It would appear that they are in some serious trouble with the federales.....finally
Say bye bye
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/254145-att-all-people-hurt-motormeister-50.html
http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums/showthread.php?94662-MotorMeister-is-finally-closing-down-better-claim-your-car-or-engine!
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/pts/4186159974.html
Reply vgkfs-4186159974@sale.craigslist.org [?] flag [?] : miscategorized prohibited spam best of Posted: 2013-11-11, 5:27PM PST
cheap porsche parts in LA County - $1 (LA COUNTY)
If you are looking for porsche parts , buyer BEWARE!!!!! MOTOR MEISTER in Downey Ca has been selling their customers cars including those in fr storage or repair and parting them out. He is about to file bankruptcy, has a potential buyer for the shop and if you have a vehicle here, he has likely lien saled it by sending notification to a purposefully incorrect address. He has over 200 stolen motors that he is lien saleing as well, he is not answering phones and is hiding vehicles in storage places in and around the Downey area. I do not own a Porsche and am not a disgruntled customer, I have worked for small businesses most of my life and seeing what I saw since Friday makes me sick to my stomach. Please retain attorneys and PRESS CRIMINAL CHARGES, this guy thinks he is above the law. I have a list of 12 vehicles that had been moved to storage in an attempt to hide them, when the storage place found out they refused to release the cars back to motor meister, these 12 lucky people will get their cars back, the rest of you can thank Lee Marks the owner, his wife who is currently driving a beautiful Mercedes Benz, his son Jerry Marks and the not very bright office manager Lisa who has handled the lien sale paperwork for all of the missing vehicles I Hope you all find them or receive legal compensation.
Location: LA COUNTY
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Posting ID: 4186159974 Posted: 2013-11-11, 5:27PM PST Updated: 2013-11-11, 5:33PM PST email to a friend
Avoid scams, deal locally! Do NOT wire funds (Western Union, Moneygram).
about time
Wow, that's not just shady business practices and quality, that's prison time thievery.
Excellent news
Don't put him in prison, let people have access to him so they can mess up his life.
Scotty, except for my car, you should lien sale some of those projects you got sitting around
I hope this comes to be. It's about time
Yeah what he said
WOW holy crapola. Glad I have never dealt with them. Heard nothing but good before this but holy hell that's insane
You heard good about them? From others than them? Really? Wow.
Amazing how they were able/allowed to get away with it so long.
Maybe we can all go by and pick up a spare motor
Hey Doc- I sure as heck hope you sre not referring to my car! I expect that Scotty is back to working on my car now and that it is going to make a giant leap forward now.....
Nope, just messing around
I know . Back to MM, I hope these people are run out of town on a rail after they are charged, arrested, tried, convicted and beaten.
Searched with Google and found no impending legal action.
Years ago I got a tour from JR, I told him he should shoot a nice video for his website
Saw the new place as well. btw that video sucks
I just save my interior guy's ass. He had a customer's car, took the motor
up there and was telling me what a deal he was getting. When I asked who
and where, I told him to get his azz back up there and get your stuff back yesterday. He went thru hell for about a week and a half after getting his atty involved was able to get ALL the correct stuff back as confirmed by his new mechanic after they sorted thru what was returned. I told him he was one luck sob and emailed him the links.....Hope these guys go down hard for this as it's not the 80's anymore.......
They got some of my money a long time ago. I did manage to get a big box of parts out of them. Roy put on a good show and Lee seemed to know an awful lot about /6 engines. I always believed they had the skills and connections to build a quality engine, but choose to turn over high volumes with worn parts. Seemed like a pyramid plan where they used the "best" parts from incoming engine to fill the order of the customer who complained the most.
Stop by this morning, a bunch of Porsche in 2 lots..
Was in Downey yesterday, and stopped by Motor Meiser to see for myself. Office was closed down with a posted sign to contact Lisa at a e-mail address to make an appointment to pick up your stuff. There was an attorney there , and two customers with legal papers picking up their parts. After serving papers, employees would go inside and try to find a match. Wasn't going good and no one was happy. The place is still filled with cars, engines, trannys, etc.
Wow!
It's a good thing this happened now...I was going to get an engine from them! Is there any other source in the southern California area for rebuilt six engines?
My first contact with the Porsche 914 was with these folks. Next, I met all of you "hooligans". Which is worse?????LOL,LOL,LOL!!!!!!
Glad to see them starting to get some justice for folks.
Let's hope these douche bags go to jail at some point after they lose every cent and thing they have.
I'm suppose to pick up my car on Wednesday(Dec 6th) and I'm so scared that I will not get all the parts. Is there ANYBODY in the Downey area that could possibly help me or give me any recommendations because I'm only a driver and know virtually nothing when it comes to the engine or if any of the parts are missing. Please feel free to email me or contact me at 805-210-1088 call/text--------- PLEASE HELP!!!!
Sorry Guys. I'm just a bit stressed as I just found out about the whole Motor Meister fiasco today and they have had my car for a couple months now. So here's my story.
I made a very poor decision in purchasing a car off of eBay and even though I was going to fly out to Florida to pick it up I later decided to just use a transport and not drive cross country by my self. So I wired the funds for a "daily driver", "needs nothing" 1978 911 Slant nose. It arrived on the transport DOA. It took the transport driver over 2 hours to get the car off the truck because it wouldn't start. It was far from the description on the ebay ad and I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND how stupid I was to buy a car like this without a pre-purchase inspection. I've had nearly 60 cars so I really do know better. I fought with the seller, with ebay, and spoke to a lawyer. The bottom line was that I had a car that needed help and the seller lied about the condition. The attorney, which I've known for years now told me he could get a judgement but that would unlikely get any money back since the seller was likely a deadbeat and could care less about the judgement. He also told me to use that money toward the costly repairs that I was looking at. The car went to a shop in the Valley that was well known and respected for knowing Porsche cars. I received an estimate for $12K for repairs that would require a complete engine breakdown. I really didn't have that kind of money since I just purchased the car and decided to wait. Then somebody told me about Motor Meister and that their prices were lower but that "they knew their stuff". So basically I jumped out of the pot into the fire. I called MM and they offered to pick up the car for me they gave me this wonderful sales pitch. Then they gave me a much more favorable estimate before telling me it would take "about six months." I was shocked at the time it was going to take but didn't think I had much of a choice since they had my car, had removed and disassembled my engine and I was going to save quite a bit of money. I have been calling them every week or so and even stopped by to check on the car several times in hope that I could get them to get things done sooner. Today I called and spoke with one of the secretaries to once again offer bribes (I jokingly ask if they want flowers or chocolates) to the two girls at the front desk to get my car higher in the que and ask the progress when I was told that they were in the process of bankruptcy and that I would have to email to schedule a time to pick up my car. She refused to actually discuss the pick-up and said I had to email the other girl "lisa". I have since done that and after about 8 emails today, I'm to pick up the car at 2pm on Wednesday the 4th -- Not the 6th as I posted above, I accidentally looked at November. My first car was a one owner 914 that I got in 1987 and since then I've had 4 of them along with a 1973 911T, a 928 and a Boxster S. I found your forum today after reading post after post on how terrible MM is. Oh how I wish I would have found those posts before they got hold of my car. My name is Matthew and please feel free to ask anything else that I might have missed. I would appreciate any help possible.
Thanks for the info. I fear that I'm going to go down there and get half my car back. Wish me luck!!
So I went to MM today and tried to figure out how I'm going to get my car and the engines parts. My appointment for pick up isn't until tomorrow but wanted to get an idea of the mess that I had before me. I spoke to a couple that owns another Porsche shop across from MM and they were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction if I needed help recovering my car. They are completely full in their shop so it wasn't that they were doing it to get my business. They told stories of all the guys that are flying in from all over the country to recover their cars / engines. They also gave me the the detective on the case at the Downey Police department. Apparently he has been very helpful to owners trying to get their stuff back.
Here's some of the numbers given to me today - some I think are repeats on this forum
Bureau of Automotive Repair 1-800-952-5210
dial "0" and ask for Marvin
or go to www.autorepair.ca.gov and click the button to file a complaint. Those affected really need to file a complaint to help those that are not successful in recovering their cars.
Detective Roberts - Downey Police Department - 562-904-2334
Good to see them going down.... but what a FUBAR cluster fuch.
What took so long?
The 2.7 (spare engine core) I picked up has a red fan
The guides and valves are beyond worn out.
....but it has a std/std crank....so maybe I'm OK
I was able to retrieve my car and most of my engine. I met some other guys there that we're not no fortunate. I was able to meet and talk with Detective Roberts and he has really laid down the law about them handing over the parts when the owners get there. To anyone that might still have their car or engine there - Go ASAP to get it. They now have an eviction noticed posted from the building owner and the detective agreed that it's only going to get worse. I'm heading back today to get a few things they promised they would find.
On a bizarre brighter note: One guy arrived to get his car and he was so mad and frustrated. He was on his phone yelling at somebody on the other end to get a transport there ASAP to get his car. Then one of the employees of MM said "Why are you calling for a transport? This car is done". We all looked at each other quite surprised. They jump started the car and he drove off. Who knows how long the car sat there already finished, but he was by far one of the lucky ones.
Is it still full of stuff, or are the cars end engines trickling away to leave it a bit empty?
One of the employees said they still have 100 cars in three lots
These guys look to be the Bernie Madoffs of Porsche repair! Glad that the law is finally catching up to them.
Un-be-freakin'-leavable!!
This takes the term, "stealing from Peter to pay Paul" to a whole new level. How long have these guys been getting away with this scam anyway??
I'm kind of surprised that with all the years they have been doing this they haven't had a customer of "questionable ethics " that would make certain to " sort things out " in the middle of the desert
Is AA next?
Ha ha ha, I was just wondering when AA's most vigorous defenders in past threads were going to jump in here to take up MM's side. AA's not quite so egregious, but seem to have learned the rules in the same playground.
unfortunately, this practice (borrow from peter to pay paul) is not uncommon in the mechanic world.... Most of these guys are good mechanics, but not good business people and have no idea how to manage cashflow, so they take the deposits that someone gives them to pay for the parts for someone elses car. Starts out innocent enough until years go by and they are SOOOOO far behind. I can think of one shop (VERY local to me) that is headed for the same fate if someone gets pissed enough to do/say something about it. We all keep asking ourselves what is taking so long???
Honestly, this is why I work with the shop I do (literally...I do business consulting work to help small businesses and help him keep his finances in order). Too many small businesses have no idea how to run the BUSINESS side of the companies.... Not saying that's what went wrong with MM, just saying it's more common than you would think... or hope...
It is a very common practice and an easy trap for shop owners to un-intentionally fall into. Couple that with a nefarious owner and you get MM. I have a high-end hotrod shop across the street who works off deposits and they are constantly in this cycle. For them, the loudest car owner gets the work done.
Hey I'm shooting aerial video behind them....I may pan over the place and get a birds eye view
Okay, I have a very good friend that I have known for awhile that he has had a car sitting in California. I found out tonight that it is at Motor Meister. He knew they had filed bankruptcy but had no clue of the mess going on. He is going to make calls tomorrow and try to find out more. If anyone here has some information that may help him, or if somebody would be willing to assist in the recovery over his car and parts, he is willing to pay and would greatly appreciate it. He is the kind of guy that will go out of his way to help anyone so, please, if you can or are willing to help, it is much better than him trying from 2500 miles away. Feel free to message me or call me at 901-484-6977.
Thanks,
Shoe
Hi Shoe -
Have him contact Harry Schmidt. He has been having success getting cars and parts out MM.
Henry Schmidt
SUPERTEC PERFORMANCE
Ph: 760-728-3062
Email: supertec1@earthlink.net
Here is a link to the page of the pelican thread that has additional info.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/781562-motormeister-finally-closing-down-better-claim-your-car-engine-4.html
Hot Rod and Euro/Rice shops survive on customers disposable income. It's the nature of the business to get a deposit and work off those funds until they are exhausted because customers have a way of forgetting to send money when they get an invoice from the shop for time spent.
I never took a labor deposit when I had my shop but I was clear what I expected. I would provide a written estimate, take a deposit for materials only based on my estimate, and bill if the estimated amount was to exceed 80 hrs. Additional work discovered would be fully discussed and a written change order was signed by the customer. In MN you can't automatically bill a customer more that 10% without a written change order.
This is the best way to stay out of trouble but like I said customers have a way of forgetting to send the money. That's why you see shops take a deposit and that's where the trouble begins.
Hide yo wife, hide yo kids, apparently he's back
http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums/showthread.php?98792-MotorMeister-reappears-as-Stuttgart-Auto-Works
http://stuttgartautowerks.com/about.html
Groan...
I'm thinking he needs to raise funds to pay the lawyers fees
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)