By Arin nonetheless. Like Halvie, I also have requests from Arin to troll other companies or posts things in certain threads. Once Arin thinks he has you in his confidence, he’ll start asking for posts. Some of the stuff he asks people to post is pretty ridiculous. I wouldn’t post the blatant lies, but if you look at my postings on audizine, I did interject a good healthy bit of doubt in the REVO threads by using personal experience.
To him there is no subject matter that is untouchable as he often chooses to cross the line and attack people on a personal level using dirt that he’s dug up. Speaking of which, I just defriended him on FB yesterday. So sad, but he opted to put me on limited profile while continuing to peek at mine. :’( :’( :’(
Figured I’d chime in and add my .02 not that it matters… First off I have appreciated crews posts(and others for that matter) and they seem to be very factual so I’m glad he is bringing that information to the forums so people know what is going on with APR before they make decisions and such… He does seem to have a grudge against Arin/APR but that’s his business and as long as what he states is factual I’m glad he is around and posting, not that he cares or anyone cares what I think for that matter… To me this is a case of upper management being arrogant, greedy and not very good at running a business. Owning race teams and jet planes is not cheap but everyone already knows that…
The main reason I am posting though is that I want to say that I have never been paid or asked by Arin/APR to post anything against others and I know many view me as the APR B8 fanboy which is fine because in many ways I am. Everything I have posted or APR has used of mine as “marketing material” has been strip times that are 100% real and documented with timeslips and sometime multiple videos. In return I’ve been asked to beta test tunes but have always been open about that and in fact when hitting the strip and posting about it I literally put beta tune in the post… In the end that helped APR and us users equally so I’m glad I had that opportunity and will continue to welcome it as long as APR is in business and wants to work with me. I’ll get back to that later… I’ve purchased the tune for my S4 and TTRS from APR and paid full price for both. I have the CPS from APR on the S4 and did receive a discount as did others when it was originally launched. I didn’t pay full price for the pulley but that is because ECS reached out to me and offered to give it to me at their cost, install it and dyno the car in exchange for me letting them make an install video(which has probably helped 100’s), use my S4 in photos for their advertising, and to take measurements for designing some bling bling parts… The only other items I have purchased from APR were my Brembo brakes to which they quoted me the wrong price… Then they came back and said they screwed up but were going to honor the price anyway so I did get a very nice deal on those but it was because of a screw up not because I did anything for them, other than maybe them wanting to keep a happy customer…
Now I was contacted in late 2013 by APR to use my car for stage III and DSG beta testing with the understanding that they’d use my car to write the installation manual for the blower, do all the installation and tuning for free, and I would pay for the blower and other parts needed to make it work. I guess in this case I’d be the FT of the B8 S4… I can’t say what they have or haven’t asked him to do but in none of my discussions with APR was it brought up that I would need to spam the boards with any negative information about the competition and such… Heck I don’t even post on Vendorzine which Arin knows very well… Unfortunately, they ran into delays which I was kept in the loop about and I think were factual but I have no way of knowing for sure. Then in April/May Arin contacted me and said APR decided to buy a 2010 DSG car instead of using mine but that I would get one of if not the first production kit. I will be honest I was very bummed when this happened but you have to get over things that are out of your control so I said to Arin, hey I appreciate you letting me know and please keep me posted and let me know when I can buy the kit, which I’m not sure will ever happen at this point?
I made this post for no other reason than to let people know how I have been treated by APR and what was expected in return, again not being critical of crew or anyone else… Sure I’ve had negative things to say about GIAC, 034, Eurocode, Europrice, etc but those were a result of what I experienced, read, thought, knew, perceived, tested, etc not what Arin asked me to do… Carry on and sorry for the long meaningless post just needed to get it out…
First off, nobody has ever questioned your integrity PT. You’rre a valuable asset to all of the audi forum communities, B8 and otherwise. Let’s make that clear (you know this, but you might wonder what people say behind your back. Behind your back it’s probably even nicer than what they say to your face. People just don’t want to seem the gay )
Second, it sounds like it was a good thing they didn’t install the kit on your car, because from what has been posted here, the kit has blown the motor of the B8 S4, as well as the motor of 2 different B7 RS4s. Not sure if that’s a calibration issue or a hardware setup issue or a failure but we know of I believe 3 B7 RS4s with the kit…and two are dead. We know of 2 B8 S4s with the kit and at least one is dead. We know of the R8 and S5 that had the kit but haven’t heard anything on those cars in a while. Not even sure whose they are.
Primetime - thanks for taking the time to post that. As sak mentioned, your integrity has never been in question. We all appreciate the work you’ve done to advance the platform.
LOL ok… I’ll clarify and then get out of your hair.
I came over because Dave made a comment about Vortex that wasn’t true. Yes, APR advertises with us as do a lot of other companies. I know outwardly that makes me immediately suspect to my motives which is part of the reason I don’t normally bother to post stuff like this. I’ve been “dealing” with Dave/Crew a long time. I know people like to think we are just in advertisers back pocket, but the reality is that we really aren’t. Nearly every single tuner/advertiser that Dave has thrown under the bus or bombed their threads has come to us asking us to do something about Dave or ban him. To my knowledge we have never done that. We might have asked him to tone it down once or twice, but we never just outright removed him (which would be the easy way out naturally). So I get a ton of phone calls, advertisers screaming at me and more and I just tell them it is a public forum and if a customer is unhappy they should post something to make it right. The problem is the large number of non-customers that come in and stir things up. For instance, Dave makes a claim in the forums and a tuner calls me up and tells me that it is patently false. Who’s side do I take? Who is correct? Dave or the tuner? Over the years I’ve had to tell advertisers we aren’t the judge and jury and that they should refute what’s being said. Honestly though, most tuner shops don’t have enough staff to sit in forums all day and respond to every single troll/fan boy that slings mud. While Dave has caused me a number of headaches and nasty phone call over the years, I really don’t have any animosity towards him (honestly).
As for APR… APR started their business a couple years after I started VWvortex. I’ve known those guys for years now. They started the business out of passion for cars and with the intent to build a decent product. They grew quickly, have been through a lot of changes, made lots of mistakes along the way, but also did a lot of impressive stuff as well. I’ve had Keith screaming at me on the phone bright and early at 8am over some non-sense in the forums. I’ve yelled back at those guys too telling them they can’t keep throwing other companies under the bus - which makes my life a headache too when those other companies call me up. I guess my point with APR right now is that while they have their issues and warts, they have also done a LOT of really good stuff over the years. In 20+ years of watching tuners come and go, they somehow manage to juggle a lot of different products for a lot of brands and models, different ECU and engine code variations and still get solid product (for the most part) out the door in a timely fashion. If they disappeared tomorrow, it would actually be a big loss to the enthusiast and tuning industry as they are one of the biggest players. When I read the pile-on mentality of this stuff in forums like this and on our site, I have a hard time sitting on my hands and not saying something.
My main point is that you shouldn’t fully trust everything you read and hear. You mentioned that Mangrove is finding out that APR was in “very bad financial position”. A private equity group isn’t going to invest in any business without doing some major due diligence. They started investing in APR over a year ago and financed the expansion of the building. Logically I think you can deduct they wouldn’t have done that expansion if the company was truly in dire straights. It isn’t difficult to look at raw financials, P&L and liabilities to know fairly quickly if something is a lost cause.
Anyway, I’m having a hard time putting in words why this bugs me personally. Like I said (and I’ll say it again and risk my APR advertising renewal ) APR could stop advertising tomorrow and it won’t have any large impact on our business. One of our mods closed the first thread about this APR thing because two readers derailed the crap out of it with a pissing match. There is a new thread now and it remains open. We aren’t “voraciously” racing around removing threads or posts about this. Some of our mods are less than perfect and get a little trigger happy - we (and they) aren’t perfect. But it honestly has nothing to do with APR asking us to remove anything.
Sorry for the long post and you can return to your regularly scheduled programming. ;D
I’m not going to merge this one with Keith’s thread, as it would be totally out of whack. I’ll think about moving it to the General Discussion section. If I remember correctly, this actually did start out as a B8 thread but then got side-tracked and split off a few times. You can tell by the first post.
Found this forum through the vortex and am here to stay. Looking forward to a no-edit, no-delete, no BS tolerated experience.
Here’s a copy of my thoughts on the issue:
I try to stay away from these threads, but IMO this is the best thing that could happen to APR. As a VW enthusiast in Alabama and someone that spent 7 years in Auburn, I’m very well acquainted with the company. I even “worked” for them doing set up and tear down at shows and local recruiting in exchange for lodging, free show entry, and reduced prices on software and hardware. Never have I been jerked around harder, or over promised and under delivered more than with APR. Luckily I was a broke college student and didn’t have much money involved. There is an attitude of arrogance, delusion that their stuff doesn’t stink, and more importance placed on appearances rather than substance that comes down from the top. There are some great people that work there, but they don’t run the show. I knew firsthand about the complete dichotomy of their perfect appearance online and real life. Most of the reason for the “tuner wars” here and on other sites is because people are in various states of knowledge of these issues and APR tried their hardest to suppress the info. The good people get run off because they can’t deal with all the BS that comes from having to hide all the dirt and never admitting wrong. The turnover rate is astronomical and if you’re truly the world leader in VAG hardware and software, it should be a dream job. I didn’t know about the financial side of things, but I can’t say I’m surprised one bit.
Anyways, rant over. Fresh management is exactly what that place needed. I hope it works out for them and we see a new side of APR without all the smoke and mirrors of the past. I really want to be proud of the local guys and it’s sad that I haven’t been able to for years.
for the couple guys there that this doesn’t apply to.
)
for the couple guys there that this doesn’t apply to.