Carlh

FWIW
Stephens appears to be saying that he was not reviewing the forum for some considerable time, but I find it strange that, subsequent to his last posts on this forum, he did have the time to post on Ferrarichat.
It is also interesting that Europerformance, or whatever his Company is known as, also purports to provide tuning for Ferraris.
The last post rings especially true here. There needs to be some full disclosure and transparency posted before anyone starts to draw incorrect conclusions.

mhh

I'm relieved to see Stephens back on line. As I said in an earlier post, my couple of PMs with him were consistent with a friendly regular person who is very interested in cars and modifications. Whereever this goes, the resumption of communication is a good thing.

oggle

That's not right. A confidentiality agreement is only effective when BOTH parties agree to it. Unless he specifically stated he agrees to abide by it, he can share those mails with anyone he chooses.

Unless, you can show legal proof that a one-way demand is enough to enforce a contract.

Here on mbworld, however, this may be different, as the admins make up the rules for their own private site. But elsewhere I don't see how it's enforceable.

otoupalik

Oggle,

you might want to double check that. The law as it applies to documents and electronically transmitted documents is changing rapidly these days.

Also, I was specifically speaking of MBWorld, where it is part of the TOU.

Regardless, no one is ever going to be sued for breach of confidentiality, it is again, as stated, about ethics and responsibilty. Which are issues that seem to be at play in this thread.

Thanks

Brad

stephens

I was IM'ed from Ferrari Chat on the same day as the email from Simon Atik.
There is no mystery to this, the post on FerrariChat was made on the same day.
Further to all this talk of me having time to be on Ferrarichat, but not here...doing a search you can see I posted ONCE in the entire period and until two days ago, twice since June.

It is interesting that the continuing of this issue appears to be predominantly from "members" who have newly registered since I have responded and appear to be muddying the waters.

I have forwarded the email correspondence from E55 Baller to the board Admins, confirming the facts as I have stated them already. I suggest you speak with them for confirmation as I too considered posting the communications between us, but have been given advice that it may constitute a breach of the privacy act.

I have left messages for Isaac to clarify things but so far no word.
I will say that I have sought advice and am considering a defamation suit.
Due to precedent set by a case Joseph Gutnick V Dow Jones, Australia is considered to be the relevant durisdiction for the case to be heard, and we have reciprocal enforcement agreements with the US. Further the chargeback from paypal, has still not been rectified and I am about to go into a finance meeting, where this issue will now looks like being escalated to the relevant authorities as there is now what appears at face value, a financial deception involving our company accounts which is getting outside of my control. - BE CLEAR - I am the one out of pocket here, NOT ISAAC.

I can only urge Isaac to make contact with me and rectify the situation.

The admins have my unequivocal permission to advise any of you any information I have given them including the content of the the emails confirming the facts as I have stated, along with details of my usage history on the board.

This board is not a forum for having a go at people. I have posted this only to clear up what really are the facts. I will pursue Isaac as appropriate for the funds I require and for other aspects of this incident as appropriate, offline.

ThemisN

You are having a finance meeting? With whom? Stephens, through everything it seems that you were the only point of contact, for ordering, for tracking the order, etc. Having a meeting suggests that you actually hire people, but not for takign care of the customer end.

For a second, can you address the issue of poor customer service and not being able to contact you, and the comments about you sending tracking numbers of shipment, of which nothing came about?

I realize the details of the refund(s) might be bothering you, but I see an overrall theme that may be more important in the long run.

bigben320e

Meetings, lawyers, lawsuits. Geez, on the last comment before this is on point. Why the 67 emails E55 sent? Why no response? I repeat from earlier posts....no evidence shown to back any claims yet. Lots of talk, and defamation suits have to be backed with solid evidence. I have went through that before, the guy was laughed out of court and had to pick up court costs to boot. The bigger issue restated is customer service, communication, honesty and lack of integrity. Let's stop the nonesense about lawsuits and SHOW evidence, dates, concrete stuff. Case closed. Just my two cents.

P.S. The scariest lawyer would be Darth Vader. Votes?

AMGe55

stephens

I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt but you still have not addressed whether or not the products were ever shipped and e55baller states that he was given 2 tracking numbers which were bogus. Can you address this? You state that the car modding business is just a hobby for you but when you place products in the public market that cost thousands of dollars your customers will expect a certain amount of customer service and professionalism.

SpeedyRu

there are bad nuts all over the world. i should hope that it doesn't make all Ozzies look bad!



MG

stephens

Good point. The reason for my lack of detail is fairly straight forward.
I wanted to clear up the statements and impression that were irrefutably incorrect, so that I would not be left with two weeks worth of he said, she said arguments on the minutae of one months worth of communications. Additionaly given that both criminal and civil remedies were being investigated on these issues, I had to be careful as to what is posted.

The Paypal account used was the IPN company one, which is why there was a problem. I say was, because as of this morning, Paypal have restored the funds to our account, which resolves that problem.

One thing I can say, is that during the period Isaac was posting, we were in regular contact. He knew I was busy at the time and not in my offices, yet gave no hint as to what was going on here.

bigben320e

Stephens and all where is E55 Baller? He is the man of the hour and he should be posting here to clear the air. Stephens is answering and replying so what's up? Just a note...

rusnakmb

I don't care more or less what is going on now. At least the problem was solved. Lets drop it and keep going, guys.

There is no attack needed. We all know what is going on already, why bother to continue this subject? cheer

ThemisN

Stephens is hardly answering. We still dont know what the deal is with the tracking numbers. That and he says he was busy and not in his offices, but he was in supposed regular contact with him. If I was Isaac, I wouldnt have given a hint to my warning to other buyers either.

If there were ever 2 tracking numbers given out, and no shipment was ever received...If I didnt get an answer after one contact, I would immediately begin to think twice. He doesnt owe you 2 weeks to get it ironed out, I dont care how busy you were. Again, all this could be avoided if you paid one person to get this stuff straight while you are gone. But oh..thats right, you were "in regular contact". lol.

I didnt ask for specific tracking numbers...just give us the jist of what that deal is. You only have to worry about legal ramifications if you are trying to lie.

bigben320e

Good point, not saying stephens has answered anything. He is replying, and wondered E55 where are you? You are right stephens has not answered for the REAL information needed, just skirting it so far. Legal talk is a scare tatic, old jedi mind trick to make people back off.

EWCIII2001

Reading through the posts leaves one with an opinion one way or the other, but not a definitive one as to whose story is more legit. One verdict is in though...Stephens as a businessman. Even in today's wacky world, people deserve and expect quality and service when putting up their money. If you aren't sure your company can provide it then in my opinion you shouldn't be in business until you can get your act together. Which is really a shame because Stephens appears to have really put a great performance package together.

e55 baller

I just logged on and wanted to respond to Stephen's comments just to "clear things up"

<<STEPHEN: Just to be clear, I WAS slack in refunding Isaac, from his perspective, but what may have started as a legitimate beef, has turned into a lie.>>

Stephen -- I got my $$ from my bank issuing a credit to my credit card for $6,300. As you know you failed to ship the goods for 60 days (promised it on day 10-15) and failed to remit payment for multiple requests. I don't want to go back and sling **** all over this forum but i have saved every last correspondence and have numerous (> 5) requests to you for a refund "ASAP".

I was honestly completely suprised when you sent me $5,800 in paypal - I assume it was prompted because my credit card company was contacting you and that it was become apparrently real that I claimed fraud.

<< STEPHEN: I was accused of "stealing" Isaac's money and him relying on a CC chargeback to get his money back. - SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
I am sure that Isaac will fix up the "double dipping", but right now I am the party who is out, not him as has been portrayed here. [SELL BELOW]>>

Lets see Stephen, 70+ e-mails, 30+ phone calls, your actions indicated that you had NO intention of providing the goods as requested. My credit card company INSTANTLY realized your "customer service" behavior by pouring though all correspondence and issued a refund immediatlely. They deemed by their business procedures that you were a fradulent and in the wrong on this transaction. They said I waited beyond the call of duty to see if you would materialze as a reputable merchant. I am still thoroughly convinced that if they did not step in you would have my $$ today.

I am sorry but I do not trust you. You did not earn my trust or respect. I don't care how busy you are, we are all busy. At the end of the day you:

A) Wasted 60 days of my time trying to procure mods for my car
B) Essentially required me to have to make $400 in phone calls to you to inquire where the hell the goods where.
C) Lied about "the package is in the mail and shipped", yes I am using the "L" word.
D) My net loss was $400 (phone calls) + $6,300-5,800. = $900. You sent me a paypal transaction of only $5,800 NET so I lost $300 and $250 on the transaction fee -- I WAS aware of the $250 but the rest I wasn't. You have your $$ back...I am ethical and remain ethical. If I wanted to I could have been a pain in your *** for 60 days and waited to send you back your money but I am better than that.
E) A burtal PITA, I will never deal with your lousy customer service and will urge those that want to deal with a reputable, responsive and ethical dealer to avoid you at all cost.

Lessons for you:

1) You are dealing with Mercedez Benz's owners not Honda Civic owners -- you must treat your customers fairly and with respect or you will lose respect. You know where I stand.

2) If you don't serve your customers someone else will like EVOSport or Kleeman or Carrlson or Renntech, get the point? We have CHOICES.

3) If you are so darn busy why don't you hire a $10/hr. secretary to ship the crap for you. That way you are outsouring the critical fullfillment piece that you were unable to satisfy. You could even pass along this fee to the customer. Why am I giving you advice on how to run your business??

Lessons for me:

1) I am entirely way too naive for sending $6,300 via paypal to someone that doesn't even have a tuner company, tuner website, or has ever shipped a E55 kit to the US -- at least no one on this forum responded to several inquiries that they had your kit.

2) A quality car like the E55 should be mated with quality and reputable dealers that have transactional history

3) You pay what you get for -- I just paid essentially $1000 to have a terrible experience --- one that I will never forget.

OzSL55

I just got my SL55 upgraded from a different source here in OZ and the parts and software only set me back the equivelent of $US5300. I was advised by a long time friend in the aftermarket game, after mentioning I'd seen an ad in popular local car mag, to stay away from the tuner mentioned in this thread....I'm glad I did by all accounts...

My upgrade experience was it took about 2 weeks to organise the parts, which included a properly modified stock pulley and ECU software. Then approx. 3 hrs total time to fit and I was back on the road enjoying my new found HP.

EWCIII2001

e55baller, your whole experience proves why scams work and con artistry is a lucrative business. And I'm not saying Stehens is any such thing. I'm talking you going down this road and putting out so much money without the assurances common sense would dictate be there in such a transaction. Here, it wasn't even the something for nothing scenario. It was going for something that seemed really great, while the part of the brain that handles logic was told to hush up. We've ALL been there at some point in time if we're honest with ourselves. Take it as a valuable life lesson and move on. You lost some money and time and whatever, but look at it this way. For the rest of your life you will look more completely into things and make transactions very cautiously. Eventually, you'll come out on the plus side.

e55 baller

EWCIII2001,

Very good point. I have definitely learned from this experience for the better. I need to be more discriminating and rational. As you said the one side of my brain kept saying, "Wow, this is such a great deal...I should just wait 30 more days and maybe, just maybe the goods will arrive..."

bigben320e

This has been an awakening experience to say the least to us all. Even though E55 lost money, he learned something and warned us all on this issue. From the looks of things this does appear to be a scam however. Moving on, we will be all more cautious and this is another blow to the honor system and trust when we buy and trade things over the internet. This breaks down a good system that saves money. I just wish more ethics and customer service were applied here. Now I am a little paranoid, and sure we all are more "on guard" about buying things over the net. Sad.

saber

Another post on this appeared in Ferrari Chat....SOME IMPORTANT INFO

Jon200

glad to see another one from Sydney

Street Tester

That's why when purchasing over the internet I use my credit card as it's protected by the various credit card schemes which gives me some sort of piece of mind. However merchant's or consumers don't have to be concerned if they are doing the correct thing.


E55Baller, "Heads Up"

Note from my previous experiences & understanding with credit card system, it's from my understanding that your initial refund by your c/c provider is pending their investigation. They refund your money straight up ie: when you raise the dispute. Reason being is that some investigation may take upto a few months to resolve so they don't want to leave their customers out of pocket for extensive periods for obvious reasons.
Check to see if the matter has been resolved with your c/c provider as seems this merchant refunded via paypal your c/c provider may draw on your a/c leaving you out of pocket again even though you have recredited this merchant via paypal.

I'm not insinuating or making conculsions but get it checked out just to be 100% sure all is settled & that your not out of pocket.

Hope this helps!

e55 baller

Street Tester,

Good point, I will double and tripple check with my cc provider, last thing I would want to learn is that I am now out $6,300 AND $1,000.

e55benz0

E Baller,

I have some very interesting and seemingly accurate and credible information for you direct from the land down under about this scam artist. Apparently you are not the only one. I will contact you privately to discuss.