What would be nice is if the forums had an iTrader or eBay-esque system for giving ratings on transactions with all sponsors. The caveat would be that if someone leaves negative feedback, just like eBay the vendor/sponsor should be allowed to reply to the feedback and THAT'S IT... Only one paragraph for negative feedback, one paragraph for the vendor to reply, no removing negative feedback. It sounds like a bunch of folks tried to voice negative feedback but it got swept under the rug. A rating system like this would help caveat emptor even more.

 

I agree, that is a very good idea! Bob

 

Absolutely ridiculous!

Scariest thread I've ever read. Period.

It demoralized me to almost cease modding honestly.. People + Money = SKETCHY!!

 

I blew up Marko's phone, I've known him for a long time.

I was talking about this mess with another shop today, only they've been around for over 10 years and are highly reputable. We collective shook our heads about all of this, because it's hard to understand how someone can post a thread like this not expecting it to blow up given the screw job they are giving to some people. There is no moral justification for this, in fact it should be the opposite.

 

I did not want to post more than what I posted before but I can't help it any more.

The "moral" of this thread is what Kills me.

Josh owes me just 7K..."JUST"... I by no means can easy handle losing that amount, not even 6k or 5k or even a simple dollar. It is not that I truly need them, but I worked for them and In the end be it for worthless mods to a worthless car or to buy a more expensive fridge in my house or even if I wanted shred them into pieces I expected better.

I can't find any answer on how someone who takes so much pride (or said he did) on his work, has the moral education to just say "**** it, I can't pay". If you said you were half the person you shouted out to be, you would be in business today.

You said that you would try as hard as possible to pay without taking off of your family needs. Understandable. I don't really know you or your commodities and I'm too far away to check your house. But I'm sure you have some flat screen TVs that your family don't really NEED, that you have a blue Ram that you could sell for an older vehicle that would still do the same as the newer one, etc, etc. You would have gained a lot of Respect and trust for that.

If you really wanted you could have done it. But I guess you were not really into losing your lifestyle for it, which I would believe is what got you into breaking up in the first place.

So I learned from this.

1.- In all poetry gayish style but, Be a man of your word no matter what It takes.
2.- You fool why you still giving away money!

In all the ******* sense of it : I hope the money you will always owe me, help you in some way to achieve something.

bleh.. more venting off that helps nothing

 

This whole situation is just crazy. To think that I was almost in the middle of this. Glad I decided against his kit and bought from someone else.

 

Without reading through the entire thread has anyone contacted lawyers or anything? This is insane I would be furious if I was in your guys shoes.

 

Very well put. In the end he let himself down and threw his reputation down the drain. From the start I trusted that he would deliver on the quality products he was producing. I thought I made a good choice based on the quality of the kits he was producing. I don't get it, all he had to do was fab up turbo kits, with quality pieces, with a few different options, turbos, wastegates etc, and simply churn them out. No need to answer phones. Seems he spent more time slick talking/scamming guys, than he did producing what he was in business for.
It boggles my mind that he has the nerve to do this and then be pissed that emotions run high, and people want to threaten him. In the end, I would have been happy getting the stock parts, and other parts that were taken off my car. I'm missing a bunch of parts that I need to simply get the car running on a stock motor.
For the record, I never recieved a dime from my insurance co for the aftermarket items I paid Josh for. Turbos, wastegates, BS3, etc. There are so many small pieces missing, and an engine of questionable nature, that my insurance deemed the car a total loss. They totaled it, and gave me what a car with 29,000 miles on it was worth. Then I was able to buy it back from them. Thankfully, because it was theft related, and not collision, I have a clean title.

Thanks to the sponsors who have stepped up to ease the sting, with their services. I've taken a huge hit, and simply can't afford to do what it like to do with the car. It would be a huge relief to just get the car running, and able to drive this year. I haven't driven it in over 3 years.

Thanks to those who have supported my sick hot rod addiction. I'm down, but not out!

 

Anyone who's car didn't get finished and lost money need to file in civil court.. If you did not get a written estimate (work order) that you signed you can file and get judgments against him personally.

 

what i don't understand! why even make a thread about it? hes gonna come up in here an tell people hes ahh sorry mfker.

 

.....the forums do have iTrader ratings. Look under peoples profile pic. Or is there something more you were wanting? (That sounds sarcastic and arrogant and I have tried to retype 3 times and can't get it to not sound that way, but it is not meant in a sarcastic or arrogant sense, just inquiring is all.)

 

Has anyone went to go pay this guy a visit personally? I feel for any of guys that got screwed by this piece of ****. One think I know is if I lost 2-7-12-20k dollars I'd be on a ride to the guys house. I know you might not be able to get your money back. But you might be able to make something out of the trip.

 

agree! i would want him to tell me face to face hes not gonna pay me back.

 

I think he means something like a sponsor rating system similar to the itrader. Where you can rate your dealings with them without this bullshit protection from Internet Brands.

I for one can tell you I have had shitty dealings with ******* sponsors on here and just keep quiet because I come here alot and don't want to **** where I eat. If I see someone talking or asking about them I kindly send them a PM, because its not worth the moronic nuthugging and flak you catch when you speak out about a big time sponsor on here just because they pay to advertise on here.

It would be really nice if we could leave real unabashed feedback on sponsor that CANNOT be taken down, unless proven to be untrue. And truth be told that whole process of being proven beyond a reasonable doubt shouldn't even take place on the open forum.

It will just never ever happen. Why?

For one, two many stupid kids think shops owe them something and would post horseshit reviews because they think a shop should bend over backwards and give them free **** because something was one day late or they have to pay shipping when they ordered the wrong part to send it back.

Two, IB wants their money. Plain and Simple.

The problem with the whole smoke and mirrors in the tuning culture is a vicious cycle of honest shops getting fucked hard by shitty customers and (I've worked in the collision industry I've seen it first hand) and fly by night thief's screwing passionate car guys that are just naive and don't wake up until its to late. Passion clouds judgement, in the performance industry it's just SO easy to rip someone off

If you want to avoid it, use the internet for research and not shopping, support the closest sponsor or reputable speed shop (they are the ones at the local track with you anyways!) and learn to do your own labor. I learned the hard way and guess what, my projects might take longer, but it means more to me and I'm never left in the dark wondering what up with my car.

This doesn't mean I don't feel for the peoples who's cars where there, i can't imagine being in your shoes. On the other hand, come on, you guys that ordered from him after the break end... I'm not going there.

Best wishes to all parties involved.

 

^^^^^this!

 

Good advice has been posted on here as well as shared privately. More than a few folks were planning to file police reports as a first stop. If you take an entity to court and they lose then they are supposed to pay back the victim. But the victim might have to compel that entity to pay.

For stuff like this bankruptcy does not necessarily absolve the entity from paying folks back. People need to do their homework.

In the grand scheme, the two spots where I see folks get screwed are custom power adder builds and engine builds. Reason #1 they cost a lot, and reason #2 those kinds of companies don't seem to be the best run. Could be lumpy cash flow, lots of issues.

Good luck all.

Always share on the web if you are getting jacked around by any company, and especially when something a number of months past the point of when it was supposed to be ready.

 

When I blew up my motor last winter, I began looking around for someone to build me a shortblock. I refused to do the mail order thing because everyone wanted money up front, and if I had problems later on, I didn't want to have to get in a car or jump on a plane and go multiple states away to look someone face-to-face to get answers. Luckily, I found an engine builder literally 100 yards from my front door who has a 3,000 sq/ft shop on his property and he's a one man operation, similar to Josh's situation.
I talked to him up front multiple times before ever moving forward, and I said to him that I wanted to be there for every measurement, and along every step of the process. There were a couple hiccups that he kept me up to speed on, that we made decisions on, but if it had been mail order, I don't know if I would have ever been told about the issues.

My point is this, people need to stop throwing money at mail order places if they aren't willing to go face to face with someone. Knowing that they don't have to look you in the face is sometimes all it takes for people to cut corners.

 

Holy ****.... Just read this whole thread from the beginning. I can't believe this whole situation and I am so sorry that many good guys on this board got screwed. Even as a sponsor I agree that total censorship of negative comments on a sponsor can lead to problems such as this. While in certain cases a customer may blow something out of proportion, it is also nessacery for the members to know the good and bad of who they are dealing with. I hope this doesn't sour any members here to the many great reputable sponsors on this board.

As for Craig and the others affected by this lowlife asshat, if now or in the future I can be of any assistance to getting your projects back on track, please message, call or email me and I will help you out on price on anything I can. For the most part we all here put a lot of money into our cars but at the same time we work hard to do so, I couldn't imagine going through this and and being able to cope with the money lost.

Mike

 

This guy has to be living in fear and looking over his shoulder every second. If I were him I would keep my loved one's close, when people lose this kind of money they do funny things. I'm shocked his face isnt on a milk carton yet.

 

No **** huh, buddy.......