My horrible experience with EAG (European Auto Group), San Antonio.

Amazing, considering all the time and money...

You can't help but wonder what else may be "off" in some regard.
(even if nothing is off)

 

That’s the tough part of BaT with it being extremely difficult to do a PPI.

 

C&B is one step above Craigslist.

 

I would never dare leave a Ferrari with EAG, the way they treat customer cars. I'd be pissed if someone treated my daily like this, not to mention the Ferrari.
Or is it that owners of these Ferraris don't give a damn about how the car is treated, as long as they get a manual gear stick to jerk?


Angle grinder, anyone?


Crawling the dirty floor, then gets in without seat protection.

 

I had them come to my home to do the conversion. I didn't have any issues. They lived with me for 5 days, were very conscientious and careful. Even made up the beds and cleaned up before they left.

 

Kent, I am “Pro Art” in that I want them to succeed….but as a clarification on your statement…..you were just an “arms length” customer with “no affiliation”?

 

I work in an unrelated industry to EAG. I have no business affiliation with Art, EAG or any subsidiary. I contracted with Art for the conversion then found out about some of his more controversial background and actually tried to back out of the contract to convert my car. But I thought about it, Art at first refused to convert the car because I went to one of his partners in a panic after giving him a $20k deposit. I got on a Facetime with Art, worked it out, overcame his objection to essentially going behind his back, I explained why I was hesitant after learning this information and we moved forward.

Art has a very unusual personality, but not one I'm unfamiliar with. He's a very smart person, but his ability to be able to set customer expectations is poor. I don't think customer service is something that comes naturally to Art or something he feels comfortable with. But much to his credit, he is realizing this and if he could shape expectations, handle the logistics, part ordering etc. and communications better with clients, I think it will serve him well. EAG just hired a CEO with extensive manufacturing experience and logistics experience so we shall see.

I last saw Art in August and visited his shop. Art treated me like a stranger almost and I didn't feel welcome. But I try not to let personality interfere with my relationships with people.

 

I also am unaffiliated…

I do believe in the “American Entrepreneurial Spirit” being rewarded.

I do always want to support small business.

I do hope people that have a good experience also report in after their experiences.

We have a 456/550/575 sub forum fchatter with EAG now and I hope he can report in when done to let us know the good or bad.

I do not follow the 360/430 guys closely to know if anyone (or many) have bought EAG kits and just used their own mechanic plus Trev on the software to do the conversion. That “local mechanic” method takes any potential “variability/uncertainty” theoretically out of the mix.

 

Not sure if this is allowed, but I just saw this posted today.

 

How wouldn’t that all be fantastic news?

 

Ok.. So you don't see any problem with Art using an angle grinder to spray customer cars and not protecting the interior when he is dirty?
I think its extremely unprofessional.

 

Yeah, that wasn't a good look. I've used angle grinder's quite a bit. He was at least 10 feet from the side of that car though, unlikely anything. Probably would have been a better choice to do that outside. It wouldn't have bothered me if it were my car at that distance. If my car was in front of him, yeah, that would not have been good.

 

On the other hand, it doesn't take extensive skill, knowledge or experience in customer service to just deliver to the customer what has been promised..... In writing.... Perhaps the only way to guarantee a great outcome is to have them at your house!

Kevin

 

I've rarely encountered an analytical/engineering type that was very good at customer service, whether internal or external. Managing a flow process + logistics + HR + CFO + acting as a controller and figuring out how to shape customer expectations when you are relying on 3rd party vendor performance and you have no formal training in any of these areas can be tricky in sales and I've been successful in sales for 30 years. All these skill sets are not typically in one person. YMMV.

 

Holy F*#*!$*#!.

Some of this is VERY basic. Shape customer expectation? The expectation that he simply follow through on what he agreed to do??
MULTIPLE cars arrived at his shop AFTER mine and left with the parts mine was SUPPOSED to have.

Fine. You could not deliver. Perhaps provide a refund of the additional money I paid? (as I suggested) Don't just delay, delay and subsequently ignore.

Yeah. Basic decency should not have to be a learned skill.

Kevin

 

Ask for your car back and the deposit you made. I paid extra to have them do it at my home for this exact reason. I wasn't going to do it otherwise. I can understand the frustration and lack of communication. This is a REAL problem. One of the things I was very concerned about is setting a firm date for the work to be completed and I pestered them on that. I do that with all contractors. You need to have a completion date in your contract to protect yourself and give you a mitigant to break the contract. What you don't want is a contractor using your deposit to fund their prior commitments on money they have already spent. You're just giving them an interest free loan. Even with a firm date in the contract, it was 4 months between the time I gave them a deposit and the time the contract was completed. This was a very frustrating period. Frankly, they shouldn't be getting a deposit out that long in my opinion. Only 30 days at most, but I understood that they have to order parts which can take longer. However, I still didn't like it. Bad logistics, goes back to don't take deposits this far in advance if you don't have the inventory.

I'm not saying this is what is occurring. I just think they didn't manage their growth very well, which they have admitted to. What I can say, and I try to help anyone that reaches out to me privately, is that the end product is good. You won't find many complaints on the 430s/360s final work done. But the lack of communication and setting expectations correctly is a serious problem. Hopefully, the new CEO will fix that. They need to stop taking new work in my opinion until they get down to a reasonable backlog.

 

Agreed 100%

Mistakes are amplified in severity and ability to forgive in the total absence of a fair and reasonable resolution communicated and delivered in a timely manner. It’s just that simple.

 

I agree with this as well.

 

Sounds like the new chap has his head screwed on and recognises the errors of the past.

Often innovative companies fail as the brainchild is not business savvy and get swamped, they just want to be creative and people please, sounds like Art just needs to be left to his own devices and kept away from the paying customers.

Be interesting to see if the new guy is allowed to do his job or he also becomes just as frustrated 6 months down the line.

I would be worried that Ferrari start thinking about setting their legal Rottweilers on the company sooner or later. It does not matter if they have just cause to do so legally, they can foot the bill regardless in order to suppress anything they deem to be damaging the brand.

 

Really successful businesses I have found is when the owner/s recognize the limits to their areas of talent. I had a client that started off as a young CPA in the 70's. He was the auditor for a small local trucking company. The original owner decided to retire sometime in the early 80's. He bought the company I believe for around $2 million. He sold it before Covid when he retired for over $1 billion. It became one of the largest long haul trucking companies in the country. This CPA was smart. He knew he should hire professional managers to run the company and then he let them actually run it while he oversaw everything as a sort of CEO/Chairman. He knew what he was good at and what he wasn't good at. So many founders of companies don't recognize their limitations. We all have limitations on our time and what we are talented at. In my 30+ years working with successful family offices, the ones that can make the transition from small business to middle market are the ones where the founder/owners find a great team of professionals to manage the company and the owner stays involved to make sure the vision is kept, keep people motivated and inspire staff through fair policies and procedures and watches the bottom line. Constant training and persistent quality control.

 

EAG USA!!!! They are a very famous company who sell Ferrari Manual Conversion Kits HAHAHAHAHA.

Please be carefull with them!!

Over 6 months ago I signed their distribution contract to become the dealer for Thailand and paid in full for 5 Conversion Kits. I.e., over 100,000 USD. To this day we still haven’t received any conversion kits and it has been over month since EAG emailed us back about a full refund due to not being able to deliver. After that email silent every since and no more response. We are working on a class action lawsuit against this company. If any of you have had similar experiences of being defrauded by this company please DM me.

 

Not funny….

 

Send me a dm, I’ve a few comments to add about my experience.

As for a form of action, go to the state of Texas attorney general to start.

 

Yes we are already in touch with them.

 

hope you get your issue straightened out.