Do Not Use International Motorsport, SoCal

This story gets more convoluted the further it goes!

There don't seem to be any straight answers coming forth??

 

Actually, the car was purchased from an ex Ferrari comrad from Italy named Mario who has since gone back home. He purchased the car damaged at a wholesale dealer auction from a SoCal dealer who is no longer in business.
The information regarding the pricing was given to IMS from Mario and it is entirely possible that he did not disclose what Mr. Sessions paid for the car, rather what he paid for the car as a dealer. IMS was reading from the written records with Mario when we responded to this forum.

IMS prepared a PPI and IMS also included on it several recommendations. IMS took photographic documentation of the car before during and after the repairs that were approved by Mr Sessions. However, several of the recommendations were not approved. This is not unusual. Mr Sessions chose to have his own technician do the service work. IMS replaced a badly damaged rocker with a Factory rocker panel and sublet it to a paint shop. There were other services performed, IMS would have to pull the file from 2 years ago out of the archives.

It was not our intention to create angst with Mr Sessions. In fact, quite the opposite. But obviuosly, when dealing with someone across the other side of the country communication can be strained at times. We never stated that we were the premier Ferrari Shop in the US. Our tech is highly capable and sought after as he is accredited in several vehicles as a certified to Master Tech. Not just Ferrari, and holds 2 engineering degrees in the automotive industry for 30 years.

IMS took a 6 month hiatus prior to moving facilities to spend some much needed time with family. We just got settled into our new building in mid February. IMS apologizes if Mr Sessions feels that he was ignored. That was not the case. While his car was at IMS we gave birth to a new baby. Our minds might have been otherwise preoccupied. For that we apologize.

We are working on a website (we are a little old fashioned and it has taken a little while to get us into the 21st century!) and it should be up and running in the next few weeks to answer another participants inquiry about us. We will again visit the site when it is up. All of our information will be available. We advertised in Forza Magazine for years but haven't recently since the move.

We did do substancial work for a Mr. Delaney who lives in SC. He purchased a vehicle in No Cal and had it sent to us for service and performance upgrades. He told me that he posted a very complimentary review regarding IMS on Ferrari Chat. I will contact him and ask him to respond to Mr Sessions and the others in this forum regarding his experience with IMS. It's always good to hear more than one point of view.

Our only intention on this forum is to positively respond however long it took us, as we don't claim constant participation on chat sites of any kind, and to make our side of the issue known. Everybody, including Mr Sessions is entitled to their opinions good or bad. We only hope that he is happy at last with his car regadless of cost or previous misunderstandings.

 

Your last statement still does not address the issue of your disclosure.

What are you hiding?

"we don't claim constant participation on chat sites of any kind"

But apparently you are here!

 

IMS,

Stewart wants his tool back

 

Looks like time for a BIG HUG!

 

Something fishy about this, and I ain't hugging a tuna!!!!

 

To GCalo

I'm sorry, but the truth is that this is the first Chat site we have ever been on. I am unfamiliar with the process but here's who we are.

International Motorsport
17782 Metzler Lane
Bldg A
Huntington Beach, Ca 92647
(714) 842-4229

Doing Business since 2000
Martin - Owner/Operator/Tech
Employed by FNA for 7 years prior to opening IMS
Factory Trained Ferrari Tech
Factory Trained Lamborghini Tech
Factory Trained Jaguar Tech
Factory Trained Saab Tech
Factory Trained Rover Tech (apprenticed Rover UK after graduating Technical College in England. 2 degrees: Automotive Science and Automotive Mathematics)
While at FNA: Tech and Lead Tech for FNA Ferrari Challenge San Francisco
Formula One Ferrari tech
Formula One Arrows Tech
Formula One Minardi Tech
Ford Cosworth Rally Tech

I hope this helps. I apologize if we seem secretive, that is not what we are trying to project here. We simply aren't accustomed to these forums or their protocol.

 

Lenny Z

Stewart got his tool back 6 months ago or longer. He also got the SD3 back after Martin programed it for him.

Sorry that other member feels fishy. Nothing to hide here. Your welcome to call the shop.

Mr. Sessions, thank you for the good wishes, ours to you as well.

 

Fair enough!

Moderator, how about closing this thread now.

 

..... There it is, another fight with dealers, bodyshops, mechanical shops... I guess we all experienced that and we all hate it. Of course, both sides got there reasons, but best service of all is one without hassle. Owning a Ferrari is frustrating as it is. I guess no one really is an expert on owning a Ferrari since each model is individually different. For this Inter. Motorsport, it's a nono. I own a business myself and never I let my customers walk out upset. Many times, I let myself pay.... it is easier than fight to win over a customer...

 

NONONONO Moderator....please keep this thread alive. This is as real as it gets. We all experience this sort of things everyday. We want to support good shops and dealers and we want to avoid bad shops and dealers .........It's time we be the Judge...!!!

 

...

 

...

 

As Mr. Sessions mentioned we also speak highly of IMS. I have had NOTHING but good experiences with them and we have worked together on many occasions. I have never seen this thread before either until today as I am also very busy between the shop and racing.
As for the work we did for Jason who has been a loyal client for years, we did a timing belt service, something he knew he was responsible for.
We replaced the frt. bellypan, had to straighten some mounting points and repaired some damaged sheetmetal in the left frt. fenderwell. We charged $380.- labor for that portion. IMS promised to pay us for redoing the paintwork, so Mr. Sessions wouldn't have to, and they did.
I have no knowledge of the transaction details between the 2 parties and cannot offer any more info. but I can only say that I think highly of IMS and Mr. Sessions and am proud to do business with both.
Good luck in getting this ironed out.

Karl Troy

www.europeanroadandracing.com

 

I would definitely put the star on IMS. Their responses, while a little late to the argument, are very honest and straightforward. I would guess only 5% of shops accused of something close to negligence would ever respond in a calm and polite manner. To me that speaks volumes about the personalities at play here. Remember, while some people (like me) keep tabs on this site others are busy working and doing things far more productive. Peace out!

BT

 

Nice post.

 

To Karl Troy and BT

Hows it going Karl! Many thanks to you for your suuport and kind words. Hope you catch the tail wind this weekend, race it like ya stole it!

And thank you to BT for your positive response. I see you are in Houston. We know quite a few boys down there.

Our only intention in participating was to share our views and the other side of the issue. We tried to answer all inquiries with fairness and honesty. I hope we accomplished that.

Kind Regards to all
IMS

 

One last post.

Mr Sessions in one of his posts eluded to IMS "billing over 8K to remove and and replace right rocker and right rocker cover plus paintwork on the right rocker".

Upon pulling the PPI (which was 3 pages long with a full page of recommendations and a full page showing and describing the Compression and leak down results, hardly vague) the following was discovered.

Final billing from IMS was $3229.68 including the PPI. Only 2800.00 was charged for the rocker replacement and paint work.

IMS recommended:
Vehicle leaking oil:30K service or Bi Annual Fluid Service, customer declined
Damaged left front rim, replaced by Mario
left front headlamp inop, customer declined
Missing front undertray, customer declined
Brake Airducts torn, customer declined
Inop left corner lamp, customer declined
Missing front left wheel housing cover, customer declined
Missing right side Sill Plate, customer declined
IMS notes that front bumper has been repainted
IMS notes Mario supplying rocker panel (which was new from Ferrari)

Herein lies the reason IMS has taken so much time and effort to get our side of the story out there. Negative words can do a lot of damage. Especially if the party who is issuing comments with intent to harm another is not being completly forthright or is mistakenly putting out information that is not accurate.

IMS is not being accusational, rather, here it is...The truth as it happened. Yes, we are very busy and sometimes it takes a while to return calls, yes, we agreed that Mr Sessions should not have to pay for repainting the rocker. IMS paid for that. It appears, from Mr Sessions comments, that he had to pay twice for the work we did. In fact, we paid for the repaint and the other work performed by our esteemed collegue Karl Troy, was the work IMS recommended and Mr Sessions declined. Yes, we have yet to send Mr Sessions his free sill plates, because they aren't out of production yet. IMS didn't pay to have a mold created to cast one single set of sill plates.

This is our final post here. I hope we were able to clear a few dilluted issues up, at least as far as our practices are concerned.

Again, thanks to those who continue to support us, especially other independents, we are in a league of our own and sometimes it can get harsh.

Cheers
IMS

 

My take...
Mr Session is a ******bag who bought a piece of crap 456 and now is trying to make himself feel better by making someone else look bad...
I'm a business owner and had to deal with people like him before...it makes forums a dangerous place for a company as it is too easy for people to post information that is not correct and companys to catch it. A good business man with a company to run does not have all day to go thru all the forums to find out what is said about him or his company.
In this case I believe the shop...and suggest Mr Session goes out and buy a proper Ferrari because the first rule of owning a Ferrari is that there is no cheap FERRARIS...
My other take...maybe MR Session should not own a Ferrari...
I own a 456 and a 355 at this time
Owned a 328, mondial and a 512TR before
always paid going prices for the all my cars and never tried to save money in repairs or maintenance...and guess what...never had problems.
Lesson to be learned...

 

Glad Stewart got his tool back (very expensive tool BTW). BTW, I can't see how he got it back 6 months ago or "longer" "as you "claim" since he was still looking for it a little over 4 months ago.

Why was it so difficult for him to get his tool back. He said he tried calling you several times ?

refer to post #29

 

I would suggest IMS not to answer this as it seems to be antagonistic and just looking to pick a fight. BTW I am in South Florida, not Houston. But I will be in the Houston airport next tuesday on my way to Scottsdale. In the 'Zona, that's a hard core hood....

BT

 

Thanks to Joao and BT (sorry BT, I guess my inexperience at navigating these forums is pretty obvious! I must of read the city from another member.)

As we mentioned before, it's support from other business owners that really keep us going. It is SO appreciated. Makes you want to get up and bust your behind all day so you can get no respect all over again! But in all seriousness, we have a client base of which 99% are appreciative. I guess when you see or hear of somebody, that you bent over backwards to help, going out of thier way to cause your business harm, it just cuts you to the core. But enough of that!

These forums can become addicting. And we can see where shop owners and customers alike would get too involved and argumentative over trivial matters. Life is too short. Personally, I believe in spending my time here (life) positively. When I go, it isn't going to matter what I owned or how much money I had, but how I spent my time and if I gave back to my community and family. That's all that really matters isn't it?

No worries over Lenny Z. We speak with Stewart frequently. Actually we even spoke today.

Good weather to be had in Zona right now. If either of you are ever in SoCal, stop on by.

With Kindest Regards.
IMS

 

Me, I'm in Houston, Yeeeeeehawwwww!!

 

It IS tough to be an Independent..........mine just died...........

 

Hello Big Tex

You will all have to forgive me if I make, what will probably be, MANY errors in navigation here!

We are very sorry to hear about your independent. The good always die young. I am sure he will be missed and very hard to replace. We have thought several times in the past that we would give all this up and do something else.

But the truth is, if your a dedicated independent, then you eat, sleep and breath all that is the combustion engine. Most of us have shrines to F1 drivers secretly hidden away in our homes and shops!!! We get up at 2,3 4 in the morning to watch racing live. And I mean any racing. We don't care if thier racing lawnmowers, we are going to watch it. Our children know what a chicane is and can properly identify vehicle makes and models. My son's first uttered word was "fawawi". No lie.

All that we endeavor is to share our passion with those around us who have been likewise stricken with our affliction!! And you know what... WE LOVE IT!!!

I hear there's a great track in Heaven...
Cheers
IMS