Karlson

this is scary story to read, I just hope he wouldn't leave the country because of that cause it will be difficult to catch him.

AZIPOD

I agree that it will be unlikely to get a class action certification based on the facts at hand. A class action suit involves a very large group people.

Civil theft, fraud, conversion and the like are very hard to prove. It is time consuming and the cost of discovery and attorney fee will be outrageous. In CA, we have statutory regs for treble damages against people who write bad checks. Not sure about general fraud, but the expectation of that is getting too deep and complicated, probably more so than the members on the board want to involve themselves in. Members who choose the small claims route can get this done in a day. Those who are out of state can fly in the night before to attend the trial and fly back home afterwards. Cost of traveling would be less than $500. Who knows, the judge might be outraged and allow Plaintiff recovery of his travel expenses as well.

Once everyone gets their judgment we can retain one collection attorney to pursue the judgment on a reduced contingency fee based on the number of judgments we will have collectively.

AMGSC

Vadim has been banned so he cannot reply here. Don't know about how he responded to all of your attempts at direct contact though.

maxwerks

He responded to all our attempts in his favorite way...using meaningless responses via email with nothing but excuses and promises he never intends to honor.... " check in the mail " !!!

He has been banned..OK ... let him show some honesty and decency : he can have of one many honest members here who will be willing to post on his behalf in a non partial way... he can show decency by not hiding behind his individual meaningless email responses.
Better yet , I will contact the moderators and ask them personally to reinstate his capacity to post again to show that he is in fact FACING his responsibilities . If not then I will be happy to set up a specific web page for that purpose if he would only face us. How about that? Lets see if he is man enough to accept any of these options !

FACT IS HE KNOWS ABOUT THIS THREAD AND OTHERS... IF HE WANTED TO REPLY HE WOULD HAVE FOUND A WAY TO DO SO,, but it takes an honest person to do so.

AMGSC

This is THE most active MB forum on the net by far...Anybody wanting to do MB related business here should build or at least preserve their reputation.

I know he is still dedicated to the MB brand and has built up a ton of hands on knowedge on these cars having owned and modified a C32 and S600 himself and pushing the limits on some R&D projects for a few customers car's including mine. I don't think he wants to waste all that specific knowledge and experience he gained by moving to another brand or leaving the automotive field which he has spent his entire adult life.

I doubt he is looking for a short-term profit by deceit at the expense of building upon the solid foundation he established here for quite a few years. It's just too much to lose from a career and business development standpoint.

Up to now, he has never taken my money and bailed. The results may have been delayed but they eventually do get done.

If these claims are valid which I assume they are, then he should just admit to the customers that he's temporarily insolvent and tell the customer that a refund or goods delivery is not likley presently. He should also not take any more payments for goods he cannot deliver.

From my experiences with him, if he had the financial means, he would have delivered the goods or refunded your money. The fire basically destroyed his business and he has not recovered yet. He should just face up and tell the customers the honest facts. I can tell honestly tell all of you now that any legal action would yield nothing.

I don't think posts here that damage his reputation will help with any recoveries. It will put him further in the hole. BUT if the goal is to put him out of business while sacrificing your loss then that's another story. And if feels he cannot rebuild his business in the MB environment then I would assume he would just move on to a different brand/make of cars.

maxwerks

AMGSC, forgive me but I have to ask this , and if I am wrong please dont take offense and just correct me if I am wrong.

Wasnt that the very same Vadim who almost ruined your car , and you spent thousands with him... was it you who posted your utter dissatisfaction with his entire operation?

Even if the above is wrong, frankly for me to hear that someone who is supposedly in that much trouble and who owes money left and right.. for me to hear that he is " Refusing to accept money " from you , is UTTERLY STUPID, on his part if in fact this is true. What am I supposed to gather by this ? Am I supposed to think that he is so NOBLE not to take money rightfully owed to him from some people , while screwing many others ? I am sorry but that doesnt make any sense at all . Oh I feel better now to know that my money in fact went to fix screw ups he made to other people's cars , oh but he wont take money from them, he will take mine !!!!

On one hand it looks that you are sympathetic to the posters here which are owed money and parts by Vadim, on another hand, it seems that you are either speaking for him , OR defending him somehow, OR somehow
explaining his position....

I am genuinely confused.

AMGSC

I just learned to be patient...No other choice if you've already paid. I know for a fact he is presently NOT loaded. He is still trying for the few customers with cars in his shop so I just assume he still cares about the other customers he owes money or product to.

He feels bad about what happened with my car when the fire occurred so in some way he's making it up with some free labor. I think I suffered the greatest loss compared to others.

maxwerks

Now there is something I dont understand.. fire supposedly occurred last July 4th, yet there are complaints about his operations at least since October
2008... what am I missing ? Somethng doesnt add up actually several .

MB_Forever

This is off topic a little, but I will ask it here because it would not be appropriate to start a whole new thread for it: what ever happened to your car? Did you sell it or do you still have it? If you have it, are you still planning to go forward with the build? How is it running currently?

AZIPOD

I can't believe there are still people on the board defending Vadim!

I suppose I was guilty of that earlier on too. I guess the trust I gave him was based on the positive experiences I and other members had in the past. As a result, I trusted him with my money.... and he almost ran away with it!

One thing for sure is that Vadim did a great job earning trust on the board. So much trust that there's a handful of people who got burned yet his loyalists are still doing nothing but defend him.

I disagree with the guy that said litigation will yield nothing. It simply is the easiest way to recover the losses, put this matter to rest, and leave a court judgment with the county to follow Vadim indefinitely! Frankly speaking, I think most of the members on the board appear "scared" to take action.... which pretty much explains why the posts on this thread is limited only to a few contributors... yet there are over 1700 views !!

BenzoBoi

+1

CWW

+1

He kept their money. And he kept their parts. Game over.

maxwerks

AMGSC, I think it would be nice, toward your fellow group members , specially the ones that got screwed by Vadim , for you to give us all a clear explanation of what is going on with your car, your exact current position with Vadim.... etc... after all I think it was you who first trashed Vadim pretty hard way back, only for us to hear of your continued work with him.. and now I think it is safe to say that everyone is wondering .

Back in November , it was you & Havoc who suggested that I exercise patience and understanding , I did just that , which got me nowhere. Frankly , your statements about Vadim sound awefully like defending him, sometimes it even sounds like it is speaking for him. I dont mind, but may I suggest that if you want to be instrumental in SETTING UP A BINDING RESOLUTION with Vadim before legal actions take place then by all means lets all be clear about this and lets hear it...if not .. then I think the matter with Vadim has enough mud all over it, it certainly doesnt need more confusion . If you are defending him because he still has your car and youre anxious to get it back, then tell us. If you have your car and " to whatever degree " satisfied with it ,..... then good for you, enjoy it and let us deal with our affairs with the person who wronged us.

maxwerks

I could care less if he built an 8 second S class everyday driver ! Integrity comes before genius any day.

AMGSC

Max,
I think you have formulated very strong and well articulated arguments. Once I get my car back today at 5pm, I will try to chat with him about these complaints.

I'd truly like to hear his side of the story and then know what are his plans are to rectify this aweful situation.

btw...For those who are curious what the heck is going on with my car. The car is running fine with a 70mm pulley but with a lower compression ratio was only able to pull 430whp (only 6.2 psi after intake and 82mm TB mods lowered original boost from 8.3). The car handles like a track car and the rear resevoir was installed and working perfectly. My car runs so cool it's ridiculous.

I got the 175mm crank pulley and 65mm SC pulley stored in a box and am shopping for a tuner who will take on this one of kind project. The MAF sensor is the barrier at this point as I need someone who can create new maps for the ECU to recognize additional airflow. My last resort would be to go to a stand-alone ECU but that would mean I lose alot of the other electrical MB functions.

maxwerks

AMGSC- First , I am happy to hear that youre happy with your car , I wish you the very best .

Now , how long it took , what is cost , and what you went through to get him to do it or somehow finish it , it is what many people are wondering about . I frankly have a feeling that it is a much uglier story than your words seem to convey, but thats my feeling. It is extremely important and relevant because you getting your car , seem to somehow undermine and underplay Vadim's tactics in a public forum such as this .. and that is not fair to the rest of us.
I think you getting your car back, is just as imporatant as " HOW" .

As far as you hearing " HIS SIDE OF THE STORY " , I will take that comment as your position of having to be " for whatever reason " impartial , or maybe you are obligated to use these words under some agreement or arrangement.

I am not willing to hear or acknowledge any so called " side of the story " he might have , through another person. He wants to debate anything, he can do it openly and FACE ME in an open forum that I will be happy to arrange. But for me to hear anything from him through you or anyone else is nothing but an excuse to mangle truths...and that applies not only to me, but to everyone who has been wronged by him. As I said, he wants to voice any comments, he is welcomed .. face me and anyone else IN PUBLIC and directly.

I personally have no faith in him ever doing that. I am pursuing him in every legal way possible and wont rest till this is carried through and will be glad to post all the details for everyone to see unless I am bound legally not to so so. This is not because I want to or enjoy hurting anyone who is under duress , this is because he intentionally and methodically ignored my position and persistently avoided even acknowledging a compromised solution with me , did not do ANYTHING to honor his repeated promises and dates to me . The work on your car was quite elaborate, my parts orderd were so simple it is laughable that he couldnt tend to !

LCat

I'm posting following on Vadims behalf as per his request
“This is Vadim.

First off – I am under new handle for now. I am behind on sponsorship for MBworld and they banned my IP, this is why I have not responded right away.

Secondly – I would like to extend my APOLOGY to anyone who I owe money. It is not intentional.


Combination of previous partner leaving, July 4th fire at the shop that destroyed inventory and business, in addition to current economic conditions, my revenue have fallen dramatically.

I had to move current projects to a friend’s shop in order to get them completed. I could off simply filed bankruptcy and walked away from everything, but I did not.

Anyway - enough of excuses.


I am working with an MBworld member, who has graciously offered financial support to get matters resolved.

But I do need to talk everyone in person and we will make sure that everyone is satisfied.”

Following is my personal take on the situation
Now allow me to introduce myself. I have been enjoying relationship with Vadim since 1997 - a glory days of the SHO Shop. Back then he have proven himself as an excellent engineer and a tuner and I still miss my 404 whp 2900lbs Green Shadow . Car drove like a fury and handled like it was on the rails. Let’s just put it this way - it was much more of the drivers car then M3s of the early 2000s
When I decided to go AMG route I was actually trying to get the same type of result – that’s why I’ve chosen W210 E55 instead of W211 after realizing what engine might be able to be SCharged and required HP to weight ratio will be achieved but there is nothing which can be done for suspension on W211.
Strangely enough one of the decision points about going MB vs. BMW route came from finding out what Vadim is one of the active vendors in the MB space.
I felt comfortable what I will receive same level of engineering support and ability to take things to extreme but very safely and in the smart way as I enjoyed before. And I did enjoy it for a while.
As you could probably figure out by now, I’m a MB board member Vadim is referring to in his message above.
About a year ago Vadim’s ability to deliver started to decline for variety of reasons and after the fire at his shop things started to go sour really quick. Yet he always was very helpful on the phone even towards things where I was not his customer. He probably spend good 30-50 hours on the phone with me helping me troubleshoot my extremely modified SC Infinity Qx56 even though it was not his project and not his problems at all. Knowing amount of financial hardship he was going through I actually offered to pay him for a time spend on the phone which would have came to the handy number. Well – guess what – he respectfully declined. He told me what he is gladly doing it in the spirit of relationship and as an apology for things which went wrong. You know – they say time is money – right now Vadim might not have money to give you so he will give you a next best thing he has – time.
In late October I got myself an S65 and at that time I had to make and incredibly hard choice – do it with some of the known and reputable tuners or give a Vadim a chance even knowing what his situation became worse and was additionally complicated by some personal issues. After some painful considerations I had to face following decision – If I go with somebody else I will bail on Vadim and overall support of an industry. This Industry is greatly propelled forward by the small tuning houses – if not for people such as Vadim we would not have a readily and reasonably priced available multitude of parts. So I took a big chance with a very expensive car and a lot of money and doing it with Vadim. And trust me we are not talking about $1800 
So far project was commencing forward although not without some setbacks and hopefully at the end I will get what I was looking for – 8 sec S Class (Just kidding – we trying to break in the 9s though)
Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe at the end of the day I could have done something else with somebody faster and for argument sake cheaper. It would not be going to extremes we going to, and it brings me to a next question – nobody really needs to modify S65 or any other AMG car for that matter. We all doing it because it is our passion.
Realizing that brought me to the next level. I have some successful background in rebuilding and salvaging small businesses in the past. Right now I’m doing a deep dive in to Vadims business and opportunities to make sure what business can be salvaged perhaps under professional management.
Vadims problem what he is a great engineer but not a good businessmen at all. Business requires a lot of self discipline and proper expectation and commitment management and EVERY single high performance shop I dealt with in the past have problems in this regard. Then times are good those problems do not affect anybody too much. If times get tougher, luck of business self discipline will immediately result in the similar situation as we seeing right now.
I’m going to put my personal funds in restoring his business if I determine what it has any chances of success. I will be taking a big financial risk with no financial upside because I personally believe what if community would not stand up by small R&D shops then it will be no progress ever made.
I deeply believe what Vadim is not a fraud – he is a good but not disciplined guy how fallen on the really hard times. I personally know what all he needed to do is to file business bankruptcy and walk away from everybody – start over clean and free – instead he is sticking out as good as he can.
What I would like to do is have people to PM me their problems with Vadim so I could see how can they be reconciled. Hopefully I could come up with a plan to save Vadims business and take care of everybody one way or another.

Thanks a lot
Leon Rivkin

AZIPOD

This is a crock of poo!

Those that have been burnt have heard Vadim sing this tune over and over again.

I find the above comments by Vadim extremely insulting. He must think we were all born yesterday.

maxwerks

Leon, LCat....
As a New Yorker ( yes I still am even though I moved a year ago !!) , and your W210 E55 group member .... I sincerely and wholeheartedly applaud your forthcoming post.

You just gave a simple example of what needed to take place... even though jabbing me about the 8 SEC S class !!!! ( I loved that by the way LOL ) ...
I wiling to see where this would lead and play some ball so to speak. If this works then I wish you both the best of luck.

Best regards,

Max

maxwerks

Sorry but lets be realistic.. this is the most articulate and forthcoming response and address to the subject since this whole thing started. So lets remember that ... I am more than willing to curb my own personal anger if it meant some sort of resolution for the hurt parties, and help for a person in duress.... for m e it was never about the dollars as much as the pattern and path taken.

LCat

I'm a particular member he is reffering to.

AZIPOD

Yeah sure. This crook was taking plenty of orders subsequent to the fire with full knowledge that he could not fulfill them.

Whoever the good sumiritan is on the board should make an effort to pay the members directly, as oppose to paying Vadim and risk having him burn us again.

maxwerks

AZIPOD, ...if you read my posts , you can clearly see that I dont get swayed easily... but there is also some reasoning that we all must use.

Forgive me if I missed it before, but if you are one of the people who is owed money or parts... I suggest :
- Look at the fact the Lcat's post is really the first to take and publicly announce a step taken.
- Sure few people defended Vadim or sounded like they did..no one took a clear stance at least from what I have seen and read.
- This was never about hurting anyone, that accomplishes nothing ...this is about parts paid for and money spent.

So in light of the above, if there is a solution , compromised or not , lets at least consider that . I communicated with Leon, and frankly , it was a very eloquent dialog between two car crazy adults, which I appreciated. As I wrote to AMGSC before, if he wanted to be instrumental in being an intermediary, then by all means.. well he did not , but Leon has and for that he has my respect .
At the end of the day, hurting someone brings me personally no joy or comfort. Reaching a resolution does.
Thats just my own personal opinion, and I can only voice it . Regards,

Max

AZIPOD

Hi Max,

I disagree.

Let's not get distracted from the true facts. It's all plain and simple. The facts of the matter is that many people have given Vadim money in exchange for parts. He has not delivered and continuous to not be able to deliver. Rather, he tries to sugar coat the situation with the smoke & mirrors.

Some members here expressed great optimism for the outcome... I take it that these memberse are not the ones that are owed money.

Many have been waiting for over 6-months, some over a year!!!. If anyone here has ever been in the business of collections you will surely know that the longer the debt remains unpaid, the more unlikely that it will ever be unpaid. Collectively, Vadim has burned members for over $50k!

Do you realistically think he will pay that amount back, voluntarily?

AMGSC

Can you point me to the post of the listing of each member that is owed money or parts and the amount/value?

I am curious as well. I am being completely neutral here. I am a paying customer as well (to the tune of over $50K and counting all by myself including a brand new motor) and the project is still not completed nor to my satisfaction yet. I am collecting my car by 5pm tomorrow regardless of what running condition it is in.

The carriage is about to turn back into a pumpkin.