Spikey

In the past months, there has been confusion regarding Spoon, AJR, Opak and distribution in North America.

Opak came out saying AJR and its distributors were no longer legitimate Spoon distributors, and that Opak was the sole authorized exclusive US distributor.

That is B U L L S H I T

Tatsuru Ichishima, president of Spoon, just left Vancouver today. It was an extremely friendly visit, and we can set the FACTS STRAIGHT now.

A&J Racing is STILL Spoon's authorized North American distributor and AJR's network of dealers are still legitimate retailers of Spoon products with the full backing and support of AJR and Spoon. We continue to maintain an extremely close and friendly relationship with Ichishima and Spoon.

What about Opak? Opak is a distributor of Spoon. Opak is NOT the sole exclusive USA distributor of Spoon. Opak is NOT the sole agent and representative of Spoon.

Remember the letter/contract Opak displayed on their website stating that they were the sole exclusive US distributor? THE LETTER/CONTRACT HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM OPAK'S WEBSITE AT SPOON's REQUEST BECAUSE SPOON NEVER AGREED THAT OPAK WOULD BE THE EXCLUSIVE US DISTRIBUTOR.

Opak removed the letter from their website but still claims to be the exclusive US agent and distributor on other parts of their site.

Why am I posting this?

I want you to know what Opak has done so you can make your own judgments.

In addition to publicly displaying a false, misleading 'contract' stating that they are the sole exclusive Spoon distributor, Opak has been attacking and threatening not only A&J Racing, but all of A&J's dealers including IPS and R&D.

These attacks have included efforts to undermine A&J's reputation and business through negative comminication with our dealers and other businesses in which people have been told A&J has been cut off or is not an authorized distributor anymore.

These attacks include aggressive attempts to poach our dealers through various tactics, including trying to scare them that A&J will no longer be able to distribute Spoon and support them.

These attacks include LEGAL THREATS TO SUE OUR DEALERS for continuing to sell Spoon. Opak has threatened our dealers, deal with them or back of Spoon, or face lawsuit since they are the "only exclusive" Spoon distributor. These legal threats were based on hot air.

As a result, we and our dealers have suffered, and there has been a great deal of anxiety and tension.

We and our dealers STRIVE to provide you good, straight up, honest service. Many of you know and have experienced how great Mike @ IPS and Dave @ R&D are. Those people and businesses are the type that we want to associate with. Those are the type we want to carry a quality brand like Spoon. When you decide where you want to purchase Spoon from, please remember that. We hope you will also choose to do business with straight up, decent business.

Normally, I won't post something like this, but I think Opak has gone too far with its actions. We and our dealers have a lot of friends and supporters, for which we are always grateful, and we think it's about time you heard the facts.

Thanks

N1-R

Glad you cleared it up Spikey

Type-Rare#1248

Evs-One

This is exactly the stuff that does not need to be brought into the forums.

That is all corporate non sense. There is no need for a battle to insue after this against OPAK or whoever else.

Everyone knows Anthony and the Jokers are a legit Spoon dealer. Let them shop wherever, but these rumors just cause more conflict. I don't buy from either, but I hate seeing these stupid company battles that go on throughout this board.

Kengs

Opak
AJR

ITRbroham

Thanks Spikey and AJR for the clearing up of facts!

Mario

Opak Racing; they're like unattractive chicks thinking they're hot. People don't like them, but they're still out there.

01CWITR

that girl is nasty

Chris93Si

A&J IPS

I've loved every minute of dealing with both shops, not only good service but they seem to be nice guys and interested in me and my car. Only complaint I have about you guys is no APC

Evs-One

all AJ cares about is money...if you show up with cash, then they're down. But other than that....forget it.

They totally "persuaded" a guy in my town to buy a $900 Buddy Club ecu to run with his 00 Vortech Si.

True, he;s obviously not the brightest for going this route, but they told him the Buddy Club ecu is BETTER than Hondata....yeah, right....not even close.

They did try and help tune it, but this if after spending over 10g's in a months time there.

Just like any other business, money is the priority...which often sucks. That's why I don't deal with businesses

SurferX

I understand where you're coming from, I work on the retail/corporate levels and see this kind of stuff all the time.

But really how does this affect any of us? We still buy our stuff at the same place we always did. Looks to me like nothing more than a way to bring more attention to your products.

Not to be disrespectful, but to bring your corporate drama here on a public message board is unprofessional. These things are supposed to be somewhat confidential and not really something to bitch to your customers about. At least if you want to do this then keep it to the Discussion board and not the Type R specific board.

I think if you want people to be more loyal to your shops then continue to provide the excellent service that you do, no need to stoop to these levels to hold your customer loyalty. I think everyone on H-T knows AJ, IPS, and R&D are good shops to trust already and don't need a taste of their corporate BS to get them to keep shopping there.

Art Vandeleigh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mario &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Opak Racing; they're like unattractive chicks thinking they're hot. People don't like them, but they're still out there.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

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