mr-flyer

why hasn't Vadim replied to this thread? i've seen a recent post for him with a $7K offer of rip off i'd say...

i_am_amused

duh?

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that he knows that any posts he made would be met with and buried by negative rebuttals.

Sincity

If he didn't subscribe to it, he probably cannot find it. Notice that all threads are merged and now buried in Mbworld Forums > Technical & Veh Assistance > Performance Upgrades & Tuning.

i_am_amused

interesting....

i find that to be a questionable move by the admins. This is *not* a tuning thread, it's a vendor complaint thread.

"buried" is a good word to use. one could also use "hidden"

Tom Sederburg

Very good point.

Later,
Tom

Air Marshall Eldritch

It's not model-specific, nor is it a tuning thread, but it's closer to a tuning thread than anything else, being a tuner complaint.

Where would you put it, Off topic?

gsrjc

So any updates regarding this? Did people get their money back?

turborx7

bump
what happened anyone forget ther money here? lol

bodyguard

Imagine advertising a product for sale and taking the customers money, all along knowing in advance you can't deliver the merchandise. Then start using stalling tactics hoping the customer would eventually get frustrated and possibly walk away? Sounds to me, only a VERY desperate person would think a plan such as this would work. You can only push the envelope so far before the sh-t hits the fan. Your credibility is destroyed. To quote a phrase from The Bronx Tales " There's nothing worse than wasted talent ".

slik560

Fraud is fraud, and in most every state, a felony. If you have not pursued a fraud complaint with the appropriate state's Attorney General, it would benefit you do do so. Most every state AG office has a consumer protection office. They can work with local authorities to investigate.

AMGSC

I asked Vadim about your situation and he told me that PayPal refunded your money. Is that true and if so when did that occur?

willc55

I spoke with bodyguard yesterday (he's actually my landlord ), and I'm pretty sure that he doesn't have the money back yet, but he is in the process of getting his money refunded by paypal.

Also, to all the guys who are jumping on bodyguard, saying that he's a troll or should have handled the situation differently, I couldn't disagree more. Not only is he a really nice patient guy, who would bend over backwards to help you out if you needed it, but he is clearly the victim of at best questionable business practices that other potential customers deserve to know about.

Keeping information like this quiet just hurts more people.

maxwerks

Guys I guess you can add me to the list of disgruntled !!
I have been away from the scene for a while , and I missed this thread.. now that I am back and found this . I guess I shoudl have joined the thread a while back.

I paid Vadim in full for few parts , ( including $990 for an ECU tune , never done anyways because I never sent him the ECU ) but also parts I never received. five weeks ago I got in touch with him via email and he said that few days to get the parts , there I am over a month and I have nothing, I asked for my money back , now I hear that my parts got destroyed in the fire !! WHAT FIRE, can someone fill me if this is true at all ??
What kills me now is that what does the the ECU work ( which is ALL Labor ) have to do with fire and damage ?? It was never sent ( thank god ) , so work was never done, no cost outlay on his part ,YET I paid in full and I cant get a refund ?? All along I was willing to be patient remembering that times have been tough on most of us .. BUT now I frankly smell BS.

If there any members that can help with advise, info, insight, or join in . Please feel free to contact me through the forums or email me directly at
max@maxwerks.com ,
Regards,
Max

maxwerks

First , I BEG the moderators NOT to close this thread. It is given that the moderators can not check every sponsor , and accommodate any sad or unsatisfied buyers.. BUT when there are more than one complain, that warrants some attention. We kindly ask the moderators to maintain the threads that allow members to get together, alarm possible future buyers, and hopefully combine the efforts or ripped off people to hopefully find a remedy.

Second, I ask all people who paid Vadim and never received anything or still owed parts, or owed refunds to join in and compile a list . The original OP, isnt the first or last.. I am sure there are many who havent yet heard about this thread, I dont know how we can make it more visible but I am open to suggestions.

Third, I ask anyone who knows Vadim personally to advise / URGE him to to join this forum and address people's concerns in an honest manner . Whatever happened that caused the hardship, if any , I think most people are willing work with him on some sort of arrangement. I personally will email him advising him of this thread.

I do not plan to just give up on money spent and write it off.

Thank you to all ,
Max

maxwerks

I just got a response from one of our members HAVOC on the other thread from the W210AMG . I inquired about the fire I heard that Vadim had suffered from in his shop as told by him. The response is listed below:

armaniE55

+1

Blacklisted... For sure

Always, always pay with credit card or Paypal and keep a close eye on the time limit

t1n0

1) goes without saying, use a credit card.
2) This is an open forum for us to exchange information, all information, in the course of ownership or planned ownership of these cars so experience with vendors, both praise and complaints should be included. This place has been invaluable for me with the few situations I've had so far, and when I get around to modding my car, you can bet your *** I'm gonna look up other people's experiences with certain people/products.
3) Being an independent IT consultant for over ten years now, I have had my fair share of situations where parts are delayed, and projects go south. I cherish my reputation more than anything, and my customer base likewise. Things can and do happen, but communication is key. Customers will understand that something is delayed, but I would never ignore requests for an explanation. Even if they call every day, I have to show face to the problem. In my type of work, parts delays can range from a few days to a week, (with parts for our cars, delays may be a couple of weeks) but if I tell them a week, or whatever, and it goes past that, I have to be straight with the client and tell them what I have done to correct the situation and give them the option to back out, and if they want to back out, refund in full for anything that has not been given to them, minus any services satisfactorily rendered. Using that as the standard, I have managed to keep customers I thought I had lost for sure when things didn't go as planned. On the other hand, I've had everything go smoothly and lost the customer. I have had customers equipment fail while it was in my possession through no fault of mine, it was just time for it to fail. In those times, even though I have had to spring for parts and give the client something extra in the way of discounts or whatever to rectify the situation, sometimes I still lost the customer. But no matter what, always keep the customer in the loop, and always give them the option to back out if things get out of hand.
Having said all of that, you can probably guess what I think about a vendor who doesn't make good on a deal. Taking someone's hard-earned cash and not delivering what was promised is theft, plain and simple. Don't know if that applies here, because we are going on the OP's word, but the vendor should address the situation, and if ever it is corrected, the OP has the responsibility of posting the conclusion, just as he has the right to post his complaint in the first place.

...end of rant

bodyguard

Paypal has recovered the money in full for me. Vadim has emailed me and said, "Please accept the spacers ( which I did receive ) as payment for the delay". I thought that showed class !
Thank you,
Bodyguard

AMGSC

I'm really glad to hear that! Vadim is really not a bad guy if you ever speak to him in person. Very geniune and sincere. He's put over 300 hours into debugging my custom setup with no additional pay. I only paid him for an 8 quarts of oil. He even paid out of his own pocket for 2 new MAF sensors, a new 82mm TB, crank sensor, cam sensor, spark plugs and wires, to name a few. I forced him to accept $200 cash just yesterday.

He's fallen on bad times but has never given up on his customers. To those who still did not get their refund or product. I'm sure he will take care of you guys. He won't forget no matter how long it will take.

JonMBZ

class lol? I guess.... I feel bad for those Ferraris I wonder if these stories are going on at those forums as well. I keep checking back here to hopefully hear some better stories coming, but nope I see another bad story and that paypal had to refund your money. I hope AMGSC finally gets his car taken care of. I don't think there is much Vadim can do at this point to rectify the situation. He as been silent for too long. I wonder how he is still able to pay for his sponsorship here, but cant afford to give his customers their stolen money back....

JonMBZ

Just talking about you and u beat me to the punch. I think you have given him enough money already to warrant his "generosity" you are really understanding guy, but I still don't trust your judgment (no disrespect meant) you remind me of the battered wife that says he hits me because he loves me lol I just want you to get your car done so you can be done with the whole situation and not look back. Good luck as usual

bigben320e

In bold one of the best questions yet. Not to mention, the question about why other threads were closed.

MarkoCL65

Vadim has always been straightforward with me and I have had nothing but good experiences with him. Hopefully he can get these issues straightened out.

ShangoAshe

I've been reading this thread for a while, and never took the chance to really reply to this thread. My personal experience with Vadim was great. He may not be the best business man, but you can be sure he makes genuine and top-notch parts.

I've dealt with him twice already. First time, I waited about 3 weeks for my parts. This was in the beginning of the year. Since it took a while for the parts to get to me, Vadim sent me upper and lower spacers at his own expense.

Recently I decided to purchase some more parts for my car. I told him about this thread, and he assured me everything is alright. He sent me the parts within 10 days and told me to pay him AFTER I recieved it to make sure I am happy with everything. As a gratitude for believing in him and his products he gave me gaskets for free.

I hope more members here will trust him more. I understand there are a few of you who are in bad terms with him. In reality, I'm sure there are more PRO customers. When you have a bad experience you tend to speak up more, thats why we see so much negativity around here.

Anyways, I thought I should share my insight and experience with Vadim. Hopefully some of you may try to deal with him again. So far everything I bought from him is working perfectly with NO problems. Like I said he IS a great guy to deal with. His parts are PROVEN and they work great.

maxwerks

Well here we are in February of 2010 and the outcome of my patience and courtesy I extended to Mr. Vadim has not only gone unnoticed but in fact taken advantage of by the famous Mr. Vadim !

Several months of waiting and being nice and courteous, wishing him well , and telling him I will wait .. and what do I get ... NOTHING !!!!
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.... not even an attempt to partially reimburse me , or reorder the parts that he claims he lost in the fire... mind you my order is was as follows :
- E55K Air intake ( he could have gotten it ANYWHERE, HEll I could have ordered it from many sources...
- Evosport underdrive pulley....YES VERY HARD TO GET MONTHS LATER..
- AND the last is what really kills me : I paid him in addition to the above, $990 upfront for an ECU reprogramming.... I never sent the ECU, because I never got the parts first... which means that cost him ZERO...Yet he wont be a decent guy and refund at least that part !!!

All I get MONTHS later.. " Oh I am still waiting to be able to " Reorder " the parts for you since my parts were burned in the fire " !!! Well I have been more than patient regarding the fire, never doubted his words, always supported him and told him I will wait.... but apparently.. instead of appreciating what customers do.. he took that as a sign of weekness... there is no excuse for anyone doing that.. he is working on several other jobs for other people with budgets far more than my $1700 I paid him.. the least that any DECENT person would do is at least make a payment plan to refund the money ... instead I get nothing but BS.

Well sorry for all who vouched for him and suggested that I wait.. I did wait and gave him more than enough benefit of the doubt.... but five months is enough....

THis is to inform anyone who has been burned by Vadim to join me , as I AM starting legal procedures against him. PM me or email me at max@maxwerks.com