First I will give a slight background and why I chose Eurocharged. The car that was being worked on is an 01 E55 AMG. I purchased this car a few months back and have since done a lot of the maintenance to it myself. The car was completely stock. The spark plugs looked original when I replaced them and the fuel filter had a date stamped of 01 on it. So the car, from what it appeared, had everything original.

The reason I chose Eurocharged is because I had a deep trust for this company, and in particular Jerry, the owner of Eurocharged. I remember when back in the late 2000’s Jerry was starting up his tuning business and I saw a lot of posts about how great his tunes were and watched him grow from a forum tuner to a successful owner of what is now one of the most recognizable Mercedes tuning companies in America. I even had bought some mods for my first Mercedes (a different car) in the late 2000’s from LET (the predecessor to Eurocharged), had great experience and their rep, Eric, installed the parts at his Houston home. The first time I met Jerry was during a custom tune day he held in Victoria TX about six or so years back. It was very exciting to get a custom tune on my car by someone who seemed like the God of AMG tuning at the time.

Now flash forward to early December 2015. I had just received headers from another aftermarket tuner (non Eurocharged), and needed a shop to install them. I live in Austin, which is about two and a half hours away from Eurocharged Houston. There are plenty of reputable aftermarket tuner shops in Austin who could have installed these headers. But I thought that for the peace of mind I will just drive to Eurocharged and have them do it there. I was absolutely sure that Eurocharged were totally competent to install headers on an M113 motor, since they do so much work on them. I had trusted the place, and Jerry 100%. I even didn’t mind taking a day off and waking up at 5am on Monday to drive to Houston for the install, which I was told would take 5-6 hours.

On the day of the install I get to Eurocharged about half an hour before they open. I opened the hood to allow the car to cool off. At a little past 9, an Eurocharged employee drove my car around the back. I went around the shop to check on my car sometime around 10am and the car was already up on the lift getting the OE headers unbolted. About six hours later, a little past 4PM, Phillip, who is an employee of Eurocharged, walks out and tells me that they have a problem. He told me that my primary 02 sensors have broken because of the way they were installed (the story would vary later depending on who I spoke to). Which I thought was strange since no one had done any work to the exhaust. Also I am not sure why it took them about 5 hours to tell me this, OE headers must have been off before noon and the damage to the O2 sensors would have been noticed by then. I go to look at the sensors and one of them is ripped. I think to myself; there is no way it could have ripped like that do to age, or what Jerry claimed may have been an improper previous install. Like I have mentioned in the beginning, the car is all original. The previous owner didn’t do any mods to it. I have personally worked on the car prior to this header install, had it up on a lift, and there were absolutely no modifications done to the exhaust. Nor was there any evidence that the exhaust or the O2 sensors were worked on before. I drove the car for thousands of miles with no CELs. Tracked it down the ¼ mile, no cells. I could also sense in Phillip’s eyes that he was not very confident in his explanation as to why the sensor ripped. He came across as nervous, after I voiced doubt for his story and suggested the mechanic working on my car may be the one responsible for the damage. Various EC workers tried to convince me that there was absolutely no possibility that their mechanic could have damaged the 02 sensor. What happened afterwards was a series of arguments with Eurocharged employees, several jumping in to argue with me, maintaining that there was absolutely no chance that this damage was their fault. They insulted me, I was called a “dick,” for refusing to believe their story. Several of them got close to me, to where I felt threatened. I called Jerry and he told me that I was “*****ing,” after I asked him whether he saw the damage to the 02 sensor, and after I asserted that it was extremely unlikely that it was ripped do to age. At this point I lost all trust for EC and realized that I am going to go nowhere with them. I decided to offer to pay them for the agreed upon price of $500 for the install, even though the install was performed partially. From 9-5 they managed only to install the header part of the exhaust. The downpipes were, the OE exhaust was not cut, it required cutting and welding for this header set up. They ended up overcharging my card for $748 instead of the $500, without my permission, and refused to provide me with a receipt. I was not allowed access to my car, or to pull it out of their shop, they refused to pull it out themselves. Around this time I mentioned to them that I will be posting my experience on the forums. Phillip began to demand that I gave him my personal information, that they had no business in knowing, and I had no desire of giving. After repeatedly asking for my personal info, I asked him: “who the f__k do you think you are?” Phillip appeared lost, but another employee with a beard and the appearance of a homeless man, began to what looked to be a charge at me. He sprang up from his seat and made a dash towards me. Having no desire of turning this clown show into the Wild West, I walked out of their office and called the police. After learning that I called the police, the homeless looking Eurocharged employee jumped into his truck and took off. Long story short, two officers arrived, spoke to the Eurocharged employees, they pulled my car out of their shop and one of the officers said that Eurocharged will not be charging me any money.

The biggest disappointment in all of this isn’t the time wasted, or the money I spent towing the car back to Austin, or am going to be spending to fix everything back together, not even my nerves, but the total disrespect and rudeness with which I was treated by Eurocharged employees and Jerry. It’s going to be very hard for me to find any shop I can trust after this stressful and disappointing experience with Eurocharged. There was one Eurocharged employee in particular, named Phillip, who was very provocative on several occasions. Hours after we settled with the help of police and there was nothing left to it, Phillip pulls up next to me while I am waiting outside for the tow truck. He began taking photos of my car. I tried to ignore him, but he walked up to me and told me that if I tried to do anything to their shop, they had cameras watching me… Quite a *****ly fellow.

I do not know how many stories like this go unpublished because of the pressure the Eurocharged mob puts out on their customers whenever they mess something up, but judging from their horde reaction of denying the obvious it’s not uncommon. Jerry’s response that I am going to “go on some forum behind his back and ***** about it,” came out without any thought, regret of being a total a-hole to a customer, or even without me implying that I would post this anywhere.

As of this evening, Jerry has ignored my request to comment on whether he will be reimbursing me for the damaged O2 sensor. He has also ignored my request to comment on whether he has changed his mind about what could have happened to the O2 sensor, after I texted him a picture of the damage. Instead he implied that he knows I will post this story somewhere, and that he has a lawyer. Seems like Jerry has been called out for BSing his customers before, and is prepared to suppress any dissent by using a lot of fear tactics.

 

This is a photo of the sensor that Eurocharged broke, two wires and protective plastic around the sensor are broken, the wires appear to be ripped off.:

 

Well, there are two sides to every story. Myself, 6 employees, and a customer who happened to be in the shop at the same time have a different story to tell.

Thank you for the kind words above about me and the growth of the company. I understand your frustration and I wish you would have answered my calls yesterday or returned my texts. I tried to do the right thing and my efforts went unanswered.

Eurocharged will not be paying for your damaged 02 sensor. I'm sure you figured that out, but I still don't believe it was our fault and I was ONLY going to replace both of them so you would be happy. I haven't been ignoring your request, I simply asked that you email me or call me to discuss. Would you like me to post the text message? They can't be posted without your permission, so let me know.

The Police didn't pull your car out of the shop, nor did they demand that we pull it out. They simply asked if the car can be released and we said that this would be best at this point and WE moved the car out to the parking lot. If you would like me to post the HD video of the police conversation that happened inside my shop, I'll be happy to do so. I think you should hear what they had to say about you.

All monies paid to Eurocharged were refunded. We now have 5+ hours of labor into your car that we will never get paid on.

I have admitted fault many of times in the past. I have paid for mistakes we have made and there are MANY customers that will back me on this.

We did not damage your 02 sensor. We did not damage any part of your car that you bought 10 days ago.

I will ask the other Eurocharged customer to post his thoughts and any comments he has on this.

I will also give Philip the opportunity to post as well. I have known Philip for years and he is one of the nicest people I know. He is caring, dedicated, and really tries hard to make everyone happy. You talked down to him, were rude to him, and have flat out told lies here today about him.

You also posted on another forum to try and hurt the reputation of Eurocharged. I informed you that the owner of that car will be posting soon to let you know that you are indeed wrong in regards to his car too. He has a few Mercedes as well and will be posting here too.

I wish you the best with your car and we hope that you can resolve whatever is really going on with you.

Regards,

Jerry

 

I will do my best to clarify how we got to this point:

I was the customer that was there yesterday, checking on my project car that is currently in the more than capable hands of Eurocharged. We were discussing my engine build when one of the techs comes over to the shop foreman and says he was moving the O2 sensor and the wires snapped. All he did was make the area clear to finish installing the rest of the Kleemann exhaust.

The foreman goes over to inspect the situation and the other O2 and hears a pop when he moves it. They jump into action trying to source a couple of sensor but they wouldn't be available until tomorrow morning. We even went so far as to try and use the sensors off of my car to get yours back running. You were also missing some crush gaskets they would have hindered the completion of the install altogether. I also offered to give you those off my car as well. The rest of your post terribly misleading because I know for a fact that Jerry offered to replace your sensors at no charge.

For some unknown reason, their efforts were vilified by you. Everyone went above and beyond, not because you came from Austin. They did it because that's how they treat everyone of their clients. It doesn't matter if you spend $100 or $1000, they value each and every person that they encounter.

You think your post is in some way helping the buyer beware, but in fact, it shows what some companies have to endure.

 

Hello, its Phil, yes the situation sucks but I can say we did everything we could to get the car back on the road as fast as possible. Jerry offered to buy him brand new O2 sensors but there was no opportunity to talk, I was shut up every time I tried to talk with him. The biggest thing that has hurt me in this post is the words put in my mouth. In the back of the shop when I pulled up I first asked if he was okay and had a place to stay. I got a yes. I did mention the camera but nothing about the shop, I simply let him know that if his car was towed, broken into, or the exhaust stolen (sitting under his car) that we would be able to find out exactly what happened. (My reason for telling him this is the recent situation on September 22 where my wallet and backpack and co workers laptop was stolen out of the shop, also on Thursday of last week our neighbors at 1:30pm got a purse stolen from their office. It was in the best interest of Rami to know that his car was safe in the back). After letting him know this, I was threatened by him with him stating "you're a little small to be acting tough." I got in my car and left. This is really what I wanted to get out. I posted to vent, I'm truly a nice guy and was able to post this in the forum because its the truth. Thanks, Phil

 

All this over a $100 if that sensor. The sensor is nearly 15 years old. That **** looks like it would fall apart on its own soon anyhow. That should have been a while your in there part you should have budgeted for. As an owner of several businesses as well I see this all to often. Someone picks up a bimmer or benz and wear/replacement items break on their own basicly due to age/wear and these guys want you to buy them a new s65 amg when they showed until in a decades old 318 or c230.

Señor old **** breaks on old cars. Sounds like you got a ****ty deal on that lump if it was still running on original plugs and filters. Regardless of mileage those items should have been on at least their 3rd set by now. Did you check to see ifor car was still running the oem oil. Lol.

 

Why tell stories when you can post the video w/ audio. Post the whole thing and prove me wrong.

You called me and began texting me AFTER Phillip called you to tell you that I was going to post this on the forums. Before that you didn't give a crap, don't lie. You verbally abused me minutes prior, when I called you and I asked for your take on what happened to my O2 sensors and what you wanted to do about it. Your response was it's not Eurocharged's fault, because the O2 sensors either broke themselves or whoever installed them before didn't install them correctly. That's just hilarious. When I asked you if you thought there was at least a possibility of your tech breaking the sensor you told me I was bi t ching about it. What changed in a few minutes? I know, you got scared that others would hear of my experience and all of a sudden became a caring guy. Someone who would have truly cared about their customers' experience wouldn't have run out of the shop when there is a major problem that your shop is responsible for.

I am sorry you think so, but I lready told you, see you in small claims.

I would like to know, on what basis do you think your shop could have held my car after it overcharged me for the work performed? And please post the full video, with audio, from when Phillip told me that there was a problem with my car, to when the police left. That would be the whole story, can you do that?

Also post a video of your tech working on my car, it can be sped up. You guys are supposed to know M113 blindfolded, and it took him 8 hours to install just the headers without the downpipes? Were you guys just covering up that he broke my O2 sensor that long?

You are just playing stupid, you've been in the modding business long enough. You break something, you fix it. It's just common sense. Every single mechanic I showed that O2 sensor to said that it couldn't have been like that, otherwise I would have had a CEL, and a rough running car. And 5+ hours is not very accurate, more like 7, why did it take so long to partially complete a job that your foreman claimed would take 6 hours at most?

I don't care what you did in the past, you are in denial right now. And I've had the car for probably at least 3 months... 10 days?

Or you can just post the video surveillance...

 

OP is so mad. Quit being cheap and just buy the O2 sensor. If EC would have done this they would most definitely take responsibility for it. But no one is also going to pay out of pocket just because you are ranting that it wasn't like that. Quit being such a tool and trying to bash EC. There reputation is to good anyways so this is a useless thread..

 

Look at the OP crying on a Facebook group page.

 

I may have to get back on Facebook for this, ugh!!!

 

Where I spend most of my day laughing at post like these lol.

 

🙌🏽

 

The funny thing about this is when you get counter sued for defacing this company, you still won't be able to afford an o2 sensor.

 

Yeah I was going to say that as well.

 

Regarding all the Facebook trolling about how I can't afford the O2's, or that my car is an old POS. Trolls are losers by default. I posted in an E55 group that is over-run by Eurocharged fanboys. I told them what they did not want to hear. I was told by the moderator of said group that he is equating me posting my experience with Eurocharged to "[crap] talking." And that if I do it again, he will delete me from his group. That's some bland censorship in Eurocharged favor.

There was another guy who had problems with Eurocharged a month or so back, in that same Facebook group. His motor blew after had Eurocharged do the mods. He posted about his experience and was met with a similar swarm of fanboy trolls, talking crap, and denying even the possibility that Eurocharged could be at fault. Then these guys with 16 posts since 2007 come in and start posting Facebook screenshots, you go on their Facebook page and it's some fat loser with a feed of selfies of their chubby face with their car in the background, probably paid for by mom and dad's money.

What happened to me at EC on Monday is pretty evident. Eurocharged broke a part on my car, refused to pay for it, and tried to shut me up. Yet somehow there are people out there who blame me for this situation... Because I am, according to them, "cheap," for refusing to pay for someone else's mistake. Or that I should pay, even if Eurocharged is at fault, because I drive an old car and the O2's were bound to fail eventually. But the O2's were fine when I got there, even the Eurocharged guy working on my car said they were fine until he started taking them off. Who knows when they would have failed, if ever? What kind of logic is that? Is it ok for Eurocharged to go screwing up on peoples' cars now, because as we know all mechanical components are bound to fail eventually?

"There are 2 sides to every story," okay. I asked EC to post the video of the whole thing, and a video of the tech working on my car. Wouldn't you rather see it rather than read about it?

I have no interest in turning this into a financial assets pissing contest, but when someone tries to screw me over for $1, or for $300, it turns into a matter of principal rather than the sum of money. If you go through life paying for others' mistakes because you are afraid of their status, or the amount of poodles that they can unleash on you, then you are a coward. I was cheated and I stood up for myself.

I had to call my bank today to report an unauthorized transaction for $748 plus a few cents from Eurocharged. It was neither canceled, nor credited back by Eurocharged.

 

The forum / E55 group is not run by Eurocharged Fan boys... in fact, we have only been a part of this group for about 2 months. You can always leave the group if you wish.

Maybe you should READ the email I sent before lying on the forum that it wasn't refunded or voided.

Here is proof it was voided.




Here is the apology from the guy a month or so go you are referring to. We didn't do ANYTHING wrong and stood up for our self, just as we will do here.




I'm not going to spend hours copying an HD video from our camera system and uploading it to youtube just so people can see it. Anyone that wants to watch it can come by the shop and waste their own time. This issue is done and over with as far as I'm concerned.

 

Well said!!!

 

In 11/10/2015 I purchased 2 headers, 2 heat exchanger, and 2 belt wrap kit from eurocharged. Throughout the ENTIRE purchasing process Phil and Jerry where most helpful in answering all my questions (there where a lot), once everything came in and was ready for installation I sent them more questions regarding the install process and everything and once again they where more than helpful. Phil went above and beyond in helping me replying very fast and giving me in depth details and explanation on how to install everything and even how to retune the car because I was unfamiliar with it. I have referred many of my AMG back to Eurocharged and we can all pledge to there excellent customer service and products happy driving

 

Wow! What a train wreck.

 

Don't know you, OP, but I'd be compelled to ask you to consider the common denominator in this narrative. And wanting blood from a stone over an o2 sensor is enough to make me doubt the accuracy of your facts, no matter how many words you use to portray them.

I can't say you're wrong, but I won't say you're in the right.


What I will say, is Eurocharged, for me, has always under-promised and over-delivered. Even during times where it's been difficult for Jerry and the guys to produce results, due to extenuating circumstances (summer floods of 2015), a little patience on all sides gave way to happy folks on both sides of the sale. Perhaps this principle could have eased the strain of your transaction.

Cheers!

 

Here are my first questions:

1. At any time was the op denied possession of his car before the cops were called?

2. If so, why?