very satisfied. I will edit the first post to show that it was properly resolved by Jeff at Budget/LSS.

(I am still disappointed that I would even receive a pipe like this in the first place (although, if isolated, probably not too big of a deal), and I do find the all-caps, terrible spelling and poor grammar to be unprofessional (not the end of the world but it is a reflection of him), and lastly, I don't like that I received half-@$$ customer service and it took me sending pictures to get the resolution I wanted (but with that said, he actually resolved it to greater than my satisfaction so he gets major points there)).

There we have it. Case closed.

 

The real question is... did he respond in all CAPS?? lol Good for you. So, since the air has been cleared, you don't want to give him another shot and send you a good one?

 

huh...i wonder what turned him around. that's good to hear though that he did make the effort to fix it rather. maybe he was on the org and saw this thread! haha well, hopefully you can make the pie you received work for you!

 

Doesn't the pipe require some minor welding to make it functional? Who cares if some paint comes off and that there is a minor cosmetic flaw, the price was right!

I suspect that Budget was very concerned about their reputation as a quality supplier to .org members and that was what forced their hand.

 

Exactly. That's the way I am leaning right now. Since I have a free pipe in my posession, I will just have it welded and try it out.

 

I was going to respond to this thread earlier but I bit my tongue to see what would happen.

I have been to Budget on a number of occasions and know Jeff and his wife Jody fairly well. They run a family business and do their best to keep everyone happy. I have even seen him weld a new flex on a Cattman pipe for free just because Brian is in the same business and he did him a favor.

If you have a legitimate problem they will fix you up. They have been in business for a long time and will bend over backwards to keep folks happy.

Glad you got fixed up.

BTW They don't worry about their reputation as much as they just want to make things right. They don't get on the org and mix it up like some other companies do.

 

I knew Budget would fix up the problem but I didn't expect the full refund plus keep the pipe! I thought Jeff would have sent you a replacement instead. Anyhow, I'm glad to hear its resolved.

 

I strongly suspect that you will be very pleased with it. I am with mine!

 

All of a sudden, that pipe isn't so bad now Glad you got your problem resolved though.

 

A credit card is your friend and your enemy at the same time, if you didn't get it resolved I think if it was on a credit card maybe you could have put it in dispute as a defective product and false advertising. Since they are in canada though I don't know how they would work that.. I would read the small print on the credit disclosures but it hurts my eyes....

 

I don't understand why that is funny. It 'isn't so bad now' because everything is relative. I'm not any more pleased with the craftsmanship.... but it's free! It certainly isn't worth $200 to me but it sure is worth $0 to me. Like I said, I will try it. If it is loud, I will be getting a Cattman. But since I have the pipe I might as well try it before spending $300+. If you paid $60,000 for an LS430 but they delivered a Civic, you'd be pissed. If your neighbor came up to you and handed you the keys and title to his Civic for free, you'd be jumping up and down. It's all relative.

 

I'm just saying, no matter how free it was. If it was truely that big of a pos, I wouldn't put it on my car. The hassle of leaks/fitment etc.. of a pipe that bad wouldn't be worth it even for free. Hopefully it's just the split that needs fixing.

 

still dont know if i would buy a budget after this. it maybe an isolated incident and they may have the best deal around, but i would rather spend more and get more. you know what im sayin. and i was going to order a budget earlier this week

nothing against budget, and im really impressed about how they handled it, but it took a lot of agony to get what ptatohead (or whatever) got and it is not worth it to me.

im not saying this is only company this could happen to, and its not. and they probably will do something to ensure the shipping and pipe is not skimpped on in the future, but the way it was handled in the first week, when the problem was fresh, was rediculous. if p-head hadn't posted here, do you think it would be same result. i personally dont have experience with them, but i don't think it would be.

needless to say, i will do some major rethinking about which y-pipe i will be purchasing

 

Budget y-pipe!

 

Im sure even if you dont like the pipe someone will buy it from you here on the ORG

 

I have warpspeed y-pipe, and budget test pipe, resonator and b-pipe.

The welds on the warpspeed look better than the budget, 'cause they do TIG welding and the budget parts look MIG welded. The warpspeed part had great packaging, the budget stuff arrived in garbage bags.

HOWEVER, the budget stuff is much cheaper than warpspeed (or Cattman, or Stillen)and works great. Fitment was perfect with the budget, as it was with the warpspeed. I'm the only loser who spends hours under my car, so prettiness of welds is not a big concern to me. I'm happy to use the money I save for other stuff.

 

had a budget for 2 years.
great customer service
great price
great quality
i would reccomend them to anyone and have many times. and no one i know personally has the bees in the can noise.

 

I have purchased two budget pipes for friends both SS neither one had the problems yours did... I will stick to the thought it was nothing more than a fluke and will be purchasing another one in the near future for my brothers max.

 

I went to to the LSS/Budget shop a few months ago to get my B and Y Pipe put on, along with rastamanmax, mekka and some other orgers.

Jeff seemed to be a pretty straight up guy, and installed my pipes quite well (though they took quite a long time with my car...but no big worries there). Overall I would do business with them.