What is the deal with Palo Alto Speedo?? Bad service experience...

RPMClassic · 08-31-2004, 12:29 PM

I apologize in advance, but need to rant! What is the deal with Palo Alto Speedo? Up until my recent experience, I have heard nothing but great things about their work and commitment to customer service. Many club guys seem to use them, as well as many registry members. All the top car show restorations cars have used them too.

Upon all these success stories, I contacted the crew at Palo last spring( mid march) and was quoted 3 weeks time frame. I am now working on 5 months with no completion date in site. Apparently the sub contractor they use for the guage face silk screening has been having delays. I have politely called many times and have been getting blown off.

Is this an isolated situation, or has anyone else been having similar delays? Thanks for the moral support and advice.

andyjboy · 08-31-2004, 12:50 PM

Jim - I know it's not the answer you're looking for but I've always had excellent/rapid service from North Hollywood Speedo...

rdane · rdane's Garage

I had the same experience last year with PA Speedo. Finally got tired of waiting (3 months) and had the speedo refurbished as a normal speedo and returned. (that was a waste of money and time)

I have had NH Speedo do five gauges since then all with custom faces. Only one screw up. Wait time was a week or so on all of them and the screw up was fixed just as soon as it was returned.

My advice is ditch PA and send your stuff to NH.
No BS stories and no excuses when they make a mistake.

emcon5 · emcon5's Garage

PA Speedo refaced/calibrated my speedometer from 85 to 150 MPH, and also refaced and calibrated my Tach. Both times the turnaround was 3 days.

Tom

rdane · rdane's Garage

To be fair once I asked for a normal factory face it was 5 days or less to have the speedo returned from PA.

But the run around to get anything custom done there was unacceptable.
Glad someone had a good experience with them.

Lorenfb · 10:01 AM

"What is the deal with Palo Alto Speedo?" - RPMClassic -

Haven't you guys heard of Pelican Parts for Porsche parts, new & rebuilt?
Or do you just use their web site to discuss Porsche problems & general B.S.
I don't think Palo Alto or North Hollywood has a Porsche web site, do they?

Pelican Parts has many sources for new & rebuilt parts. They have good
sources for repaired/rebuilt tachs & speedos. Just call & ask!

RPMClassic · 09-01-2004, 10:39 AM

I should have stated that the work that I am having done is custom - using my original guages. Of course I would have used Pelican if I could of.

skinnerd · skinnerd's Garage

I had my set of 73 911 gauges redone by Palo Alto and was really disappointed with the quality. Sent them back out to Hollywood, and the work was superior.... couldn't have been happier. This is my experience.

ckissick · 09-01-2004, 04:21 PM

I was going to have PA Speedo upgrade my tach for my new 3.0 engine, but it would have cost more than buying a brand new '78 tach from Parts Heaven. Plus, the guy at the counter acted like he didn't want to be bothered mith my project. Guess who got the business.

Charlie
1070 911E 3.0
1950 VW

84toy · 09-01-2004, 09:30 PM

I was planning on having my face on the speedo shifted counter clockwise to read it better as well as calibrated. They said they could do it but vacations had them short handed and to call in a few weeks. I did and got the same answer again and again a month later. I won't call again.

rdane · rdane's Garage

North Hollywood Speedo.

bart671 · 09-27-2007, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdane

I had the same experience last year with PA Speedo. Finally got tired of waiting (3 months) and had the speedo refurbished as a normal speedo and returned. (that was a waste of money and time)

I have had NH Speedo do five gauges since then all with custom faces. Only one screw up. Wait time was a week or so on all of them and the screw up was fixed just as soon as it was returned.

My advice is ditch PA and send your stuff to NH.
No BS stories and no excuses when they make a mistake.

NEVER DO BUSINESS with Palo Alto Speedo Speedometer- they are friggin idiots. They couldnt fix the speedometer on my Humvee H1!!!! Its a damn Army truck!- The most simple, most basic, easy to work on type vehicle ever made- And they say they will work on your Porsche & Ferrari?!!! I wouldnt have them even plunge my toilet- Some jackass named Helmut or Hartmut whatever was unhelpful, disagreeable and just a plain old chump.
Again- these guys suck ass and cant find their own ass with both hands.

bart671 · 09-27-2007, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckissick

I was going to have PA Speedo upgrade my tach for my new 3.0 engine, but it would have cost more than buying a brand new '78 tach from Parts Heaven. Plus, the guy at the counter acted like he didn't want to be bothered mith my project. Guess who got the business.

Charlie
1070 911E 3.0
1950 VW

Dude at the counter is a bastard. I got the same thing. His name is Hartmut the toilet plunger. Totally unhelpful and didnt want to be bothered with my project either.

emcon5 · emcon5's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by bart671

Dude at the counter is a bastard. I got the same thing. His name is Hartmut the toilet plunger. Totally unhelpful and didnt want to be bothered with my project either.

You registered today on a Porsche forum, just to bash a speedo shop that couldn't fix your truck Speedo? Wash the sand out of your G-String and use someone else next time.

Tom

scottb · 09-27-2007, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emcon5

You registered today on a Porsche forum, just to bash a speedo shop that couldn't fix your truck Speedo? Wash the sand out of your G-String and use someone else next time.

Tom

+1. Go waste someone else's bandwidth with your whining.

Spede · 09-27-2007, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckissick

I was going to have PA Speedo upgrade my tach for my new 3.0 engine, but it would have cost more than buying a brand new '78 tach from Parts Heaven. Plus, the guy at the counter acted like he didn't want to be bothered mith my project. Guess who got the business.

Charlie
1070 911E 3.0
1950 VW

I had the same experience... the guy behind the counter treated me like a second class citizen and didn't seem interested in my custom work. They held my tach for 3 months without any progress so I just canceled it and took back my tach. It would have been better if he just turned me down at the start to save me the time and aggravation.

VZ935 · VZ935's Garage

My last experience was a restoration on all the guages in one of my 935's. I will have to say it was not a terrible experience but it was not all that good either.

gumby · 09-28-2007, 04:00 AM

Sorry to jump on the band wagon but, they were very difficult to deal with, my trouble was with Brian, he is just mean!

jtkkz · 09-28-2007, 08:43 AM

Use North Hollywood speedo , great service... I have used them twice now with no problems / issues.

rick-l · 09-28-2007, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emcon5

You registered today on a Porsche forum, just to bash a speedo shop that couldn't fix your truck Speedo? Wash the sand out of your G-String and use someone else next time.

Tom

How is the reason he joined or the content of his first post relative to anything?

And I doubt the 100 ASCII characters he sent wasted much bandwidth.

Cut him some slack and say welcome.