DSS Driveshaft Failed

[John@Lethal]

So I contacted Lethal Performance today and I was very polite to the rep on the phone. He basically told me that Lethal had nothing to do with the driveshaft, they just sell it and if I had an issue I need to contact the manufacturer. I have had the driveshaft since the end of April but they offered me no customer support. He didn't even give me a contact number or anything, I got online and got it myself and called DSS. DSS on the other hand was a different experience. Very polite and helpful and I am sending them the driveshaft tomorrow. Am I being unreasonable to feel that the vendor should provide support to a customer when a product they sell had a problem? I am a reasonable guy so please let me know if I'm off on this. I guess I am just looking for some feedback. This failure cost me almost $1000 for the the tow and caused me to miss a weekend at the track...plus it stranded me on a bridge on the German Autobahn which wasn't fun having semi's screaming past you within just a few feet of the car for about an hour waiting on a tow truck. Then a 5 hour tow truck ride to my house because the trucks can only go 80kph by law which is only 50mph...man that wasn't fun especially when the guy doesn't speak any english and his choice of music wasn't the greatest It was an adventure to say the least and one I hope to never repeat.

Flyboy,

I'm actually the one you spoke with just the other day. Although we're not a paying vendor here, I wanted to go out of my way to come and apologize, as well as clear up a few points.

Customer service is our number 1 goal, hands down, always. It's what we've been built on since day one, and it's what we continue to strive to achieve. Before trying to earn your business, or anything else. Even when customers have purchased an item somewhere else, or second hand and have issues, we still always try to help when and where we can.

Now in your certain circumstance, as I said before, I apologize about all of your inconveniences with the shaft. DSS is easily one of our best sellers, and it's extremely uncommon for their new design to fail. All of them are built and balanced individually to reduce room for error. Part of the reason why they take about 2 weeks to be built and shipped.

Now in regard to our conversation, I was simply trying to convey that DSS handles the warranty procedure internally, and that's on their request. It was not me passing the buck, or shooing you off, and I apologize you felt that way. We just know that they are a true company that stands behind their product, and we stand behind them. When I thought you had said, "that's ok" to me giving you the number, I made sure to let you know that you should speak to Lee, as he's one of the top guys over there, and would assure that you would get the proper service needed to get your situation taken care of.

I'm glad you were able to reach out to them and they were immediately willing to help, as I knew they would. As previously said, if there's anything we can do to help facilitate the process further, please let myself or anyone here know.

Thanks again
John

 

[isrboss]

John from Lethal. I will say this, if you don't give YOUR customer a warm fuzzy privately, then don't come on here publicly attempting to save face. You failed at serving your customer, because he felt so. Further more I am a new Mustang owner, and I was warned by the first person I spoke to( no lie, he pointed me to BBR ) about not purchasing s**t from Lethal Performance. I find your public attempt at saving face an admittance of guilt. Now if you would like to come on this forum and offer us some helpful insight please do, don't come on here to do what you just did.

My opinion, and I have been told that I don't sugar coat it in the past.

 

[Brandon302]

John from Lethal. I will say this, if you don't give YOUR customer a warm fuzzy privately, then don't come on here publicly attempting to save face. You failed at serving your customer, because he felt so. Further more I am a new Mustang owner, and I was warned by the first person I spoke to( no lie, he pointed me to BBR ) about not purchasing s**t from Lethal Performance. I find your public attempt at saving face an admittance of guilt. Now if you would like to come on this forum and offer us some helpful insight please do, don't come on here to do what you just did.

My opinion, and I have been told that I don't sugar coat it in the past.

Well said, and also not so sweet. But it does seem a little disingenuous to come and publicly apologize instead of PM'ing or calling.

 

[NewBossowner]

I don't know Lethal or deal with them so I can't say but it is easy to be gratious and apologetic after the fact when you have been called on it. Right or wrong, your customer shouldn't have felt the way he did after talking to you. Service and customer care is just that, they should feel that they have been treated right.

 

[blacksheep-1]

I would expect any vendor you purchase from to at the least contact the manufacturer and ask for assistance on behalf of the customer. I would probably have asked to speak with "management" at Lethal, and if you already were then that doesn't speak well for them.

Glad your car didn't get wrecked and must be nice to cruise around at autobahn speeds. 8)

I would agree, BTW, DSS is a top drawer group of people

 

[Nafod]

This was a complete fail by Lethal.. Stating that DSS is one of there top product suppliers, they should have taken care of everything, and then pasted it on to DSS or written it off. There response did as much damage to the image of the supplier as the vendor. I will have second thoughts about DSS and no thoughts about Lethal.

 

[mycroft]

Less vendor drama, more DSS failure analysis please.

 

[Justin]

Less vendor drama, more DSS failure analysis please.

+1 cause I have had crappy customer service almost everywhere I do business with and the same companies I have had great service with. It's all on who answers the phone. It's not making me want to pull out my dss driveshaft that has 13k miles on it without a problem.

And I will buy stuff from lethal in the future.

Now on to what caused the thing to fail. That's what I really care about getting from this thread.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Less vendor drama, more DSS failure analysis please.

I agree. Tob's post about multiple failures is what we need to read about.

Adam, I'm sorry Lethal didn't provide customer service that met your expectations.

Please remember the driveshaft failure, Adam being stranded on the Autohahn, the cost of the tow, his ride home and the drivers selection of music were not Lethal's fault and had nothing to do with them. It is disappointing to hear that they didn't provide Adam with a contact and phone number at DSS. Not providing him this information is where they failed in this scenario. I hope DSS takes good care of Adam as I know many BMO members have purchased that driveshaft. It would have been much easier for Lethal not to join the forum and blow this off instead of coming on and explaining their side which is what I'd rather see. Hopefully they stick around and provide some useful information for other members in the future.

As for Lethal I've purchased products from them including my recent purchase of a McLeod RXT clutch and flywheel and they were very helpful.

Let's keep this focused on what the resolution of the driveshaft failure is going forward.

 

[VTBoss302]

A little more info might be useful...

I apologize in advance if this has already been mentioned...

First question - Pinion angle?

 

[Flyboygsxr]

Pinion angle was set at -1.5 degrees. I have a steeda adjustable third link and adj mount and they are sperical, Steeda LCA's (also sperical), and BMR LCA relocation brackets...forgot to mention Steeda adjustable panhard bar. Driveshaft did probably 5 or 6 track days, a trip to the Monaco Grand Prix through the Alps and about 3-4 thousand miles smooth as butter with no issues. It just quit one day and it failed fast...no idea what caused it to fail but if I had been on the track something would have broke and it could have been a lot worse. I also have the BMR driveshaft safety loop.

On another note, I sent John@Lethal a message on this forum and he apologized for the misunderstanding and all is good. I think Lethal will take care of the issue. They have the tracking number and will contact DSS once it arrives to find out what the issue was. Thank you for all the support from the forum. This is the best online forum on the web. Great group of guys with a lot of knowledge and we definitely have credit that the vendors are aware of. Being a member of BMO and being a Boss owner has been a blast. Thanks again guys.

 

[Tob]

I agree. Tob's post about multiple failures is what we need to read about.

It would have been much easier for Lethal not to join the forum and blow this off instead of coming on and explaining their side which is what I'd rather see. Hopefully they stick around and provide some useful information for other members in the future.

Let's keep this focused on what the resolution of the driveshaft failure is going forward.

If you Google the terms DSS bad batch you'll see a few threads related to CV issues on new shafts. Personally, I'd like to have seen these 'alleged' failed or failing CV joints dissected.

It was indeed tough to read the OP's experience with this failure. It was also very stand up for John to show up and post, tactfully so. Of note...

...DSS handles the warranty procedure internally, and that's on their request.

While some may not like DSS' warranty procedure, Lethal was abiding by an understanding they shared with DSS. In this case I suspect many expected something over and above a normal claim. I think John has the same sense and that is why he's here. Who wouldn't want to help a guy on the other end of the phone that just broke down on the Autobahn? If we could, we all would.

 

[Orange]

If you Google the terms DSS bad batch you'll see a few threads related to CV issues on new shafts. Personally, I'd like to have seen these 'alleged' failed or failing CV joints dissected.

It was indeed tough to read the OP's experience with this failure. It was also very stand up for John to show up and post, tactfully so. Of note...

While some may not like DSS' warranty procedure, Lethal was abiding by an understanding they shared with DSS. In this case I suspect many expected something over and above a normal claim. I think John has the same sense and that is why he's here. Who wouldn't want to help a guy on the other end of the phone that just broke down on the Autobahn? If we could, we all would.

+1

 

[TymeSlayer]

Less vendor drama, more DSS failure analysis please.

AMEN to that brother!

 

[VTBoss302]

Tymeslayer,

Curious to know if you ever got around to installing the Al DSS???

If for whatever reason you are unsatisfied with it please let me know...

VTBoss302

PS - When researching driveshafts for the MT82, my feelings were:

Unlimited budget and time: PST (requires preliminary measurements)

Relatively quick and painless (or so I thought): DSS (may require fine tuning)

I liked the idea of having a CV joint...

I've read the required pinion angles are sometimes different for CV's versus regular UJ's

However, now I'm just bench racing...

 

[Rusty67]

I ordered a DSS unit in March. I had to wait for a while to get it because apparently they just moved to a bigger/new production facility. Do you guys know when the "bad batch" came around ?

 

[VoodooBoss]

I ordered a DSS unit in March. I had to wait for a while to get it because apparently they just moved to a bigger/new production facility. Do you guys know when the "bad batch" came around ?

That's a good question. If I owned one of these driveshafts I'll contact DSS directly and ask them for the production dates of the bad parts. If you have one I'd get it replaced ASAP.

 

[VTBoss302]

The plot thickens ;-)

 

[Champale]

Hey FlyboyGSXR - any updates from DSS regarding the failure? I'm contemplating an alloy driveshaft and am trying to do some homework on pros/cons of the various brands.

Thank you!

John

 

[WinterSucks]

For those who install a new shaft with stock suspension (not lowered, no adjustable components), does the shaft angle need to be checked? I am in that situation and so far so good, but I don't want to get a DS in the butt by not installing an adjustable upper.