.
~Part 2 ~
After discovering that my driver’s side headlamp assembly had dripping condensation inside, I had them order & install a new one on faith that charges would be reasonable. Not a good decision. $465 later
(charged $370 for the assembly to & $95 have it installed) I now have mis-matching headlamp assemblies
(the inside corners being shaped quite differently). After mentioning this to them twice in person as well as in a subsequent email to Foster, nothing has ever been responded to in this regard. Was later able to find a complete & true matching-shape headlight assembly online for under $168 & the raw assembly for less than $90 new. Also, both of my headlights were aimed way too low with all 4 settings afterwards. Was subsequently told by Foster that Dave, the tech there performing this service, said that there is no way to adjust them except for the mechanical dial on the dash. Had later read here in the forum about the twin mechanical adjustors on the back of each assembly & it was a snap from there to get them both reasonably adjusted. Have also learned about how to deal with Sprinter headlamp condensation through searching this forum, an apparent easy & inexpensive fix. Would love to have tried it myself had I known about it before but my old headlamp assembly was not returned to me.
During the process of Upscale's work for me I made several gestures of good faith, including tossing John & his wife a set of my limited-edition, fine art prints from my own award-winning paintings of the past as well as tossing him $100 cash to get he & his crew pizza several times. After I pulled the plug after 8 weeks of increasing frustrations, my art prints were returned to me & were waiting for me in my Sprinter. The $100 cash sure wasn’t returned, though.
There are lots of additional examples, guys & gals, increasingly frustrating when I allow them to be, but those will suffice to begin to paint the picture.
Bottom lines-
If you want mechanical help/work for your Sprinter & you also have plenty of money then you should be okay @ Upscale. Do yourself a couple of favors, though, seriously: (1) Get your cost estimate in writing upfront before turning over your keys or agreeing to the work. Your final bill must end up being within 10% of the written estimate here in Oregon, to my understanding. (2) If you are wanting custom conversion work then take John Bendit’s own advice:
“I believe Van Specialties would be able to take care of your needs. They actually do better quality work and are more cost effective than we are on the insulation, paneling and deck. They also have extensive experience with battery systems, solar and Espar units. I am sure they will keep your project under budget.“ And indeed they did, giving me more parts & service than Upscale was going to for well over $2,000 less
($6,200+ @ Upscale compared to $3,822 @ Van Specialties in Lake Oswego)… & they are far from inexpensive themselves.
Am truly thankful to John Bendit. He’s taught me valuable lessons in all this, & while he did do nice little things for me along the way like having a chipped ignition key cut for me for $50 when he could have got over twice that for it, what I was charged for the vast majority of items & services is pretty outrageous, in my estimation. So thank you for these great, albeit expensive, lessons, John. No need to teach me twice. Nothing being harbored in me towards Upscale Automotive/The Sprinter Store either, as even though my personal situation was covering me at the time it was my own decision to take Lizzie there, my own decision to trust them without reasonably questioning costs &, especially bad on my part: my own decision to not insist on a full estimate before allowing any work to begin. So, for another example, if you want to pay $1886 for an Espar D2 cab heater with muffler & high altitude sensor & another $900 to install it
(that’s right: almost $2,800) then you got the right shop in Upscale for this.
Another perspective to all this is that I recently spent more $ just @ Upscale Automotive/The Sprinter Store than with all of my previous vehicles purchased during the past 3 decades easily. No regrets, actually, though knowing what is known now I sure would do things much differently, given the chance.
.