My experience with Steve Eckerich – looking for advice
 

In April 2025 I was referred to Steve to have an FC diff pinion grafted. I searched the forums, knew the reputation of the shop who had referred him, and saw that he was highly thought of here and so reached out. Steve was quick to reply and worked out a deal for the pinion to be grafted within a month, so I sent him my pinions in late April. Unfortunately, Steve received a box of CV axles instead of my pinions: I had mixed up shipping labels when shipping things at the same time. Luckily, the axle shop that received the pinions reached out and I had new labels sent out with apologies so that Steve and the shop could swap packages. The timeline then goes as follows:

• In mid-May the package of pinions was delivered to Steve, however Steve never reached out about receiving them, but UPS confirmed the package was delivered.
• From May to August, I never heard from Steve, despite reaching out multiple times. While on leave, visiting my family during this time and hoping to do the pinion swap, I finally heard that they would be done “within a week”. Weeks went by with no pinions and no word.
• From August to December 2025, the same thing, with another promise that they would be completed. By this time, I was no longer asking to have the original graft completed, but to have my pinions returned and sent him a shipping label for the original package.
• Since December, I have continued to reach out and have sent return shipping labels two more times with radio silence from Steve.

I am now at the end of my rope and would just like my property returned. I feel my only recourse is to go to small claims court, but since I am deployed overseas, that would be difficult to hash out. I ask whether anyone who knows Steve can reach out and get to the bottom of this or whether anyone has had this experience with him? I just cannot understand why someone with the roots in these cars would treat a customer in this way without any explanation. Linked below are my texts and emails with Steve during this time, thank you for reading.

Texts
Emails

Sorry you're going through this bro, but this is cars in 2026. People can be totally shitty, and there is basically no recourse. On top of that, these people can keep offending and getting business sent to them despite the warning. In the BMW community there is a known scammer who's been promising turbo kits to customers for 2+ years and despite that being well known, people keep sending him money and getting nothing in return. It's beyond frustrating.

Chips, Michael, Joe, Matt... the list goes on and on.

Don't forget to check seller's Itrader rating before you buy.
One of best FORUM features.

You can’t control other people’s actions but I think you can at least warn them of your experience, and maybe with enough warning some folks will be dissuaded. I didn’t want to call Steve out like this but you shouldn’t get to abuse your customers without any consequences at all, so I hope anyone in my shoes in the future who searches these threads about Steve’s work will hopefully think twice.

Steve usually attends DGRR, if you know anyone who’s going, perhaps they can talk to him.

This sucks.... Hope everything works out for you. What shop is this and where is it located? We need to make everyone aware and put this guy out of business!

This has happened to another client of mine RE: late timelines on a pinion graft and ultimately not being able to complete the job though the parts were sent back. Steve is reputable however poor on communication and is very, very slow at times.