How much money have you spent with FerrariChat.com Sponsors?

I bought several flat screen tv's from a previous sponsor. I think their gone now.... Had very good service and a great price.

 

Rob,
I don't know why you are reacting so defensively and strongly to the point of accusing me of cowardice. My post was intended to point out a shortcoming of the system, not to flame your sponsor. You keep insisting that I out your sponsor. I decline because that is not the purpose of my post. You know my gripe with him is legit so back the hell off. If I wanted to flame your friend, I would have done so a long time ago. And I don't think he would appreciate your heavy goading tone. He certainly wouldn't want his name on the internet in a blaze of bad publicity. If you want to out him, you do it.

As to your statement of: "who are you to dictate to everyone that maybe all sponsors will act this way and even that this sponsor would be like this for all users." When did I actually say this? Or even imply this?

Rob, why don't you take a chill pill, take a cold shower, and read my first post again SLOWLY. And then apologize to me. Your reaction is very disapointing to me. And to others on this board. You are not being very impartial at all. I expected better from you.

Tillman and Nibblesworth have made very good points. You should read their posts. Thank you Tillman and Nibblesworth for your comments. Much appreciated.

I had a legitimate complaint, and when I couldn't reach a resolution to the problem with the sponsor, I approached you about it to see if you could intervene and help me out. Instead, you brushed me off with some BS about how your sponsor is a busy guy and has a history of being slow but always comes through in the end. And now, you side with your sponsor who was obviously in the wrong, and attack me with visious namecalling.

Are you afraid to impose standards of business conduct on your sponsors? Are you afraid they will pull their money because they might refuse to abide by basic business etiquette?

Why are you reacting this way?

 

Rob-

I totally agree with Tillman; by accepting sponsors monies, you are endorsing them. It's like, don't recommend a product until you've used it yourself and, don't recommend a supplier because they paid you to do so.

I believe I know who SN is referring to, as I also had problems in making contact with them. In the end though, they did come through!

With the advent of the internet, and on-line buying, a lot of scamming does go on; it happens on Ebay and other high profile sites.

I'm not saying that any of your sponsers are 'scammers', as I think that all of them are reputable, though some are unprofessional in the way they handle business.

Caveat Emptor!

 

So far I've spent about $2500 with Ferrari UK

 

I'm sure my comments are worth less than nothing, but I feel I have to chime in with respect to the debate over a particular sponsor.

To me, it seems that SN has tried to let you know personally of a problem with a sponsor (that I take it, from the context of posts, occurred some time ago?). As such, he has expressed that it might not be a bad idea to have a user rating of sponsors (much like an eBay kind of feedback thing) so as to make the general FC population aware of such things.

He has refrained from slandering the name of said sponsor in order to avoid belittling him and causing problems for you, and has instead stated that in HIS experiences, perhaps he is a bit more leery (because of this past episode) of doing business with anyone associated with this board as a sponsor first as opposed to someone local, or someone whom he knows can deliver a better product (much like I might be wary of doing a major at a dealership when I know that an independant mechanic might do a much better job, despite that dealer being associated with FNA, etc).

As such, implementing a means of feedback, or Rob's Seal of Approval, or SOME form of acknowledgement that these people with whom we "should" do business are actually very professional, etc. seems like a reasonable measure.

Instead, I think you misunderstood SN's very professional and polite means of conveying this, and took it to suggest something else.

At no point in reading over it, however, do I see SN making deridiing or belittling comments about any one OR all of the FC sponsors.

Of course, I have nothing to add other than you may have misunderstood what he seems to be saying.

--Dan

 

1) FX did my major service and cam bearing replacement
2) Bought parts from Ferrari UK
3) Bought my car from Cavallino Motors
4) My entire car is being outfitted by CF parts from Valence USA
5) Bought parts from Sodacom's

I think I qualify as one of the larger supporters of our sponsors!

Oops... can't change my vote... Rob, change my poll vote from the 5k-20k range to 20k+!!

 

> Do you realize you can get a custom painted and decaled model of
> your car from Cavallino Models?

Really? Cool - I want one!

 

Rob,
First of all, I want you to realize that I recognize your job of adminsitrator is tough. I think you have done a great job with this website. I was trying to give you some constructive input without hurting anyone specifically. However, I think you have handled this whole situation wrongly and in a heavy handed fashion. Instead of being neutral you've attacked me and called me a coward.

Even to the end of your last post it seems like you still feel your sponsor's behavior was no big deal. Your vendor takes $1000 from me and gives me no product and no return phone calls or emails for 3 weeks. That is acceptable behavior? Being late might be ok, IF he informs me. I cannot believe that you would be ok with someone taking $1000 from you, Rob, and not giving you your product and not communicating with you for 3 weeks. You are focusing on the lateness. I am focusing on the lack of follow through and communication. If you find THAT acceptable behavior, then I don't know what that indicates about you, Rob.

Secondly, I approached you only because I received no response from the vendor for 3 weeks. I could have asked him on the f-chat website, because after all, I purchased the challenge grill after he posted the ad on a thread. I decided not to because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and out of respect for you, Rob. I didn't want to start anything negative, and I thought you might be able to help. It is now painfully obvious to me you don't want that role of ensuring the integrity of your sponsors or of protecting your f-chatters. What a fool I was to approach you in the first place. It is also obvious from your posts that you feel if we have a gripe with your sponsors, instead of approaching you privately, we should go ahead and post on the chat site and out them.

Lastly, I never asked you to blacklist anybody. Read my posts. Where are you coming up with all this crap?

I don't care where you are writing this stuff from. If you are unhappy, tired, ass-cramped, hungry, whatever, then don't post. As the administrator of this site, I expect you to be even-keeled, neutral, fair, and non-inflammatory in your verbiage. Instead you call me a coward. I still think you owe me an apology.

Also, Rob, the few (and I thank you all) who have posted regarding my original post have been supportive of my position, not yours.

 

Rob,

This is going to be my last post on this because you obviously are taking this the wrong way. You compound issues by calling me names (although you did apologize) and now you post a private communication that is pretty one-sided and speculative. You did a great job of twisting my posts and meanings to belittle me and make me look stupid. BTW, my reasons for requesting specific shipping instruction are my reasons alone, and if I give him specific instructions and the sponsor is unwilling to follow them for whatever reason, don't you think he should have contacted me to clarify? Oh. Never mind. I think I know your answer already.

Also, Rob. Just for your information because I don't think you know this: most companies out there will ship to non-billing addresses. Duh.....

So because you get this email from your sponsor, I'm the ****** now. Good. Thank you, Rob. So I guess I was going to cheat him by pretending not to have received the package. Hmmmm.....

For the umpteenth time: My intention was never to flame your sponsor. I only used that as an example to suggest a method of maintaining business standards. You obviously are too narrow minded to see it as only an example. You took it to mean an attack on the sponsor. You say you don't know of any companies who do that? Read my first post, jerk. I named a big company: Popular Photography.

You say buyer beware. Fine, Rob. You obviously don't care to protect your f-chatters. Worse things can happen than slow service. You're right. But that wasn't the point. For the umpteenth time, IT WAS THE LACK OF COMMUNICATION AND FOLLOW-UP THAT CONCERNED ME. FOR THREE WEEKS. It's okay, Rob. Protect your sponsor to keep the flow of money coming to you. At all costs. Perhaps you should run for public office. Your skills would come in handy.

Whatever, Rob. I'm just so disappointed in the way you have handled this. Others who have chimed in have seen my point very very clearly. You ignore their comments and persist with your attacks on me. I would have thought that when neutral third parties chimed in to clarify the issue that then you might see my point. I was hoping this would end in a friendly fashion. Wishful thinking. I think that you took my post as a personal attack on you. It wasn't. You haven't acted like the gentleman I thought you were. At the beginning, I thought I might get flamed for my views, but not from you. Big disappointment. Sleep well, big guy.

Fellow f-chatters: Buyer beware on the F-chat website. Do not approach Rob for help. Rob won't help you because he believes "in the long run it's your money and the buyer has ultimate responsibility. Buyer beware." You're on your own. Caveat emptor, everybody.

BTW, I'm not even mad anymore. I think this whole thing is funny now. And I think you are a big joke, Rob.

Goodbye. This thread is dead.

 

Ooooh .. I feel another Poll comming along

Who's Right Rob or storminnormin ?

 

~In closing SN, I think everything is clear to everyone now~

oh it's clear alright. don't need any windex on this glass.

RR

 

Rob,
I happily to apologize to you for the personal attacks I have made on you, but pardon me if I don't see eye to eye with you on this sponsor issue. I stand solidly by my position. We've made our points, and as far as I'm concerned, further public discussion would only serve to inflame both parties. If you would like to pursue this issue further, though, I would prefer to do so in private. This whole thing has obviously gotten out of hand. That was not my original intent.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Norman

 

Guys, this whole thing has gotten way out of hand.

Norm has many good points, and raises an important issue about the responsability of FC for the advertisers it endorses, and vicea-versa.

You see this at the national level, Pepsi will pull it's campaign from an endorser at the first sign of public scandal/trouble.

Norm, you may also be over-reacting a tad. You did get the part, but it took a while, and he mucked up the shipping address. Seems like he was a bit of an ass too. Stuff like this should just be duely noted in a vendor's feedback somewhere. Not the end of the world (unless your wife did see it, then we're all screwed!)



Rob, I can also see your point that it's a little rediculas for you to be the all seeing and knowing FC police. But I can't quite stomach the "buyer beware, you're on your own entirely" mentality either. I also understand your desire not to have this blacklist all sponsors, but you are out of line in my opinion with the way you handled it with SN.

There has to be a happy medium, maybe you could pick up a copy of Popular Photography and let us know what you think?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Let's just sit back a bit and remenber why we're all here.

Best!
Ben.

 

For what it's worth, I don't think that Norman overreacted at all. Like the rest of the peanut gallery, I think Norm is right. I have had the pleasure of meeting Norman on numerous occasions and he is probably one of the most level headed and fair people I have had the pleasure to meet through this board. He has shown devotion to FChat while only speaking about them in good terms and has been instrumental with other Bay Area mainstays (ie. Dan, Art, Faisal) in getting people together and having bunches of Ferraris to meet up at the drop of a hat.

I don't think at all that Norm thinking he is right or having people think he is right is delusional. At risk of getting into hot water, I feel the opposite. The attacks were unmerited and Norman's reaction is one to be expected from any person who is being slandered in public.

Publishing personal email correspondance is most definitely a friendly community faux pas to say the least. It is a one sided and, as Norman mentioned, completely speculative piece of irrelevant information that just shows Norman had basic requests that should be honored and also shows tremendous bad taste in publishing it in public without consent of all parties involved. I can think of countless of places that deliver to addresses that are not billing addresses. 3 weeks delivery of a product is inexcusable. I might be biased because I too had a bad experience, with a sponsor in regards to a purchase.

If this was the same sponsor (certain behavior is similar) the web page you get after purchasing says you will receive a receipt via email immediately. The email I got had no part number, no mention of what I purchased or how much I spent. It also says that I would receive a call within 24 hours with shipping information. I had to finally cave in and call 3 days later to find out what was going on. I, unlike Norm, never received the part; because the sponsor never had it in the first place. Took me about 2 weeks to find this out after getting an answering machine to pick up. Meanwhile, my car was sitting at a shop taking up floor space for two weeks. The sponsor did agree to ship to a different address (I wanted it shipped to the shop where the work was being done) so we might be talking about somebody else here. The shop owner was gracious enough to understand my predicament and didn't charge me any storage fees even though I tried to rob him of most profit by finding my own parts and the car sat there without work being done for two weeks. I learned my lesson. I now let the guy order whatever he wants and he can use his reliable sources. The part was shipped from Italy and was in his shop within 3 days from ordering. Had I gotten storage fees for the car for 2 weeks (I'm guessing from previous experiences $15-$30/day depending on shop) it would definitely kill all the savings.

Cheers

Happy Thanksgiving all, esp. you Bay Area crazies!

 

I gotta tell you guys...Dealing with Heiko has been an absolute pleasure. This is one stand -up guy! He is a Ferrari addict. His love for these cars comes through in everything he does. He treats his customers with respect, prompt and honest service, great prices and then calls to make sure everything arived on time and in good shape.

THEN, get this...he calls on the day you are installing stuff to see how it's all going and to find out if you have any questions!

I can't get over this guy. We've actually become good friends and next year when I get some vacation in, Tracey and I may stop in on our way back from Malta to see him.

I can recommend him without reservation.

Russ

 

Rob,
I have spent more than $1k at Sodacom's on my Mondial Cab. I always check the sponsors first. I think T. Rutland would be a great addition because that is the first place I buy from if I can't get what I need from sponsors. Never had a problem with them. Bought lots of stuff there too. Their web site isn't much, but a phone call to them has always worked for me. They even had a inside door handle from a 400I that I was able to easily adapt to my Mondial and it looks just like the Mondial handle which is no longer produced. Just had to use the linkage from my old handle. Chris is very knowledgeable and helpfull
I know it isn't part of the poll but I have found good deals by buying parts from other F Chat members. I bought tensioner bearings from one and a set of 16" wheels from another.
I don't know what I would do if F Chat wasn't here. I would be up the well known creek without a paddle. The sponsors and the members have been very helpful in getting what I need to bring my Ferrari Rescue project to life.

 

I've spent 183,000. with Car Store of Glenside.
A 91 348 and a 99 550 Maranello.

 

Brilliant! Although it's a bit more work for our already over-worked host (that's you Rob I think it will be worth it in enhancement to our community.

Art may have some words to offer about a disclaimer/indemnification clause.

Best!
Ben.