MikeBoyle
Observer
Well my budget and plans for modifications to my Bronco went out the window when the transmission lost first gear. After researching prices and options with online and local rebuilders I decided to go with Monster Transmission out of Florida. This turned out to be a customer service nightmare. The following is a summary and timeline of what it took to get my new transmission.
I initially placed the order on 9/12/16 and was told by the salesman (Tom) that it would take three weeks to receive my transmission. He told me that I should receive e-mail updates keeping me informed of the progress of the rebuild. I received an email confirming my order and two days later on 9/14/16 I received an email saying that my order has been sent to the build floor and was being processed. The first email stated the build would take four weeks (not the three I was originally told). After waiting four weeks and receiving no updates (10/6/16) on my transmission I contacted the Tom and he claimed that there was a delay in receiving parts and that now that they had the parts it should only take a couple days to assemble and test my transmission. I asked why I had not been informed of the delay and he claimed there must have been a problem with the email system. He resent me another email the next day (10/7/16) to insure I was receiving further updates. I waited another week and received no further updates, but did notice the build status on "my account" on their website changed to assembly. I finally received an update on 10/18/16 that my transmission was in the testing department. Fast forward another week and my transmission still has not shipped. I called once again (10/25/16) to find out what the hold up was and was told that the sales rep I had been working with was no longer an employee. I explained the issue with the fact that I had been getting nothing but jerked around on a timeline from day one and I wanted to know an exact date I was going to receive my transmission. He told me he would personally go down to the testing department and see if he could get me a date. He never returned my call. The next morning (10/26/16) I called and requested to speak to the manager. They transferred me to a lady named Kelly and she had nothing but excuses as to what the delay had been before I finally got her to admit that they had no cores in stock when they sold me the transmission and there was no possible way they could have fulfilled the order in the original time frame promised. I told her that I was extremely pissed off and needed my transmission now. She told me she would check on the status and update me on exactly when I would be receiving it. She called me back a few minutes later and told me that it was scheduled to be tested that afternoon and she would let me know the results. That afternoon I received another update email showing it had gone into shipping, but never received a call from Kelly to inform me when I should be receiving it. It took another two days to ship. When I received the email that it had shipped it gave me a link to "my account" so I could check tracking. The only shipping information on the site was the tracking number and a link to a shipping app. I downloaded the app and it did not work. I called back again and spoke to Jake on 11/1/16 to get an exact date I should be receiving my transmission and was told not to use the app (it didn't work) and just to go to the shipper's web site. I explained that I couldn't do that as they had not provided me with the name of the shipper. He sent me a link to the shippers site and looked at the delivery date for me. At this point the transmission was sitting in Denver and was "scheduled" for delivery on 11/5/16. I told him that was un acceptable as the fifth was a Saturday and knowing the shipper does not deliver on Saturday I was not going to wait another full week to receive my transmission when it was less than a day away. I told him had better get it to Grand Junction by the next day, refund me the money I paid to have it delivered to my house and I would pick it up at the shipping depot myself. He called me back and promised it would be here the next day. It took two more days, but I finally received my transmission on 11/3/16, over seven weeks after I originally ordered it. Never once did I receive anything but excuses as to why there was a delay. Even after establishing that they had failed to meet any of their promises did they do anything to expedite my order, nor did they offer anything more than "I'm sorry" for taking so long.
Installed the transmission this weekend, the first issue I ran into was that the dipstick tube that is pressed into the case had been bent over into the case and the opening was no longer round. It had a plug in it that I failed to remove before installing the transmission so I didn't notice the issue until I attempted to install the rest of the tube. Trying to get it back to shape with the transmission in the vehicle was not an easy task. Finally got everything installed and took it for a test drive. Parked it to do some other work on the truck and come out to find a huge puddle of trans fluid under the truck. Turns out the tranny pan was not checked to insure it was flat before installing it and the gasket was leaking. I was able to tighten it enough to slow it down to a very small drip, but am less than impressed that someone who is supposed to know what they are doing would install a pan that bad without trying to get it close to flat.
So far I have put 100 miles on the trans and other than it kicking out of overdrive on the slightest hill it seems to work fine. I will hold my recommendation on their quality for a few more weeks to see how the tranny does, but as for their customer service I can not recommend using them. I know others that have had zero issues with them and that's one of the reasons I went with them in the first place, but they have lost any support from me in the future.
Due to the truck being down I missed out on two trips I had planned for this fall, but I'm hoping to have some real updates on the build in the next few months.
I initially placed the order on 9/12/16 and was told by the salesman (Tom) that it would take three weeks to receive my transmission. He told me that I should receive e-mail updates keeping me informed of the progress of the rebuild. I received an email confirming my order and two days later on 9/14/16 I received an email saying that my order has been sent to the build floor and was being processed. The first email stated the build would take four weeks (not the three I was originally told). After waiting four weeks and receiving no updates (10/6/16) on my transmission I contacted the Tom and he claimed that there was a delay in receiving parts and that now that they had the parts it should only take a couple days to assemble and test my transmission. I asked why I had not been informed of the delay and he claimed there must have been a problem with the email system. He resent me another email the next day (10/7/16) to insure I was receiving further updates. I waited another week and received no further updates, but did notice the build status on "my account" on their website changed to assembly. I finally received an update on 10/18/16 that my transmission was in the testing department. Fast forward another week and my transmission still has not shipped. I called once again (10/25/16) to find out what the hold up was and was told that the sales rep I had been working with was no longer an employee. I explained the issue with the fact that I had been getting nothing but jerked around on a timeline from day one and I wanted to know an exact date I was going to receive my transmission. He told me he would personally go down to the testing department and see if he could get me a date. He never returned my call. The next morning (10/26/16) I called and requested to speak to the manager. They transferred me to a lady named Kelly and she had nothing but excuses as to what the delay had been before I finally got her to admit that they had no cores in stock when they sold me the transmission and there was no possible way they could have fulfilled the order in the original time frame promised. I told her that I was extremely pissed off and needed my transmission now. She told me she would check on the status and update me on exactly when I would be receiving it. She called me back a few minutes later and told me that it was scheduled to be tested that afternoon and she would let me know the results. That afternoon I received another update email showing it had gone into shipping, but never received a call from Kelly to inform me when I should be receiving it. It took another two days to ship. When I received the email that it had shipped it gave me a link to "my account" so I could check tracking. The only shipping information on the site was the tracking number and a link to a shipping app. I downloaded the app and it did not work. I called back again and spoke to Jake on 11/1/16 to get an exact date I should be receiving my transmission and was told not to use the app (it didn't work) and just to go to the shipper's web site. I explained that I couldn't do that as they had not provided me with the name of the shipper. He sent me a link to the shippers site and looked at the delivery date for me. At this point the transmission was sitting in Denver and was "scheduled" for delivery on 11/5/16. I told him that was un acceptable as the fifth was a Saturday and knowing the shipper does not deliver on Saturday I was not going to wait another full week to receive my transmission when it was less than a day away. I told him had better get it to Grand Junction by the next day, refund me the money I paid to have it delivered to my house and I would pick it up at the shipping depot myself. He called me back and promised it would be here the next day. It took two more days, but I finally received my transmission on 11/3/16, over seven weeks after I originally ordered it. Never once did I receive anything but excuses as to why there was a delay. Even after establishing that they had failed to meet any of their promises did they do anything to expedite my order, nor did they offer anything more than "I'm sorry" for taking so long.
Installed the transmission this weekend, the first issue I ran into was that the dipstick tube that is pressed into the case had been bent over into the case and the opening was no longer round. It had a plug in it that I failed to remove before installing the transmission so I didn't notice the issue until I attempted to install the rest of the tube. Trying to get it back to shape with the transmission in the vehicle was not an easy task. Finally got everything installed and took it for a test drive. Parked it to do some other work on the truck and come out to find a huge puddle of trans fluid under the truck. Turns out the tranny pan was not checked to insure it was flat before installing it and the gasket was leaking. I was able to tighten it enough to slow it down to a very small drip, but am less than impressed that someone who is supposed to know what they are doing would install a pan that bad without trying to get it close to flat.
So far I have put 100 miles on the trans and other than it kicking out of overdrive on the slightest hill it seems to work fine. I will hold my recommendation on their quality for a few more weeks to see how the tranny does, but as for their customer service I can not recommend using them. I know others that have had zero issues with them and that's one of the reasons I went with them in the first place, but they have lost any support from me in the future.
Due to the truck being down I missed out on two trips I had planned for this fall, but I'm hoping to have some real updates on the build in the next few months.
