Complaint Review: Akina MotorSports - Tempe Arizona

Peral,

I would guess that even Akina has to come though once in a while. Otherwise, the boys can't eat.  It doesn't change the way they handled my biz though. Pics are there and PROVE Justin lied to me for 4 months, and the credit card dispute PICS PROVE they were incompetent when ordering my MIL SPEC connector. They are welcome to file a rebuttal, but haven't.

I still have my Celica. Finally finished it thanks to TWEAK'd Performance supplying a quality harness. The car was awarded "Best Modified" at TORC (ToyotaFest in Long Beach) this year. Now that says quality work.  My White '77 with 2JZ (obviously). http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/2015/05/15/events-2015-all-toyotafest-part-03/

I'm a huge Celica fan and would like to see pics of your car and work performed by Akina. I truly am glad it worked out for you. My story is different. Unfortunately.

cheers!

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I own a '77 Celica and had a 2jzgte low mileage Jap Spec. dropped in with a milspec qd on the fire wall from Akina. The job took about 4 weeks total that includes stall time on me picking and changing parts on them. I am stoked on the work and it came out just as I imagined. Professional touch.

A lot of shops talk the talk, these guys walk the walk. They steered me right. Its tough finding an honest shop that knows how to do the job and not google it after you leave. A lot of people claim stuff by omission and want something for nothing. I payed for what I got and I am happy.

The car starts up every morning and is very reliable. 500hp reliable. The wiring is clean and routed. The bay looks like its from the factory fit. Plus throughout since it is custom work they answer all my questions via phone, text and in person.

Between the custom axles and the headers and exhaust. All the ecu piggy backs and turbo setup and manifold fabrication. I am glad I waited. There is a lot that goes into a swap and It's a lot more then just a motor/tran and mounts.

I am not a patient person but they explained in great detail and lamen and the wait was worth it. When it comes to custom work, quality comes in time. Not rush jobs. It takes time and money anyways. Why rush. Makes more sense too make sure its right.  This is a work in progress and I am glad Akina is there every step of the way.

I have a JDM 2JZGE that's being installed into a 1977 Toyota Celica.
Akina Motorsportz of Tempe, AZ advertises that they specialize in engine wiring harness conversions and said they could rewire the factory engine harness to work with my older Toyota. The shop owner Pong Chumpol actually has a 1977 Celica parked behind the shop and was supposively doing the SAME SWAP. I figured what better example for the shop than an
identical car?  After speaking at length with "Justin, the red headed shop tech" aka Ginger..  who supposedly does all the shop's engine wiring harnesses we agreed on what was to be done and I was given a "2-3 week turnaround". Included in the work order was a MIL SPEC connector that Ginger had sold me on. The conector would allow for a cleaner  install and the ability to simply unplug the harness when pulling the engine.  That discussion by the way, was probably an hour long with
about 15 mins of our business at hand, the rest was Ginger going off subject to talk about his car or some other car.

April 13th, I dropped off the engine with harness at the shop.  I had other parts of my proejct car in motion with other shops so I waited 2 weeks before contacting them for an update.

April 24th, Sent Ginger a text and reply was, "Barely started on it, been super backed up at the shop. Will be taken care of". I still had the rear axle out of the car for other work so I couldn't really work on the engine anyway and figured no biggie I would just let Akina have the extra time.

June 12th, Yeah, June 12th! No call from Akina. My axle was finally done and I was ready for the engine. Yes, other shops had custom made new axles, narrowed the axle tube and completely rebuilt the carrier in LESS time than what Akina apparently needed to redo a harness.   I inquired again and was told by Ginger via text, "harness almost complete, gonna wrap it soon and have ready for pickup". Yes, finally.
progress! Later that same day I received a 2nd text stating, "Pong said he had to special order more wire loom. Just spoke with him. Should be in soon. Will let you know".  Correction, NO PROGRESS.

So now it's Pong the owner and not Ginger doing the work? Also, the shop that specializes in electrical harnesses was out of loom?  I figured it was time for an unannounced visit to the shop.

June 14th, Upon arrival I found my engine rolled off into a corner of their dirty cramped bay with the drive belt laying underneath it on the floor? The harness had been removed from the engine and had the factory loom removed. That's about it, probably 30mins of hacking is what they had accomplished in 8 weeks. It wasn't almost done, it wasn't ready to
be wrapped. When asked why the new drive belt had been removed, Ginger said he was showing a customer how the idler pulley should spin.
Apparently my engine was now a display model for other customers with Ginger playing Vanna White?  I asked what the holdup was and they said that the loom was ordered from a special person that had not been by lately, and because they get a substantial discount on the loom, we would need to wait a week or two???  Yes, they said that with a straight
face. Furious, I asked IF they had the loom would they be able to complete the job? "oh yes, we just need the loom... and the MIL SPEC connector". What? you don't have the connector yet? "Oh no, we need to order it and we need you to pay for it up front" $486 dollars for a connector that will support my engine and aftermarket gauges. I'm claiming insanity on this one, but I paid for the connector and then I went a couple miles down the street and purchased the loom from Loper's. Akina had the loom in their hands within 30mins. I guess they never considered doing the same thing to help a customer out? But I
suppose you would need a desire to actually finish a job to think that far ahead. Anyway, Trying to think of what else they would stall on, I asked about the fuse box that Ginger and I had discussed.  Pong pulled out an old dirty hacked up fuse box from a Nissan. It was missing the cover as well. This was not the "nice newer supra fuse box" that Ginger
had described months earlier. Pong asked if it was ok? Are you serious? That weekend I went to the junk yard and found a used, but very nice fuse box from a newer Toyota with lid and dropped it off. Pong,  said he would have it all done in a week.  Well the "next week, this weekend, call me Friday..."went on till the end of July.

Four months from when it was dropped off, I was finally done with their excuses. I arrived to pick up my engine and hacked harness AS IS. Ginger was there and offered an explanation for the delays, "you're not the only customer we have"...   Unreal.

I'm fair and I offered to pay for what I considered the time they had into it. Which I didn't think was much. Porsche came back and said they wanted $400!!?? $400 for 4 months of delays and a harness that was so hacked beyond repair that it was pretty much junk. Never mind the fact that I had paid for the loom and fuse box which was supposed to be supplied by them in the first place. We settled on $225 just so I could get out of there. 

The Ghost of Akina:
After some extensive research, I found "Tweak'd Performance", the guys there returned my first call within hours. I explained my situation and shared the MIL SPEC connector info with them as I still wanted to use it. After looking at the MIL SPEC, they explained that the connector only supported 22-26 AWG wires and would not work with a 2JZGE? I'll let you guess what Akina's response was. Porsche is now ignoring my calls and I'm done wasting my gas and time driving to their shop. 

The connector purchase is now in dispute thanks to my bank backing me up. Based upon my personal experience,  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO AKINA MOTORSPORTZ OF TEMPE ARIZONA.


In response to gt422gz....
Your experience with Akina is surprising. If that was your faded blue 240 that I saw Pong working on for quite some time. The same one Pong was shooting the glove box with a cheap can of semi flat and jamming a hen's nest of wires in behind it. I'm glad it's working out for you.  Actually, I'm glad all your cars are working for you. That's what you would expect when dealing with any reputable business. That the contracted would would be done to the customer's satisfaction and within the time frame given is reasonable.
I however was not taken care of. Ripoff report allows the consumer to shed a light on those companies that are not taking care of their customer. So please do not assume what my situation was, simply read my report. It is accurate down to the pictures. My engine drop off was discussed the week prior, it was not a surprise.  A customer shouldn't be expected to wait nearly 5 months for a job that was estimated at time of drop off to take "no more than 2-3 weeks". Yes, I was patient. I wanted a quality job. Being left with a harness that could only be thrown away is not acceptable. Nor are the lies that Akina gave me as to the progress of my harness when asked. Please see above screen pics.  Only Justin can explain why he lied to me.

Update:  Chase sided with me and reversed the charges for the mil spec connector. Porsche contacted me a few weeks later asking if he could pick up the connector from me. I was more than willing to return it, but remembered that I had left a Toyota T50 transmission core with them.  Pong was going to use it to rework a shifter housing for me. That never happened either. I was so upset when I took my engine that I forgot it was there. Porsche said he would look for it and get back to me. He called back a week later and said he couldn't find it. BUT that if I wanted to go to the shop and look for it myself, I was welcome to??? and then asked when he could pick up the mil spec connector...  Here we go again!
We went round and round for a while and I finally said, find my tranny or reimburse me for it. I figured $100 for a core sounded fair. So that's what I asked for. We hung up and a week later Porsche called me and said the $100 was fair. Finally.  

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I just wanted to talk about the "other side" of akina motorsportz. I have had 3 different custom swaps done, all of them had something, that no other car has. Such as working factory rpm and speed gauges in my 240 running with a 2jz. Not many people have luck running just one, let alone both. My car has ac, power steering, and everything starts up and runs like stock. Except for a "bit" more power. I scheduled a date with them for drop off, and the completed it in the time they specified. No outrages prices, or excuses. Just good quality work, and service.

My other two cars were a 6 speed swapped 240. Im running a vk56de v8 out of the titan with the 6 speed from a 350z. Still, working great with factory gauges. The last, my 1uz cressida with a 5 speed r154. Again, no problems.

It seems to me, the customer was told that he would be cutting off a bit of customers that were already ahead of him. He brought his parts/motor over early, and unannounced, told them that time didn't matter, and then, at the last minute, got mad, threw a fit, and tried to weasel free money/labor out of them, taking advantage in the meantime.

As any shop, no matter what, will have its bad customers, Akina sure has few. I hang out alot there, and have not seen bad/shotty work, and see them complete tasks in a timely manner.

I recommend them for ANY swap or work you need done. They are too busy to just show up usually, but that is a good thing right? So bring your car down, on the scheduled day, and see for yourself.