Slick_LudE

iTrader: (2)

It started as a dream. For years I wanted to turbo my car. I read up on many threads about turbo-charging the Prelude. So I read about turbokits and apparently (from what I read) the Drag turbo kits were the easiest to install.

I made a phone call to Drag/Blox racing and I was in-touch with "John". He was very pleasant when I ordered the parts from him. I KNEW that drag made a seperate kit for h23 and h22. I specifically told them to get me the h22 vtec kit. I made the purchase in early september. I received the parts one month and a half after the order. The reason for this was that apparently the item was shipped to the wrong address. Okay... whatever I was just happy to receive the parts.

I had to wait a week and a half schedule a time to have the guys at Imageinmotion.com. After dropping off the car, took the 2 hour bus ride back home. At exact time of my arrival to the house, I received a phone call from Kevin the tech and installer for imageinmotion. He told me that the manifold that came with the turbokit did not fit the vehicle. Sure enough, they sent me the WRONG kit. I was starting to question the professionalism of the people at Drag/Blox. John was blaming ME for not telling him about the specs of the car. When I very specifically said to him "make sure you send me the VTEC model. Here in Canada we have them as SRV and non-vtec h23s are SR. So please make sure you sent me the VTEC model."

I phoned John and asked to have a different manifold sent. Kevin the installer at imageinmotion then told me that the piping for the kit did not fit my car. I notified John that I was not happy with the purchase and service. John offered to give me a refund if and when I ship the items back. I got the shop imageinmotion to ship the item for me. Please keep in mind that I am still in school I dont have money flowing everwhere. I had to eat up the cost of return shipping for the wrong manifold (initially) and the shipping for the turbo kit. I also had to pay for the labour for taking my car apart in preperation for the installation of the kit.

The item was sent back to them late November. Initially they acknowledged receiving the items. They said it was "damage". I was pissed off because the item wa s sent in the same packaging. that I received them in. Later they agreed that I would eat up 15% restocking fee. I just wanted to get the bulk of my funds back. John referred me to a guy named Dave. He is supposedly the owner of the said company. John told me that they would have it taken care of and they promised to send a check for the amount of 2550 american dollars. This amount was after the 15% restocking fee. They claimed that they sent the check to imageinmotion. The obvious question is WHY would you send it to the shop and not the address the from the credit cards used to make the purchase?? I highly doubt that this was even sent.

Moving on... I disputed the charges to the credit cards I used. I used three seperate credit cards to make the purchase because I did not have the credit necessary to make such a huge purchase with one card. (the kit was going for 2995 american) I used my two of my dad's credit cards and paid my dad cash for the amount. All the amounts were distributed equally at 1000 american dollars on each of the cards.

I was able to dispute the charge for the Visa credit cards but they said it did not look good because of the lenght of time it took from the initial purchase. Please remember that the delivery ALONE took a month and half. And months of the promised refund that I never did receive.

I tried calling this Dave person again but he would not take my phone calls. Hes always busy for one reason or another. And John was accusing me of scamming THEM. His rationale was that I made the purchase with 3 seperate credit cards. How is that scamming!?!? THEY have the funds... THEY have the parts.

My last phone call I was talking to another person form Blox apparently, the two companies are affiliated. Im not sure of the exact details of their affiliation but from what John told me they are owned by the same owner which would be.... Dave? Getting back to my point; this person told me that the kit was NEVER received?!? How can this be when I have tracking numbers that proved they received the said items. They told me they were damaged.. how can they say it was not received!?!?
I also have a reputable shop with shipping manifest with the said items.

From what I can tell they planned this all along. They delayed on the parts, delayed on the promised refund. So that I would not be able to dispute the said amount. They also waited this long to basically tell me to get lost because they KNEW that fedex only kept records of shipping and tracking details for 3 months. PLEASE be wary and do not deal with these scammers. What they're forgetting is that I have a copy of the shipping manifest 3 packages with 3 different tracking numbers were used.

As of now I do not have the parts and I do not have the funds. I would also like to ask for advice from the good people of honda-tech. How should I pursue this? American Express is not willing to take the dispute because the purchase took place in September. Am I basically screwed with no way of getting my funds or the parts?

2redstars

that just plain sucks

MrParks

i have delt with the 2 companies myself, and have a long history for both, and by no means i think they went out of there way to do any damage towards you.

notice that your upset and is completely justified for all the time and money spent for something you didnt get.

im sure if you spoke to them in a manner which you were in a rut then i think it would be alittle easier for them to help you in your situation.

sounds selfish, but true. you dont order something and they get it wrong and then talk **** to get the right stuff over. it just makes them work that much slower. imo
its life some things go your way some things might not you just have to man up and get it done,

this is why you have dealers for the items. then you dont have to go dealing with someone so far out.

what does blox have to do with any of this? i support blox 100%

a1320addict

iTrader: (1)

So shitty to hear stories like this. American Express is usually really good with disputes, but it comes down to the fact that the transactions took place months ago, which doesn't put anything in your favor.

As far as the claimed refund check, tell them you want a check number. If they can't provide you with one, it was never sent. If they do provide you with one, and don't believe you never got it, tell them to check the status of the check with the bank.

I'm not trying to badmouth a company, but it really comes down to the fact that customer service comes first. I would file a complaint with the BBB, maybe even small claims court.

Professor X

I had a similar experience buying a drag kit for my 93 GSR about 4 years ago. At the time, I didn't know much about installing the kit. I was supposed to get a turbo timer and gauges along with the kit which were not included. The piping itself was to small to fit the throttle body. The piping did not fit with my a/c as advertised. I sent them an email asking for directions and they stated that I should have a shop install it. To put a long story short, after finally getting the kit installed and completely destroying the cars driveability, I removed the kit and sold it. I know of other people with the kit on other chasis that it worked perfect. That just wasn't the case for me.

Tony the Tiger

Sucks to hear this, but you live and learn. I have seen numerous situations like this, but all could be avoided if you've dealt with a reputable shop or purchased from a large vendor (ie: Importparts, etc...)

Many times I have seen guys trying to buy stuff online to save $50 or $100, whereas if they requested a local shop to do the purchasing, things won't end up this way.

If imageinmotion (the shop you've dealt with) did the purchasing for you and just just pay him for both the turob kit and installation, then it would be the shop's responsibility to get the right parts for your car. Yes imageinmotion would probably charge you a bit more for the kit because they are spending their time to order the parts for you, but it's way better to avoid situations that you are into now. When shops call vendors or distributors for incorrect parts, problems, etc... they get treated way differently than some lone customer like yourself.

Perhaps you should consult with imageinmotion and talk to them about the problem... Maybe get them to call Drag/BLOX about the situation and have imageinmotion be the middle man. At least this would prove that they did send the turbo kit back to Drag/BLOX and now you are practically being scammed with no money and no turbo kit. Hope you get this problem solved!

njn63

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tony the Tiger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Many times I have seen guys trying to buy stuff online to save $50 or $100, whereas if they requested a local shop to do the purchasing, things won't end up this way.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I disagree with that. Although the 1 out of 100 cases like this make me wonder, the prices most local shops charge is outrageous compared to online. And guess what? Most of them order it so i have to wait just as long.

The part about dealing with a reputable online shop, i can understand that. But i've never dealt with a local shop when ordering parts and don't plan to start. My dad's friend owned a speed shop and HIS cost was more than what it would cost me through Jeg's.

As far as this topic, something just doesn't add up.

k24em2

If you're still out &gt;$1000 you may want to look into an attorney.

nateg

my freind ordered a drag kit for his neon...got it within a month... made nearly double the stock power(withonly a fmu) only problem was the manifold warping(after it was planed it never happened again).....he never complained about customer service!!!!!!???????

90dxhmt

iTrader: (1)

Speak to a lawyer and see if he can give them a call to speed the process up or send a registered letter.The BBB is a good route as well.Dont give up as being a student it must be rough having your only shot at being turboed wrecked

Tony the Tiger

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by njn63 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I disagree with that. Although the 1 out of 100 cases like this make me wonder, the prices most local shops charge is outrageous compared to online. And guess what? Most of them order it so i have to wait just as long.

The part about dealing with a reputable online shop, i can understand that. But i've never dealt with a local shop when ordering parts and don't plan to start. My dad's friend owned a speed shop and HIS cost was more than what it would cost me through Jeg's.

As far as this topic, something just doesn't add up.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You need to find a better shop, one that is honest with you and gives you an idea where he gets the parts and for how much. Not one that rapes for $50 for a $5 item.

Every shop that I have dealt with would always let me know where the parts were coming from, but they would only charge a little bit for their time, usually about 3-5% more. It's much easier when the shop owners already have an account with a reputable vendor and all it takes is a simple phone call, and bam, parts arrive at the right location and at a respectable time frame. Or else, the parts vendor would simply lose their clients because of late shipments, or not notifying the shop with backorders, etc; shopowners need to function with decent time schedules and simply can't have parts showing up 2 months later. And of course, there's always an easy exchange for incorrect parts or whatnot whenever stuff happens like this stated on this topic.

It's all relative... When you spend nearly $3000, then $100-$200 surcharge isn't even that bad for 100% assurance. Sometimes by allowing the shop to earn a little from parts nets you a bit more savings from the labour time, as well as more "warranty" because the entire system from parts to install was done solely by the shop.

BoostedEG6

Get a lawyer, that will be the easiest way to get all of your money back, also make them pay for the lawyer fee's

Slick_LudE

iTrader: (2)

Good Game Drag... you ******* thieves. PROOF the items were delivered.
http://members.shaw.ca/slick_bear/signatureproof.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/slick_bear/signatureproof2.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/slick_bear/signatureproof3.pdf

Fixed the links sorry. I wasnt aware they didnt work. thanks for the heads up!


Modified by Slick_LudE at 1:41 AM 2/28/2007

njn63

fix your links.

stealthmode62

If it takes them a month and a half to send you your product, it'll take a shop just as long to get the product. I doubt there's a warehouse stocking drag turbo kits, which would be the only way the product could have been recieved faster. If a warehouse IS stocking them, shame on drag for disrepecting their distributors and selling direct to the end user.

Slick_LudE

iTrader: (2)

ttt

Slick_LudE

iTrader: (2)

sorry =/ I didnt realize I topped it already. &gt;.&lt;

advert

damn man i wish you the best of luck with this.