I purchased a Agency Power Exhaust System from Vivid Racing after seeing it advertised and discussed on various Porsche forums. A representative from Vivid Racing stated that the exhaust would specifically fit a 987.2 car.

Turns out it does not, fitment is different for Gen I and Gen II cars. I contacted Agency Power and received confirmation about this from a rep named Matt Jobin, "We have not installed one of these on a 987.2. This is designed to fit the first Gen 987"

I had the exhaust professionally installed and the installer modified the exhaust for fitment (shortened the pipe leading into the resonator) This of course makes my problems with the product more complex. The installer made the fitment without my knowledge, however the product should have never required specialized fitment. My complaints:
1) The exhaust has signifiant drone and reverberation, it is not acceptable for daily driving as advertised by Vivid Racing.
2) Additional cost I incurred for installation, an additional 1.5 hours of shop labor time.

I contacted Dan Mermelstein from Vivid Racing who was completely unhelpful and shrugged the issue off. He's response was I received a discount on the exhaust (apparently discounts mean no customer service) and that the exhaust is modified and no longer his problem. This issue resulted as a direct result of Dan's advertising this exhaust fitting my specific vehicle. The exhaust was miss advertised and therefore certainly his problem.

Further research shows that Vivid Racing and Agency Power are the same company. Under no circumstance should this exhaust have been sold to a 987.2 owner when Agency Power had never even tested the product on it. I am very displeased with the customer service and how the issue has been handled by both companies.

I would recommend anyone considering purchasing from Vivid Racing make your decision carefully as they will not provide you acceptable service if you have issues with their products. I would also be wary of products from Agency Power as they do not test their products before selling them, and if a issue should occur neither company will honor their products.

 

this member has been allowed to have his say and the thread is closed until Vivid can respond

 

open only for Dan at Vivid please

 

Wow... Getting tired of this Internet hate from this customer Mark. Your beginning to look pretty wrong the more you do this... So now whereever you waste peoples time, I will just link them here.

Story is we had a blowout special on the Planet9 forums for the Cayman Exhaust from Agency Power. We know that the product 150% fits the 987 Boxster Cayman. This customer had a 987.2. We said it should fit but we have not fitted one ourselves. The customer gets to the install point with his shop and find out 1 side of the pipes is to long for the 987.2. He calls and talks to someone at Vivid and Agency Power. We give him the opportunity to modify it or return it. Customer CHOOSES to modify and install it. All that had to be done was to cut a 2" section of the straight pipe that removes the 2nd cats out. So now the exhaust is installed and used on his car. Customer emails that the exhaust is to loud. Well, sound is subjective and unfortunately since it is used and modified, we cannot take it back. That would go from anyone company. The customer demands that we credit him the $295 of labor it cost to modify it. Well that was the customers choice to proceed with that and we have no agreement. Since we sold the exhaust to the customer at a EXTREME discount of $500 and gave him the opportunity to return it, sorry no go.

So this guy has complained to a bunch of different forums and written to the BBB which we have responded. Even on Planet9 the OWNER told him to basically go punt.

Adding further injury to insult, Mark Nelson then said he would settle for $95. Which in a good mood, I said, sure if you remove the complaints...

This is what insued..
Feb 9, 2010
I tried working with you, you stated it worked on a 987.2 there was no
mention of modifications required. I think we all know that my
installer should not have made modifications without checking with me
and me with you but this mess wouldn't have started if the product was
advertised properly. I will settle for the 1.5 hours of labor at $95
that was used to make the item fit. I will go back and post everywhere
that the issue has been mutually resolved.

My response -
You go back and make the changes to the Review sites, BBB, and forums,
and then I will refund you via CC or Paypal $95. *Please send me the links.

His response showing an utter arrogant and stubborn person with nothing better to do.
You should be refunding me the money because of the mistake in promotion of the product, not so I undo my word of mouth campaign.
Once a refund is received I will consider the issue resolved and update all conversations about the issue. I will ask Ken to reopen the thread so I may leave a update, or have him leave a update on our behalf.

Here is the ORIGINAL email that started this. You can see again who is out of line... Newest response is first. Oldest on bottom.
To clarify you are stating that you will not support the product due
to it being purchased at a reduced cost?

I'll give you some free advice in the hopes of us finding a happy
medium. I am in advertising and marketing, I specialize in
Relationship Marketing; we have a system we use to gauge a customers
loyalty to a brand. Some agencies refer to this gauge as the Net
Promoter score. There are 4 types of customers, they are: promoter,
passively satisfied, passively detractor and detractor. The Net
Promoter score is a way to calculate how many promoters you need to
have to makeup for each detractor. A very good NP score would be 8
customers who are promoters for every detractor.

How does this effect you, right now I am a passive detractor, that
means if someone asked me about your products I wouldn't recommend
them. I am about to become a detractor, meaning I will actively tell
others about my negative experience. That means on a best case
scenario you need 8 people actively promoting your brand to
compensate for my one negative voice. Now the reason you sold the
product at a reduced price was to get the product into the
marketplace and have people positively experience the brand and
product. Unfortunately there was a issue where your sales team stated
the product worked on a specific vehicle when it does not. It is your
responsibility to accurately market your products. If your company
wants to sell products for high-end cars you will need to offer
high-end customer service.

The question still stands, what type of customer will I become. A
promoter or a detractor?

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter
http://www.netpromoter.com/


On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Dan Mermelstein <dan@vividracing.com>
wrote:
>>> If all you did was remove a small section of the straight on the
>> stainless,
>>> that will not affect sound at all. *You went ahead with the
>>> modification
>> to
>>> the exhaust system when you were given the opportunity to return it. *
>>> You also bought this item at an extremely reduced cost. *If you are
>>> asking us
>> to
>>> pay for your labor, sorry we cannot do that. *Had you bought this
>>> item at retail value, we would have considered it.

-----Original Message-----
>>> From: Marco
>>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 5:26 PM
>>> To: Dan Mermelstein
>>> Subject: Re: Agency Power Exhaust Fitment Boxster 987.2
>>>
>>> Sound is subjective, however we know fitment is not correct for this
>> product
>>> on a 987.2. There maybe additional issues from fitment causing
>>> higher
> than
>>> normal drone and reverberation. I'm dissatisfied that the product
>>> was claimed to be compatible when it is not, and there are concerns
>>> with its drone. What can you do to make me a satisfied customer?
>>>
>>> Mark

On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Dan Mermelstein wrote:
>>>> Sound is total subjective. *Someone that is not use to an
>>>> aftermarket exhaust system might think this is loud. *This exhaust
>>>> is extremely
>> timid.
>>>> In just about every car at 2000-2500rpm there will be some type of
> drone.
>>>>
>>>>

-----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Marco
>>>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 12:28 PM
>>>> To: Dan Mermelstein
>>>> Subject: Re: Agency Power Exhaust Fitment Boxster 987.2
>>>>
>>>> Yes the exhaust is to loud, one of the reasons I chose this exhaust
>>>> was the description stating that it is fine for daily driving. The
>>>> tone in the 2000 -3000 RPM range makes it to loud to talk to
>>>> another passenger or on a phone with out shouting. This is
>>>> especially problematic as that is the RPM range for highway driving in 7th gear.
>>>> The resonator in the can is not likely tuned for the DFI engine.
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>>
On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 7:28 AM, Dan Mermelstein wrote:
>>>>> Besides modifying the exhaust to fit the 987.2, what is the issue?
>>>>> It is to loud for you?
>>>>>

-----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Marco
>>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 4:20 PM
>>>>> To: sales@vividracing.com
>>>>> Subject: Agency Power Exhaust Fitment Boxster 987.2
>>>>>
>>>>> I recently purchased the Agency Power Exhaust System for Porsche
>>>>> Boxster Cayman 987. I am having issues with fitment and
>>>>> performance on my 987.2 2009 Boxster S. The first issue is the
>>>>> pipes off the headers are to long and the cans do not fit without
>>>>> touching the rear of the car. The second issue is I am getting
>>>>> serious drone, I expected the car to be louder but it is
>>>>> unacceptably loud, between 2300 and 2800 RPM the whole car
>>>>> reverberates. I contacted Agency Power and was told this kit is
>>>>> not designed for 987.2, I had purchased the kit after reading
>>>>> several positive reviews on Planet-9 forums, a Vivid Racing rep
>>>>> also stated that the exhaust does fit
>>>>> 987.2 cars
>>>>> http://www.planet-9.com/site-vendors...vividracing-co
>>>>> m-5
>>>>> 0
>>>>> -off-a
>>>>> gency-power-exhaust-tuning-package-3.html#post417565
>>>>> Your website and the Agency Power website could also be easily
>>>>> confused as working on all 987 cars.
>>>>>
>>>>> The issue now is the car is too loud for daily driving due to the
>>>>> drone, I also had the exhaust installed professionally. It ended
>>>>> up costing $237.50 for 2.5 hours of work instead of $95 for 1
>>>>> hour, as the installer had issues fitting the exhaust and had to
>>>>> make changes to the right side exhaust, they removed 2 inches from
>>>>> the length of the incoming pipe, the left side was unmodified.
>>>>>
>>>>> >From a performance standpoint I am impressed with the exhaust, I
>>>>> >was
>>>>> able to get measurable performance improvements with a g-timmer on
>>>>> my 0-60 and 1/4 mile.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please advise on how to solve this issue..
>>>>>
>>>>> Mark Nelson