^sadly, I wouldn't be surprised...

 

I am still waiting for my other portion of the refund.

 

 

 

I hope no one here gives this post any credit. Definitely a great "jump to conclusions" example....

Congrats on your business degree and your ability to apply some very basic accounting and finance terms. I'm a business major too, doesn't mean I'm going to go around pretending I know operation cycles for every industry out there...

 

Well these were the wheels I was going to get......till this happened.

 

I didn't jump to any conclusions... I've followed this thread closely ever since the OP posted it at the beginning of this year Nothing else would explain why these problems are occurring and continue to occur.. And as a matter of fact.. I was in this exact industry for the past 5+ years and do have a lot of experience.

 

I agree with you 100%...the truth is ugly and some people will just bury their heads in the sand and be naive...personally I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I gave someone else a $4000 free loan to do whatever.

It's not really jumping to conclusions, it's the same old story just different "vendors". I mean like LOL you have to be ridiculous to believe that Rays Engineering got your order when you believed it was submitted to them and is holding off on production of your wheels just for the hell of it. I mean cmon I don't think they would have been in business for this long if that's how they operated. Some of you have been in this for 2 years!

Anyway this is probably too far gone but if you really want the truth, it's simple-get him to send you a copy of the order he submitted to Rays for production, get him on the phone and then get on a 3 way call between you, him and Rays, with you dialing the numbers. If he has nothing to hide he'll agree to do it.

 

This thread has been a roller coaster ride to say the least.
One point we're saying Thank you Rick, you're the best!
Another is damn Rick, where are my wheels and/or my updates!

A lot of the members involved are taken care of... some need the other half of the refund and some need their wheels which Rick said it himself it will be there. This thread would've been done by now if everything went according to plan.

I truly believe Rick is doing his best in fixing the issue(s) and not doing it half a$$ otherwise he'd ignore everyone completely and not do what he did so far for everyone, cept' definitionxmk

It is however you make it out to be but IMO Dan is just shedding some light as to what could/might be happening with VIP... I hope he's wrong for everyone's sake

GL everyone!

 

^Has anyone involved tried something like this?

If so, did you find Rick to be 100% a man of his word as far as order & payment on his end? From the people that have been taken care of in this and the original thread, I don't know of anyone that has mentioned Rick doing anything fraudulent or illegal (which is what a ponzi - paying for old orders with new payments - would be). I have only heard people discussing missed deadlines, and I haven't once heard anyone use the words "committed to" or "promised" without the word "should" also being in Rick's wording. That means that the deadlines are estimates and not hard dates.

From everything that I have seen, the recurring issue is poor customer service, lack of communication, and lack of delegated responsibilities within his business. When an estimated deadline is not going to be met, the business should be communicating with its customers to let them know about the shift in expectations. If VIP was proactively keeping their customers informed instead of people having to chase Rick down for answers, this thread would not exist - because remember, no one has been ripped off by Rick so far, they are just getting slower service than they would like.

This is a common challenge for small businesses that have grown to the size where an owner can't handle everything on their own - especially if they don't have other employees capable of the responsibilities or the owner isn't comfortable delegating the responsibilities. This can either be a simple sign of growing pains or can be a sign of a business in trouble.

Without saying "please don't jump to conclusions", I would just say step back and look at the complete situation without emotional baggage. All a judge would see is slow response (on a special order item that isn't expected to be a fast process) and no financial losses on the part of the customer and no fraud on the part of the vendor. He isn't giving hard commitment dates on delivery, so he isn't providing any less than he has committed to.

Can the quality of service be improved? Yes.
Would improving that mean that Rick has to hire more people and his costs to you go up? Yes.
Is this a decision that Rick has to weigh as a business owner? Yes.

However, should customers have considered the importance of a hard commitment on delivery date versus a "should be there by" date before sending money? Yes.

 

That's all fine and dandy w the word "should" in case of the estimates. But the items and dates provided "should" not be off by a year

 

I called Vip today. Supposedly they are moving to another location. To a bigger 14000+ sq ft facility..But yeah, I was told Rick was going to call me. So, I wait.

 

^^^^ You ever get your car out of the shop and wheels put on?

 

I apologize, I don't know enough about the workings of ordering overseas special order parts to know whether a year off on an estimate may be reasonable or not.

I didn't mean to stir the pot or anger you personally, I was just trying to point out that jumping to the conclusion that there is fraud involved (that they are using the money for new orders to cover old order, etc) may not be the obvious/only conclusion.

I truly feel for everyone involved in this situation.

 

^it's all good man. I'm not accusing the guy of fraud or anything... i just want my seats =)

We cool mang!

--------------------

SUPERAWMIKEEEY, did he ever call you? Anyone else receive word on their status? I'm more concerned about the people who haven't received their wheels yet...

Oh lookey! I'm almost at 1,000 posts!

 

I sent Rick a pm on the 370 a couple days ago and never got a response.

 

Rick told me my wheels are now with the shipping company... i shudve receive some tracking number last Thursday or Friday but havent heard from him since.... Hopefully i'll get something today!!!

This wait has been haunting me!!... Last Nite i dreamt the wheels are in my garage already!! How i wish it was true!!!

 

The car is coming out of the shop, had the tired mounted a week ago...It's coming along. Hopefully i'll be able to bring the car to jotech this weekend and get my fenders cut. But yeah, slowly coming along. how about you? Wheels mounted yet?!?

 

never called back.

 

Sent him a email, got no response. Called and talked to whoever(I don't care anymore) and of course rick wasn't around. Was told he would call me back within a half hour and you guessed it, never called me back. On the bright side my turbo kit that I bought months after my wheels is installed an tuned. Kinda puts a damper on the situation though cause I'm planning on running 305s in the back to help traction and I expected them to be on months ago.