Firstly Nick was employed by them a matter of months ago. He build his name and reputation up by himself and was head hunted. As you say 'the way the industry is going' is a bad thing! Companies are offering generic maps! That's madness. No one car is the same so adding 10% to all your limiters and requests isn't wise. They charge a huge price for something that can be emailed and flashed. It's greed.
But like you say you've had a good experience!
In 14 years of owning remapped cars I've had Oettinger, AmD (both Lower Oddington & Bicester based companies), MTM and Revo (on a raft of cars from NA to turbo). All have been various flavours of good to brilliant, and as good as the map itself may or may not be, the magic piece of the jigsaw is as much the company ethos as it is the product.
I want a product that I know has been tirelessly tested, and very often only the larger companies can afford to get their hands on vehicles and test them intensively across an entire vehicle portfolio to gain the experience and know how, as well as getting the appropriate tools and training in place within their organisations.
I also want to know the business has a shelf life, and it's still going to be there is a period of time in case I need to call on their help in future. We live in difficult times, and with a fiercely competitive marketplace there are no guarantees companies will be trading in 6 months time.
One thing that really adds value to the forum for all the members is being able to read articulately expressed values of good customer service, good product, and personal experiences with tuning companies. Likewise where things go less well candid discussion is also encouraged to benefit those who may make decisions in the future, and help to resolve ongoing issues.
Cheap shots and stirring don't help people make better decisions, they just embed unhelpful urban myths like the K&N MAF oiling saga etc. People should keep an open mind, visit tuning houses and make a decision as much based on personality / first impressions as they should about forum trends or 'bhp spike values' on a manufactured rolling road graph. Build a relationship with the RIGHT tuner (whoever that is), and you'll have a very useful ally if things get tough.
