Looking for rental bay/lift

[SecondGenPAt]

:huh:Holy hijack, Batman!

sorry bud
back on topic,
probably not what your looking for, but I can perform all requested work for 2 hours labor rate at $90/hr or $180 total. We can't allow you to use the lift due to liability, but we can offer the above.

[WINGSPD]

Pat, Thank you for your offer. I honestly would prefer to do this myself, just for the hands-on satisfaction and experience, as well as confidence in a job done right, but for the lack of a lift and time-a-fleeting, your offer might be too good to pass up. The question is, how soon can you do this? Do you promise to try not to break anything:D? Where do I need to take the car? And, are you aware that I bought the Moog endlinks? They have those ridiculous self tapping Zerks that have to be forced in.

[SecondGenPAt]

anytime next week would work. The shop is in Englewood corner of Hamden and Santa Fe. Let me know what route you decide

[WINGSPD]

Any chance you work on Saturdays? What's the name of your shop?

[D Walker]

He works Saturdays

[WINGSPD]

Can I assume tomorrow is booked? I am assuming this is all Kosher with the boss.

[D Walker]

Well, I am the "boss" so thats a good assumption. I am assuming Pat will be in tomorrow but if not i will be glad to help out. Shoot a pm to the both of us with your contact info.

[WINGSPD]

Sorry, Don.
I did some research on you and your companies and have decided not to let you or your employees work on my car. I have known some shady mechanics/shop owners in the past, and the reviews [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBxRtR26W0"]Worse Shop Ever! HRD aka Don Walker CA18det 2 - YouTube[/ame] http://www.evotuners.net/forums/f28/hrd-shop-have-questions-3646/ http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/west-us-rennlist-region/547103-horsepower-research-and-development-in-commerce-city-aka-don-walker.html you have received, as well as the multiple changes in business addresses and names have led me to believe that I should not do business with you. Hopefully, this message will lead others to research for themselves before making an ill-informed choice. Please keep all future communications public in this forum. Darby

[D Walker]

No problem man, thats one of the reasons we no longer work on street cars except for a few select customers. Pretty much anyone who has had anything bad to say about us, owes us money, and usually a lot of it, and I know who all five of them are. I will also admit that in the past we have had some people who worked for us that have not been as skilled as they claim. This is why I closed down the previous shop and went back into Professional Racing. Where I might add, we run up front with the best in the country.

Also, Pat is an exceptionally gifted and meticulous technician, OEM BMW trained and certified, and has proven time and again at the track that anything he does, its done right. If he does not know how to do something, he will say so and find out how to do it.
Again, no harm no foul, take your car wherever you feel comfortable. I freely admit making some bad staff decisions in the past as well as dealing with customers who I should have known better than to deal with. Thats business, and one I choose to no longer deal with.

[Learjet45]

I've never personally had Pat work on my car, but he is a great guy and he knows more about cars than I could ever dream to know. He's (generally ) really nice and a pretty relaxed guy. He even let me learn to drive a manual in his 7 after only knowing me for a few hours when he heard that I didn't know, and that's something I really appreciate. Good luck on your search for a place to get the work done.

[WINGSPD]

No problem man, thats one of the reasons we no longer work on street cars except for a few select customers. Pretty much anyone who has had anything bad to say about us, owes us money, and usually a lot of it, and I know who all five of them are. I will also admit that in the past we have had some people who worked for us that have not been as skilled as they claim. This is why I closed down the previous shop and went back into Professional Racing. Where I might add, we run up front with the best in the country.

Also, Pat is an exceptionally gifted and meticulous technician, OEM BMW trained and certified, and has proven time and again at the track that anything he does, its done right. If he does not know how to do something, he will say so and find out how to do it.
Again, no harm no foul, take your car wherever you feel comfortable. I freely admit making some bad staff decisions in the past as well as dealing with customers who I should have known better than to deal with. Thats business, and one I choose to no longer deal with.

I understand, I, too, have had bad customers that cannot be made happy. You are right; they are generally the ones for whom you have done favors,and/or to whom you have extended credit, who will not pay their bills and complain to justify their failure to pay.
I must say that your writing skills and articulation speak better of you than does the "Beavis and Butthead" impression of the persons in the video. Hopefully, I have not unfairly maligned your character.

[D Walker]

That video is I thnk 4 years old, and that specific instance the customer asked us to swap in a JDM motor, which we did. Then when his intercooler pipe kit he bought off of ebay didnt fit, the knock-off ebay BOV leaked, his 5 year old battery was dead, and some sensors from the extremely used JDM motor needed to be replaced- especially the coolant temp sensor and the MAF, which along with fouled plugs is why it was so hard to start in that video. He refused to pay us for this and expected us to replace them for free, as he expected his used motor would run flawlessly. One of my employees at the time provided him with an alternator off of his own car (never got paid for it), another worked for hours on a weekend to "help the guy out", never saw a dime. In fact, that employee told me that he fully expected that the guy would pay his bill and say nice things about us, but I knew better. As soon as he received the bill, he badmouthed us all over the internet rather than pay it. Lied to all my guys faces about how he had no money to pay his bill, was borrowing money from his girlfriend to just buy a new battery for it, etc., and then tells the world he denied saying any of it, that he had plenty of money and if we had told him he needed these things he would have had no issue paying. My guys felt sorry for him and they got screwed for it.

Bottom line, I did try and help people, just like we still try and help people on this forum. I have hosted shop days, helped guys out for free or next to free, and have always tried to be beyond fair in all my dealings. Unfortunately, customers lie and customers steal, and that is a fact of business I tend to ignore until it bites me in the ###.

[Shadowden]

So I have done some very minor business with don and pat...or to put it more accurately don and pat helped me out.

You see, I noticed that as I took long on ramps at speed that I would get a weird noise coming from the right front end. Only happened on sweeping rights. I thought for sure it was suspension components. don offered to have pat take a ride and see. We had a hell of a time finding the right corner, but pat finally did. He said, sounds like your oil is low and the tensioners are allowing slack in the timing belt (or something like that). I said "no way, I just had a full synthetic oil change", but we checked the oil...pretty much dry. Pat then went to work securing my handle on the inside of my hatch door so it could be eliminated as a rattle source. Minor work, but not something they needed to do.

I am not one to rely on reviews by other people, but would rather be the judge of someones character on my own, especially when I know nothing of the other people. Do those reviews cause some concern, certainly. I say the market is always buyer beware, but having met them both personally and seeing how they interact with other people and customers, I'm not afraid to do business with them.whether you take your business somewhere else or not is up to you, but it is my suggestion to take a trip and meet the guys. Honestly, dons open and honest response is pretty telling to me.

ryan

[Learjet45]

Also, one more thing to consider with the reviews from other websites and what Don has said - it's the internet. Anyone can say anything, and they can phrase it however they want to make Don look bad. Without personally knowing the people who have posted those negative reviews, I personally wouldn't make a judgment call on those postings alone. Again, people can say whatever they want, so it's easy to make someone else look like the bad guy.

[RX-7 Chris]

Basically what it comes down to is make your own judgment calls. When having any work done look for a shop that fits your needs and your personality. If your are having any work done to a car, make sure that the shop works well with you even though they may be a great shop that is highly recommended. This is very critical when you are having a lot of custom work done or have a car restored.

Also shops have the right to turn down people because they don't feel it is a good fit. The biggest mistake that i shop can make is going into the we need the money mode. "we'll do this shady persons work because we could use the money." This is true with any business. My dad has owned a few construction and millwork companies over the years and he's been burnt quite a few times.