So Joey,

Was the culprit an overseas copying manufacturer?

http://www.tickperformance.com/buyer...nock-off-list/

 

Damn that sucks for Tick & smears Hawk's name. I know alot of people who buy stuff from them but now it's gonna always be in question weather or not your getting what you pay for from those guys.

Why is it so hard for some people to do honest business. Profit margin isn't all it's about at the end of the day & the places who believe it is will not last the test of time. It's also about getting customers exactly what they paid for & good customer service. Not selling knock off **** & pocketing even larger profit. Stuff like this always comes out & usually spells the beginning of the end for people who do this crap.

 

Whoa. Ive been selling a ton of Tick's products over the last few months; its seriously messed up that someone is knocking off their design and research.

Link to a thread on ThirdGen.org with responses from both Tick and Hawks:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/af...ing-knock.html

 

Hi,
Simply put, Hawks made a bad call , we did not intend to make it look like we copied or renamed a product and steal a design, although that is how it seems. I made a decision to manufacture our Tilton master based upon Tick not keeping them in stock and after repeated attempts to get product on the shelf we decided to manufacture our own part, simple as that.
Looking back, I the owner of the company should have called Jonathan (The Owner of Tick) and try to handle the situation in a different manner, owner to owner, instead of taking matters into my own hands and making our cylinder to take care of back orders and current customer requests . That was a mistake on MY part!
With that being said I want to apologize to Jonathan and the team at Tick Performance, to my staff at my shop and most of all to our valued customer that we made you question our professionalism and ethics. The master cylinders we make are made to the same quality as they always have been and have never been made with any type of inferior part, but the point is I the owner of our company should have made a different decision, simple as that! There is no excuse for the decisions I made ethically and I have been in contact with Jonathan and am doing everything I can to make my wrong right, not because of money or trying to have a better part or trying to seem like we stole someone's design. I simply am trying to make it right being the man I truly am because I made a bad decision putting my customers and employees and business first when in reality I was putting them in harm's way.
I have worked in this industry for 14 years and believe I have always done the best thing for my customers up to this point . I simply made a bad call and I will have to live with that. I would ask my customers to understand the decision I made ( not necessarily to agree with it although it was the wrong decision) and hopefully give our company your continued support.

Sincerely,
Bruce Hawkins
Hawks Third Generation, LLC

 

Mike,

We thank you and our loyal vendors that continue to sell our products. I knew you would be a great vendor for us when you first called me and asked to sell our products.

We apologize thoroughly for any back orders or waiting time that our vendors have had to endure due to the very large demands for our product. We still find it very hard to swallow the reason that Hawks had for this reproduction that was branded under our name, and then priced lower than ours just to lure customers into purchasing it. That along with the photo copied instructions(word for word) with our brand name still printed on them, the guarantee that our life-time warranty accompanied the product and the lie that it was a genuine Tick Master Cylinder is very tough for us to fathom the how and why this was ever a thought in Mr. Hawkins mind.

I know my boss Jonathan has been speaking with Mr. Hawkins at great lengths to resolve this issue, and we appreciate their willingness to work with us. After all, we feel that it's their business reputation that hinges on their willingness to fix this mess that they have caused for themselves.

Any questions or concerns regarding a genuine Tick Performance product or a Hawks product should be forwarded immediately to Joey@tick-performance.com or Jonathan@tick-performance.com.

We also would like to thank the thousands of loyal customers we have that continue to purchase Tick Performance products everyday through our authorized vendors and through us. Without you guys we would not be where we are today and we thank you very much for it.

Martin Smallwood
Cam Design/Sales/Customer Service
Tick Performance LLC

 

Let me just throw this in there; Ive been ordering more and more from you guys and never had a problem with backorders. I dont think Ive waited more than a week for my stock which compared to some of the well known performance manufacturers, is phenomenal.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Mike

 

Thank you very much for the kind words Mike.

When we have had backorders from Tilton, we go out and purchase every single available Tilton 7/8" bore master cylinder that we can find in the United States. It does not matter the price, we purchase every single one that we can find. That is the dedication you will receive when you order something from Tick Performance. We really try to keep our product on the shelves at all times, and when we can't or we don't, it is so far out of our hands we just have to wait until we can fill those shelves again.

Thanks again for the kind words Mike.

 

Can I just say that I've been in the market for an aftermarket MC for awhile now and after this I will be buying from Tick directly. Not only that but after seeing a company try to further their business and profit margin using another company's name and reputation I am disgusted and certainly will never purchase any profit from Hawks. It's truly sad to see such immature and dishonest business ethics.

 

Hawks will never get my business now.

 

Hi,
I wanted to make a post to clarify what I can at this time, first off as for the Warranty end of things IF I cannot get things worked out with Tick (which I believe I am going to be able to ) BUT just in case Hawks will provide the SAME LIFETIME WARRANTY Direct from our facility. Once I am able to work all out with Johnathan @Tick I would think he will make a post otherwise, so to clarify at this time HAWKS WILL WARRANTY the masters 100%.
On another subject, I completely understand how some customers on here are upset and never want to do business with Hawks again, but I do want to restate although what I did should have been handled TOTALLY different its not like I sat behind a desk and tried to figure out how I can deceive all of my customers with a single part, and I will say again I made a mistake and am doing all I can to fix the mistake I made. Please understand no matter what you read or hear, I simply made the choices I made to GUARANTEE I had product in stock, simple as that. I will say for a third time , I handled it totally the wrong way and am working to fix that. The part itself is in no way less of a part than the Tick Master Cylinder which is a top notch part! I simply say that to ease the customer mind that it is not a inferior part , keep in mind we install these at our shop as well so for what reason would I make a inferior part??
I completely understand this thread is simply about my conduct as a a business owner. On that fact I will take everything everyone has threw at me like a man and in doing so ask for one thing! IF you are someone on this board or another board for that matter that feels like he/she has been taken advantage of, ripped off, sold used items as new, been treated rudely, and or anything other than being satisfied from dealing with my company please prove your point and call or email me DIRECTLY and give me the opportunity to fix what YOU feel has been done wrong!
If I give you the service which you say you were shorted then let everyone on here no the outcome of your particular situation!
That is a HUGE door for me to open but in doing so along with other things you will see I am not the counterfeit crook some of you are making me out to be but simply a human that made a bad business decision and being as proud as I am that hurts to admit! Once I am given the opportunity to repair/or not repair what has been damaged, then you can truly come on this thread and say I am what ever you think I am, Some of the instances I am simply not aware of. When I read some of the comments I simply am not happy to what my market feels about my company and the 12 people that work here everyday. I feel in some instances I am being viewed as someone I am not . Before you can truly get a full true picture you need to understand how I and all of my employees feel about this business and the market we work in everyday.
Please keep your cool and think of it this way, I have been in business, mainly a third gen/LS1 centered business for 14 years developed countless products, manufactured countless products and have grown more than I ever thought I would and have met some of the coolest people on the planet, why on earth would it make sense for me to jeopardize my complete reputation over a simple decision on a single product intentionally. Granted this situation seems so in many eyes to have done so and again I am working to make everything I have done correct as possible. I can assure you from now on ANY new product that is added to our site from here on out will get gone over with a fine tooth comb before being added to insure nothing like this ever happens again either on accident or on my judgement or decision (to clarify the master cylinder was on my decision, not on accident ). Please remember how many reproduction parts we have brought to market completely on our own WITHOUT any issues.
In closing I have said all I have said not to gloat, cry, or complain I simply am making a attempt to clarify the position in which Hawks stands and to clarify how much we appreciate our customers and there support and last to clarify where I stand with our past and future customers.

Sincerely,
Bruce Hawkins
864-855-2694 EXT 12
bruce@hawksthirdgenparts.com (direct email)

 

Just installed my Tick Adj. Master today and now I see this. THANK God I ordered directly from Tick Performance. BTW they make an amazing product, once I got it installed which was a royal PITA, but totally worth the cut up hands.

 

Couldn't be more satisfied with my McLeod setup. No Knock off worries here.

 

I apologize for pulling up an old thread but I didn't find much else about it, maybe I'm using bad search terms.
Regardless, are the master cylinders Hawk's is selling now rebranded Ticks or did they just totally copy the design. I ask because I like black but will not buy from Hawks if they stole Tick's intellectual property. Thanks for any info.

 

I apologize for pulling up an old thread but I didn't find much else about it, maybe I'm using bad search terms.
Regardless, are the master cylinders Hawk's is selling now rebranded Ticks or did they just totally copy the design. I ask because I like black but will not buy from Hawks if they stole Tick's intellectual property. Thanks for any info.

 

They bought Tilton master cylinders (the same type that Tick uses) and made their own adapters (clones of Tick's). Which all sounds fine, but...

1) They instructions were copied from Tick, including the Tick branding. (Copyright violation)
2) They listed them as Tick parts on their site. (Lied to customers)
3) They sold them for less than the MAP of a Tick part (poaching* sales from Tick and Tick dealers)
4) They paid Tick nothing, but stuck Tick with the warranty costs
5) After getting caught, they said they'd honor the lifetime warranty themselves.

Shady AF.

It might not be a coincidence that their web site is down. (See #5 again.) I can't help but wonder if they've just gone into business under a new name.

If so, hopefully they're operating more ethically now, after learning some lessons.

 

That is shady. When I had posted that there were black tick clones on ebay and I wasn't sure if they had come to an agreement of some sort. Looks like they are gone now too, hopefully they are out of business after losing a legal battle or two.
edit- turns out it's still there. Reporting it as a listing violation and leaving a review noting the dirt on hawks part