Shift Management, Inc.

Review: I purchased a remanufactured transmission from Shift Management, Inc. through [redacted] in 2009 or 2010. The first transmission I put in my truck lasted for a grand total of about 3500 feet before it gave out completely. I was able to return this one to [redacted] and get a warranty replacement. When the warranty replacement arrived, the shifter arm was incorrect. Upon contacting Shift Management, they told me I should have read the tag which told me I might have to change the shift arm out. However, this involved complete disassembly of the lower portions of the transmission to do so and is therefore not a task any normal consumer should be expected to perform. After some debate, I was able to get Shift Management to have the correct shift arm swapped in, as it should have been all along. Now, a few years later, a steel band broke in the transmission. The truck was not a daily driver and therefore had under 10,000 miles on the transmission. I called Shift Management to find out about this being a warranty issue as the transmission didn't even have 10,000 miles on it. However, the first person I spoke to told me that their 18 month/18,000 mile warranty was no longer in effect, despite the fact that the transmission had barely made it through half of the warranty mileage. Upon further debate and speaking to a manager, it was offered to do work on the transmission for the cost of parts if I shipped it from Phoenix to Sacramento (over $200 EACH way). As the shipping costs were completely unreasonable, I took it to a local transmission shop to get repaired. Upon disassembly, the shop found that the torque converter, provided by Shift Management, was failing and putting metal through the transmission, resulting in premature wear and damage to a number of parts. The transmission essentially required a complete overhaul, AGAIN. In addition, the shop felt that a number of parts were inappropriately reused and not replaced as they typically should have been in a remanufacture.Desired Settlement: Because the transmission had to be re-overhauled after not even 10,000 miles, and shipment to California would have been completely unreasonable in terms of both cost and time, I would like to request reimbursement of all or some of the cost to repair the transmission locally.

Business

Response:

In response to a letter from the Revdex.com of a complaint form [redacted] regards to a product failure. Mr. [redacted] stated he purchased a FOC4 transmission from Oreillys store in 2009 or 2010. This puts the unit 3.5 to 2.5 years out of SMI warranty. And 2 to 1 year out of Oreilly's warranty.

In response to Mr. [redacted] statement about the shifter arm being incorrect. Having to change out the shifter arm on C4 (FORD) units is very frequent due to the fact Ford has such a variety of linkages on obsolete vehicles. This is stated by a tag that is wired to the unit. The consumer is advised to have the unit installed by a licensed shop when unable to perform the required task. SMI will not honor any labor claims when our unit is installed by an unlicensed shop. This is stated on our warranty tag attached to the unit. Mr. [redacted] purchased the unit from [redacted] and [redacted] ordered the unit from SMi. Therefore our customer is [redacted]s. When Mr. [redacted] contacted SMI and talked with the president of SMI in regards to his transmission. It was offered out of good gesture to fix his unit for free (with out inspecting the unit first) if he absorbed the cost of freight to and from SMI. This was not acceptable to Mr. [redacted]. He felt the he could get the unit repaired cheaper by a local shop then what the cost of freight would cost him for SMI to fix the unit. It was explained to him that SMI would not pay for another shop to repair a unit that was so far out of warranty and that once the unit was repaired thus disassembled by another shop that the unit is no longer an SMI unit it would be the property of that shop.

All automatic transmissions re manufactured by Shift Management Inc meet or exceed original manufactures specifications and are re manufactured to the Sate of California Bureau of Automotive repair guidelines. SMI made an honest effort to assist Mr. [redacted].

Thank You

Shift Management Inc.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:

I have already mentioned that, yes the transmission was out

of warranty by TIMEFRAME ONLY, but by mileage it hadn’t even gotten through half

of it. So essentially since I didn’t

drive the truck every day, it feels that I was cheated out of over 50% of my

warranty on the transmission. I am

perfectly capable of changing the shift arm, but I was told that opening and

disassembling the transmission to do so would void the warranty. If the warranty won’t cover a DIY install,

what is the point of selling it at a DIY auto shop? This, however is not the issue at hand, I

simply mentioned the shifter arm and the first transmission not even making it

a single mile, to demonstrate what appears to be a severe lack of quality

control. The issue is that the transmission

was shipped with MANY sub-standard parts.

I was never told that the unit would be fixed for free, I was told it

would be fixed for the price of parts if I were to pay for the shipping (and as

I have already mentioned, this was completely unreasonable at $200 EACH WAY,

which is more than I paid in labor locally).

Furthermore, this woeful attempt to provide assistance was when it was

thought that the broken band was the only issue (a band which, according to the

local shop, appears to have just been one that was lying around from another

old transmission). When the local shop

disassembled the transmission for estimation purposes, it was found that parts

provided by shift management (specifically the torque converter) were faulty

and causing premature wear and failure after under 10,000 miles of use. The transmission I originally had in my truck

was original from Ford and lasted over 130,000 miles with almost no issues. Having lasted only about 8% of that mileage,

the SMI remanufacture was clearly not done so to exceed or even meet the

quality of an original manufacture’s unit.

While SMI did make an effort to assist, it was severely lacking, and the

issue appears to have been brought on by the use of sub-standard parts in the

first place.

Business

Response:

I understand your feelings and am truly sorry more can not be done. Our offer to you was the best we could offer giving the following circumstances.

1. the unit is out of SMI & [redacted] warranty. The warranty was 18000. miles OR 18 months which every comes first. This was also stated on the warranty tag tied to the unit. You agreed to these terms when you purchased and signed your invoice with [redacted].