Is OVTune/VFTune still in business?

I sent an email to Support@ovtune.zendesk.com last week but have not received a response. I just tried registering VF Tuner and the connection timed out. Are they still in business?

@OVTune
@mZiggy

 

They are but their support is kinda trash, and OVTune was banned from the forum. I've reached out before and they usually take around a week to get back by email.

 

I'll keep this in mind as I am shopping

 

It seems to do a license check every time it starts and sometimes I have to try a couple times. Their product is good and allowed me to make my Taco drive exactly the way I want.

But yeah, their support is amongst the worst out there and one time it took so long I bought another license key just to get stuff moving. Eventually they responded to my original request.

 

I'll just be patient then. Any idea why they got banned?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/banned-members-memorial-thread.115215/page-1796#post-25768047

 

In my opinion:
The super slow support was a huge contributing factor which made people upset. He would allude to some features becoming available soon, but actual delivery was glacial. This all turned into misunderstandings and pissing matches.

The product worked out well for me, I'm still making some small tweaks here and there. I can't imagine daily driving another vehicle that I couldn't tune with this level of flexibility. One feature that I really wanted that ended up being vaporware was to able to run in otto cycle the fulltime.

 

It's legitimately two guys running the company, so yeah, support is garbage.

Great product though.

 

For the record, support from KDMax has been fantastic for me. I did a remote KDMax tune two months ago and those guys have been Johnny on the spot when I have had questions.

 

Check your spam folders.

 

@soggyBottom ^^ this ^^ and for me Gmail has placed my support requests in "All Mail" at times which made it more difficult to "see". The past 6+months I've been receiving timely support but I have to be careful hunting the hidden responses.

 

Same ^^^ Matt has replied quickly (1-2 business days) every time I reached out, but for whatever reason some (not all) of the VFTuner Zendesk emails go to various other folders in my Gmail account. They always come in a timely manner but sometimes I have to do a search of all mailboxes to find them.

 

Ordered a cable/software license/4.0 Tacoma starter map pack on the 19th of last month. Sent an email right around then with a question. Saw the banner on the website saying things would be delayed until after the 4th, which is fine, people need vacations. Waited until the 6th/7th to send an email asking about order status. Still haven't gotten a response to either email, no order update, and the banner still says the same thing.

Initially I'm just going to throw an OTT map on there, but eventually want to start tweaking on my own maps. Is OVT/VFT as a product worth the wait/hassle, or should I cancel and go HPT?

 

@JustDSM would be a good POC to compare between vFT and HPT for the 2nd gen.

 

I've not seen the VFT maps for the 2G Tacoma's so I cannot comment on them.

VFTuner will be a cheaper solution in the end to tune your 2nd Gen Tacoma. The necessary mapping is available to make effective changes to any setup you're likely to build. The Auto calibrations have good support for both the engine and transmission. The Manual transmission calibrations are missing a few key maps (we've requested them, so it's likely you'll see them soon.) but are fine for engine calibration purposes.

The main difference will be the logger and built-in analytics. HPTuners logger is quite a bit more powerful/useful for developing your own calibration. The VFTuner logger is sufficient for casual tuning.

I think you'll be just fine to use either software package. And since you've already plunked down the coin with VFTuner it might be better to just see that through and take advantage of the lower cost (be sure to update your Cal ID to the latest via CUW to take advantage of the 2 Credit cost via VFT).

 

Thanks for the insight. My main concern is reading about how the validation/license check often fails and ending up dead in the water with extended periods of no-communication from the vendor to resolve. This is my daily driver so I don't have the luxury or the patience for it to sit idle while I wait for a response. I'll give it a bit, but confidence is low.

 

I figured it all out. I originally bought ovtune then Vf tuner. I recently emailed vftune support, gave them my order number and they gave me a link to all the Tacoma file for my truck without having to pay more for the tune pack.

 

They're still around, just took a bit to get caught up after the 4th I guess. Finally got my cable and whatnot on the 20th I think it was. Will probably stick an OTT tune on there for now, and play with my own later as I get time.