[SD ///M4]

Well, as I indicated in my post from 10/30, I called Scott and ordered the exhaust. He said it would be shipped on Thursday, UPS Next Day, and I'd have it on Friday. He said he would e-mail me a shipping confirmation and tracking info. I had nothing planned last weekend and had all day both days to install the exhaust.

Friday afternoon I notice that my credit card had been charged but I still hadn't received an e-mail from him, so I called. No answer. I sent an e-mail which he answered Monday morning saying that the exhaust would ship that day and I would get the shipping info in the afternoon. No explanation, no apology, not sure why he charged my card before the exhaust actually shipped. Obviously no installation this past weekend.

I did get the shipping confirmation late on Monday afternoon saying that it was shipped and that it would be delivered yesterday. UPS usually delivers late in my neighborhood (after 8:00 PM a couple of weeks ago) so I really wasn't expecting to see it until late afternoon. It was "out for delivery" since 9:35 AM. 6:00 PM comes and I figure I'll go out in the garage, get the car on jacks, get the work light and all the tools laid out and I can do a quick swap as soon as it's delivered. Of course by now it's dark outside and getting cool. I go back into the house and notice that the UPS status is now "Forwarded to the facility in the destination city." WTF does that mean? I click on support, see "Live Chat" so I click on that. Live chat hours ended 10 minutes before (of course), but this screen shows me a different status, basically that it was returned to the facility and would be delivered Wednesday (today). WTF!! I go back out to the garage, let the car down, and put all the tools aside.

This morning I call UPS and ask how does a package that's on the truck, scheduled for delivery, get sent back to the facility and the delivery date postponed until the next day? The explanation was that there was an "error in the billing weight". So I asked, the package got sent back to the facility to be re-weighed? Yes, she said. Well, thanks a lot!

The only explanation that I can come up with is that the package was shipped with the incorrect weight, no one noticed it until the delivery driver went to move the package in his truck, and must have decided that it was way heavier than what was indicated, so he didn't deliver it and took it back to the UPS facility. As much as this sucked, the problem appeared to be with the shipper, not UPS. So if the package actually gets delivered today, it will have taken 9 days to receive from a company that's about an hour and a half drive from me. I really need to install the exhaust before Sunday for a local cruise, but now I have to try and squeeze it in between meetings and appointments.

There's an old thread from 2007 I think about a member who helped Strömung prototype the Z4 M exhaust. The member raves about the exhaust, promises videos, gets a group buy going, gets around 15 buyers, and then disappears. Communication from Strömung to the people who are in the group buy is practically non-existent, some people start trashing Strömung, shipping dates keep getting pushed back, people get cold feet and drop out, and the whole thread just basically dies. I don't know how many people ended up getting their muffler set from the group buy.

My experience is that communication from Strömung still sucks, they still promise shipping dates that they can't deliver on, and they apparently can't weigh a package correctly, which caused additional delay.

I really hope that I like this exhaust and I really hope that there's nothing wrong with it that would cause me to have to send it back.