Quote:
|
Originally Posted by okc_car_dude at ASEC on Jan 7 2008, 09:22 PM
Richard
Perez at Dreamspeed Performance (now selling the company, but he is
still completing my car) got news of having to move (well, not having
to, per say... but if good ol' daddy was giving you a house in another
state and all you had to do was keep up with the place and pay
utilities and whatnot... then you would, too! lol), then he realized
that he would be in the middle of my build while doing so. so after
calling around and even though he didn't want to go to the
competition... since he liked what he heard from Tearstone, he decided
to go ahead and go with them for the engine build. The reason being, he
did not want to have to tow a car and take an engine in pieces to TX;
this way, he could just have them build it and whenever he gets to TX
and gets settled in and ready for it, he can just call them up and have
them ship the engine to him, there.
So he gives them a $5,000 deposit to get started on the engine on
January 18th, 2007 and tells them all about the build, what turbo we're
using, the platform what we want out of the car and that the engine
needs to handle at least 800hp reliably. He then told them, ok, here's
the money, you have the know how, you have the parts. Build me an
engine. he told them you chose which block (6G72 or 6G74) my client
would sorta like a 3.5 better and I think that would help spool the
turbo faster, too, but whatever you think will work best and do it
reliably for the project; it's up to you. Whatever camshaft you wanna
use, anything, it's up to you. Here’s my money, so get to building it.
I leave it in your capable hands to make whatever decisions need to be
made. Just give me a call if something is gunna send it over budget.
(That’s in my own words.)
So then, later that year, when he's all settled in and he wants to get
that engine, he calls them to no answer. He tries another day, and
another, and another. He leaves messages, he leaves emails. No
response. EVER. So I start calling them and after a few tries, I
actually get through. I talked to someone about it and she starts
telling me that he gave them a non-refundable $5,000 dollar deposit and
then they never heard from him, again (which was the point. he wanted
them to build it for him because he was too busy.) and that they tried
to call him and email him (Rich never got these). She continued to say
that he never even said which black, or camshaft to use, or anything
(two of the specific things he told them to decide for him)!!!
|
well i'm glad i finally got the other side of this story. (of
course this is only heresay, but then, that's all it is on both sides)
but this is what i know from what rich and what that lady told me.
so, as you see up there, this was obviously just a HUGE
misunderstanding, as i had suspected for quite a while. Rich thought he
was giving them control over the build and what parts to use so that he
wouldn't have to worry about it and he could fully concentrate on his
current build (a 700whp 1G GSX). see, rich was a one man show and had
been for quite sometime. when he's there in the shop and working, he
usually can;t even here the cell ring, because it's not even on him.
and i think at that time, he didn't even have a cell, anyway. just the
home phone. so yes, it WAS often very hard to get ahold of him, but i
don't think they tried very hard, because i always managed to. yeah,
sometimes it'd be a few days in between, but i would get to him,
eventually.
Quote:
|
This is directly related to poor communication from Dreamspeed and
their unwillingness to work with us on what they wanted for an engine
build. |
unwillingness would mean he knew of it and refused. i'm fairly certain this did not happen.
Quote:
|
We tried to call and email him for 6 months with no return calls or
answers for us to assume that 6 months after that transaction that he
was out of business. |
the lady i spoke with over the phone told me that when they went to
email him, they say his site had some california address and they had
assumed he was out of business (or something along those lines). which
was WAY early, because he had just not updated his website, yet, to
show that he was then in oregon. so if this contact went on for six
months until they assumed he was out of business (not to say it
didn't), then why did she tell me they had at that point? (which was
WAY before six months, after) also, this lady said that nothing had
been done about the build. nothing had been purchased, no work had been
done.
also, i had great contact with rich through them not answering him.
that message makes it sound as if suddenly, out of the blue, he calls
them threatening a lawsuit. that was not the case, at all. (and i do
believe rich on this one) he tried contacting them by phone for a while
and after he got no response, and then i had called and got the
response as quoted above, THEN he called and started leaving messages.
they started out very tame. such as, hello, this is rich at dreamspeed
performance, my number is ______ my email is ______ i am calling
regarding such and such matter, please give me a call back. (no
response) second message, helloe this is rich with DSP, contact info is
____ this is message two, please respond. so after 4 or 5 of these
messages, he (stupidly) says something along the lines of (this is the
best i can remember it) this is message 4/5 and i have still gotten no
reply. THIS was when he said whatever the "threatening" happened, which
to my understanding, he never said he had a lawyer, but more like, well
shit, you guys still won't respond, so whould i get a lawyer to help me
out on this, or what? please respond.
i can personally vouge that no lawyer was ever retained. i'm sure he
felt that after so many tries, they were ignoring him and he was
getting desperate and so he (hastily and without much forethought, in
my opinion, because... them's fightin' words! lol) said something about
POSSIBLY getting a lawyer, or don't make me have to, or something to
that effect. but it was AFTER they were ALREADY not answering his
calls.
it is a theory of mine that (and please know, that i am in no way
saying this happened, just a possible scenario), after this HUGE
misunderstanding that they were supposed to build the engine and make
the decisions on what parts we will need, based on the description rich
had given russ... and so much time had passed without rich contacting
them, it was considered as a gain; something for nothing, and so went
down on the books as such. so, after rich calls them wanting to know
where his stuff was, they freak out and don't know what to tell him.
might have already even spent his deposit. this might have been why
they were so slow to respond. and they might have just sat around
wondering what to do about it for so long, then rich had already left
that supposedly threatening message. i know what this is like, being
that i've recently been working in the accounting part of the hotel.
basically, once this was already considered gain... it's almost like
it's now a loss to make good on it, although you did already get the
money, it was jsut so long ago, that you're now gunna give these parts
away and things aren't gunna balance out (unless that account might
have, for some reason, been kept open and the funds in it were not
transfered to another account. account not being bank accounts, but
business accounts). this is most certainly cause for alarm... but
still, it was all just a misunderstanding. rich was under the
impression they were building him an engine and all was fine, which is
why it was so late when he finally contacted them. but unless it was
previously stated in a contract that rich that rich had personally
signed, then in no case... late, or not, can they keep the money and
get something for nothing. so as i said, i can understand their alarm,
but that does not mean they can keep the money without something in
return or ignore rich's calls and messages BEFORE he stated ANYTHING
about a lawyer.
NO LAWYER WAS EVER RETAINED, NOR HAS ONE BEEN NOW. i can completely
understand russ's concern, but if you can see this, please, please,
please, can we just send you a list of the parts and get our 5 grand
worth of parts we want from you on your website or what can you get, so
we can just end this and call it good?
i've stated since the beginning that i don't want any trouble for
anyone. i would like to end this as peacively as possible and this
seems like the easiest thing for everyone. my project has waited long
enough, please just let us get our parts, from you. :-( then i can tell
everyone how it was just an enormous misunderstanding and how great
tearstone was about making good on it. i promise you, i really think
this is just a misunderstand and i have even stated so, in this forum,
even before you responded. please, why can't we just do this? and if
someone tried to take you to court on it later, then you could easily
show that you sent rich those parts and nothing would be debatable in
court. money would have been given and parts, in the value of our
deposit, would have then been acceptedas return for the money given.
nothing could be done about it. please, can't we just get our parts?
please?
