youloze

*Quick note* This is simply my experience in dealing with REVO's customer service, or lack thereof (most notably Jeff Funkhouser) and their Stage 1 software. I am aware that there are plenty of satisfied customers out there....fanboys need not apply to this thread.

Where do I begin? I initially had my 2011 A5 flashed at PureMS in San Diego on the last day that REVO was offering their sale pricing. I was in town from Las Vegas visiting the zoo and the beach for my daughter's birthday. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch, I payed for the map and went on my way. When I got back to Vegas I noticed that the readiness codes for o2 sensor and Catalytic Converter were still incomplete. Gave it a solid 3-4 weeks and they were still incomplete after many of driving cycles. I emailed PureMS to let them know. Long story short they contacted REVO who told them that they sent out the wrong maps so my readiness codes were turned off. From what I have read this has happened in the past to others and I basically was flashed with a Stage 2 map. I didn't ask for that and I was rather annoyed because now I cannot pass smog.

Being I don't live anywhere near PureMS I contacted REVO to see what could be done. First I need to say that Jeff's communication times need some improvement. Numerous times I waited days for a response. In particular, I waited 5 days for a response in the beginning of our communication and a whopping 9 days when he was supposed to contact the local Las Vegas REVO dealer to get me in for another flash with the correct map. I finally got a response (after yet another followup email from myself) letting me know that I can go to the local REVO dealer to get the new map flashed. "Great!" I thought, I'll get this new map and everything will be dandy. Wrong.

The local shop is only open on weekdays at the exact times I am at work so I had to take time from work to get this done. Fine, whatever I understand. What I didn't know heading into this is that there would be a huge disconnect between REVO and the shop as to getting the map emailed over. I waited at the shop for 6 hours (while taking time off of work) for the shop to come and tell me that the ECU was locked by PureMS for some reason after the initial flash (or according to Jeff the local shop must have flashed it back to stock so it locked them out) so the new map wasn't flashing. It was he said, she said but in the end all it screwed was me, the customer. They would have to take the ECU out and bench flash it. At this point I had been at the shop for over 6 hours and just wanted to leave. They flashed my car back to stock so I could get out of there and come back another time. So lets recap...I took over 6 hours off of work to have my car flashed back to stock and I have to come back again, during my work schedule to get it fixed...again.

Keep in mind, to this point I have not received a single apology from Jeff or REVO for my ****ty situation. Not one.

I take the car back the very next day for the flash. The owner of the shop was kind enough to give me a ride to work. They finish the car up and I take it home. This is where things get fun....The car had always pinged at part throttle under load in the heat. Mainly if you were on an incline and partially accelerating and it is warm outside. I didn't think much of it at first and I figured it may have something to do with being the wrong file. But when I received the car with the correct file and it continued to ping as strong as ever I knew there was a problem. I promptly emailed Jeff to let him know the car was pinging and his response was quote "This is the same file that is running in every other 2.0T A4 -- no issues." We continue to go back and forth through email, him sticking to the flash being perfect and Never having and issue in any of the thousands of cars they have flashed and me explaining that it is indeed pinging and it never pinged while it was stock. Here is another quote by Jeff "The fact is, this exact software is in thousands of cars world-wide and was supplied to Stasis for 2 years, we know there is not an issue." In Jeff's mind there is no way it could be the tune and I just like wasting my time. We all know that these are off the shelf maps and all cars are different. The fact that he can make a statement like that and actually believe it is ridiculous.

I inquire about getting a refund so I can move on and Jeff has the audacity to tell me I am out of the 30 day warranty period. He finally agrees to warranty it if I take it back (yet again) to the local shop to have them verify the pinging. And guess what? The lead tech in the shop hears the pinging multiple times himself while in the car with me. He even sent the logs to Jeff and of course Jeff said they were blank. Jeff then sends this quote from his "tech" basically calling me and the shop liars, or stupid. Either way it was insulting. "The way the knock sensors and ignition timing control works in the 2.0T, if the car pings once, it will immediately retard timing and not add it back in again until it's sure the situation is under control. Continuous detonation especially at low RPMs is never allowed by the ECU, factory or modified. This software has been tested all over the world with all kinds of poor fuels and wouldn't be released if it caused pinging."

Anyway, I finally get him to agree and admit that something is wrong with the tune and after much time and headache I get my refund from PureMS. At least he got that part right.

I know there will be people that read this and respond that at least I got a refund and I should have done this or that and "I've never had a problem with REVO and it's teh fastest because racecar!!", ect. I just wanted to share my experience with the forums so that anyone researching which tune to go with will have some data as to what could happen to them. Will it/does it happen to everyone? No, but it happened to me and it was an exhaustive process.

Of course a company is great when everything goes right but the true mark of a good company is how they handle things when something goes wrong. And in this case REVO and Jeff failed for the most part. Sure, I got my money back but it shouldn't have gone down the way it did and for that I'm disappointed.

Take this review for what it's worth, hope it helps someone in their decision.