Diablo sending you a new Predator immediately is a good thing. Leaving you out to dry while they get around to looking at your old one would have been a bad thing. Good luck with the newer one, curious to know if the voltage drain from the amp was the prob.

Mark

 

Mark, Diabo Sport had promised to test the unit but because they were "too busy" they did not. They said they are sending me a new unit but apparently aren't even going to test the unit I sent in.. 8-( In my case I think the unit I sent in may very well be aok but now I will not know nor will they.. 8-(
At this point I am in hopes they will keep their promise and send a new unit out and not keep me waiting.
I REALLY HOPE that I can get the Predator to work on my L. I will post follow-up notes here.. Ya know you figure Diablo Sport would be interested even a little in my Predator related headache..

 

Big Fan, The Diagnostic part worked from what I could tell.. It did show the problem code for my L's unplugged boost solenoid. The Predator would just not allow the movement of my stock L tune to it because it said it did not see the ignition turn off in the ignition off / on sequence it puts you through. Oh, no other L's around to test on. I had the same thought as you, testing on another L but no other L.

 

Dont have a Predator for the Lightning but do (did) have one for the 02 Powerstroke. I bought it about 3 months ago and was happy with it. December they came out with a 100 hp update for it, I sent the unit in and when i received the unit and plug it in it wouldnt reconize the truck. Call Diablo and we finially got unit to reconize the truck. Went to put in new program in, and in the building program mode heard a buzzing under hood. Long story made short. Truck in shop for 10 days, new computer, and no Preditor. They did work with me on it but dont have new Preditor yet. So they do have a few bugs in it.

 

Well, would you believe the original Predator I had was DEFECTIVE! Received a new Predator from Diablo Sport today and it works with my L.. Am also able to move files from the Predator to my PC, etc.. So, nothing a muck with my truck!

 

Great news! Especially for anyone considering the Predator.

 

Well, here is the bad news.. I really feel Diablo Sport should have handeled my request for shipping refund differently. YES, only $10 but it tells me that Diablo Sport is lacking in ethics and more....

Read below:

For those that are interested, Diablo Sport through one of their recognized vendors sold me a Predator that was "DOA" dead on arrival at my home. After much time lost on my part and expense I sent the Predator back to Diablo Sport and a new one that worked was sent to me. I requested that Diablo Sport refund my $10 that I spent to send the DOA unit back to them and read below what the reply from them was. My feeling is, if they are sending out defective units they should foot the bill to get the units back to them and replaced. It is common place for DOA units of various types of electronic equipment to be returned at the manufacturers expense. Again, DOA/dead on arrival units. Anyway, read below the words of a company that sold me a $400 defective unit and were to chinzy to back it up 100% to include return shipping. By the way, I just heard from a vendor who said he has yet another defective Predator. Hmmmm..... If they are gonna squeak on $10 what if I had a more pricier problem they caused.. Geeeez, not even a sorry this happened to you, Bill
from Nick Spinelli rep for Diablo Sport.

Message

From: Nick Spinelli
To: Bill
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 1:46 PM
Subject: RE: Diablo Sport owes me $ that it cost me to return a defective unit


We are not liable for freight due to defective products, you will fine this is an industry standard. Who did you purchase the unit from, and did they assist you in the replacement of the product?

Thanks,
Nick Spinelli

 

It is defective of course someone else should pay the shipping. Usually the vendor would refund you your shipping to him. The vendor would ship it back to the distributor who would compensate him for shipping and the the distributor would send back to the manufacturer who would compensate the distributer.
BTW, I have a predator on order for my 6.8L excursion. I just cancelled the order due to the problems I've been hearing. Good Luck.

 

I spoke with my vendor immediately upon having troubles with the Predator. My vendor was helpful and spent time on the phone with me BUT did not have another unit to send to me. To avoid a major time delay I called Diablo Predator and got an RMA # and I returned the unit to them. DOA/dead on arrival computer type equipment is not all that uncommon. MOST manufacturers of such equipment will pay for return shipping on a DOA unit. A sorry situation and example of a sorry company you need to be leary of dealing with when customer service drops to this level..

 

Bill, I know your situation was frustrating, but I don't think Diablo should be condemned for not paying for your shipping. The only time I have ever gotten any kind of reimbusrement in the same situation, was if I paid for some kind of special shipping, like next day air or something. And even then I've had companies who still wouldn't do it. Ford doesn't pay you for the gas you use when you bring your truck to the dealer for a warranty repair. Your truck is the first one to have this issue, and Diablo sent you a replacement unit, right away, in a timely manner. I think they did the right thing for you. If they would have paid the shipping, that would have been nice, but them not doing so does not make them "bad" IMO.

 

I hear you, Sal.. I agree Diablo Sport is not a "bad" company and indeed their tech support guys were quick to get me a new unit BUT my experience in shipping MANY computer type items over the years is DOA unit (units that arrive at your door dead) have their return shipping paid for by the manufacturer. My real concern is if a manufactuer cringes/bulks at a $10 customer issue then what else will they cringe at. Customer Service is an issue here. At the very least Nick from Diablo should have said sorry this happened. Well, I will move on and can say I am very happy Diablo Sport has brought to us the PREDATOR !

p.s. I have heard of two others so far with the same DOA issue as mine.

 

I don't pay shipping costs out of my pocket for anything I sell which is defective from my store. My distributer will pick up the item or have it shipped at their expense. The only time I pay is if I sell something mail order.
Now if we are talking about a product which turns out to be defective after a few months then it is usually a manufacturer warranty claim. In that instance the customer would deal with the manufacturers warranty process which would probably not pay the shipping. Kind of like my Kenne Bell supercharger. It is making all kinds of racket in the nose. I doubt KB will pay the $120 worth of shipping it is costing me to send it to them to fix it and return it to me.

 

This is a performance part, not a computer part for your home PC or for a Business PC. Yes, it may be computer related, but it is still a performance part that has end user capability, and I'll gaurantee you that the majority of returned units are defective from the end user doing something wrong because he is all excited to install his new performance part and didnt read the instructions.

10 bucks?

AY 3000

 

I haven't held a Predator in my hands, but I have sold a few Hypertech programers over the years. Is a Predator that much different than the Hypertech? Pretty much plug and play. Unless you run one over with a truck first.

 

I agree that somebody should pay Bill for his problems. Ive ordered stuff thru mail order several times from Jegs and Summit, I few times the stuff Ive ordered has been defective, Summit gave me a credit for the shipping and Jegs sent a recall for the product. For the Negative Press that Diablo is gonna get on all the sites Ive seen Bill post, they should have just paid the guy $10.