First off I would like to say this is the very first negative feedback that I have ever posted on here. My intentions arent to get money back, they are for the future buyers. However some money back would be nice.

This is going to be a cliffnote story, so I plan on keeping it simple and sweet.

One day I was browsing ebay to pick up some rotor housings and I came across some great low mileage street ported ones. Great, fantastic I say. Anyways I win the auction, woohoo im excited . For reference here is a link to the ad, thank god he keeps all his ad's that in his feedback section so I can some back to it for reference, thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=330208057702

So the housings arrive 4 days, awesome, what a great seller! pssh

I have been putting this off for a long time now but a recent chain of activity and getting parts that I needed back a while ago are pushing my project further, further, and further away.

On with the dispute. A week goes by and I look at the housings closer, notice that in the ad the housings are MINT and flawless. Well to my suprise the exhaust porting is WAY off, and I mean that one port was prolly 5mm's higher than the other.

I email Curtis James and tell him that his product wasnt as advertised in the ad and I would like a FULL refund, he refuses. I would get charged a 20% restock fee if I choose to return them, . So essentially I am buying a part that is falsly advertised and I have to pay 20% of 365 dollars in order to get some money back. So I would be paying 30 bucks to ship them back and on top of that the 73 dollars for the stupid "restocking fee", that 100 bucks out of MY pocket for a item that wasnt advertised correctly nor was my fault for "backing out of a deal".

So more time passes, I am frustrated. He compromises with me and said that he would have BDC port match my housings and all I would have to do is send him the housings. Ok cool, I send him the housings, 30 bucks UPS ground.

He gets the housings and a week later he brings them to BDC for porting, awesome cause BDC has kickass portwork. THIS IS WHERE IT GETS ME ANGRY, he calls me and tells me he wasnt "aware" of how much BDC does his porting for, essentially he was shocked? Who knows . He has the NERVE to tell me that he can only pay for 40 yes FOURTY of the 125, yes ONE-HUNDRED and TWENTY-FIVE dollars of the porting. HAHA, first he tells me that he would pay for the porting, and then, after receiving my housings, hes tells me he cant afford the porting cause he already lost money on the housings? How is that MY problem? Thats right it isnt.

SO, I ask again for a FULL refund. At this point im out 30 bucks for shipping them back and I have to pay 85 more out of my pocket for his ****-up. Or I have to take the hit on the 20% restocking fee, again NOT MY PROBLEM. So, I had to negotiate with him on the BDC por work, unbelievable I know, suprisingly after his whining I was able to get him to pay 50 bucks out of the 125 for porting, which is hilarious.

Lets recap, I ship the housings for 30 bucks, had to negotiate for his mistake that he couldnt man up on and get him to pay 50 dollars on a job that he promised to PAY IN FULL, so thats another 75 dollars. Lastly, I had to pay BDC to ship them back so thats another 30. 130 bucks that I shouldnt have had to spend, and the kicker, I still dont have the housings. I paid 500 bucks on something that should be already put together and in my car when it should have only cost 370, what a GREAT business man, *scarasm*.

Here's the ironic thing, BDC builds his engines. Yet he tells me he wasnt aware of how much the porting is. Thanks for SCREWING ME OVER CURTIS JAMES . Shame on me for buying something off you, now I wont have my car ready for spring and I still dont have housings to put my engine together.


If anyone is interested in buying ANYTHING of this man I suggest you do your research, hes a tool. His ebay username is mrmazda7, his name is Curtis James, and his name on here is crjrx7. Hopefully that clears is up when people search your name.

Have a nice day.
Charlie

 

Uh Oh...

 

haha, and I was just about to buy the S5 turbo setup he has on ebay. thanks for the headsup.

 

At least I saved someone the trouble, it probably had a seal go through the turbine.

Sad part is he did ABSOLUTELY nothing to make it right.

 

Charlie your much too considerate. You need to get your money back and send him that crap back. GL bud I hope this guy straightens **** out with you.

 

Thats the problem, I cant send it back nor can I get my money back. It was a lose, lose situation for me. Either I take the "restocking" fee on a falty crappy part or have BDC port the housings. I decided to cover his *** and pay the remaining balance on the housings, which was a mistake to begin with. I just see it as VERY poor business ethnics with a greedt selfish individual. All well .

Like I stated before, im not as pissed about the money as I am about the way he conducted business. It was POOR! and CHEAP!

 

Any updates?

How does a person not have 125 bucks to spare for porting?

Thats like pathetic.

And even though he is strapped for cash, he should do everything in his power to GET THAT MONEY because he is dealing with someone who bought something from him.

Seems like a childish way of conducting business if you ask me.

Its like a "take it or leave it" type of transaction.

 

I have done thousands of dollars in business with him since 2001. A couple of times I did get bad parts but I let him know and he just sent out proper replacements without question...perhaps because he knows that I know what I am talking about with regard to part condition and useability.

But, clearly you have went around a couple of times in your deal, so I don't have any further advice. Good luck.

 

Yeah, I see what your saying and I asked for replacements and he had none. Then I asked for a full refund and he wouldnt have it without charging me 20%. That makes no sense. Either way I was going to be out money for something I had zero control over.

 

Well, to a degree that is the way of the world, and the way the marketplace is set up. It is necessary to protect sellers...for the most part, there are more shady buyers than there are shady sellers. For instance, how many "buyers" do you go through before someone actually sends the payment for a part as promised? You generally have to sell a part 5 times to actually get paid for it, which is just one example. How many bad items do you think wal mart sells, and then how many returns to wal mart are the result of individuals trying to scam wal mart?

So you get my point. Generally the marketplace is set up this way, like it or not, to favor the seller.

Let's say you go to best buy and buy something, get home and it doesnt work. Does best buy pay for your gas back to their store? I mean, by your logic, you did nothing wrong and they did, so shouldn't they pay for every expense incurred?

Doesnt work that way does it?

With that said I think a 20% restock fee is a bit harsh, I could see 10% just for the trouble involved.

So...did you not see pics of the porting before you bought? I know in most of his auctions he posts several pictures, gives a quick general description, and that's about it...the rest is left up to you to determine, and if you need more info, then you have to ask questions to get more pics or descriptions.

 

Yes I did see pictures but I didnt study them hard enough, obviously. Look at the link yourself. I read the description, checked out the housing finish, and took his word on the porting. Everything seemed legit and he had decent feedback.

Like I said over and over again. He did NOT work with me. Sure he paid for 50 bucks of the porting but I had to actually get him to pay that much. And again, I see where your coming from and I also hope that you see my view point. Its ridiculous.

 

No he didnt work with you at all.

When you buy something online, they almost all the time give you a return slip label in case an item from you order came wrong or it was a wrong size etc etc, then you can send it back TO THEIR EXPENSE.

Now i know in this case, since its a forum, this wont happen. You basically have to pay your own shipping which you did.

Now since he said, HE WILL PAY for the porting, then you have to hold that against him. He didnt say, "well lets see how much it costs, then ill pay some". He flat out said he will pay for porting so for him to only put out 50 bucks makes his business matters all ******* whacked out.

He had somethign for sale, obviously it wasnt what he has stated which is his first fuckup, then not agreeing to what he said he would do, another **** up.

I would just take a loss charlie and dont deal with this guy anymore. Tell him to ship the housings back and take it to someone else you can trust.

 

BDC has them right now, and ported them. However I havent recieved anything from him either. I paid for housings over 2 months ago and I have nothing to show for it.

 

He is a great seller and has been for a very long time.

To your credit, the difference on the housings you've pointed out is true. I didn't seem them until Charlie pointed it out and I took a close look. At first blush, perhaps it could be missed. However, it's evident in the first picture on the eBay ad that they're uneven. I'd say it's safe to assume that both Curtis and yourself missed it.

False advertisement comes from a seller knowing full-well that they're trying to sell something that isn't what in substance it actually is. In this case, it's not false advertisement because Curtis had no idea the ports were mismatched. Like a gazillion other times he's had good transactions with people, he sold what he thought were another pair of good, used rotor housings.

Consider this: You've had time to look at an eBay ad, you've had the opportunity to call or contact him about the housings but didn't prior to purchase, and then you had time to check them over when you first got them. By your own admission, you didn't. Instead, he's left with the impression that things are fine. Fast-forward a week later, according to what you say, he gets a call from an upset buyer saying his porting is uneven, asking for a full refund. Short of you referencing the first picture in the eBay ad to demonstrate, he has to trust your word on it without having any evidence. He looked at the housings and figured they were fine when he put them up for sale, hence asking for a re-stocking fee. He's potentially out money because he could sell those housings to someone else and it's time lost. What's he supposed to think, here? Didn't he atleast make an effort to make things right by not only choosing to drop the restocking fee but also pay atleast something to have me correct them? Does that line up with someone who's out to screw you? The fact that he responded to you let alone tried to work with you over this is a testament to the fortitude of his character.

Curtis, like myself and any other honest business man trying to earn a living, has absolutely no incentive in the world to willingly rip customers off and swindle them out of their money. Competition precludes the ability of a dishonestly run business from remaining in business because posts like this crop up on the internet in a knee-jerk moment and already do damage. The title of this thread demonstrates this. I am not saying that I'm not sympathetic with you nor invalidating your disappointment when you received the housings w/ the mismatched ports that you paid for, but I think this could've been handled alot better and I also think this charge of Curtis James having screwed you over is ridiculous.

I think it's more along the lines of you shipped him the housings back without warning, expecting him to buckle and give you a full refund, but I could be mistaken about this. Maybe he can respond and either corroborate this or correct me on it.

There's more to the story here than this. He was happy to not deal with you again because you were unreasonable to deal with. I'm not saying there's not a reason to be disappointed in getting rotor housings w/ uneven ports but this could've been handled a heck of alot better with a more reasonable approach.

He needs to chime in on this because the impression I've got about what happened here is different than how you're characterising it.

Of course you had to pay to ship them back. I'm not paying for that. You chose to keep them and have work done on them. Perhaps you could've argued that with Curtis; I don't know. Not my business. But, again, he's not out to screw anyone. We as business owners can't afford it. It spells death for us when a rightly upset customer complains especially on the same Internet forum that we get business exposure from.

I build his engines? That's news to me. I ported his engine and helped him build it over 3 years ago. It's the same black/gold one that was up for sale recently. We did it in trade for another matter where I traded him labour for a part. Otherwise, I've never done any engines for him. I don't know where you got that idea but it's not from either of our lips. He doesn't even sell rebuilt engines; just running used engines and core pieces. It's reasonable to think that he'd have no idea what I would charge to port rotor housings because I've never performed port work for labour money for him.

Not a "tool" at all. Terrific guy and doesn't deserve this negative attention you're giving him. I've dealt with him since 2003 and not once have I ever been disappointed with anything. Quite to the contrary, he's been flexible with me on alot of stuff. I'd go to him again and recommend others to him. As I stated prior, he has no incentive to screw someone over especially over something like a pair of rotor housings with mismatched, ported exhaust ports.

That's all I have to say. Maybe Curtis will respond.

B

 

I have nothing against you so dont take this the wrong way, i just have something against pretty much everything you just said here.


Just because he has been a great seller, doesnt mean he cant screw up. Not everyone is perfect. Quick stupid example. People on ebay with 17,000 feedback scores. Lots of positive feedback right? Yet the same people with that amount also have 250+ negatives. People DO screw up.



I agree, it does seem like they both missed it. However NO ONE's fault although it crjrx7 should take the initiative and pay to have it fixed. Which he SAID he would do, failed to follow up when it was time to actually do it. I mean the item originally came from crjrx7 you know.



There it is again. You cant side with curtis soley on the fact that he had good transactions in the past. Thats like saying a faithful married man of 10 years wont EVER cheat on his wife. It can, and in real life, DOES happen.

No its not really false advertisement if he didnt know but shouldnt you think he should inspect the items he's selling? They are engine parts afterall. A bad port job is a critical factor in having the engine work properly or not.



Again, thats a wrong way to conduct business. If he's selling something, he needs to put, in BOLD letters, UNKNOWN CONDITION, otherwise the buyer is expected to believe the parts are in good condition. Its hard to tell every millimeter of surface if its in good condition or not through a bunch of pictures.

So if he were to sell it to someone else and that person DIDNT catch it, now its all good? You still have a defective part. When that OTHER person would install that and finds out its wrong, now HE is out of ALOT of money. Not a good mental outlook on things. The problem was found out right away by charlie and should be corrected, not regreted because he found out and now the completion of the transaction is prolonged and no one is benefitting.

And you still failed to realize that he said he would pay YOU to port match, then receives the items and can only afford 40 or 50 bucks? Thats a poor way to try to end this transaction.

Let me tell you something and im not trying to teach anyone how to run a business but my 9-5 job, i work in sales. I also do alot of buy/sell on this forum. There was a couple of times i took out a LOSS just to satisfy the buyer. Im not saying anyone should just give **** away or whatever. Im saying in cases like this, the problem NEEDS to be solved. Just like it would be at a store, online site etc.


I know charlie is not trying to sabotage his future business on this forum or trying to make it seem like he's a scammer. Because i doubt he is. This is only one small mishap that took place but i BELIEVE crjrx7 took it rather unprofessional.

Maybe since he has done soo good in the past, this is his first possible **** up, maybe he's trying to get away from it? I dont know, but from the looks of it, it seems that way.

We def have to wait for curtis to chime in.

 

First, he emails me on Feb 15 stating that the housings are not mint and they are not useable.
I tell him to email both BDC and Rich pics of the housings. If either one of them say the housings are not mint, I would be happy to issue a full refund,

Here is a copy of all of these emails:



Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:39:34 -0800
From: mrmazda@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Re: Housings
To: jruetsche@msn.com


If you return them, I can have Brian look them over. If he feels that they have damage, I will issue a full purchase price refund.

Thanks,

Curtis"----- Original Message ----
From: John/Charlie Ruetsche <jruetsche@msn.com>
To: Curtis JAMES <mrmazda@sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 3:30:18 PM
Subject: RE: Housings

Talked to Brian today on the phone and he said they appear to be in very useable condition, I also talked to Rich and he thinks the same. Everything is good and I appreciate the quick responses and doing everything you thought was possible to resolve the issue.

Thanks again Curtis you will see more business from me in the future.




"Glad to hear it.

Let me know if you need anything esle?

Thanks,

Curtis




Ok, all is well. Then a week later, he emails me saying that the ports dont match
and he is sending the housings back.

So I dont know if this guy knows what he is talking about or what? I suspect this guy might be flaky, but still try to work with him.

I then offer some some other parts that he might need in place of the 20% difference. He refuses. Fine, I offer to pay for the porting, and yes, I know that I should have known what it cost. When I did, I told him I only would pay 50.00.
By this point, I thought he was only trying get something for free.

He agrees with BDC and Rich that the housings are in good shape?



At this point I would be willing to offer a credit to Charlie of 100.00 toward another purchase. I currently have a lot of 93 parts on ebay
http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmrmazda7

If Charlie continues to post negative things about myself, then this offer
will no longer be valid.

 

You are absolutely right, the condition of the housings were mint until I noticed the porting. I will continue this via email and have the thread deleted to resolve the issue

 

this is why i never sell rotor housings to anyone without meeting them face to face....

you (charlies7) obviously got a good deal on these housings, you paid half of what one new housing cost and they are in damn good shape. you could have asked for more pictures before buying and didnt (any why wouldnt you?). how much would it cost you to fix the housings yourself? close to nothing. its obvious crjrx7 isnt an engine builder or anything of that nature, he parts cars out and sells everything on ebay for cheap prices. i agree that this situation sucks, but bad mouthing the seller like this and bashing him seems unfair. its like buying a FD for $4000 and bitching that the seats are stained. if you would have notified the seller immediately after receiving the parts or notifying paypal you probably would have only been out the return shipping. its the bad mouthing and rude comments that made this more difficult than it had to be.

 

Thanks, appreciate your 2 cents, it's irrelevant.

Thread closed

 

No sir, a testament to the fortitude of his character would have been to refund the shipping cost and foot the bill for the repairs. Instead of doing that, or even paying for all of the porting work like he said he would, he instead goes back on that deal and says he will only pay for a third of the work. So basically he lied.
What??? How exactly was this a knee jerk reaction? He said he contacted the seller, the seller said he would correct the mistake but then DID NOT FOLLOW THROUGH. Instead, the buyer has to foot most of the bill for the extra work to be done AND the shipping costs. How is that in the least bit fair to the buyer?
You shouldn't say such things on pure speculation. That'd be like me saying, "I think it's more along the lines of the seller knowing he was pushing a crap product to begin with, he's just glad to be rid of it." The seller is a member of this board and can speak for himself.
So you'll argue on the seller's behalf, but when the seller should've done something, then it's "not your business". Are you guys friends or something? I don't see why you're making this so one-sided.
So maybe he should checked first, but it shouldn't even matter, he didn't deliver the product he advertised.
So then why hasn't he made good on this transaction?

It doesn't matter if he got them for $4000 or a dollar, they're still not what was advertised and cannot be used as-is. The seller didn't want to refund the money, then also didn't want to pay for all of the work to get them fixed. Charlie, meanwhile, is out not only the shipping price but extra cash ontop of the deal for a mistake made by the seller. That's not kosher.