Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

As far as I am concerned, you will never see anyone associated with that company as a sponsor on here until folks like Rex Kaufman, Dave Underwood, and Darren Wlarjek (sp?) are made whole.

Rampant, HOORAY for you. My friends predate your business and spent more singly than you did.

The cross-border reciprocity concerns me at this time too.

I don't want to see any of the ARE involved principals at any of our races either. I take a dim view of folks who don't give people what they paid for.

RAMPANT

iTrader: (17)

Hi John,

As I said I can only speak for myself and can only hope that I do not have any of these issues myself. I also hope that the other people you mentioned can be helped by ARE as well. I heard a lot of these stories about several of the various builders and it still makes me nervous everytime I take my credit card out for car mods.

I only wanted to let the people know that some of us have had good experiences and I really hate to hear of anyone being ripped off since we all work very hard for our money and then turn around and spend more than we should on our passion.

Anyway John I'm not pushing any particular company, but like I said there seems to be a lot of horror stories about many suppliers.

I hope everyone gets some resolution and gets to enjoy their cars, that is what is all about.

Regards,
Rampant

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Rampant, the fact remains that several of our guys are twisting in the wind. Nothing you say mitigates that at all. Poor Darren has been without an engine for so long that I can't remember the last time he raced. There was a time in 98-02 where ARE had some good things happening but sadly some folks have not been made whole for whatever reasons and we stand behind our friends.

RAMPANT

iTrader: (17)

John

I understand and agree with you completely. I'm the same way.

Rampant

WIKIDTA

Thanks John for the support and help.

Dave Diluca,
Nobody should blame you for the stuff that happened. You were told to what they said. I personally don't blame you for anything. You were the BEST engine guy there period. You never did me wrong! You were and still are probably the only guy I could trust there. You told me the good and the bad no matter what happened and they did the same to you as we all got. That's just plain WRONG!

I don't blame the guys that worked there, just the management..WADE AND NICK.

Sure A.R.E did wonderful things back when I started with them. I had great results when I started with them back in the days(98-01). Nick was wonderful to work with and I was a great supporter who paid him all the time for everything $30K+ at the time. Nothing was given to me for FREE-- there was always a price. Ever since Wade took over managing, things went down hill big-time. I would have never thought I would be screwed over this bad. I gave them every single chance to make things right... 3 years of waiting...promise after promise. BACKSTABBED AND LEFT WITH MY A$$ BLEEDING.

I gave Nick and his new crew an additional 6 months to make things right. I trusted Nick and A.R.E.. This was the reason why I kept giving him chances to make things right. I FINALLY COULDN'T TAKE ANYMORE. I thought I knew him and he would actually make due on his promises and fix things. GUESS WHAT... HE STILL HASN'T DONE ****! I was put aside and others taken care of.... told I was next and I would be taken care of. BS!! Look at how I was taken care of. I've known NICK AGOSTINO since 1998. GUESS WHAT..... THEY ARE NOT CHANGING! AT LEAST IN MY EYES. If he lied to me and dragged me along for so long, guess what. He can BS you new guys(RAMPANT) anytime.

This is just a brief detail of what happened to me. There is a ton more to my story then I posted. I could write a book along with Taner, Roman, Tony P, Nick D...and tons of others on how we all got screwed over.

Rampant,
I'm not talking lose change here either $1k-4k for head and cam stuff... That's easy crap. Sure they can do that right and fix those minor problems. I'm talking $10,000,$20K + money!!!! There is a BIG DIFFERENCE! How about paying $8k for motor rebuild, $4k for a F.A.S.T Engine management system that was never installed or needed. Your $30k+ motor that you spent money on before was now in pieces...parts stolen from you and placed into another persons car. Then given back a car that looks like it was stripped for parts, in a war, with no engine and a BIG F-YOU. WE ARE BROKE..SORRY. It's our fault but I can't do anything now...you'll have to wait. I WAITED 3 YEARS... Check out my webpage for how the car looked and all the stuff I had in it. I've SPENT OVER $40K...at least in mods, work, and whatever with that shop and THIS IS HOW THEY DO ME IN THE END!

LIES AFTER LIES.... BS...PROMISES.... WAITING...WAITING.... I TRUSTED THEM, JUST LIKE DAVE DILUCA DID WITH HIS JOB...GAVE THEM EVERY CHANCE AND GUESS WHAT... WE GOT SCREWED THE MOST!

Still haven't heard back from Nick after all this crap. He didn't even have the ***** to show up when I picked up what was left of my car. Guilty Conscience? Ya... whatever...

At least you got some money back Dave(phantomTA) Glad to hear you got taken care of. Wish Nick would give me back some money. I see he is now putting it back into the new shop.

After all the crap I heard... I owe you, I'll make things right....Your engine is at the balancers...I ordered your rods....Everything is here....BUT THE ONLY THING I ACTUALLY BELIEVED IN THE END WAS..... I HAVE NO MONEY.... WHICH IS ALL BS.

TOO MANY LIES! It's really bad when you lie to your own workers and tell them I received a $5k check when I picked up my car. ALL I GOT WAS F-YOU AND I'M SORRY THIS **** HAPPENED. GIVE US MORE TIME...NICK WILL MAKE THINGS RIGHT....BLA..BLA... BLA... LMAO... YA RIGHT!! Empty promises.

Still waiting for that CHECK!

WIKIDTA

(Rampant),
Sorry if I came off as arguing with you about Nick's business ethics. I just wanted to show you that I've know Nick for years and this is how he does his friends or really good customers. My situation is different then yours. You are spending money with them now.... reason #1 why they are treating you good. They are searching for any kind of business to get back on there feet. My situation is that they owe me stuff. Call it warranty work or trying to fix what happened before. That costs them money. I got screwed and in the thousands. It would cost them $$$$ in there own pocket from profits to just build back my motor without spending countless hours to get it near back to shape it was before.

I have dumped well over $50k into my car over the years with them. I have had tons of friends who have spent money with them totalling way over $100K in profits for them. I didn't post the whole story about stuff I do know there. I could tell you things that will make you feel sick.

They basically lost all there local vendors..my motor couldn't even be balanced because they couldn't pay there bills to there vendors. So what do they do...file for bankrupcy...secretly change there name....cut all ties with previous vendors, sweep old unresolved issues and start over with this I've changed attitude.

There are a ton of stories that are not public.
Fraud for example... Someone at ARE...charged my credit card $15k on one day without our authorization for a trailer payment to a truck company. They were trying to make payments on the enclosed trailer they own. My Visa company shut down the card and revoked the charges. Glad they stopped it in time. All charges were voided and the card number stopped. Issued a new card and an investigation of fraud is still pending.

There is more to this then I post, like someone forging someones signature to buy that enclosed trailer. I won't get into that. It's not my case.

Good luck with your situation and I hope the best for you. Your paying him money now, so I think he will try to do you right. I paid before and when it came down to fixing my stuff for free....which he owed me...I was taken for a ride.

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

I just thougt I would add here.

With Dave D's help I was put in touch with Nick and I got a wonderful friendly call from him just minutes ago.

ARE has moved , the name of the engine shop has not changed to avoid anything.

ARE owed me a cam and Nick wanted to assure me I would be taken care of ASAP. There is no doubt he is under a pile of 'stuff' but I believe that he is working to do the best he can, as soon as he can.

thanks nick agostino and good luck to the new beginning

WIKIDTA

Really? Are you sure about that? My lawyer and all my paperwork said differently. Yes he moved, but did you know that Agostino-Morrison was the business name before and it has been changed now. It's just Agostino Racing now or AutoWorx. Sure looks the same, but legally it's not.
Anyways, good luck with your stuff.

At least he calls you back.

minty

wikidta Im sorry to hear about your troubles....I dont know what I would do in your position short of....Well lets not talk about that. I hope he takes care of you or if I were you I would get something of value like their trailor and have them sign it over to you on the spot if they REALLY want to take care of you.....
SNAKES.....

WIKIDTA

Nick once told me a story in his office of how he'd take care of things if something like this happended to him.

Jim Mills

Daren I was there in the shop the same day you were when you were talking with Nick the day after Wade was walked out of the shop. I was there getting a touch up on my tune for a H/C job I had done 1 month prior. I left 1 month prior with 425rwhp/399rwtq and came back with 380/360 with no changes other than the heater on the dyno wasn't on this time. We made some changes to the tune and got it back to 400rwhp/380rwtq but still a far cry from the 425/399 I was delivered in way of a dyno sheet. I know which car your rotating assembly is in and that car didn't go out 1 month prior to that going down it was in someones car by the end of the summer.

I've had that car stolen from a GM dealer while in for some service this summer and bought another F-body towards the end of the summer. I took it to the track and it ran poorly in stock form(14.0 at 103.8) and after I posted on our local club's mailing list I got a call from ARE asking me to bring the car into the shop and they would help me out. I came into the shop with plugs/wires/LS6 intake and a 160 stat. They installed everything and tuned the car while I was there and we put down 315rwhp/333rwtq (baseline before was 290/305) and I'm very happy with my service (I'm no big fish in terms of $$$ and they still treat me right)

minty

Wow....you spent a 1 week paycheck there......Big spender......These guys lost maybe what some people make in a year if not more......

Jim Mills

Do you have an experience with ARE? if not STFU ahole. I guess you must have trouble reading as I posted "I'm NO BIG FISH IN TERMS OF $$$ but they have always treated me right" 1 weeks pay hahahI probably make more money in 1 week that you make in a month. I was just relating my experiences with ARE.

I have friends in similar situiations with ARE but I didn't post about them as I don't have all of that facts so I don't comment on there situiation. What you need is a swift kick in the head as that might wake you up.

maddboost

iTrader: (11)

Try and keep it civil please this is a ARE thread about problems people are having.

Jim Mills

No problem... I've never defended them I've only ever related my experiences.... I did spend some money there with a H/C job and when my car was stolen they helped me out with my new car... that's all I was saying. I've spent there what people leave as deposits for motors but again all I've done is relate my experience... and if you read the first half of my first post you'd see I wasn't happy with my job either.....

I will say this... find me any performance shop that doesn't have customers who feel ripped off or cheated. They don't exist... well not in my experience. The problem is when people tell stories they have heard through a friend they get facts wrong and that's where half of the issues start.

maddboost

iTrader: (11)

Yes but as you can see alot of these horrible stories above ARE being told by the very people who are getting ripped off.

Jim Mills

You know what I find funny... I find it funny that this thread is in the sponsor feedback section and there are 2 threads about ARE. This one is open and the other is locked... Hmm I wonder if that's because Pro Stock and Daren are buddies???? Makes you think.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Jim, I'm buddies with a lot of people.

I did my old ARE 422ci because of Daren to be honest.

So, because you fear collusion, let's highlight someone else, Dave Underwood. When I last spoke to Dave, he had moved the car to another shop, and basically never got a working problem-free engine from ARE. The engine he had used water. I believe that Dave spent over $25,000 with ARE and he waited 1.5 years to get his car. It was that Silver SS that had OH plates. Do you remember the car?

None of this is personal to me, it's just business. And my business model dictates that I try to help folks who did not get what they paid for. Simple as that.

minty

I just sold my car with an ARE 427....Is that experience enough? Cant even provide a build sheet for a vehicle after 20k was spent there....

minty

I guess making money doesnt help you read...I said that you spent a weeks check....for a Heads Cam job.......That wasn't insinuating that you dont make money...I was simply saying that its small compared to 30k-40k.....If you feel you make more than me great.....