My definitive Bruce@TTM HORROR STORY.
06-22-2013, 07:26 AM
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CLS55 AMG, ML63 AMG, Cayenne S
My definitive Bruce@TTM HORROR STORY.
This is a recollection of my experiences dealing with Bruce owner of Tuning Technology Motorsports, http://www.ttmotorsports.com/, from here on out referred to as BRUCE@TTM.
This is meant to be an informative thread, so you don't make mistakes like I did, so you don't drink "TTM's Kool-aid" like I did and overpay for TTM products and TTM's labor because "Bruce is a stand up guy and will take care of you", this is a statement that perhaps you will see here, from other members, and that is their experience, but also, other members will be encouraged to share their TTM sob/horror stories here (I know there are plenty of us), don't be shy, let everybody know, help the community, because my TTM experience was the COMPLETE OPPOSITE, his service has been self-serving, and the only thing Bruce will take care of is Bruce, that much I have learned.
Please read on.
My name is Kelvin, I live in Costa Rica (Central America), and I am a proud owner Mercedes Benz CLS55 (sold) and an ML63 2009 and fellow AMG enthusiast. Around March last year I got the mod bug for my CLS55, so I did like anyone here would, I searched the forums, read vendor reviews and asked for advise from fellow members as to which tuner I should choose.
Two tuner names were very popular, one of them was Bruce@TTM.
I called them both, hit it off with both, but ultimately, I decided on Bruce. I have to admit that one of the main reasons I decided to give Bruce a chance was his reputation as a customer oriented, no-nonsense, HONEST GUY with great customer service, so I was sold, he is very good at selling himself and his company over the phone, I was hooked, I was excited. The budget was going to be around $20 to $25,000 for an engine build plus labor (which I later found out it was an obscene amount), while we planned the project, originally I wanted to ship my CLS to his shop for him to do the build, but I was first going to start making $2000 payments toward that $20k balance until I reached a significant amount, then I will ship the car from Costa Rica.
So on April 28th, 2012 I made my first $2000 payment through Paypal, I repeated this process through paypal 7 times total until September 27th, 2012, those were seven payments of $2000, totaling, $14,000.
Then on December 14th 2012, I made my last payment, this one was for $4,000, cash, as per his request (and my naiveté), I put it all in an envelope and sent through UPS, on december 19th, I received an email from Bruce that the package arrived safe and sound. So finally I reached a decent amount, now I could certainly decide what to do...
Bruce's email confirmation on the package. December 19th, 2012.
I never received any parts or service from Bruce, I wanted to put the money together first, then I would firmly decide what to do, either way most of the stuff I was quoting WAS TTM kits, nothing else, you guys know how this goes, Tuners try to sell you their in-house stuff, otherwise, what's the point?, but hey, it is what it is and we accept it.
Given that my CLS55 had given me too many mechanical problems since I bought it one year before, I decided against shipping it to New York and making the build on it and selling it instead, so I informed Bruce about my decision of selling it, that left me with ML63 as my other option.
I decided to do a Weistec SC stage 2 and put Kleemann headers on it and call it a day, so I emailed Bruce about this on April 8, 2013, I reiterated my intention in another email on April 11th.
I called his cell, his shop and no call back, finally I get an email from him on April 16th, he told me his father was very ill and that the past few weeks had been very hectic, my response, NO PROBLEM, sorry to hear about your dad, call me anytime.
I email him again on April 18, two more times after that, called him probably once a week leaving a message, asking him for a call back or to simply take my calls, and got response until April 29th, eleven days later, his email simply said "Hey brother Kelvin. I'll be back in my office tomorrow afternoon so we'll catch up then."
(You can see how many times I emailed him after that… *sigh*, no response)
I did call him, about 5 times the next day, all answering machine and no call back. So I emailed him the next day, on April 30th… then no reply for almost 40 days….
Within these 40 days, the CLS new owner asked me to replace the SC pulley because mine was faulty, dealer quote him over $2,000, tried contacting Bruce to get some parts for my money, nothing, finally I had to spend another $1350 to buy a few parts from member Exotic-metal55, thankfully, he did go the extra mile because I was in a bind, so did Jerry@eurocharged with the tune for the new pulley set up.
June 4th I sent him this email (the forward you see below is to my lawyer)
His reply came, 4 days later (WOW…), asking for an opportunity to correct this. To give 2-3 months to make this right.
That was two weeks ago, and I have emailed him to get some sort of deadline on my parts, he doesn't reply to my emails and he doesn't take my calls, and I know his shop is open and packed… how do I know this?, because 3 weeks ago I was in New Jersey visiting a close friend and I called him and drove by his shop and it was PACKED!!. Did Bruce immediately called me back after I left him a message saying I was nearby if I could stop by?, of course not.
So, this is that hour, when I'm left with no options, tired of chasing an "HONEST AND STAND UP GUY", who just so happens to have $18,000 of mine, and he shows no sympathy and doesn't care for my situation, why should I treat him any different?, I know he will read this, I know his friends will read this, he owes me $18,000, I have been patient almost to a fault, he has repeatedly ignored my attempts to work with him, he has never given me any service or sold me any parts, these are the facts, and they are undisputable.
I have started the process for legal action against Bruce and Tuning Technology Motorsports within the state of New York if this is not resolved in a timely manner.
I will continue to update this thread with new information if;
A- Bruce resolves this by refunding my money.
B-Bruce resolves this by sending me the Weistec Stage 2 SC Kit and the Kleeman headers for my ML63
C-If I sue him in the state of New York.
I hope my horror story serves people around here to be more careful, and if you (yes, you!), are thinking of dealing with Bruce, just, beware of the dog.
This is meant to be an informative thread, so you don't make mistakes like I did, so you don't drink "TTM's Kool-aid" like I did and overpay for TTM products and TTM's labor because "Bruce is a stand up guy and will take care of you", this is a statement that perhaps you will see here, from other members, and that is their experience, but also, other members will be encouraged to share their TTM sob/horror stories here (I know there are plenty of us), don't be shy, let everybody know, help the community, because my TTM experience was the COMPLETE OPPOSITE, his service has been self-serving, and the only thing Bruce will take care of is Bruce, that much I have learned.
Please read on.
My name is Kelvin, I live in Costa Rica (Central America), and I am a proud owner Mercedes Benz CLS55 (sold) and an ML63 2009 and fellow AMG enthusiast. Around March last year I got the mod bug for my CLS55, so I did like anyone here would, I searched the forums, read vendor reviews and asked for advise from fellow members as to which tuner I should choose.
Two tuner names were very popular, one of them was Bruce@TTM.
I called them both, hit it off with both, but ultimately, I decided on Bruce. I have to admit that one of the main reasons I decided to give Bruce a chance was his reputation as a customer oriented, no-nonsense, HONEST GUY with great customer service, so I was sold, he is very good at selling himself and his company over the phone, I was hooked, I was excited. The budget was going to be around $20 to $25,000 for an engine build plus labor (which I later found out it was an obscene amount), while we planned the project, originally I wanted to ship my CLS to his shop for him to do the build, but I was first going to start making $2000 payments toward that $20k balance until I reached a significant amount, then I will ship the car from Costa Rica.
So on April 28th, 2012 I made my first $2000 payment through Paypal, I repeated this process through paypal 7 times total until September 27th, 2012, those were seven payments of $2000, totaling, $14,000.
Then on December 14th 2012, I made my last payment, this one was for $4,000, cash, as per his request (and my naiveté), I put it all in an envelope and sent through UPS, on december 19th, I received an email from Bruce that the package arrived safe and sound. So finally I reached a decent amount, now I could certainly decide what to do...
Bruce's email confirmation on the package. December 19th, 2012.
I never received any parts or service from Bruce, I wanted to put the money together first, then I would firmly decide what to do, either way most of the stuff I was quoting WAS TTM kits, nothing else, you guys know how this goes, Tuners try to sell you their in-house stuff, otherwise, what's the point?, but hey, it is what it is and we accept it.
Given that my CLS55 had given me too many mechanical problems since I bought it one year before, I decided against shipping it to New York and making the build on it and selling it instead, so I informed Bruce about my decision of selling it, that left me with ML63 as my other option.
I decided to do a Weistec SC stage 2 and put Kleemann headers on it and call it a day, so I emailed Bruce about this on April 8, 2013, I reiterated my intention in another email on April 11th.
I called his cell, his shop and no call back, finally I get an email from him on April 16th, he told me his father was very ill and that the past few weeks had been very hectic, my response, NO PROBLEM, sorry to hear about your dad, call me anytime.
I email him again on April 18, two more times after that, called him probably once a week leaving a message, asking him for a call back or to simply take my calls, and got response until April 29th, eleven days later, his email simply said "Hey brother Kelvin. I'll be back in my office tomorrow afternoon so we'll catch up then."
(You can see how many times I emailed him after that… *sigh*, no response)
I did call him, about 5 times the next day, all answering machine and no call back. So I emailed him the next day, on April 30th… then no reply for almost 40 days….
Within these 40 days, the CLS new owner asked me to replace the SC pulley because mine was faulty, dealer quote him over $2,000, tried contacting Bruce to get some parts for my money, nothing, finally I had to spend another $1350 to buy a few parts from member Exotic-metal55, thankfully, he did go the extra mile because I was in a bind, so did Jerry@eurocharged with the tune for the new pulley set up.
June 4th I sent him this email (the forward you see below is to my lawyer)
His reply came, 4 days later (WOW…), asking for an opportunity to correct this. To give 2-3 months to make this right.
That was two weeks ago, and I have emailed him to get some sort of deadline on my parts, he doesn't reply to my emails and he doesn't take my calls, and I know his shop is open and packed… how do I know this?, because 3 weeks ago I was in New Jersey visiting a close friend and I called him and drove by his shop and it was PACKED!!. Did Bruce immediately called me back after I left him a message saying I was nearby if I could stop by?, of course not.
So, this is that hour, when I'm left with no options, tired of chasing an "HONEST AND STAND UP GUY", who just so happens to have $18,000 of mine, and he shows no sympathy and doesn't care for my situation, why should I treat him any different?, I know he will read this, I know his friends will read this, he owes me $18,000, I have been patient almost to a fault, he has repeatedly ignored my attempts to work with him, he has never given me any service or sold me any parts, these are the facts, and they are undisputable.
I have started the process for legal action against Bruce and Tuning Technology Motorsports within the state of New York if this is not resolved in a timely manner.
I will continue to update this thread with new information if;
A- Bruce resolves this by refunding my money.
B-Bruce resolves this by sending me the Weistec Stage 2 SC Kit and the Kleeman headers for my ML63
C-If I sue him in the state of New York.
I hope my horror story serves people around here to be more careful, and if you (yes, you!), are thinking of dealing with Bruce, just, beware of the dog.
06-24-2013, 02:11 PM
#2
I am so glad that I was able to avoid that guy from when I first met him.
He did so many of my friends wrong and always blames everyone else for his problems.
Good luck with your situation, I feel for you.
He did so many of my friends wrong and always blames everyone else for his problems.
Good luck with your situation, I feel for you.
06-25-2013, 03:43 PM
#3
Super Member
Thanks for the story. I hate those mod bug bites and then you mindlessly spend money on power!! Good luck with your case and hope you get something out of all this.
