SGP Racing a Scammer?
12-29-2008, 06:14 PM
#822
Barrett Jackson Nissan off the 610 his 2 or 3.....2 silver and a white.....
One good thing came out of this bad economy is those @zz hole sharkes at the dealer cant rape customers with their way over MSRP charges that they had planned
They lost that "take it or leave it" attitude
One good thing came out of this bad economy is those @zz hole sharkes at the dealer cant rape customers with their way over MSRP charges that they had planned
They lost that "take it or leave it" attitude
Edit: I just heard of a funny circumstance. There is a local Chevy dealer here that did not get any allocation for the ZR1. The spouse of the owner wants one, and just had to pay $20k over sticker. Talk about sharks, the GM dealers are now feeding on themselves.
Last edited by ttg35fort; 12-29-2008 at 06:35 PM.
12-30-2008, 08:08 AM
#824
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GM dealers still are, even though GM is on the verge of bankruptcy. I still can't find a ZR1 nor a CTS-V for list. I was entertaining the thought of turning my G into a track car and getting something else for a daily driver. It's probably a good thing. I keep watching my stocks drop lower, lower and lower...
Edit: I just heard of a funny circumstance. There is a local Chevy dealer here that did not get any allocation for the ZR1. The spouse of the owner wants one, and just had to pay $20k over sticker. Talk about sharks, the GM dealers are now feeding on themselves.
Edit: I just heard of a funny circumstance. There is a local Chevy dealer here that did not get any allocation for the ZR1. The spouse of the owner wants one, and just had to pay $20k over sticker. Talk about sharks, the GM dealers are now feeding on themselves.
I know what you are saying about the stock market...I took a big hit...thats what happens when you play the game
Last edited by XKR; 12-30-2008 at 08:14 AM.
12-31-2008, 07:57 AM
#826
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Not a total of a year and two months. Plus I am able to contact them anytime I want, cell, here or a work? They are working on my car now 
. Plus, no money exchanged in order to provide services. Huge difference in the two. Furthermore, I decided to sell/part out my car. Something else is on order so I'm really not concerned with what happens to SGP anymore(Lawyers will take care of that 
). Just as long as the people he's phucked over are completely taken care of.
. Plus, no money exchanged in order to provide services. Huge difference in the two. Furthermore, I decided to sell/part out my car. Something else is on order so I'm really not concerned with what happens to SGP anymore(Lawyers will take care of that ). Just as long as the people he's phucked over are completely taken care of.
12-31-2008, 08:55 AM
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well, on turismo behalf ill say this. he had his car up at sgp. he wanted to part it out but after a lil while he wanted to do the greddy tt kit. i was the one that put it all together. mark and thomas handled the money side of the equation. he had ordered alot of stuff from sgp. vpro, tt kit, gauges, clutch, and all the bells and whistle.to my knowledge, when he left and took his car, he had already given mark a check for 5000 dollars to fix whatever was wrong with the car before the hurricane.well, nothing was done to his car since then. the 5000 dollars was to cover labor on the new clutch install and sorting the wiring out. fast forward to now. turismo is out five grand and his car at a totally different shop and now is parting out his car due to the fact that its more of a headache then anything. i dont like this type of business practice and im sure 100 percent of the people on this board dont like this type of business practice.
12-31-2008, 09:01 AM
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I wouldn't touch a car unless I had some money up front, but that's just me. I brought money to SGP over a period of a year...specificly told Mark not to start on my car until I knew I could pay it all. Think I owed him maybe $350 when my car was done. That's after paying over $30k. Too many cars sitting at SGP that have owed money for YEARS that Mark should have pulled a mechanics lean on along time ago. I didn't feel like being one of those guys. Take it in the pooper like that a few times and you'll require some money down. I wouldn't ask a shop to work on my ride without giving at least 1/3 of the money for what I'm asking to do. Call me a good customer...I just think its good business practice. Less risk for the shop.
There are motors currently setting at the (machine shop) that Mark has not paid for, even after Mark received the money from his customers. I know how he treats his customer and employee's. Thats why none of them are currently working there.
12-31-2008, 10:38 AM
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one of the requirements of being a legit shop is to have enough capital on hand until a job is completed.on long term projects it is not unreasonable to ask a customer to cover outside costs.i like to bill hard parts up front and hold labor until pickup,this helps me and the customer to spread the pain over a couple payments.it is also a great motivator for me to finish in a timely fashion.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
12-31-2008, 10:42 AM
#830
one of the requirements of being a legit shop is to have enough capital on hand until a job is completed.on long term projects it is not unreasonable to ask a customer to cover outside costs.i like to bill hard parts up front and hold labor until pickup,this helps me and the customer to spread the pain over a couple payments.it is also a great motivator for me to finish in a timely fashion.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
12-31-2008, 11:36 AM
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one of the requirements of being a legit shop is to have enough capital on hand until a job is completed.on long term projects it is not unreasonable to ask a customer to cover outside costs.i like to bill hard parts up front and hold labor until pickup,this helps me and the customer to spread the pain over a couple payments.it is also a great motivator for me to finish in a timely fashion.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
i bill this way to cover vendors and keep them happy with my accounts payable.again this would be for long term projects,small work less than monthly billing cycles are always payment upon completion.if you are like sgp seems to be and take other vendors money and pay yourself first,you are on a slippery slope to self destruction(especially if you haven't done any work yet).if nothing else it's just bad business and you deserve to fail.........no wonder they don't want to answer the phone.
01-01-2009, 08:20 AM
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Have you guys seen this 
A little VRT mixed in 
Its the exact thing some of you out of state guys are saying...that the local guys get treated better.
This goes to show that if the biggest can do this to their customers...what are the smaller guys doing You guys better know who you are giving your cars to in advance.
I expect....
Honesty
Customer service
Experience with platform
Timely
relibility
Clean work
A little VRT mixed in Its the exact thing some of you out of state guys are saying...that the local guys get treated better.
This goes to show that if the biggest can do this to their customers...what are the smaller guys doing
You guys better know who you are giving your cars to in advance.I expect....
Honesty
Customer service
Experience with platform
Timely
relibility
Clean work
A quick google search for Hennessey lawsuit brings up this as the first link. This isn't half of the stuff on the page. I would not do any business at all with the guy, no matter what a dyno says.....
This is from an Autoweek article back in mid 2002.
Hennessey's Vipers are fast, but lawsuits say he serves them up too slowly. (Photo by Mark Vaughn)
Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued. Hennessey Motorsports in Houston specializes in tuning Vipers, adding more power to what is already one of the most powerful cars in the world. Hennessey’s Vipers have been featured in this and many other magazines and the cars he has sent to us and to other media were impressive performers. Hennessey presents himself well, projecting an image of the consummate Texas good ol’ boy whose reassuring conversational style and howyewdoin’ demeanor put customers at ease. People believe they will get what he says he’ll give them. But not all people do.
According to a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City, Utah resident Taig Stewart sent his Viper GTS to Hennessey last May for an engine upgrade to 1100 hp along with several other modifications. For that he wire-transferred $142,500 to Hennessey. The lawsuit states the parties agreed the car would be done by mid-July 2001. As of press time the car was still sitting under a tarp in Hennessey’s shop in Houston. Or most of the car, anyway. Stewart’s suit claims Hennessey sold the car’s engine, transmission, wheels, tires and hood. The suit seeks return of the money, the Viper and “no less than $1 million” in punitive damages.
Hennessey claims he’s just slow in getting the work done.
“My side of the story is we’re planning on finishing his car and planning on giving him everything that he paid for,” said Hennessey. As for the parts being sold, “That’s totally false. We’ve got all his parts in the shop except the hood and he wanted to do a lightweight hood.”
Stewart is not the first unsatisfied customer. The longer we dug the more dissatisfaction we found. Here’s a sampling:
On Nov. 14 a New Jersey court entered a final judgement of $133,674 against Hennessey on behalf of Viper owner Gary Dan for a botched conversion.
William Walters said he is out over $22,000 after shipping his Corvette to Hennessey for a head and cam package that was never done; he did have five rods bent and a head gasket damaged on the dyno in Hennessey’s shop during an experiment Hennessey tried with nitrous oxide.
Jerry Johnson said he had to file suit in Placer County Court in California to straighten out registration and engine computer problems on a Viper he bought from Hennessey. n Jon Belinkie said he loves the changes made to his Viper but had to sue in his home state of Maryland, then register the judgement in Texas, to recover overcharges Hennessey made on his American Express card.
Rick Ryan said he had to hound Hennessey for eight months by long distance from Marietta, Georgia, to put the proper wing and stripes on his Viper.
Mark Lublin said he sent his Viper cylinder heads to Hennessey for new valves but when the heads came back he found the “new” valves were actually used; a cam that was delivered to Lublin in a Hennessey box turned out to be a stock Chrysler cam. Lublin was finally refunded $5,715 from American Express but only after nine months of disputing the charge; and he got no money from Hennessey.
Bruce Iannatuono said he ordered $8,500 worth of Hennessey parts for his mechanic in Baltimore to install but was only able to use two-thirds of what was shipped, and then only after haranguing Hennessey for six months on an order that was originally promised in five weeks.
Most of the complaints come from outside Texas. Hennessey, some said, tends to take better care of local customers.
“If you were out of state, man you were fair game,” said Kyle Kent, a former employee at Hennessey Motorsports. When an out-of-state car came in it was sometimes parted out, with the wheels, tires and whatever else looked good going to other cars waiting to be finished or sold outright, according to Kent and others inside Hennessey Motorsports. Then Hennessey would call the car’s owner and try to sell him an upgraded kit. If the customer balked, Hennessey would take parts from other cars in the shop, or just let the job sit.
Kent described one typical disassembly on an out-of-state Viper. “The motor and transmission went into a Durango John was putting together, the brakes went to someone else, the hood went to a guy in Ohio, the rear bumper to South Carolina, man you name it. We had multiple cars like that.”
Another common practice was putting stock parts on what was supposed to be an upgraded car.
“One customer spent $130,000 to $140,000 and that guy thought he had purchased a Venom 650R package which he thought came with the stroker motor,” Kent said. “John told him he was getting a stroker. He was just getting heads and cams.”
Hennessey denies any wrongdoing.
“I’ve got probably 3000 customers,” he said. “I’ve built over 300 cars and out of that I’ve had a handful of people that I’ve had some sort of a delivery problem with and I’ve had some of them who have sued me. So is that some sort of a trend or is that par for the course?”
There is a whole lot more if you look.....
This is from an Autoweek article back in mid 2002.
Hennessey's Vipers are fast, but lawsuits say he serves them up too slowly. (Photo by Mark Vaughn)
Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued. Hennessey Motorsports in Houston specializes in tuning Vipers, adding more power to what is already one of the most powerful cars in the world. Hennessey’s Vipers have been featured in this and many other magazines and the cars he has sent to us and to other media were impressive performers. Hennessey presents himself well, projecting an image of the consummate Texas good ol’ boy whose reassuring conversational style and howyewdoin’ demeanor put customers at ease. People believe they will get what he says he’ll give them. But not all people do.
According to a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City, Utah resident Taig Stewart sent his Viper GTS to Hennessey last May for an engine upgrade to 1100 hp along with several other modifications. For that he wire-transferred $142,500 to Hennessey. The lawsuit states the parties agreed the car would be done by mid-July 2001. As of press time the car was still sitting under a tarp in Hennessey’s shop in Houston. Or most of the car, anyway. Stewart’s suit claims Hennessey sold the car’s engine, transmission, wheels, tires and hood. The suit seeks return of the money, the Viper and “no less than $1 million” in punitive damages.
Hennessey claims he’s just slow in getting the work done.
“My side of the story is we’re planning on finishing his car and planning on giving him everything that he paid for,” said Hennessey. As for the parts being sold, “That’s totally false. We’ve got all his parts in the shop except the hood and he wanted to do a lightweight hood.”
Stewart is not the first unsatisfied customer. The longer we dug the more dissatisfaction we found. Here’s a sampling:
On Nov. 14 a New Jersey court entered a final judgement of $133,674 against Hennessey on behalf of Viper owner Gary Dan for a botched conversion.
William Walters said he is out over $22,000 after shipping his Corvette to Hennessey for a head and cam package that was never done; he did have five rods bent and a head gasket damaged on the dyno in Hennessey’s shop during an experiment Hennessey tried with nitrous oxide.
Jerry Johnson said he had to file suit in Placer County Court in California to straighten out registration and engine computer problems on a Viper he bought from Hennessey. n Jon Belinkie said he loves the changes made to his Viper but had to sue in his home state of Maryland, then register the judgement in Texas, to recover overcharges Hennessey made on his American Express card.
Rick Ryan said he had to hound Hennessey for eight months by long distance from Marietta, Georgia, to put the proper wing and stripes on his Viper.
Mark Lublin said he sent his Viper cylinder heads to Hennessey for new valves but when the heads came back he found the “new” valves were actually used; a cam that was delivered to Lublin in a Hennessey box turned out to be a stock Chrysler cam. Lublin was finally refunded $5,715 from American Express but only after nine months of disputing the charge; and he got no money from Hennessey.
Bruce Iannatuono said he ordered $8,500 worth of Hennessey parts for his mechanic in Baltimore to install but was only able to use two-thirds of what was shipped, and then only after haranguing Hennessey for six months on an order that was originally promised in five weeks.
Most of the complaints come from outside Texas. Hennessey, some said, tends to take better care of local customers.
“If you were out of state, man you were fair game,” said Kyle Kent, a former employee at Hennessey Motorsports. When an out-of-state car came in it was sometimes parted out, with the wheels, tires and whatever else looked good going to other cars waiting to be finished or sold outright, according to Kent and others inside Hennessey Motorsports. Then Hennessey would call the car’s owner and try to sell him an upgraded kit. If the customer balked, Hennessey would take parts from other cars in the shop, or just let the job sit.
Kent described one typical disassembly on an out-of-state Viper. “The motor and transmission went into a Durango John was putting together, the brakes went to someone else, the hood went to a guy in Ohio, the rear bumper to South Carolina, man you name it. We had multiple cars like that.”
Another common practice was putting stock parts on what was supposed to be an upgraded car.
“One customer spent $130,000 to $140,000 and that guy thought he had purchased a Venom 650R package which he thought came with the stroker motor,” Kent said. “John told him he was getting a stroker. He was just getting heads and cams.”
Hennessey denies any wrongdoing.
“I’ve got probably 3000 customers,” he said. “I’ve built over 300 cars and out of that I’ve had a handful of people that I’ve had some sort of a delivery problem with and I’ve had some of them who have sued me. So is that some sort of a trend or is that par for the course?”
There is a whole lot more if you look.....
Last edited by XKR; 01-01-2009 at 08:42 AM.
01-01-2009, 10:05 AM
#834
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I heard some nasty stories about Hennessy when I used to hang on the viper forums. Guys buying fully built packages and blowing the engine only to find stock parts after paying 100K+ to have work done. Part of the reason I gave up on the Viper. I knew I'd never drop that kinda money and have issues without going to jail for something
01-04-2009, 06:33 PM
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There are cars up there that have paid 10k or so dollars upfront and their cars still haven't been touched. I think you know enough people that work there or have worked there to attest to what I'm saying.
There are motors currently setting at the (machine shop) that Mark has not paid for, even after Mark received the money from his customers. I know how he treats his customer and employee's. Thats why none of them are currently working there.
There are motors currently setting at the (machine shop) that Mark has not paid for, even after Mark received the money from his customers. I know how he treats his customer and employee's. Thats why none of them are currently working there.
.
01-05-2009, 07:25 AM
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No update on my side guys. I've sent some emails over the holidays but no responses yet. I'll be trying to call this week and update but have some long flights today. Gluck all!