[3-Serious]

How do I know if my PROcede has been com locked to my car and if so how do I unlock it?

[nafoo]

I believe the V5 maps are all vin locked. You would need to send it in to Vishnu and get it unlocked for $150.

[3-Serious]

Originally Posted by nafoo

I believe the V5 maps are all vin locked. You would need to send it in to Vishnu and get it unlocked for $150.

Dammm! lol There goes that idea.

[phazen23]

Does anyone know the actual reason why the lock them? Re-sale on those things takes a significant hit because of that. I'm sure they have their reasons, but its total BS and anti-consumer if you ask me.

Honestly, it's a big factor in my reluctance to buy one (both because of resale as well as being anti-consumer). If it affects me, I'm sure it affects their others, and hence sales (though its obviously a successful product without whatever sales they lose because of vin locking).

[themyst]

Originally Posted by phazen23

Does anyone know the actual reason why the lock them? Re-sale on those things takes a significant hit because of that. I'm sure they have their reasons, but its total BS and anti-consumer if you ask me.

Honestly, it's a big factor in my reluctance to buy one (both because of resale as well as being anti-consumer). If it affects me, I'm sure it affects their others, and hence sales (though its obviously a successful product without whatever sales they lose because of vin locking).

That's the whole point so people buy new from them.

[bryce]

The way I see things, there's not a huge market for n54 tuners. You have a few choices in how to maintain revenue in this platform:

Cobb tuning: tune gtr's, suby's, evo’s, ms3's, and make hardware like downpipes and exhausts
burger tuning: sell angel eyes, interior LED lights, jackstands, etc
Vishnu: $150 vin licenses

[CUTigers]

Cobb vin locks their stuff don't they?

If they didn't vin lock they could sell one Cobb access port device and technically everyone in the US could pass it around and all be tuned from it. How would they make money? Be glad it's only a cheap Vin unlock lol

[805beemer]

Originally Posted by CUTigers

Cobb vin locks their stuff don't they?

If they didn't vin lock they could sell one Cobb access port device and technically everyone in the US could pass it around and all be tuned from it. How would they make money? Be glad it's only a cheap Vin unlock lol

Cobb is married to one car at a time. When your ready to sell it, you uninstall it and the new owner can marry it to his car. No need to pay any $150 unlocking fee like a vishnu. I believe one reason your paying vishnu for the vin lock is for their great customer service...

[rader1]

Originally Posted by phazen23

Does anyone know the actual reason why the lock them? Re-sale on those things takes a significant hit because of that. I'm sure they have their reasons, but its total BS and anti-consumer if you ask me.

Honestly, it's a big factor in my reluctance to buy one (both because of resale as well as being anti-consumer). If it affects me, I'm sure it affects their others, and hence sales (though its obviously a successful product without whatever sales they lose because of vin locking).

Its so that you have pay them $150 to sell the unit. There is no other reason.

[Focus]

Originally Posted by rader1

Its so that you have pay them $150 to sell the unit. There is no other reason.

#THIS

we were once told that we would " find out the reason for the vin lock "

a year ago..

[Beemw335]

The guy has to make a living, the initial procede fee is for the product AND that he needs to give you support for his product, So he made it that when people buy used they pay 150 and that way he doesnt mind answering your phone calls, taking time to review your logs. This is his job, nothing is free.

[CUTigers]

Originally Posted by Beemw335

The guy has to make a living, the initial procede fee is for the product AND that he needs to give you support for his product, So he made it that when people buy used they pay 150 and that way he doesnt mind answering your phone calls, taking time to review your logs. This is his job, nothing is free.

Sounds good to me

[jpirelli]

Originally Posted by 805beemer

Cobb is married to one car at a time. When your ready to sell it, you uninstall it and the new owner can marry it to his car. No need to pay any $150 unlocking fee like a vishnu. I believe one reason your paying vishnu for the vin lock is for their great customer service...

[dbjb]

Originally Posted by CUTigers

Sounds good to me

Agreed. How many of you that purchased your unit second hand have asked Vishnu a tech question via email or forum? How many have received support? I would say quite a few.

I think it's unfair to expect product updates and support without a fee.

[pavo335]

pure and simple.

I wouldn't buy one for that reason alone!

[nafoo]

Originally Posted by dsbj

Agreed. How many of you that purchased your unit second hand have asked Vishnu a tech question via email or forum? How many have received support? I would say quite a few.

I think it's unfair to expect product updates and support without a fee.

Cobb allows you to unmarry their unit and sell it to someone else AND still provide excellent customer service.

[Focus]

Deleted posts..#Boss...

[3-Serious]

Yeah I think its defiantly a downer! I paid 950 for my v5, then the price was reduced to 750! so now if I want to sell my PROcede it costs 200 with shipping to unlock it. Which makes it s a total of 1150. Than to make it worthy of selling I'd have to sell it for like 650 tops. Which means I lose 500 regaurdless! lol not cool.

[dbjb]

I guess it all depends...

I bought my unit used and Shiv has provided me with great support. Therefore, I do not mind the $150 that I lose if/when I sell it. However, I can see how someone that bought theirs new for $950 would be upset.

[rader1]

How about shiv or robert provide some incite as to the fee? I too remember that the reason would be made clear... well, I guess really it was $$$

[Mike@N54Tuning.com]

Originally Posted by dsbj

Agreed. How many of you that purchased your unit second hand have asked Vishnu a tech question via email or forum? How many have received support? I would say quite a few.

I think it's unfair to expect product updates and support without a fee.

There are different ways to look at things. We warranty and support units even if they are used and were not purchased from us. Its just part of the customer service and being active on the forum. You provide good service and you will be rewarded with loyal repeat customers, or at least thats the theory

Too each their own I suppose.

Mike

[phazen23]

JB4 doesn't have a vin lock on it either, and I've heard good things about their customer service.

I haven't heard one good reason to justify that vin lock yet. If it's indeed true that they don't want to support re-sold units, I'm sure there are ways to solve that without charging customers a $150 re-sale fee. Something like a temp vin lock that requires a new code from some web based form (or a phone call) that blacklists that unit for support.

Even though I don't own a procede, I do get the impression it's arguably the best tune out there. I know, I know, there are pros and cons to both and everyone's got different needs and preferences, but cmon, let the product speak for itself. By artificially limiting the second hand market for them, it reduces the overall exposure to the product, less people use it, and there are that many fewer people recommending it.

Though its purely an opinion based solely on my exposure to the forums, I would not be suprised if Cobbs were outselling procedes month to month now. It also appears (to me at least) that forum users who have used both tend to lean towards procedes on average. That being the case, there are very few reasonable excuses for such an anti-consumer action. Let the damn product sell itself.

That is unless of course there actually IS a good reason that hasn't been speculated yet.