If we have over 100 sponsors, and one is screwing up, what percentage of our sponsors are bad? Sounds like 1% or less. Reality is that there are always 4-5 sponsors who I am calling to discuss a problem... happens all the time. As far as Hi-Flo goes, perhaps the kit is excellent and the only mass-produced kit that will allow folks to keep AC. But that's a moot point if they can't adhre to any sort of deadlines. I co-run a several million $ consulting firm, and we always have to reach out and talk to our customers. In fact my RULE is that we have to talk to our customers at least ONCE a week... even when we have no news or bad news. It's always better to call someone and tell them that there is a delay rather than blow them off for a few weeks and then say "okay stuff is now ready." Your actions at the tail end of an assignment or sale will 100% define whether folks reccomend you or not. In the case of my recent purchase of an MDX for my wife, the lame stuff that the sales manager did at Arlington Acura caused me to give them a lousy review when Acura called and surveyed me. Thats' what I most remember at this point. I always assume good service, it's up to the sales person whether they erode the 'points' they start out with, or increase them.

 

Silversurfer (I don't recall your name, a guy in NJ I think), it's not that folks don't want to hear from you or others regarding your concerns. What happens though is some of you guys are on people right from the start. The downside of bandwagoning is that it creates a phenomenon akin to a run on a bank... You go from a group of concerned folks to suddenly a group of frenzied people all of whom now expect to get screwed and they go nuts. In some respects, they fulfill their own destiny by freezing all of the accounts of the shop, and shutting off all their supplier agreements. I am NOT saying that folks are responsible for putting shops out of business, but in some cases they do make things worse and not better.

Be that as it may, we have a new sticky, and we are not going to let turbo companies have as much freedom when it comes to GP's and stuff like that.

 

If anything you should limit pre-production sales as opposed to GPs. I think if a company has 10 kits on the shelf that are ready to move they should be allowed to do that, but I havent read the stickie yet

 

Well I don't think Hi Flo's woes are due to folks requesting refunds. As Bill so smugly put it they didn't need the 70K collected as deposit on the Fbody kits.

My involvement with Hi Flo started when as a very interested potential buyer (I love my AC in case some forgot, my bumpers too lol) that was very taken aback by the fact that the announced price of 4795 all of a sudden jumped to 4995. I quiped about it and was rebuffed and told that everyone knew of the price increase. I knew the original 20 guys got the kit for 4295. Great price but I wasn't going to bite until I saw the kits on people's cars. At that point I was going to fork over the 4795. But before a single kit got installed the price jumped and I was made to feel like the only moron who didn't know about it. Trust me, it's not the 200 bucks that bothered me, it's the manner in which the price increase occured. It was the first inconsistent thing I noticed. I then noticed many more and pointed them out only to be jumped on, ridiculed, threatened and then banned by other members, Hi Flo customers, Hi Flo and Mods.

I know this is your board and you can do what you want, you don't hear me bitching freedom of speech nonsense. But I think the members of this board should be afforded the same courtesy that's extended to the Sponsors, cause it's not like I didn't speak the truth.

 

Does this mean Supraforums will be taking down the golden statue of Marko?

I think the idea of limiting new turbo companies as sponsors is a good idea, however, I wouldn't restrict it to just turbo companies. With as many sponsors as there are on this board now, I wouldn't accept any start-up companies. Minimum 1 year of being a solid company. I can tell you from experience that the first year in business is spent getting a good financial system up and running.

 

The mods cant accurately guess which companies are good or well run. This is a republic. If you want to gamble and send a company money... it aint the Mods fault. Their job is not to babysit your decisions. The other members here, as stated above, can help you realize thet "love can make you blind"... and the mods can pressure and follow up with sponsers, and remove sponserships and so on. It's alot to ask to have the site owners take responsability, but its not out of question to let the people speak their minds. A company becomes a sponser of a site and they are going to take their licks, and unfortunately, the unhappy ones always speak the loudest and thats just the breaks of business in a web community. The minute site owners start to make ways to limit sponsers, they begin to take liability due to their decisions.
I would like for any sponser to have to be a "verified" business with a tax id # , verified address and official ID's on file with the sponser, but its hard to ask for much more.
Yes, I understand, us memebers "assume" the site owners would only allow a legit business.. but thats harder then it seems im sure. The site is here for its members, but not without task 1 complete..being profitable. Perhaps owners should consider two things:
1. Do not overly defend a sponser just because they are paying customers.... while rare, this has heppened on many forums. I realize its not always easy to see the writing on the wall, especially if your standing closer to that wall than the rest of us. (This is a generalized, not pointed statement by any means),
2. Business and ID verification (I.E., was Bobs Oil ever a legit company )
Off my soap box.

 

i should have the car at least started by the end of this coming weekend. hopefully i can get some highway pulls in and post em up depending on how many problems i run into. in addition i believe others will have their kits in the coming week. i think this can turn some things around from a shatty start ....

alota guys here know my temper and patience, which is non-existent. you all have seen my blow-ups, lol. but im in the process of a mind change here. yes, hi-flo did set/promise/bit off more than they could chew/ whatever u wana call it. we all know this. its was an honest promoting mistake, life-lesson, etc. yes it had a pretty bad effect, deposits shouldnt have been taken w/o product, the same old bullshit that has been said 11ty billion times. WE KNOW THIS.
i know guys personally in this business who have and are currently making a turn-around for the better from questionable. things can change. i think they will in this case

people have 2 choices,

1) get ur money back, go a different route

2) wait (which u are in the home stretch), and get a superior product for the money spent. at least wait till u see/watch/hear my car in action. then you dictate on ur own what u WANT.

. yes i know it seems like im making such a mess TOO simple. but thats all it is. the thing that fucked everything up here was communication. that one thing dragged a huge black cloud over a wide horizon. then all the commenting, (which i know i was a part of, and there is NOTHING wrong with, people need to vent and have opinions) also sways the mind. ive done this waiting game two years in a row now. last year, blew the engine, waited 3-4 months, the core of the summer, to get an engine built. IT SUCKS, I KNOW. but guess what, you wana play this game, u want to be the king, you gota wait. period. my buddy with the cleanest, extremely fast, poocharged firehawk waited until mid august of last year to get his car. i bet not ONE person on this board wouldnt trade their DD f-body for this car.

i wish luck to everyone involved. i know its the shitiest of car times at the moment. im involved too. you need to ask yourself, when all said and done, how do you want ur car when it is finally completed.

 

While this concept works in theory, its not working in application. Whether Hi Flo is simply out of money, or they run one of the worst businesses I've ever seen, or perhaps both- the fact of the matter is people wanting refunds are being ignored.


on a lighter note, you got a tracking number, i assume?

 

I am still waiting for my kit? Don't forget about me admin.

 

I guess what goes around comes around...

well I'm sure you know they upset me dusty... I'm jaynite from the forums and I doubt you missed our back and forth threads about there shitty customer service when I tried to get there "magic" converter and after being told it would be 2 weeks it dragged on for about 4 months and they were payed in full, up front..(I never recieved this converter that didnt exsist, but I did get a refund after dealing with marko's bullshit, because he told me he didnt need my $$ anyway, he was out making 80k on realestate deals, so my $$ was nothing to him)

by the way, does anyone even have or run one of those convertes because I still have'nt seen a post on the supraforums about anyone's results after running one the fact is that over there alot of people see marko as some god who has a fast car, so he must be a good buisness man the reality is that atleast bill is now owning up to them being a company who severely lacks customer service...

I'm not going into detail on my issue with trying to get a converter from them that was promised to be on my door step within 2 weeks... but I will say it turn into a ordeal that lasted 4 months and then became pretty ugly once I posted my situation with STC on the supraforums after many pm's and phone calls with nothing showing me any signs of the product actually exsisting or being sent out to me, Dusty I think you should change it so sponsors cant edit or delete posts in there sections, because I know basically anytime something bad was posted in there section , It got deleted .... here we are about a year later and stc/hi-flo still has shitty customer service(which i tired to tell everyone back then on the supra forums) and now their owning up to operating there buisness poorly...

jay......

 

I just wish they would give me my $$$ back. I've already talked to the BBB and my next call will be to the attorney general to see their suggestion.

 

Updated customer list:

LSONE - Refund thru his bank (Zack Landis)
Turbo LS1 SS - Awaiting the remainder of his kit
ABeasst - Wants refund, pursuing legal action
2002/Black/SS - Wants kit or refund, and immediate update (Josh, Boca Raton FL)
MikeMs01TA - Was waiting for his refund to go through from Hi-Flo (Mike Morris)
SELLSZ06 - Awaiting kit (Kit has some custom features?)
52172 - Awaiting kit (Frank D, CA)

Hope this list is helpful.

 

I forget anyone else? If you guys can't get 4-5 kits out I don't know what you are doing all day.

 

Bill,

I haven't heard anything from you or Marko about NDTing the Welds. I said in Post #3 of this thread I can do it. Is Hi-Flo going to proceed with this or not? Just let me know either way.

Matt

 

Are their doors open? Has anyone visited their shop that paid them about a year ago? I wouldn't be sitting behind a computer sending emails if they had my money.

 

Bill Marko please give us an update with WTF is going on? Are you proofreading the detailed instruction or what? We need to know something anything a reason for these delays and why they are not getting completed in a timely manner.

 

The owner of Hi Flo (Marko) needs to make a statement on what is going on and an appology to all of these guys for keeping them in the dark.

 

Frank you got my pm with their phone numbers right?

 

Anyone get a phone call this week yet from HiFlo? Who else was suppose to get the parts shipped out this week? I have been calling today and have been able to get through.
Good luck to us ALL

ADMIN-Pro stock J, my kit is not custom, its only the hot parts, AC lines and 4" downpipe.

 

Gotcha... Hopefully Bill is boxing stuff up and making some progress, or maybe he and Marko are over at Woodfield Mall hanging out.