Exactly^

 

Denroll it's up to them if they want it on the forum

It's been months and neither of them has posted about it so obviously they don't see the need to have it on the forum

 

Don't take any of this personally, none of it is intended to be. The OP has put forth quite a bit of evidence and it's hard to not draw some pretty obvious conclusions. Think of it like this, what if it was your money sitting in someone else's hands for months. In the end it's always hard to believe that someone who has been good to you in the past could do something so wrong to someone else, unfortunately it happens to often. P.S. You know what was at the bottom of that popcorn bucket you sick *******

 

It always sucks to hear about this... Best of luck to Kelvin and Bruce for a speedy resolution to this tragic turn of events. Let's try to give Bruce a chance to make good on his agreement with Kelvin, You never know.

 

Feel really bad for the OP. I hope this is a lesson to others about leaving large sums of up-front money for a job. I've seen it happen countless times in the car world and almost every single time ends like this or with someone unhappy. As a business owner myself (waterproofing) we require a 1/3 deposit and the completion after the job is completed and I doubt we would get much business if requesting payment in full in advance. That money would of been much safer in a savings account that was made just for the cost of what TTM was going to do.

 

I'd have you bill in progression payments and allow you to bill for store materials with 10% retainage due at closeout. And you have to give a year warranty

 

I would hope you were joking. If not you would be one of those people we happily walk away from knowing the headache isn't worth it. Only thing we do with zero down is commercial (and of course they take months to pay) and government work (they take longer to pay go figure). Most of our jobs are 1-3 day jobs and less than $10,000. Larger jobs have a payment structure that is usually 25% deposit,25% at excavation,25% at back fill and the remainder within 1 week of completion.

 

Wow! This is shocking from what I know of Bruce. What is more shocking is his lack of response. Hey, I guess every good company takes a dive and takes customers with it at some point.

 

Could have been as simple as the tuner holding the car until payment completed.

 

It's awful to see this, Bruce has always been a reputable person from what I have experienced.

I hope the two of you can come to a positive resolution. Good luck.

 

Kelvin, I am right there with you I have done several builds with Bruce and there have been plenty of headaches along with good outcomes, but for a shop/person that claims to be so amazing it should be almost headache free, done in a timely fashion and if an issue arises work to make it right. none of us want to pay his premier pricing only to hear excuse after excuse. Not to say Bruce can not produce stellar rides, and he has, but I have several cars and have never been asked to prepay any build or have had cars sit untouched for 6 months I also have never had a shop owner, and this is for you people who asked why he did not go there in person, threaten me when I pull up on my bike, when I walked into his office that day he sat at his desk looked at me then told me "you should have kept your helmet on, you might have a chance then" Long story short he has no clue to this day how modest I am in that dept. or the training I have been given, but I sure my size was more then he is used to and he decided to talk this one out and we moved on from that issue. Probably the best decision he made that day.

This year was a different story I too was told to keep sending money and car again was there for 6months untouched, but this time I was a few steps ahead and have like you documentation of all interactions in case of an issue, needless to say it was a disaster like yours as well, I am being very modest and hope that Bruce reads all of this and does the right thing with both of our issues and makes some changes for the better, if he does not, with social media these days he will sink rapidly. These forums are here for us to exchange great ideas and what to stay away from. Good luck I am interested to see how all this unfolds and how his responses will be structured.

 

It takes years to build a reputation for quality of work done. but can go south in a very short time and spread like wildfire.

 

I believe this is the case as well. I had something similar happen to me when I was younger and had a shop working on my Cutlass as I was working too much to get it done myself. It got so bad at one point the shop owner was calling me asking for $ so he could pay his rent. Shortly after I showed up with a trailer to get my car and parts while the guy proceeded to ring up a BS bill for every time he blinked next to my car.

Seems giving shops a lot of $ up front ends badly all too often. It's a shame you have to go through this but THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS. It's clearly gone on more then long enough at this point.

 

You read my mind, I was visiting friends, and the last thing I would have wanted was to get them involved in some sort of scuffle or brawl (it would have been disrespectful to my hosts), I thought about keeping an open line with him, because I was still holding out hope that perhaps he would be courteous enough to call me after I told him I was there.

Also, it is a privately owned business, he could shut the door in my face, I didn't wanna risk humiliation from someone who should welcome me with open arms, but, maybe that's just me being old school.

I really do hope Bruce comes out of nowhere and fixes our issues, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.

 

So, who else sells injectors and fuel system parts?? I feel there is a vacuum in the market suddenly.

 

Sadly, this is the most likely scenario, although I have no doubts he can make my money in a hurry given the amount of work he usually has. I would like for him to make good on his end of the bargain and send me the parts or my money back.

 

Fabtech?

 

well for ONE you will NEVER hear from TTM on this matter on this issue, mark my words on that.
i went to TTM and spoke to Bruce a few months ago about some mods for my E55.
he gave me some verbal prices then i asked him about working on my wifes G55 then asked him again to review the pricing (ive done this in the past to see if guys trying to up sell you **** you dont need when they think you can afford it) low and behold everything was up 4-800.00 so i just yesed him to death and went on my way.
3800.00 for keelman headers installed really? really?
o and it was just a RUFF est at 135.00 an hour... like he hasnt done them before .

end result? taking my car to car doctor world a mile from my house in Southampton
their labor rates are 115.00 an hour.

TTM may be good but compared to car doctor world there a joke.
just do a google search on them and you be the judge.

true high performance speed shop that build world record breaking race cars for 115.00 an hour for the past 26 years or TTM with bang you over the head prices and in bizz for 3-4 years is what i think he said but i could be wrong on that.
the choice was easy for me.

 

sounds like a nightmare, good luck OP!

 

Just terrible. Also feels like you'd be paying double for any work if it were actually done.

 

Bruce, sorry to say that I have no choice in posting this as I would never want to see what has happened to this guy happen to anyone else! Honestly...I was nervous about leaving my car with him because if you can't reply....THEN SOMETHING IS WRONG...BIGTIME!

These are my PM's sent to Bruce in the past and that is why I have personally decided to do no further dealing with him.

This is becoming a little ridiculous 5/03/13

Bruce, Brian here, the big guy with the 2004 e55. I have left 3 messages for you on your answering machine and as you may not know, in business, people can get pretty annoyed at not hearing back from you. I thought me and you were alright but anyone would get a complex when you don't return 3 calls with messages dating back to almost a month ago! I have done nothing but praise you on the forum and you can't even return a phone call? If I did this I would be out of business!

trying to reach you again 5/13/13 I would like to speak with you about the headers. I was driving by your place today and stopped in but you weren't there. Called you and no return call...again!
If you don't want the work buddy, no problem...just tell me...I can handle it! What I can't handle is a businessman not replying...ever!


10 freakin days and nothing as you can see...finally he called me. Now, his prices aren't cheap but he was local and seemed like a good guy but in one meeting who can't seem like a good salesman with his personality?!! Seemed like a great guy and maybe he still is!...but! How on earth was I going to leave 'THIS' guy my car and expect it back in a timely manner and expect the work to actually get done right if he can't even return a phone call of a message? NOT FOR ME! He tuned my car and put a tube in my airbox for better flow and K&N filters for $850...maybe $200 or $300 to high but a local guy who seemed like he was trying get a biz off the ground...no biggie to me. He did it right there and the tune seems like it worked nicely and still does. Now, I know that the tune is from the other place (forgot the name) but still, work was done on the spot and car runs better. He was supposed to do kleemans for me and contact me when the headers were there and that's where the PM's came from! He called and said that I was supposed to drop off the car the next week, after the tune, and I never did! I actually thought that I was losing my mind and possibly didn't tell him to call me when Kleemans were there and shrugged it off a little but after not getting replies...I was a little skeptical to say the least! Anyway, not bashing you Bruce (...and Bruce, you have my phone number, fell free to confront me with this anytime...might be the only way that you do reply in a timely fashion) only telling the facts and the real truth is...if I would have relayed this to the community in May...then maybe I would have saved someone else from the same DISASTER that the OP is going through! You may be a good guy but you are a HORRIBLE businessman!!!

 

'good guys' count for absolutely nothing...........you either get the business done or you fail.....

good luck OP

 

So crazy all this is coming out now. I had a weird feeling about TTM (Bruce) long ago and never bought in to his rip off prices ($3800 to buy/install Kleemanns!!!) and some mods I thought were a joke like his $20 in materials of mild steel air scoops that are like what $350 or something like that? Or his looped fuel rail that was the miracle to save all E55s from engine damage but one blew up in the same way breaking piston #8 with his looped rail and injectors. Injectors that are simply Bosch Ev14 550cc injectors that can be bought in different spray patterns for just over $50/each ($400) then add in the pigtails to convert connector type for $5/each ($40). Choose a split pattern to hit both intake valves and you are set and running bigger injectors is what you want to protect your engine more, not that rail. I can thank him though for giving me a pdf file for the valve body when he saw me asking about it in a thread a while back, but I never planned on buying something from him after seeing his pricing for what you got.

Oh and Nomad your tune is a Eurocharged tune from Jerry. It would have been OE tuning in the past but Jeremy broke connections with Bruce after he had problems with him which another member mentioned earlier (Bruce not paying OE for tuning).

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

well Sh!iT just hit the fan up in here.......... i hope you get your money back bro, that quiet a bit of it too