Rebel Racing still around? Options

[tomrev]

Placed an order for the Boxster brake caliper adapters 3 weeks ago, and so far, it appears that nothing has happened; no shipping confirmation, email return, etc. Have any of you done business with them, and if so, was this the norm? Thanks.

[Harpo]

Give them a call. I believe their number is listed on their web site. They called me back right away

David

[tomrev]

Give them a call. I believe their number is listed on their web site. They called me back right away

David

Just get the message, with no way to leave a voicemail.

[Steve]

I had the same experience, but he eventually responded via email.
This was about six months ago. I bought his 2.25" coil overs for the rear of my car.

[MSHax]

That's horrible. That's why I will only buy from places like Amazon or eBay. I won't even buy from places that have been around for decades like parts heaven. I just drive down since they're close. I've heard WAY too many horror stories just like this one; "ordered parts, haven't heard anything but they took the money already"

[john77]

I emailed them a couple of months back about the used Bilstein front struts they have on their site. No reply. I tried calling them and both of their phones went to voicemail and then said the mailbox was full so I couldn't leave a message.

A couple of days later I decided to give it one more shot and called and nothing. Then a second after I hung up my phone starts ringing and it's one of the guys from Rebel Racing. He accidentally called me thinking I was a guy he'd been speaking to from NY (I have an NY number, but live in CA). Turns out the parts were long sold, despite them still being up on their site even now.

About a month earlier I ordered a set of their front control arm bearings and they turned up in a week. So there's the good and the bad of it...

[Mr. Olympic Blue 2 You]

Seems like my stuff took about 3 weeks to arrive as well..

I was just irritated I didn't get my free shirt with a $200 order like the website said.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[lonewolfe]

I have bought some nice products from them except for a set of their rear solid bushings for my 914. the kit was machined too narrow to get even close to a tight fit. I called and emailed probably 50 times. Every now and then I'd get a response, a promise to follow up with the problem but never any follow through and the another long string of calles and emails. I gave up on them after about 9 months. I think they spend more time playing than working or something. Although they make some sweet products I absolutely cannot recommend trying to do business with them. They have the worst customer service of anywhere I've ever dealt with. I am not the only one that has similar stories.

['73-914kid]

Rebel Racing probably has one of the biggest love-hate reps within the community. Their products are spot on, but yes, they can be a bit difficult to get ahold of.

And as for their trailing arm bushing kits, it's prbably the best kit on the market next to the needle bearing kits that haven't been available for a long time. The bushings are machined narrow so that shims can take up the extra play due to differences in people's tubs. I had a similar issue where the shim pack included wasn't quite enough to take up the play in the trailing arm pickup. Every car is different, so it would be difficult for them to provide the exact shim stack that each car needs.

Instead of bitching about it, and calling and calling and calling them, i measured the play that remained, and ordered a pack of assorted shims from mcmaster-carr. Job done. The shims cost $7.

You spent 9 months trying to get them to solve a custom fitment problem over the phone remotely, when you could have had everything taken care of in 2 days by just ordering a pack of shims yourself. Take some initiative. It's a 40 year old car. "Assembly is required"

*note, I'm not defending the lack of customer service on their end, just defending a good engineer with high quality products.

[campbellcj]

I have NO direct experience with Rebel. All I can say based on the above stories, and having had similar experiences elsewhere, is that life's too short to deal with flaky people/companies!

Most recently, I got a similar bad vibe from a water-cooled Porsche shop/tuner getting a ton of press lately. I left a few messages as they were non-responsive. When the owner did call back two weeks later he sounded a bit annoyed that I had left multiple messages, and actually had some questions for him to boot. Prior to that experience, I was prepared to spend >$10K there. See ya bye. They're on my blacklist now.

[infraredcalvin]

Rebel racing sells some nice products, I've ordered and had no issues a few times, but have heard of issues. Bottom,line, they have better looking product (IMO) then elephant racing. Be prepared to wait for quality - no excuse for bad CS, but order early, follow up frequently, you'll get what you need.

[lonewolfe]

Rebel Racing probably has one of the biggest love-hate reps within the community. Their products are spot on, but yes, they can be a bit difficult to get ahold of.

And as for their trailing arm bushing kits, it's prbably the best kit on the market next to the needle bearing kits that haven't been available for a long time. The bushings are machined narrow so that shims can take up the extra play due to differences in people's tubs. I had a similar issue where the shim pack included wasn't quite enough to take up the play in the trailing arm pickup. Every car is different, so it would be difficult for them to provide the exact shim stack that each car needs.

Instead of bitching about it, and calling and calling and calling them, i measured the play that remained, and ordered a pack of assorted shims from mcmaster-carr. Job done. The shims cost $7.

You spent 9 months trying to get them to solve a custom fitment problem over the phone remotely, when you could have had everything taken care of in 2 days by just ordering a pack of shims yourself. Take some initiative. It's a 40 year old car. "Assembly is required"

*note, I'm not defending the lack of customer service on their end, just defending a good engineer with high quality products.

I realize I could take care of the shim problem myself but my rear bushing kit did not come with a shim kit. In my opinion I did not get what I paid for. They do not market that kit as an incoplete product with some fitment effort required. The shim kits were an after thought after I made them aware of the problem. They promised to send me some shims but never did. If my bushings came with a shim kit I would have had an idea of what to order as you did. So, you had an advantage. I have since come up with my own idea of how to fix this but I'd love to see what the shim kit they sent you included. I'm not an engineer but I paid my hard earned money for a product that was developed by an engineer who is selling a solution. I've bent over backwards trying to get them to support their product and they've failed miserably.

[tomrev]

In my case, it's the caliper adapters; I have found no other source, other than making a set, so I guess I'll wait a while. I do think it's a casual way to do business, and will limit any future orders. Thanks for the input!

[mepstein]

I'm sure they are good people but the lack of decent communication would drive me crazy. I don't mind buying a part off the internet without any interaction with the seller as long as it shows up in a timely manner. No part and no communication to when it might show up makes me feel like I've been robbed.

[jd74914]

I just want to know how you guys actually got the rear bushing kits? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I tried for week to get one to compliment my Rebel front bushings, couldn't get a hold of Clint to buy them since they didn't have a "to purchase" link on the site, and finally gave up.

The products I've seen do look nice, but I after that experience I don't think I would consider buying from Rebel again.

It seems like Clint must like designing/making parts but not selling/supporting since he doesn't seem to put any effort into it at all. I cannot understand why he wouldn't find someone to use as a reseller (Pelican, etc.) to remove that part of his business. Since the product design and quality is there it seems like he would do a lot better on the sales and reputation side.

[Steve]

I just want to know how you guys actually got the rear bushing kits? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I tried for week to get one to compliment my Rebel front bushings, couldn't get a hold of Clint to buy them since they didn't have a "to purchase" link on the site, and finally gave up.

The products I've seen do look nice, but I after that experience I don't think I would consider buying from Rebel again.

It seems like Clint must like designing/making parts but not selling/supporting since he doesn't seem to put any effort into it at all. I cannot understand why he wouldn't find someone to use as a reseller (Pelican, etc.) to remove that part of his business. Since the product design and quality is there it seems like he would do a lot better on the sales and reputation side.

Pelican carries some of there stuff.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/ksearc....x=0&I1.y=0

[matthepcat]

Says "Ships in 2 weeks"....I bet they would miss that promise.

I just want to know how you guys actually got the rear bushing kits? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I tried for week to get one to compliment my Rebel front bushings, couldn't get a hold of Clint to buy them since they didn't have a "to purchase" link on the site, and finally gave up.

The products I've seen do look nice, but I after that experience I don't think I would consider buying from Rebel again.

It seems like Clint must like designing/making parts but not selling/supporting since he doesn't seem to put any effort into it at all. I cannot understand why he wouldn't find someone to use as a reseller (Pelican, etc.) to remove that part of his business. Since the product design and quality is there it seems like he would do a lot better on the sales and reputation side.

Pelican carries some of there stuff.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/ksearc....x=0&I1.y=0

[campbellcj]

A few years ago I dealt with a specialty vendor who only responded to email every 4-6 weeks, did not provide a phone number and did not have a web site. Then he actually shipped me another product in addition to mine. (This was a $400-ish item too.) I'm not even sure he ever charged me for any of it since his recordkeeping and communication were so poor. His product was super nice and all was well in the end, but geez, talk about no business sense whatsoever!

I have a similar thing going on now, an apparently singleton startup guy with a speciality built-to-order part. This one has a pretty nice web site and online ordering via Paypal, but zero communication. I emailed him after a few days just to ensure the order had gotten thru - it had - and now the lead time has pushed from 2 weeks to 4+.

Then there is PMO (Richard) who is a great guy, been around forever, but has a quirky business model to say the least. For a long time and maybe still, the only way to reach him was to send him a fax with your phone number. Yes, fax. Then he would call you back, and usually pretty quickly and everything was golden from there in my experience. He even let me pick up parts in person a couple times to save shipping and delay.

I could go on and on having been around this P-car world for 25 years now. As a small business person myself, I find a lot of this truly unbelieveable. Recently I even thought about trying to buy and turn-around one of these businesses (a service/race shop) as I saw much more potential there had it been properly managed and staffed. But the owner was/is enough of a flake that I thought better of jumping into that mess.

[tomrev]

Sounds like some good news; received an email tonight that the parts are shipping!

[maf914]

GPR, who advertise on this site, list Rebel Racing products, but I don't know if they have better luck providing parts. No affiliation.

http://www.gprparts.com/ShopforOEAccesorie...ALL&mode=PA