The customer needs to tell the full storyThe day the client was here for the build consultation, both husband and wife agreed, verbally, to commence work to be doneOur secretary asked for a returned, and signed contract numerous times, as I did myself, verbally over the phoneThe signed, and returned contract, commercial in form, business to business was never returned by the client, after asking multiple times.
After many phone calls from the customer asking why we were not moving faster, I was told to "get that thing done" "I do not care if you have to put everyone on it or work around the clock, just get it done" That is verbal approvalAt one point we were even asked to stop, in which we did and we have a written memo to commence work, again verbal, and text message as wellThis again is good for me to proceed with the workWe are a time and materials custom shopWe can give an estimate, but it is only an estimate, as our contract statesCustom vehicles built per customer requests are very, if not impossible to estimate, as we discussed with both husband and wifeAs far as the fuel leak we did send a II much fabrication fuel tank catch can/breather to the customer to alleviate thisHowever during our driving use this did not show upWe do care about our customers, that is why we sent a can/breatherThe customer also approved the fuel tank design, which was built by one of our suppliersThe client saw a photo of it on social media and commented that he liked it, before it was shipped from our supplierThe customer originally asked for a replacement chassis for the truck and a body swap, which was estimated to be around 30k, however during the course of the build the customer continued to impose change upon change, which we were quite happy to doThe problem with this is that it increases the time and cost drasticallyAt one point the customer even stated, that he didn't know if he had enough money to do this truckThe total build ended up in the neighborhood of 57kWhat started as a simple build turned into a full blown race truck, based on what the customer sent us for parts and asked of us to buildI can tell you from a professional stand point, you can have a street car or you can have a race car, but not bothThis vehicle is mostly comprised of racing type parts, that in many cases carry little or no warranty, based on the fact that the manufactures cannot back up racing use parts that they have no idea the end use of, as well as how they are maintainedWe all know racing is expensive, and things fail, sometimes pre maturely.
The fact of the matter is race type vehicles are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, not to mention that this vehicle was not even fully broken in at this point, with only 400-miles on itI have a disclaimer for our builds that everyone signs upon pick upThese are custom vehicles, built based on what the client asks us to buildWe initially had rave reviews from MrB***, but shortly after the black widow exhaust video was released and shortly after the hotchkis challenge autocross event at Fontana raceway, some issues aroseThis is expected in these kinds of venues, just ask any auto crosser, week end S.C.C.Aracer or race team in generalCustom vehicles, and especially racing use vehicles, come with teething pains.
We are able to please 99% of our customers 100% of the timeRegards,
J*** ***
Mr D[redacted] brought in an older Pick Up truck for us to build into a hot rod racer. We signed a contract and built the truck but gave no guarantees once the truck...
was entered into any races. Fortunately, Mr. Browns Truck ran wonderful and he sent us videos and voice mail messages of how wonderful the truck performed. Unfortunately after a few months of break-in, the truck had a fuel leak and brake problem. Without giving us the option to make the repairs, Mr. Brown took the Pick Up to another mechanic and then had his lawyer send us the bill. Later on, his Truck had a problem with the differential and we suggested taking the differential out and having the shop rebuild it. Again, Mr. Brown purchased a new differential and had his lawyer send us a bill. To this day we have never seen the truck since he took it to San Diego, but we stand by our work and will make the repairs on his truck as needed. We can not pay for repairs that other shops have made.At this time both our lawyer and Mr. Browns Lawyer are in litigation over these invoices.
Deuces Wild Hot Rods
Complaint: 10794866
I am rejecting this response because:Well J[redacted] wants me to give you the whole story so here we go.
It all started in May 2014 when J[redacted] and deuces wild hot rods secretary M[redacted] came to my house in San Diego to pick up my truck in my driveway with his trailer. This 1967 Ford F100 was in 100% working order. At that time we supplied him with a new engine,computer, transmission, clutch and everything else needed for engine to run ,all this was approximately 24K. I had two of my coworkers there to help load everything. Previously to J[redacted] showing up at my house we had a phone conversation about the build and our 30 K budget he said yes no problem. When we were loading all the stuff one of the first thing Mr. M[redacted] says to me is we are going to have this truck on the cover of hot Rod Magazine. We know now this was just the beginning of things he would say, promises he would make and would not keep and would have no recollection of even saying them.
Two weeks later my wife and I drove up to their shop to discuss the build and see their shop. At that time we put the plan together for the build and paid them $12k so they can order the new chassis and other parts to get started. They told us the chassis would take six weeks to be manufactured and shipped to their shop. Well it was eight weeks later the truck just sitting in their shop untouched and the chassis was not there. They told me they were calling the manufacturer and they were behind, it would just be there any day now. That is when I called the manufacturer they had not heard from deuces wild hot rods and they told me it would be a minimum of another eight weeks. Chassis did not arrive to their shop in till mid August. At that time J[redacted] says to me they were going to work very hard on it and would be ready for powder coat by the first of October. Now going into this build we never gave them a timeframe or any type of deadline we simply asked that they try their best. The problems started when he made promises he could not keep.
The next step in the build was for me to drive up there 1 October and look at the chassis. At that time,I showed up at the shop and it was a long way from being ready for powder coat. J[redacted] told me at that time the truck would be done by Christmas. The direction and overall plan of this build had one change from day one. J[redacted] calls me one day and says he wants to move the firewall back this is so the engine could be moved back for better handling. I said to J[redacted] this sounds expensive you know our budget can I afford it? He says I think we can do it and gave me no change in price. This procedure ended up taking a long time and was a tremendous amount of work. During this whole build I was ordering and paying parts they needed to keep the project going which was on top of the 57K we paid them. Well here we were around Christmas when I called J[redacted] asking him what was going on with the truck,mind you he had already promised it was going to be done he then tells me that I could come pick up my vehicle at any time from their shop. Which was in pieces, this was so unprofessional I couldn't even wrap my head around it because at this time we had approximately $80k of our money tied up there.
So now we go into the first of the year,he then tells us are 30K budget is only for the chassis build! And there is a phase 2 which is an additional 35K on top of our original 30K budget. What choice did we now have our vehicle and our investment is in their shop in pieces.We agreed to the new phase 2 but only if he would agree to a finish date which he did and was the second week of January and if not done he would ship the vehicle himself to North Carolina and we have emails from him stating this. The second week of January of coarse passes I call him and he tells me he's got 17 other projects and I could come pick up my vehicle at any time. Obviously by this time we have had it with him and I told him all I want is for you to try to be done by the middle of March,my family is coming into town. He said thank you so much I will do my best to do so, and this was an email from him. Never happen we pick the vehicle up the second week of April. At this time yes I was very happy with the vehicle and was willing to forget about the previous year of headaches And more than doubled budget! The grand total value of this truck at this time is approximately 105K
I drove the truck home from Fillmore California to Carlsbad and everything seemed to work fine. Later that day I looked under the vehicle in the garage and The transmission was soaked in oil, the oil pan on the brand-new engine that they put on was leaking,the rear end was soaked in oil and the bed does not line up with the cab which they made custom mounts for. I called J[redacted] the next morning and told him these things,at that time I was not mad about them as I know with a custom vehicle there are going to be issues. J[redacted] tells me he will call me in about a month and we will get the vehicle back in here to fix these problems. Of course that never happen. This was the beginning of a whole new set of problems. By this time J[redacted] was no longer taking my calls or responding to voicemail and I texted one of the guys in the shop and got no response from him, shortly after that the vehicle broke down and was on the side of the road on a Sunday night.The truck was then towed to a nearby shop to be repaired at this time I emailed J[redacted] telling him about the problems and that I got the vehicle filmed leaking fuel, that is when he had one of his workers respond.
There is a big difference workmanship problems and as he calls them teething pains that go along with a custom-built vehicle.
(1)The new transmission was leaking because the hole they made in the floor didn't line up With the top of the transmission thus causing the rubber boot to be pulled off, causing leak.
(2) The New oil pan on the new engine that they installed leaked and the engine had to be pulled out of vehicle to fix , J[redacted] says to me I should've ordered a gasket, I guarantee you I would've had he told me to since I spent $105k
(3) The rear end had a catastrophic failure due to a manufacturer malfunction.
(4) The fuel system leaks out of the vent because it has no catch can and no check valve. So what he does is sends me a part to fix it myself and as it turns out the tank is in the bed of the truck and is too big to use this part since it sticks up outside of the bed which would make it dangerous and vulnerable. He says to me I could simply fix this problem by building a recessed pocket in the bed and lowering the tank into it. Obviously this is ridiculous and the tank that he had custom-made with sizes that he came up with were too big and not thought out.
(5) The driveshaft was too long by 5/8 of an inch causing vibration.
(6) The alternator was turned around and mounted backwards causing the pulley to unthread it's self resulting in a breakdown and another tow truck. As professionals they should have secured the pulley on the alternator
(7) The driver side wheel bearing on the rear end was pressed in crooked resulting in a wheel wobbling all over the place. Cause of major vibration. This problem I took back to the manufacture myself and he fixed it immediately but the fact of the matter it is it left deuces wild hot rods wobbling all over the place.
(8) When the vehicle is turned all the way either way the tires hit the brake lines where they mounted them on chassis. This means they could not have even checked to see if the tires hit on full turn because the first thing they come in contact with are the brake lines.Very dangerous. This is far from teething pains.
As it stands now the vehicle only has 2700 miles on it it had 500 on it when I picked it up. Truck breaks down every other time I drive it who knows what is next. There is a whole laundry list of problems that I have not listed that I would put into the teething pains category. J[redacted] says that we are not being truthful and that we need to tell the whole story, well here it is and we have emails and everything documented to what I have said here. What we will not do is go round and round with him anymore because there is no end to it, we did it for a whole year we are complaining about the problems that I listed here and his failure at the beginning of them to respond.
Regards,
D[redacted]
The customer needs to tell the full storyThe day the client was here for the build consultation, both husband and wife agreed, verbally, to commence work to be doneOur secretary asked for a returned, and signed contract numerous times, as I did myself, verbally over the phoneThe signed, and returned contract, commercial in form, business to business was never returned by the client, after asking multiple times.
After many phone calls from the customer asking why we were not moving faster, I was told to "get that thing done" "I do not care if you have to put everyone on it or work around the clock, just get it done" That is verbal approvalAt one point we were even asked to stop, in which we did and we have a written memo to commence work, again verbal, and text message as wellThis again is good for me to proceed with the workWe are a time and materials custom shopWe can give an estimate, but it is only an estimate, as our contract statesCustom vehicles built per customer requests are very, if not impossible to estimate, as we discussed with both husband and wifeAs far as the fuel leak we did send a II much fabrication fuel tank catch can/breather to the customer to alleviate thisHowever during our driving use this did not show upWe do care about our customers, that is why we sent a can/breatherThe customer also approved the fuel tank design, which was built by one of our suppliersThe client saw a photo of it on social media and commented that he liked it, before it was shipped from our supplierThe customer originally asked for a replacement chassis for the truck and a body swap, which was estimated to be around 30k, however during the course of the build the customer continued to impose change upon change, which we were quite happy to doThe problem with this is that it increases the time and cost drasticallyAt one point the customer even stated, that he didn't know if he had enough money to do this truckThe total build ended up in the neighborhood of 57kWhat started as a simple build turned into a full blown race truck, based on what the customer sent us for parts and asked of us to buildI can tell you from a professional stand point, you can have a street car or you can have a race car, but not bothThis vehicle is mostly comprised of racing type parts, that in many cases carry little or no warranty, based on the fact that the manufactures cannot back up racing use parts that they have no idea the end use of, as well as how they are maintainedWe all know racing is expensive, and things fail, sometimes pre maturely.
The fact of the matter is race type vehicles are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, not to mention that this vehicle was not even fully broken in at this point, with only 400-miles on itI have a disclaimer for our builds that everyone signs upon pick upThese are custom vehicles, built based on what the client asks us to buildWe initially had rave reviews from MrB***, but shortly after the black widow exhaust video was released and shortly after the hotchkis challenge autocross event at Fontana raceway, some issues aroseThis is expected in these kinds of venues, just ask any auto crosser, week end S.C.C.Aracer or race team in generalCustom vehicles, and especially racing use vehicles, come with teething pains.
We are able to please 99% of our customers 100% of the timeRegards,
J*** ***
Mr D[redacted] brought in an older Pick Up truck for us to build into a hot rod racer. We signed a contract and built the truck but gave no guarantees once the truck...
was entered into any races. Fortunately, Mr. Browns Truck ran wonderful and he sent us videos and voice mail messages of how wonderful the truck performed. Unfortunately after a few months of break-in, the truck had a fuel leak and brake problem. Without giving us the option to make the repairs, Mr. Brown took the Pick Up to another mechanic and then had his lawyer send us the bill. Later on, his Truck had a problem with the differential and we suggested taking the differential out and having the shop rebuild it. Again, Mr. Brown purchased a new differential and had his lawyer send us a bill. To this day we have never seen the truck since he took it to San Diego, but we stand by our work and will make the repairs on his truck as needed. We can not pay for repairs that other shops have made.At this time both our lawyer and Mr. Browns Lawyer are in litigation over these invoices.
Deuces Wild Hot Rods
Complaint: 10794866
I am rejecting this response because:Well J[redacted] wants me to give you the whole story so here we go.
It all started in May 2014 when J[redacted] and deuces wild hot rods secretary M[redacted] came to my house in San Diego to pick up my truck in my driveway with his trailer. This 1967 Ford F100 was in 100% working order. At that time we supplied him with a new engine,computer, transmission, clutch and everything else needed for engine to run ,all this was approximately 24K. I had two of my coworkers there to help load everything. Previously to J[redacted] showing up at my house we had a phone conversation about the build and our 30 K budget he said yes no problem. When we were loading all the stuff one of the first thing Mr. M[redacted] says to me is we are going to have this truck on the cover of hot Rod Magazine. We know now this was just the beginning of things he would say, promises he would make and would not keep and would have no recollection of even saying them.
Two weeks later my wife and I drove up to their shop to discuss the build and see their shop. At that time we put the plan together for the build and paid them $12k so they can order the new chassis and other parts to get started. They told us the chassis would take six weeks to be manufactured and shipped to their shop. Well it was eight weeks later the truck just sitting in their shop untouched and the chassis was not there. They told me they were calling the manufacturer and they were behind, it would just be there any day now. That is when I called the manufacturer they had not heard from deuces wild hot rods and they told me it would be a minimum of another eight weeks. Chassis did not arrive to their shop in till mid August. At that time J[redacted] says to me they were going to work very hard on it and would be ready for powder coat by the first of October. Now going into this build we never gave them a timeframe or any type of deadline we simply asked that they try their best. The problems started when he made promises he could not keep.
The next step in the build was for me to drive up there 1 October and look at the chassis. At that time,I showed up at the shop and it was a long way from being ready for powder coat. J[redacted] told me at that time the truck would be done by Christmas. The direction and overall plan of this build had one change from day one. J[redacted] calls me one day and says he wants to move the firewall back this is so the engine could be moved back for better handling. I said to J[redacted] this sounds expensive you know our budget can I afford it? He says I think we can do it and gave me no change in price. This procedure ended up taking a long time and was a tremendous amount of work. During this whole build I was ordering and paying parts they needed to keep the project going which was on top of the 57K we paid them. Well here we were around Christmas when I called J[redacted] asking him what was going on with the truck,mind you he had already promised it was going to be done he then tells me that I could come pick up my vehicle at any time from their shop. Which was in pieces, this was so unprofessional I couldn't even wrap my head around it because at this time we had approximately $80k of our money tied up there.
So now we go into the first of the year,he then tells us are 30K budget is only for the chassis build! And there is a phase 2 which is an additional 35K on top of our original 30K budget. What choice did we now have our vehicle and our investment is in their shop in pieces.We agreed to the new phase 2 but only if he would agree to a finish date which he did and was the second week of January and if not done he would ship the vehicle himself to North Carolina and we have emails from him stating this. The second week of January of coarse passes I call him and he tells me he's got 17 other projects and I could come pick up my vehicle at any time. Obviously by this time we have had it with him and I told him all I want is for you to try to be done by the middle of March,my family is coming into town. He said thank you so much I will do my best to do so, and this was an email from him. Never happen we pick the vehicle up the second week of April. At this time yes I was very happy with the vehicle and was willing to forget about the previous year of headaches And more than doubled budget! The grand total value of this truck at this time is approximately 105K
I drove the truck home from Fillmore California to Carlsbad and everything seemed to work fine. Later that day I looked under the vehicle in the garage and The transmission was soaked in oil, the oil pan on the brand-new engine that they put on was leaking,the rear end was soaked in oil and the bed does not line up with the cab which they made custom mounts for. I called J[redacted] the next morning and told him these things,at that time I was not mad about them as I know with a custom vehicle there are going to be issues. J[redacted] tells me he will call me in about a month and we will get the vehicle back in here to fix these problems. Of course that never happen. This was the beginning of a whole new set of problems. By this time J[redacted] was no longer taking my calls or responding to voicemail and I texted one of the guys in the shop and got no response from him, shortly after that the vehicle broke down and was on the side of the road on a Sunday night.The truck was then towed to a nearby shop to be repaired at this time I emailed J[redacted] telling him about the problems and that I got the vehicle filmed leaking fuel, that is when he had one of his workers respond.
There is a big difference workmanship problems and as he calls them teething pains that go along with a custom-built vehicle.
(1)The new transmission was leaking because the hole they made in the floor didn't line up With the top of the transmission thus causing the rubber boot to be pulled off, causing leak.
(2) The New oil pan on the new engine that they installed leaked and the engine had to be pulled out of vehicle to fix , J[redacted] says to me I should've ordered a gasket, I guarantee you I would've had he told me to since I spent $105k
(3) The rear end had a catastrophic failure due to a manufacturer malfunction.
(4) The fuel system leaks out of the vent because it has no catch can and no check valve. So what he does is sends me a part to fix it myself and as it turns out the tank is in the bed of the truck and is too big to use this part since it sticks up outside of the bed which would make it dangerous and vulnerable. He says to me I could simply fix this problem by building a recessed pocket in the bed and lowering the tank into it. Obviously this is ridiculous and the tank that he had custom-made with sizes that he came up with were too big and not thought out.
(5) The driveshaft was too long by 5/8 of an inch causing vibration.
(6) The alternator was turned around and mounted backwards causing the pulley to unthread it's self resulting in a breakdown and another tow truck. As professionals they should have secured the pulley on the alternator
(7) The driver side wheel bearing on the rear end was pressed in crooked resulting in a wheel wobbling all over the place. Cause of major vibration. This problem I took back to the manufacture myself and he fixed it immediately but the fact of the matter it is it left deuces wild hot rods wobbling all over the place.
(8) When the vehicle is turned all the way either way the tires hit the brake lines where they mounted them on chassis. This means they could not have even checked to see if the tires hit on full turn because the first thing they come in contact with are the brake lines.Very dangerous. This is far from teething pains.
As it stands now the vehicle only has 2700 miles on it it had 500 on it when I picked it up. Truck breaks down every other time I drive it who knows what is next. There is a whole laundry list of problems that I have not listed that I would put into the teething pains category. J[redacted] says that we are not being truthful and that we need to tell the whole story, well here it is and we have emails and everything documented to what I have said here. What we will not do is go round and round with him anymore because there is no end to it, we did it for a whole year we are complaining about the problems that I listed here and his failure at the beginning of them to respond.
Regards,
D[redacted]