They are literally blaming the customer in the above in that he wasn’t getting emails yet the emails being sent were basically saying the bumper is supposed to look like that and it’s “raw”, not “oh, that looks extremely damaged and worn, ship it back to us at our cost and we’ll send you another one”.
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Unplugged Performance ships seemingly used parts
- Thread starter KaJu74
- Start date
ECCtechguy
Member
KaJu74 - I'm pleased to hear that you are satisfied with our service, thank you very much. I appreciate your understanding with the missed email topics and I'm glad that you and Eddy are getting each other's emails now.
Regarding some of the other comments - We give it our best effort day in and day out. We are not a big company (although it is flattering that some people think that), we are a small independent company that works hard and invests heavily into R&D to try to improve on an already awesome Model 3 platform.
There are two subjects discussed here that we'd like to provide response to:
1. Fitment in Bjorn's video it is unfortunate, we agree more than anyone on this. Unfortunately fitment can vary depending on how the installation goes. If the part is spread by the installer we usually see that it goes to the end and lines up nicely since the part is designed to be flexible (impact resistant) and it'll reach the ends we find if the installer spreads it outwards during install. For example Daerik's youtube video he installed one in his garage and it fits up on the sides much better than Bjorn's.
Here's Daerik's video, and I've also included a couple of cars below with both painted and raw unpainted/sanded before paint.
Generally speaking, when we developed this part we thought of it as two specific use cases/users:
Daily driven - part to be painted (it is a raw impact resistant urethane out of the box and intended usually to be painted body color)
Race use - A lot of drivers in TeslaCorsa (about a dozen TC drivers now) and other events choose to install without paint to get the front aerodynamic benefits (which reduce front lift). This is more of a budget solution by skipping the painting process and does not look as nice as painted in our opinion but it does give a functional sports/racing look. By the way, despite the incorrect information in Bjorn's video about painting, we do offer pre-painted spoilers for a few Model 3 colors which are easy to match (solid white, black (solid and metallic), silver are easy examples of colors that can be pre painted and match up well).
2. Aerodynamic testing. While we were excited by Bjorn's video and we were happy that it gained range (and never lost range while simultaneously reducing front lift), the reality is that his speeds in the test were never expected or advertised to show large gain below 70mph. CFD data is accepted by aerodynamic experts to be the most accurate form of information because it has controlled external variables. Therefore we stand behind the CFD data we have previously published. What we saw in Bjorn's video was the lower speed workings of the reduced Cd that the front spoiler offers. There is never a full 1:1 correlation between efficiency and Cd reduction but one does get closer to a 1:1 ratio as speed goes up to maximum speed (160mph). In Bjorn's video he was going under 70mph for his test. In our CFD whitepaper we studied this front spoiler and also our lowering springs and our trunk spoiler. His car used only one of those three and despite going under 70mph he still saw slight gains. At under 70mph that is a positive result in our eyes and we would not expect to see much at under 70mph. In Los Angeles where we are, average speed of traffic in the city is closer to 80mph (granted, at night when there is no traffic). As speed increases during interstate driving (over 80mph) the benefits will be increased, and in more extreme cases like in Germany where the car can see unrestricted speed there will be closer to a 1:1 ratio approached to our Cd. Long story short, Bjorn in some tests saw 3% gain and in other tests just slightly above zero. This is expected at under 70mph and nobody is being told to buy this front spoiler to make massive efficiency gains at under 70mph (nor should they). With just a front spoiler we might conservatively expect perhaps 2% efficiency gain at below 100mph and above 2% at more than 100mph...then when combining with our other aerodynamic parts that impact can be increased as illustrated with more accuracy and in more full detail at the link below. There is also a chart that makes effort to better link CFD aerodynamic efficiency to driving speed (special thanks to our friend at SpaceX who helped us with that equation):
Independent Aerodynamic Study of Tesla Model 3 by Unplugged Performance
Granted none of this is said to try to convince anyone, rather it is to give a reply from our point of view to the questions people have asked. The white paper was published and everyone is welcome to read it as it has a lot of data from the year long aerodynamic study. We are just grateful that we can invest into the development of specialized parts that can bring joy to our customers. We are also grateful that we can take aerodynamic liberties with our CFD team that Tesla cannot due since we don't need to deal with some of the crazy homologation standards like ferry loading that they have to. There are hundreds of clients running our front spoiler and we hear great feedback from them, which always makes us thrilled.
At the end of the day we are simply assembling the most dedicated team of engineers and support team we can. We want to succeed always and we will continue to try hard for everyone.
PS - Sorry we are infrequently on the message boards, our main priority with our small team is to respond to emails and follow up with our clients. We are happy that our customer here in this thread is satisfied and has been in contact with our team.
Sincerely,
UP
Regarding some of the other comments - We give it our best effort day in and day out. We are not a big company (although it is flattering that some people think that), we are a small independent company that works hard and invests heavily into R&D to try to improve on an already awesome Model 3 platform.
There are two subjects discussed here that we'd like to provide response to:
1. Fitment in Bjorn's video it is unfortunate, we agree more than anyone on this. Unfortunately fitment can vary depending on how the installation goes. If the part is spread by the installer we usually see that it goes to the end and lines up nicely since the part is designed to be flexible (impact resistant) and it'll reach the ends we find if the installer spreads it outwards during install. For example Daerik's youtube video he installed one in his garage and it fits up on the sides much better than Bjorn's.
Here's Daerik's video, and I've also included a couple of cars below with both painted and raw unpainted/sanded before paint.
Generally speaking, when we developed this part we thought of it as two specific use cases/users:
Daily driven - part to be painted (it is a raw impact resistant urethane out of the box and intended usually to be painted body color)
Race use - A lot of drivers in TeslaCorsa (about a dozen TC drivers now) and other events choose to install without paint to get the front aerodynamic benefits (which reduce front lift). This is more of a budget solution by skipping the painting process and does not look as nice as painted in our opinion but it does give a functional sports/racing look. By the way, despite the incorrect information in Bjorn's video about painting, we do offer pre-painted spoilers for a few Model 3 colors which are easy to match (solid white, black (solid and metallic), silver are easy examples of colors that can be pre painted and match up well).
2. Aerodynamic testing. While we were excited by Bjorn's video and we were happy that it gained range (and never lost range while simultaneously reducing front lift), the reality is that his speeds in the test were never expected or advertised to show large gain below 70mph. CFD data is accepted by aerodynamic experts to be the most accurate form of information because it has controlled external variables. Therefore we stand behind the CFD data we have previously published. What we saw in Bjorn's video was the lower speed workings of the reduced Cd that the front spoiler offers. There is never a full 1:1 correlation between efficiency and Cd reduction but one does get closer to a 1:1 ratio as speed goes up to maximum speed (160mph). In Bjorn's video he was going under 70mph for his test. In our CFD whitepaper we studied this front spoiler and also our lowering springs and our trunk spoiler. His car used only one of those three and despite going under 70mph he still saw slight gains. At under 70mph that is a positive result in our eyes and we would not expect to see much at under 70mph. In Los Angeles where we are, average speed of traffic in the city is closer to 80mph (granted, at night when there is no traffic). As speed increases during interstate driving (over 80mph) the benefits will be increased, and in more extreme cases like in Germany where the car can see unrestricted speed there will be closer to a 1:1 ratio approached to our Cd. Long story short, Bjorn in some tests saw 3% gain and in other tests just slightly above zero. This is expected at under 70mph and nobody is being told to buy this front spoiler to make massive efficiency gains at under 70mph (nor should they). With just a front spoiler we might conservatively expect perhaps 2% efficiency gain at below 100mph and above 2% at more than 100mph...then when combining with our other aerodynamic parts that impact can be increased as illustrated with more accuracy and in more full detail at the link below. There is also a chart that makes effort to better link CFD aerodynamic efficiency to driving speed (special thanks to our friend at SpaceX who helped us with that equation):
Independent Aerodynamic Study of Tesla Model 3 by Unplugged Performance
Granted none of this is said to try to convince anyone, rather it is to give a reply from our point of view to the questions people have asked. The white paper was published and everyone is welcome to read it as it has a lot of data from the year long aerodynamic study. We are just grateful that we can invest into the development of specialized parts that can bring joy to our customers. We are also grateful that we can take aerodynamic liberties with our CFD team that Tesla cannot due since we don't need to deal with some of the crazy homologation standards like ferry loading that they have to. There are hundreds of clients running our front spoiler and we hear great feedback from them, which always makes us thrilled.
At the end of the day we are simply assembling the most dedicated team of engineers and support team we can. We want to succeed always and we will continue to try hard for everyone.
PS - Sorry we are infrequently on the message boards, our main priority with our small team is to respond to emails and follow up with our clients. We are happy that our customer here in this thread is satisfied and has been in contact with our team.
Sincerely,
UP
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Im concerned they can't even spell holes.
Have u tried RPM Tesla? Got mine there although I've never heard much bad about UP. Everyone has inventory issues from time to time.
Burrito
Member
man you guys are quick to bash on the supplier (unplugged), to me it seems they addressed the OP a month ago, this thread "blew up" during a big trade show/holiday weekend, and just because UP has a website doesnt mean they have 100 people staffing the place, like they said, they are still a small operation. give them a chance before saying F them, they wont get my business. they are a telsa supporting business pushing the conversation on EVs and making our cars look nicer and go faster.
that said, i have never bought anything from them but have emailed them before and had great Customer service from some questions on springs i had. I dont know why the lip looks so scratched but it seems they tried to help the customer and have indeed handled the issue already.
put away the pitch forks
that said, i have never bought anything from them but have emailed them before and had great Customer service from some questions on springs i had. I dont know why the lip looks so scratched but it seems they tried to help the customer and have indeed handled the issue already.
put away the pitch forks
Thank you @Burrito. We were one of the first sponsors of this community (and we debuted the first aero parts at a TMC Connect event in Monterey in 2014) and we've sponsored this community ever since. We also support numerous other Tesla communities as well as having various Tesla events that we run such as TeslaCorsa or recently hosting the Tesla global owners summit at our office.
It has great how the community has grown, but things have changed as well. I don't know if everyone expects our small business to have a huge staff or that we might be glued to our computers here ready to see topics and respond (unfortunately we are not staffed for that presently as anyone can tell by how I'm personally responding here and how little I'm on message boards), but it is a bit disappointing when instantly the worst is assumed of us. In the early days everyone knew us and knew what we stand for as the kind of people we are. As the community has grown fast, that feeling of communal family and of giving people the benefit of the doubt seems to have shifted. It is disappointing that people are quick to overlook our history of goodwill and to assume that we are somehow trying to do anything bad, in cases looking for any hints of reasons to show outrage (even comical ones like the fact that our technician Eddie who offers customer support for technical questions misspelled hole as whole in a private email and that somehow is comment worthy to reflect on our business as a whole). I've been in the industry for 20 years, and since 2013 with Unplugged Performance and I would not have a career of that length if I was ever to do bad by anyone.
At the end of the day I just want to make people happy by sharing the same passion we have for our cars with others, which is why we do what we do with our small business.
I'm here for everyone the best I can, but the best way to reach me is by email. I'll gladly share my personal direct email with anyone who messages me for whenever I can be of help to any Tesla owner (I just don't want to post it here since it'll register with google results).
Sincerely,
Ben Schaffer
co-founder of Unplugged Performance
It has great how the community has grown, but things have changed as well. I don't know if everyone expects our small business to have a huge staff or that we might be glued to our computers here ready to see topics and respond (unfortunately we are not staffed for that presently as anyone can tell by how I'm personally responding here and how little I'm on message boards), but it is a bit disappointing when instantly the worst is assumed of us. In the early days everyone knew us and knew what we stand for as the kind of people we are. As the community has grown fast, that feeling of communal family and of giving people the benefit of the doubt seems to have shifted. It is disappointing that people are quick to overlook our history of goodwill and to assume that we are somehow trying to do anything bad, in cases looking for any hints of reasons to show outrage (even comical ones like the fact that our technician Eddie who offers customer support for technical questions misspelled hole as whole in a private email and that somehow is comment worthy to reflect on our business as a whole). I've been in the industry for 20 years, and since 2013 with Unplugged Performance and I would not have a career of that length if I was ever to do bad by anyone.
At the end of the day I just want to make people happy by sharing the same passion we have for our cars with others, which is why we do what we do with our small business.
I'm here for everyone the best I can, but the best way to reach me is by email. I'll gladly share my personal direct email with anyone who messages me for whenever I can be of help to any Tesla owner (I just don't want to post it here since it'll register with google results).
Sincerely,
Ben Schaffer
co-founder of Unplugged Performance
Oldschool496
Member
Not actually sure of the real condition, it looks to me like it was dry fitted on another car. Its gonna get painted anyway so all that other stuff unless it is dented or dinged or scratched through and through is not a huge deal. Again always hard to tell from pics. The body shop that might paint it will tell you whether its viable or not. Just because it isn't pretty does not mean its not viable.
When it comes out of the mold its ugly, some sanding required-burrs etc. After shipping to Germany it may have some light scratches. The coating applied to plastic in matching color is thick anyway so it gives in Heat and cold cycles-over primer all that goes away. Really bodyshop will tell all if its any good or not.
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I think it's easy for things to get out of hand in an enthusiast public forum like this. The quality and QC of every item that ships to a costumer needs to be vetted and pitted against standards that you may or may not have instilled in your facility. I like to think of it as "if i were to receive this item in the mail, would i be happy as a customer?" I get it, some parts are meant to be wrapped and/painted, so sending them "raw" makes sense, but i also don't think parts with markings or excessive scratches pass the quality check.
I personally admire doing right and going out of your way to make sure this customer is pleased, says something about the business and what you say you stand for and im sure this also applies to others in this forums. You'll get my business for one once i get my M3P for one
.Now if only Tesla can get their act together and start working on WEST coast US orders...
Oldschool496
Member
There is no way painted from the states is making it to you in one, unadulterated piece. Thats why it was not offered I assume. Sounds like a great plan, but it would never work(especially black) unless it was packed in a casket. The painting has to happen at your end.
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