Erik @ Carquip

Hey there everyone,

I really hate to do this, but I thought that buyers and vendors alike should know. Be careful of any purchases and dealings with Joe at German Auto Dismantlers in GA.

We built a gearbox for Joe and drop shipped it directly to his customer, on the promise that when he recieved payment from them he would then pay us. After more then 6 months of constant phone calls and requests, we still have not been paid.

Our industry has always been a small one, and every sale is important in order to keep our business alive. For someone to intentionally defraud another company, especially one that was willing to go the extra mile to help, just strikes me as being out of line with the normally very high intregrity level of the Porsche community. As such I thought that you should all know about this.

We are exploring the legal options currently, and hopefully will find some recoarse to remedy this situation. I hope that by posting this I might be able to save someone else the headaches and problems that we are now having to face.

Thanks for checking this post out.

Erik Johnson
Carquip Sales
(303) 443-1343 ext 2 work
(720) 980-9407 cell

theiceman

Erik This does not surprise me ,. Although not at the noise level of Motormeister or Victory motors. I have indeed read stories of these guys before. I thought it was generally known not to deal with these guys.
Oh well I hope it all works out for you , cause that is one less gearbox for us

Tippy

Thanks for the heads up

mthomas44

Thanks for the heads up. BTW, for the record his correct name is Joe.

http://www.cogscogs.com/

http://www.germanautodismantlers.com/

DWalker

Interesting...

I have dealt with Joe off and on for almost 10 years and never really had an issue with him other than at time I felt his pricing was a bit steep, and at times he comes off as a bit of a *****. On one visit to his place (when it was PAP) he truly offended a friend of mine who had hoped Joe would give him some sort of special deal on some 928 wheels. On the other hand I once needed an oil pump for a 914 in a huge hurry and he left it in his mailbox for me to pick up as I got into Atlanta too late to make it by PAP.

Im not sure of the specifics, but six months is a LONG time to be waiting for payment, and I wish you the best in resolving the situation.

jakeflyer

I had one transaction with him. If it were ebay, I would give it a neutral, not a
+ or a minus but a neutral. My impression was that he knows his stuff, but may be short on skilled help. I think I would do business with him again. With a credit card, there is some leverage in any deal if things go sideways. Just my opinion, but It may be unfair to think he is like an unloved West Coast operation.

smshirk

I have had no problems with him, other than they don't read email. You pretty much have to call. I believe that is intentional. As someone else said his prices are high, but not as high as LAD, IMO. I am very surprised he just ignored you after getting him on the phone. I am going up there in the next month or two, I will mention this post.

Houpty GT

I purchased a silver Audi door from him for $150 which I drove in to pickup. He has never responded to emails and he even told me that and you need to call instead. Much of the time it is like pulling teeth to try and get him to sell you something. My brother has had similar experience. Dolph at the transmission parts shop in Columbia had a complaint about some parts he had shipped him. I would say he isn't dishonest, just not the best communicator or provider of service.

Ed Hughes

Well, Erik was pretty specific that he's tried a lot of phone calls, so that e-mail excuse isn't valid. Thanks for the heads up-getting the run around for over 60-90 days is unacceptable, and there is no excuse short of major illness or death that an alleged businessman can make for such behavior.

One should act like they are in business, or get out.

Ed Hughes

And, to further clarify, we're not talking about a guy selling parts on ebay out of his garage to make some extra cash, we're discussing a for-profit business run by an individual who is doing this as his livelihood. No excuse.

911Dave

+1. I'm constantly amazed how many business owners these days don't know a damn thing about customer service.

Even more disconcerting is how many customers don't seem to mind.

Peter Zimmermann

Dave: Ed is absolutely right, but I think that customers in general have been a bit neutralized by the way our society operates. It's almost as though many who have been slighted are afraid to say anything, because the offender has more weapons and can make the complaining person, even when he's right, look like a complete jerk.

It used to be that non-service ended up being no-service, and the bad business went out of business. Not so today, it seems like many "bad" businesses can keep their doors open because there are so many ways to reach customers who have no way of doing the usual before-doing-business checks. It's really a shame that a handful of businesses know this, and take full advantage of it.

Barry A. Waters

Folks,

+1 on Pete's assessment of some folks in the business world due to the high availability of customers. I once had the pleasure of doing business with a roofer in Atlanta that worked the 'don't need repeat business because there are so many NEW customers!' aspect to the hilt!

Unfortunately, you really do have to get to the point of filing a lawsuit to get the attention of businesses like this and that can be quite a leap for many folks. I think that's why harmed customers stay harmed and jerk businesses (in large metro areas) stay in business.

Barry

DWalker

I am going to slightly dis-agree with you there- but let me explain my (biased) viewpoint here, and I apologize to the OP for the slight hijack-
What I find in my day-to-day business is that while it USED to be that if someone had an issue with a shop/store and the work that had been done or the parts bought they would come down to the shop or store, sit down with the manager/owner would sort some sort of solution. Maybe the customer would not feel like using those services again, but at the end of the day the shop owner was able to feel like they had done all they could do to solve the customers issue.
Today, I am more likely to read about someone being unhappy with a shop/store on the internet, usually in a place where they cannot defend themselves or maybe never even know about it at all, and those doing the complaining are quite often those that have NEVER EVEN BEEN TO THE SHOP/STROE being bashed. Doesnt matter if the whole thing is garbage, the damage is done, and there is little a shop-owner can usually do about it. Yes, its sad but true but between forums, blogs, mailing lists, etc. there is not a lot of accountability and people just say what they want without much fear of recourse. Does not matter if the customer never even complained to the shop about an issue, or gave the shop a chance to take care of the issue, etc. whomever reads those posts will be less likely to use those services.
The tragedy is that it also works the other way! Lets say I open a shop, and I need to establish a customer base and credibility. If I am a dishonest person nothing is easier. I simply make the rounds of a few forums using different log-ins to promote my shop or store and maybe do some work for select people on the forum, who usually are not car people and easily impressed with a bit o' song and dance, or if Im a parts seller sell at some ridiculous discount. Walla- instant street cred for a shop or store that may know next to nothing about the cars they are working on, or the parts they sell. I get to see it time and again.


None of this pertains to the OP or his situation, as what we have here is business-to-busines issues, but I do believe that in todays information age what you read on the bulletin boards is about 1/4 of the truth (if that) and if you are thinking about dealing with a shop/store you need to actually go there if possible (another reason to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHOP/VENDOR) and talk to the owner/techs/sales guys and get a feel for if those people suit you. Then maybe do a little online research, and see if what you read jives with what you saw, then make a decision from there.

LaughaC

OMG, don't get me started. Fausto's Mercedes shop in Pompano Beach Florida once tried to steal my 1959 Mercedes 190sl roadster!

In short, Faousto quoted $200 plus parts for a brake job and kept the car for several months, supposedly to keep my cost down as his mechanics only worked on it when they had nothing urgent. I told him that was fine as I had another one for a DD. He kept saying everything was fine and I checked in weekly.

After a few months I told him to go ahead and finish the job since I had sold my other 190sl and was ready to start drving that one. Got there and the bill was $1900.00 for labor alone!! He laughed in my face saying his estimate didn't matter and he would put a mechanic's lean on the car if I didn't pay it. I walked out and talked with a lawyer.

The next week I came back and threw $900 in his face to get the sleazeball out of my life instead of dragging it out in court and risking the car sitting and decaying in his lot, or worse.

An Internet thread like this would have given me much better leverage but we didn't have these back in those days.

Good for you; speaking your mind here. If the shop were in the know they would be on Rennlist too, and would make things right by you and ask you to post the rest of the story to help the readers forgive them. After all, any press is good press if the story ends well. Everyone makes mistakes, but few fix them properly.