For those of you that don't know, the transmission in my 1995 300zx gave out back in October. On November 18, 2010 I placed an order through ebay with a company called American Carz (ebay name ameritranz). I was told 7-10 days for the tranmssion to be shipped to me. I thought, awesome I'll have my care up and running in 2 weeks tops. WRONG. I finally received the transmission on December 18,2010. My cousin (who's a mechanic) was going to install the transmission only to find out that the bellhousing is different, other than that everything looked the same. So no problem, just swap out the bellhousing and all the problems are fixed. WRONG AGAIN. The transmission turned out to be from a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder 2WD, which although has the same RE4R01A model number for the tranmission, is not the same transmission.

These guys sold me the wrong transmission, after specifically telling them atleast a dozen times that my car was a 1995 Nissan 300zx Naturally Aspirated 2+2 with an automatic transmission, and even gave them my VIN number so they could verify everything.

But the problems don't stop there. My cousin now had to pack up both transmissions and the driveshaft and ship them back to Arizona so AmericanCarz could fix their idiotic mistake. This was January 12, 2011. The transmissions were supposed to take 3-4 days to be shipped back to Arizona and was quoted another 7-10 days till I had my transmission back (including the 3-4 day shipping each way). Well it took 10 days for it to reach Arizona and another WEEK for them to fix the tranmission and send me the right one. Furthermore they yelled at me and my mechanic for having to extend the wiring harness on the transmission they sent me because the one did not fit. They said they would fix everything up and ship it back out looking perfect. So after finally receiving the transmission in February, it turns out that they once again messed up the wiring harness and my mechanic had to fix their mistake for a second time after already doing it once.

Now here's where things get even worse. I was told that they would compensate me for the extra charges my mechanic was charging me for having to uninstall and reinstall the transmission as well as fixing the wiring harness. They told me to send them an invoice from my mechanic, which was sent TWICE. They also told me I would be receiving an extended warranty on the transmission for all my troubles. It had been a week without any contact and so I decided to try giving them a call to see what was up. They did not pickup ALL WEEK LONG. I was getting fed up and had my mechanic call them, and what do you know, they picked up on the first call (they have caller ID and were ignoring my calls). So last Wednesday my mechanic was told that I would be getting a call Thursday and be told how much I would be receiving for compensation. Well Thursday and Friday went by, and no calls. I called them this afternoon, and yet again NO ANSWER. So right now, I'm beyond frustrated with these people and will not stop until I am compensated for the extra charges I endured as well as being without my car for 3 months, when I was told this process would take 7-10 days.


CLIFFNOTES: sent me wrong tranmssion, blamed me, lied about shipping and deadlines, promised to compensate me for extra charges, ignoring all my calls now

I hope that at least the supplier paid the freight both ways both times.
It is the least they could do, given the facts you presented.

This sounds like a good case for Department of Consumer Protection.

The State Attorney General's office would undoubtedly be interested.

Posting this same information on ZDriver.com, ClassicZCar.com,
ZCar.com, and as many individual Z Club sites as can be accessed
would be a good way of helping others to avoid the same problems.
And also to avoid the ineptitude you unfortunately encountered.

I hope that everyone understood that what I was trying to communi-
cate above was that, IMO, to post this ONLY in our Club's gripes column
is not NEARLY enough in this case.

All Z Best,............................Kathy & Rick

_________________
All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Also report them to eBay. Hope you get compensated for your losses. And also report them to the better business bureau.

_________________
Mike Tubiak
1978 Datsun 280Z - HLS30-438694

Kill his pigs and chickens and set fire to his hut.

_________________
1970 240Z

Good thought. I like the Marine Corps way of doing business.
~Rick~

_________________
All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Pat, for what it's worth, we've NEVER had a complaint about RDZ yet. Our members have been throwing their woes on them for a long time, and each of them comes back smiling.

Broke, but smiling!

Frank

_________________
1970 240Z

UPDATE: I've called them the past two days, and no once wants to answer the phone there, so I've left them messages monday, tuesday, and today. I'll be posting this on other car forums as well, because this is beyond acceptable. I'm on the verge of having our attorney send them a letter, because I really don't know where else to go from here.

Frank: I know Rich and they guys at RDZ do exceptional work, I've had my car there before. I would've taken it there to have the transmission work done, but I simply could not afford it. Going this route cost me about 1/2 of what it would've had I gone through RDZ, and I was able to install an upgraded radiator and a 1 piece driveshaft. Being a high school student with no job and looking at atleast 100k of student loans within the next 5 years (5 years masters program) I need to save as much money as I can.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I had gotten ahold of them Fri March 25th after leaving numerous messages. They continued to put the blame on me, even calling my mechanic a poor mechanic, and straight up lying about me not giving them my VIN number (which I clearly recall doing). They also claimed to have never gotten the invoice. So my mechanic sent ANOTHER (this is #3) invoice to them. They were supposed to call me the following week with an update.

I tried calling last week, and once again, ended up leaving messages. Called again today, and left another message.

At this point, I'm about to have an attorney send them a letter, or just fly out to Arizona and take car of these people in person.
/ End rant

So where are we on this now? Do we have to put together a Z Raiding Party and go out there to "Zee" them? I'm getting really steamed about this.

Frank

_________________
1970 240Z

As of right now, we're working on getting a letter sent out by a family friend who's an attorney. The guy 'Alex' whom i was talking to the entire time didn't answer any of the dozens of messages I left for him. So I decided that it was time to get an attorney involved. Hopefully it'll scare him enough to man up and give me the money i was promised.

Just got another thought (this is getting dangerous!).

One Z Club in Arizona is: Desert Z Association.
desertzassociation.com
Jim Ault @ (480) 650-3448 or
desertzassociation@yahoo.com

And just across the border in Southern California is:
Z Car Club Inland Valley
zcciv.com
Fred Jordan @ (951) 696-9770 or
ftenthz@aol.com

I figure, these two clubs, being the nearest to them, are the ones most
likely to be doing business with them. Therefore, I think it would be a
nice gesture if our fellow Z owners were given a "heads-up" alerting
them to possible, or should I say probable difficulties with these people?
While simultaneously hitting the perps in the wallet for their atrocious
business practices.

I believe the Desert club is the one out of Tucson; if I can find info on
the club further up in the Phoenix area, I will post that here as well.

All Z Best,............................Kathy & Rick

_________________
All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

I still say we go for their pigs and chickens.

_________________
1970 240Z

Hi Pat,

I am speaking as a fellow Z owner right now. Having been a car guy all my life I have learned that, and this applies to more then just cars, if you are going to go the DYI route you must expect it will take a long, long time to do the job and that others don't pay attention or care about your issues.

Now speaking as a shop owner, it is our mission to help Z owners to avoid this very problem. We have spent countless hours researching all aspects of the these cars and parts sourcing from companies who understand them and run their business with integrity.

Unfortunately, this problem you have run into is an all to common one.