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?

 

Whats with all this scamming and unprofessionalism with shops and companies lately???? I went through something similar to this, but my situation was over a CF hood. Im not sure how you should handle this, especially since there was a long period of time between date of purchase and date of complaint.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94GSRCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whats with all this scamming and unprofessionalism with shops and companies lately???? I went through something similar to this, but my situation was over a CF hood. Im not sure how you should handle this, especially since there was a long period of time between date of purchase and date of complaint.</TD></TR></TABLE>


I agree, whats up with all this scamming stuff? I think you should just try calling them back, or just go to court?

 

small claims court maybe?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Speedra500 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">small claims court maybe?</TD></TR></TABLE>

That place is the ****.. in utah you pay 35 bucks to take it to small claims and can sue upwards around 5000. which isn't bad. and if you win they have to pay for the 35 dollars that you had to pay out of your pocket to take them to court

 

small claims FTW

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mgags7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">small claims FTW</TD></TR></TABLE>

Does that work for international claims, as well?

 

doubt it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mgags7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">doubt it</TD></TR></TABLE>

FBI, ftmw?!

Like any company under **** poor management, the guy is probably caught in their "pass the buck" type of customer service approach. Basically his account is being passed off to the next department, who passes it on to another department. No one is going to own up to the mistake, and instead of personally taking the 5 minutes to issue a check, they pass it on to the next department, hoping that it'll be taken care of instead.

To the OP, don't let off on your pressure. Call them up constantly until the issue is resolved. There is no reason that they haven't issued you a refund, you took care of your end by shipping it back to them. Otherwise, that's straight up robbery.

 

Seriously you only deal with the owner/manager. The sales guy can't really help you there. Whatever it takes, deal with the owner/manager only. No need to deal with a middle guy. It only makes it worst and confusing. I had a bad experience with Drag Turbo kits too because it took them 3 months to finish my kit and dealt only with the owner. I ended up selling the kit after I got it because I went NA. Good luck with your situation.

 

Jesus Christ, get their asses man, sue them for what they owe you.

for shitty customer service, and for shitty companies. I'll NEVER deal with Blox/Drag.

 

i read that for canadian small claims courts you have to sue them in the area they [not you] reside in. the max amount suable is 15000. im guessing that's canadian. i couldn't find anything on international claims though. your best luck would be to call your attorney and ask. there could be some difficulties but i don't see how you couldn't be able to pursue this. it was outright robbery for sure. good luck man. you got our support.

-1 for lame business ethics these days.

 

cliffs?

 

you should have just bought the kit from the shop you had installing the kit, there you have a direct connection. BTW I would have recommended the Turbonetics kit which used to be FMAX! That was what I have on my Prelude.
No matter how long you ordered you kit Amex should honor your refund I took me a year to collect my money on a supercharger i ordered from a supposely good company. It took me a lot of talking and bugging to get my money back. as long as you show proof of them recieving the package they(amex) should have no problem giving you back your money.
Also call the attorney General from where the company recides and they can help you also especially if the order was done via Internet or phone, they have special departments just for such a case as yours.

 

Drag sucks bad. They always say they are on "backorder" to everyone.
I went through the same issue as you except my kit never came, then I waited a year untill I got the money back. That is why I now have a custom kit that i pieced together. SCREW DRAG

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FRISBEE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you should have just bought the kit from the shop you had installing the kit, there you have a direct connection. BTW I would have recommended the Turbonetics kit which used to be FMAX! That was what I have on my Prelude.
No matter how long you ordered you kit Amex should honor your refund I took me a year to collect my money on a supercharger i ordered from a supposely good company. It took me a lot of talking and bugging to get my money back. as long as you show proof of them recieving the package they(amex) should have no problem giving you back your money.
Also call the attorney General from where the company recides and they can help you also especially if the order was done via Internet or phone, they have special departments just for such a case as yours.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep, but i was under the impression that Drag was a reputable company from the looks of things.. well look at my situation.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FRISBEE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you should have just bought the kit from the shop you had installing the kit, there you have a direct connection. BTW I would have recommended the Turbonetics kit which used to be FMAX! That was what I have on my Prelude.
No matter how long you ordered you kit Amex should honor your refund I took me a year to collect my money on a supercharger i ordered from a supposely good company. It took me a lot of talking and bugging to get my money back. as long as you show proof of them recieving the package they(amex) should have no problem giving you back your money.
Also call the attorney General from where the company recides and they can help you also especially if the order was done via Internet or phone, they have special departments just for such a case as yours.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks I will take that into account. I called amex a couple of days ago they said that because its been longer than 3 months they cant help me? do I need to talk to someone specifically?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Slick_LudE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I called amex a couple of days ago they said that because its been longer than 3 months they cant help me? do I need to talk to someone specifically?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really different companies have different time frames for disputes....i got hosed on deal not too long ago and my credit card company offered to dispute it and it had been almost 5months so depends on c.c company

 

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

Thanks I will take that into account. I called amex a couple of days ago they said that because its been longer than 3 months they cant help me? do I need to talk to someone specifically?</TD></TR></TABLE>

their fraud dept, be persistant

 

http://www.bbbvan.org/index.php ! If they are a pretty big company search them on BBB file a complaint, than BBB will personaly deal with that company. And the best part is, it's a free service.

 

first of all, you paid more then you should for that kit and you bought directly from drag/blox or whatever.
you coulda got that kit for $500 cheaper here on honda-tech from the sponsors.
second, the drag kit sucks anyways, you should go for the revhard kit which can be had for the same price as the drag kit which comes with a bigger turbo.
anyways good luck getting your money back.
btw, you also could have got your turbo kit from image in motion, they got good prices on a turbo kit.

 

I had a similiar experience with a company which wanted to play a game with me knowing I live in Europe. I warned them I would call police in their area and report it. After that my parcel was the quickest delivery ever a little more than 24 hours from CA to Poland...

 

Just an update for everyone. These thieves are claiming they NEVER got the items. Which is an all out LIE. It looks like I will be going to file a case with small claims court. I will fly out to cali. Ill make sure these guys never sell a turbo kit again.

 

ehh i was gonna get some camshafts from BLOX racing buh nvm =[ Skunk2 FTW

 

I am sorry to hear your problem. I got screwed over for on a supposed J-spec motor...... i wasn't happy.....oh and a mis-matching ECU. I hope you got all your money back. I caught mine quickly and I got them good