Down for the year, maybe longer

[BigGeorge]

Kevin looks forward to discussing the matter with Sam directly and again will phone him at the number provided tomorrow. He's simply wants to fully understand what is going on at this point and how it can be rectified.

Thank you all at the very least for your passion about the whole issue. Good night.

I spoke with Sam about 20-mins ago and he feels that a phone conversation with Kevin is the best approach. He also agreed that I'd be part of that conversation. The goal is to get Sam's situation cleared up... no more no less. You have my number... please pass it on to Kevin and I ask that he please call me so I can get this setup tomorrow.

 

[99'busa]

Just for the record - as of right now XXX has not answered 2 phone calls and 1 email, so for all those that said we should give them a chance that is what we're doing, but at what point is enough enough.  While the suggestion is appreciated, obviously even after all this nothing has changed.  

6 months of this is more tiring than you can imagine.  

So feel free to judge us all you like concerning the decision we make - I won't ever understand what exactly it is that we did to be treated this way.  We'll manage, the bike will get fixed and hopefully no one will have to ever go thru what we did.

I've not received any phone calls or emails related to this matter today. Nicole phoned me an hour ago and said Sam left a message at the shop. She has the phone forwarded to her or has it and Kevin is at the new shop working on the build-out. He will phone Sam in the morning.

I thought my communication was clear on the fact that we'd like to discuss the problem and deal with this in a civil manner. A great deal of what I personally said was taken out of context. I suppose that can happen in heated situations.

If I've come off as arrogant, offensive or defamatory in any way to anyone associated or not with this matter, I apologize. I am passionate about my husband and will defend him because I know him best and asked him to take this project on. I certainly hope you can understand that. I am indeed his #1 fan followed closely by our children. He works hard just like all of you and I know he has extended and attempted to extend options to rectify this situation. We are not running from this matter. As with anything we will face it head on but with clear heads and clear judgment.

I didn't lie about BBB, we weren't aware of the complaint they've listed. I suppose that's why they didn't receive a response. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

With no trepidation whatsoever, I can say I am/we are sorry for the experience Sam has had. He's a good guy from what we knew of him. Sam and I have had a few conversations about miscommunications and interpretations about the whole situation prior to any of this.

One email regarding this thread and Paypal's contacting us is how we found out about all of this. Then began communications from others ABOUT this situation. We've not had direct communication with Sam since the day the bike was delivered to Scott.

This is not a situation that anyone anticipated or planned. I can't explain what I see in these pictures as I have never seen anything like this with a bike we've chromed. Kevin is aware of some of the issues regarding running under the tail section but hasn't seen the pictures I have seen here. He'll have to make sense of it when he does.

Kevin looks forward to discussing the matter with Sam directly and again will phone him at the number provided tomorrow.  He's simply wants to fully understand what is going on at this point and how it can be rectified.

Thank you all at the very least for your passion about the whole issue. Good night.

I myself own a small business. I understand COMPLETELY that when an "employee" puts out work in your name and it turns out BAD, YOU are put in a very pricarious position. MY company EARNS it's name from these situations. WHO CARES HOW MUCH $ YOU LOOSE TO MAKE SOMETHING RIGHT. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, IS HOW YOU HANDLE IT......... I have lost money on jobs before. BUT I made things right and the customer FEEL comfortable with doing business with us again. THAT is ALL that matters. PERIOD.

 

[99'busa]

CRAP happens. How you deal with it seperates the good from the bad......

 

[daoryder]

NOTHING HAPPENS OVER NIGHT! i seen this bike when i went to get some parts from the shop...looked good when it was in the shop...so who knows what happened after the shop...open trailors after a snow storm probably isn't a good idea to trailor a bike in...i bought plenty of parts from them with no complaints...see what happens when you try to do something good...let xxx and sam fix it and everyone SHUT UP! ahahhahah

 

[SAMBUSA]

NOTHING HAPPENS OVER NIGHT! i seen this bike when i went to get some parts from the shop...looked good when it was in the shop...so who knows what happened after the shop...open trailors after a snow storm probably isn't a good idea to trailor a bike in...i bought plenty of parts from them with no complaints...see what happens when you try to do something good...let xxx and sam fix it and everyone SHUT UP! ahahhahah

When I picked up the bike to haul back to Ohio, there was no snow anywhere. It was in the 50s. But even if there was snow, I would think that shouldn't cause a problem since it had an ENTIRE week to cure from the last time Kevin worked on it.

 

[99'busa]

let xxx and sam fix it and everyone SHUT UP! ahahhahah

 

 

 

 

GO ............................................................



edited by self (i dont want a little box)

 

[99'busa]

still biting my tongue. I'm going away now

 

[BigDiesel]

note to daoryder:you'd do yourself a graet disservice to make any more comments in here. Im sure Kevin n Camesha appreciate your support but you know little if anything about this situation (like most in this thread unfortunately) so please-know your role, son. Im sure you know what I mean.

 

[SAMBUSA]

Guys,

This is Camesha of the Kevin and Camesha and XXX you are all speaking about. It's very difficult to respond to something (after taking it all in) that has been taken to a limit of this magnitude. There have been a number of elements in this communication string that have not been brought to the forefront by parties involved. Without truly getting off my chest or expressing what we really feel about this situation, I want to assure you that our customer's satisfaction is our first concern in business and will remain that way today, tomorrow and always.

This is on a very personal level very hard to stomach and address because there are no words for how it has made my husband and I feel about the personal motivation of others. In our time in business, we have NEVER experienced anything like this. Sure, we've had our difficulties with customers and clients over the years but I can count those on my hands.

My husband's reputation is on the line every time he completes a part and ships it out of our shop. We receive and ship a large volume of parts each week. He has never taken the customer experience or the service lightly. Like all of you he works very hard. He works 7 days a week and has sacrificed a great deal to get to where he is today. While at EBC I was the active manager of our sponsorship there. I participated and volunteered this giveaway chrome job with great hopes of actually helping someone who couldn't actually afford the cost $2500 - $3500 of the work. In turn.... all of this. I don't take the threats from all of you literally, yet they are disheartening given who we are as people.

My husband's work speaks for itself. We have hundreds of very happy customers and accounts. We have worked not only with individual bike owners but with major motorcycle manufacturers, out of a tiny little shop that has operated sometimes single-handedly by my husband. He has been featured in 2 Wheel Tuner Magazine many times directly and for his customer's bikes. His bike just won "Best In Show" at the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago. We receive thank you cards, emails and calls from customers on a regular basis. This experience is NOT indicative of who we are, what he's about and what he's built, what his standards are and what our business is about.

Sam has not contacted us about this job directly, only via email about this string he CCed a number of other individuals on. The phone number we have for him is as of the onset of all of this, now disconnected. Sam dropped his bike off in October (something he did on his own accord) and told my husband to "take his time" he also told this to George from Extreme Busa. My husband further recalls in the conversation that said April...by the riding season. Our office assistant thinks that it was May. In any case, my husband wanted the bike done and dissassembled it and it began prep relatively shortly thereafter. Knowing he had a few months based on what Sam said, my husband worked on the many others bikes and parts he had earlier deadlines on. Also, it was posed to me that it was un realistic for us to have someones bike in-house for 6 months. For us it is not at all unusual. We have customers who have dropped off brand new bikes for chroming in the fall only to return to get them in the Summer. One of which Sam saw himself in the storage building. As you all are aware, there is a riding season up north here... it was not unheard of from our perspective to have Sam's bike here until the riding season. We still have snow storms here as of two weeks ago.

In addition to the work that was done on Sam's bike, he ordered hard chromed parts that he attempted to have Paypal refund him for, only to have the claim dropped by them because as they stated to us "...it seemed fraudulent." He also has was given a front caliper ($150) and the rear caliper ($150) for free ($300 +labor) then he wanted to purchase the front right from us for $150(exchange), so he was Paypal invoiced for that. He never paid that.  He was also provided with a 2-color chrome with logo upgrade aside from the package given away for free. He owes us $150, plus a core set of front calipers he exchanged.

He has filed a complaint with the BBC, something that has NEVER occurred in our nearly 5 years of business. Also, the pictures of the bike he is showing of chrome falling off the bike are beyond comprehension. Here are the pictures of the bike when it left our shop on another open trailer: www.xxxplating.com/samsbike.html (may take a while to upload, pictures are high res) It was picked up by Scott(BigDiesel) and friends who Kevin tells me liked the work and took pictures themselves.

Again, we don't have issues with customers of this magnitude. We are hard working people who are always trying to help the underdog but this appears to be a case of "no good deed...goes unpunished". It has altered our mindset and our way of thinking about people in general and what customers we choose to engage with going forward.

Sam, regardless of all of that, I have attempted to phone you. Your phone is no longer working. Should you feel the need to contact us at some point to rectify whatever has occurred with the bike, we are open to discussions. You have my personal cell phone number and my personal email address as well as our shop contact information. If your intentions are good ones, I have no problem speaking with you directly. I will be back in Milwaukee Saturday afternoon.

George, I am just reading all of this now obviously post our conversation this morning. I was not under the impression that my communications with you yesterday were of concern to you. My request to talk to you was about simply setting the record straight from our perspective. I was in not way attempting to blow you off last night. My return to my hotel last night after 11pm caused me not to call you back. I thought I had been courteous by texting you and letting you know things were running late. In addition, it was YOU who phoned me at 7:16 and pushed our call back at which time I told you I had a 7:30 dinner meeting and would contact you at 9:00. All appeared okay or so I thought.

Scott, please feel free to come to the shop and speak with Kevin again. If he's not there, he may be at the new shop in Brookfield. I'm sure you will understand his frustration with all of this and hopefully you two can come to an understanding.

Any of you who feel the need to speak with me regarding this directly, I can be reached via email at camesha@vuvangomedia.com or 414 4 2 6 6 3 4 2.

BTW, I just logged on a read all of this... we're not ignoring this post. Takes time to collect all of the various thoughts going on here and determine what requires addressing and upload 9MB worth of pictures to our served. I am off now and won't likely return as I am working on things related to our other business. My apologies if that offends anyone... but again, I can be reached via email or cell.


Camesha

I was going to address this post piece by piece but I've since calmed down a bit.  So I'm only going to address a few parts.  

1.  Yes, I brought my bike to you "on his own accord"  What else was I supposed to do?? Win the contest and then not collect?  When you did the contest, you invited the winner to your shop.

2. I NEVER said anything about April.  As I told you on the phone conversation, where you admitted that Kevin may not have remembered the conversation.  No suprise since he didn't remember what color I told him, nor did he remember what "extras" I wanted chromed.

I told him to take his time and that I wanted it back before riding season.  Shouldn't have been a problem since it  was October.  He gaurunteed me that it would be done in no more than 8 weeks. And where did May come from??  I've never talked w/ anyone but you and Kevin about when I wanted to get it back. You've mentioned it not being riding season in WI a couple times. SO WHAT!!! It is riding season here. Am I not supposed to ride because you're having a blizzard?? I bet Alaska has a blizzard in June, should I not ride since they cant??

3. "My husband's work speaks for itself. We have hundreds of very happy customers and accounts. We have worked not only with individual bike owners but with major motorcycle manufacturers, out of a tiny little shop that has operated sometimes single-handedly by my husband. He has been featured in 2 Wheel Tuner Magazine many times directly and for his customer's bikes. His bike just won "Best In Show" at the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago. We receive thank you cards, emails and calls from customers on a regular basis. This experience is NOT indicative of who we are, what he's about and what he's built, what his standards are and what our business is about."  This doesn't really matter to me.  These people you refer to do not matter to me.  Great, you did a good job on your own bike and a couple others.  So what!! You did a terrible job on mine.

4.  Paypal.  Your damn right I tried to get a refund.  You screwed up my bike.  Front caliper deal - you screwed up and put on a rear caliper and one front caliper in chrome.  I never ordered this.  What I'm supposed to ride around w/ mismatched calipers??  Dont think so, it was your screw up.  As far as the $$ goes, I drove to your shop 18 hours round trip $300 in fuel.  Just to be told that it wasn't finished.  WTF??  Told me to get a hotel and come back either late that night or the next morning.  Not an option.  As I told you, besides working 12hours/day, 6days/week I have a farm to run with newborn lambs and more on the way.  Besides all of that, lets say I would have stayed. How many days would I have been up there? Scott kept making attempts at getting my bike just to be told day after day that it wasn't ready.  Finally got it almost a week later.  So the $150 went in my fuel tank since you had me drive up there just to go home empty handed.

I WILL NOT be sending my plastic back to your shop. What, just to have plastics gone for another 6 months??  You couldn't do the job right the first time, I doubt that you can do it right the second time around.   Screw me once, shame on you.  Screw me twice isn't gonna happen.  The ball is in your court, you have the chance to fix this.............

 

[SAMBUSA]

NOTHING HAPPENS OVER NIGHT! i seen this bike when i went to get some parts from the shop...looked good when it was in the shop...so who knows what happened after the shop...open trailors after a snow storm probably isn't a good idea to trailor a bike in...i bought plenty of parts from them with no complaints...see what happens when you try to do something good...let xxx and sam fix it and everyone SHUT UP! ahahhahah

When I picked up the bike to haul back to Ohio, there was no snow anywhere.  It was in the 50s.  But even if there was snow, I would think that shouldn't cause a problem since it had an ENTIRE week to cure from the last time Kevin worked on it.

Furthermore, if Kevin can hit 230 on his ride and have no issues w/ the chrome then I should be able to take mine down the highway at 70 with no issues.



Yeah, I just quoted myself.

 

[Luvanicebum]

XXX you've got the chance to make this right but it is going to take some dollars to do it. If I were in your position I'd be looking where I could come up with the money to make him a very generous offer on buying the bike from him. Taking out a loan, selling my toys, whatever it takes to make Sam say you made it right.

Or having a full set of mint plastics to his door within a week in trade for the ones you screwed up. Sam should not have to miss out on the riding season. Including shipping for both sets, your out $2,000 max. Maybe with your equipment you can salvage the plastics you messed up and recoup most of it.

This is the only solution I can see for any respectable business.
Perhaps, they are underestimating the power of BUSA!!!!!!

 

[99'busa]

I think they are lazy and shody and ain't gonna do anything. That's just my prediction. Scott has the most contact with them. His advice is probably the one to follow. No matter what, Sam is the loser in this deal. All he can do is try to loose the least. If I was Sam I would go ahead and give them one more chance (I know it sounds crazy), if for nothing else it gives you more legal power for giving them the oportunity to make it right. You have to get it fixed by someone no matter what. If they are capable of doing this properly, which it sounds like they are capable of it, than surely they would get it right this time. If they don't you can still do the legal route and have a better chance of judgement for atleast allowing them to rectify it.

 

[99'busa]

if not, i know someone who knows someone

 

[99'busa]

or

 

[blitzburgh]

i bought plenty of parts from them with no complaints

Maybe those "plenty of parts" came from "Griffin Plating" I hear XXX gets packages from them.

 

[SAMBUSA]

Just for the record - as of right now XXX has not answered 2 phone calls and 1 email, so for all those that said we should give them a chance that is what we're doing, but at what point is enough enough.  While the suggestion is appreciated, obviously even after all this nothing has changed.  

6 months of this is more tiring than you can imagine.  

So feel free to judge us all you like concerning the decision we make - I won't ever understand what exactly it is that we did to be treated this way.  We'll manage, the bike will get fixed and hopefully no one will have to ever go thru what we did.

I've not received any phone calls or emails related to this matter today. Nicole phoned me an hour ago and said Sam left a message at the shop. She has the phone forwarded to her or has it and Kevin is at the new shop working on the build-out. He will phone Sam in the morning.

I thought my communication was clear on the fact that we'd like to discuss the problem and deal with this in a civil manner. A great deal of what I personally said was taken out of context. I suppose that can happen in heated situations.

If I've come off as arrogant, offensive or defamatory in any way to anyone associated or not with this matter, I apologize. I am passionate about my husband and will defend him because I know him best and asked him to take this project on. I certainly hope you can understand that. I am indeed his #1 fan followed closely by our children. He works hard just like all of you and I know he has extended and attempted to extend options to rectify this situation. We are not running from this matter. As with anything we will face it head on but with clear heads and clear judgment.

I didn't lie about BBB, we weren't aware of the complaint they've listed. I suppose that's why they didn't receive a response. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

With no trepidation whatsoever, I can say I am/we are sorry for the experience Sam has had. He's a good guy from what we knew of him. Sam and I have had a few conversations about miscommunications and interpretations about the whole situation prior to any of this.

One email regarding this thread and Paypal's contacting us is how we found out about all of this. Then began communications from others ABOUT this situation. We've not had direct communication with Sam since the day the bike was delivered to Scott.

This is not a situation that anyone anticipated or planned. I can't explain what I see in these pictures as I have never seen anything like this with a bike we've chromed. Kevin is aware of some of the issues regarding running under the tail section but hasn't seen the pictures I have seen here. He'll have to make sense of it when he does.

Kevin looks forward to discussing the matter with Sam directly and again will phone him at the number provided tomorrow.  He's simply wants to fully understand what is going on at this point and how it can be rectified.

Thank you all at the very least for your passion about the whole issue. Good night.

Nope you did not receive any phone calls. I WILL NOT discuss this w/ you. All I have gotten out of you is excuse after excuse. Frankly, you are rude and unprofessional. Every time I have talked w/ you in the past, you talk 95% of the conversation and the other 5% you are trying to talk over me. I did call Kevin twice and left a voice mail. I will talk w/ Kevin if he calls. Besides all of the aforementioned, what help would you be anyway? You are in New York if I'm not mistaken.

 

[SAMBUSA]

He works hard just like all of you and I know he has extended and attempted to extend options to rectify this situation. Who has he tried to rectify it with? He sure as hell hasn't returned the email I sent 2 days ago.

 

[SAMBUSA]

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record but I dont really care. Was it really necessary to tighten the caps on the fram sliders w/ vise grips?? And why is it one of my motor mounts isn't the one that I installed? Did you really need 2 extra hex fairing bolts that bad? Cuz two of my hex fairing bolts were replaced w/ "phillips head" bolts.

 

[SAMBUSA]

FWIW, there is another member here(wont say his name, he can post up if he wants) that bought a chrome chaingaurd from XXX.  It has already started peeling and he hasn't had it for 6 months yet. So, I'm not the only one who has had this peeling problem

 

[Fonzie]

Scott, you missed the part of the post that talked about the side fairings, tail section and front cowling. Pix are included of the tail section a few pages back.

I'll respond to XXX's ENTIRE post after I have a smoke

How long "is" this smoke you talk about?

r8

I think he meant he's waiting for his ears to quit smokin'! Got a shiddy WiFi connection on my resort right now....drops out constantly...so not going to take the time to go back & quote everything from the previous 8 pages. Also not going to chance reading the last 2 yet, in case she drops out again.

1) Scott...U saying you saw plenty of pix of their previous "quality" work can be deceiving...Just look at Sam's pix when you first got his bike...Look beautiful don't they?!? Now look what she's doin' a few days later...Never would've guess it from those initial pix, would you???

2) Sam changed his number. Big deal. Cameesha or Kevin can still PM him on here if they REALLY wanted to talk to him & honestly make right on this. I'm not the smartest guy, but even I thought of that avenue to reach him. When I spoke to Sam night before last...they hadn't done this.

3) Kevin always playing dumb doesn't jive with me. He doesn't know Cameesha's done this,that, the other....His ass't finished Sam's bike & somethin' about he knew the job wasn't done right. After 6 months of havin' the bike...WHY?!?

4) I noticed in Cameesha's reply that while she was busy tryin' to play the victim, she NEVER addressed the fact that they had Sam & Jenny drive 3 states/18 hour round trip on the premise that the bike was done....only to be told on arrival to get a hotel room....and then to ultimately be sent home empty handed. I used to work with Sam, and know 1st hand how much he gave up in lost wages scheduling a vacation in mid March just to deal with this mess. It's Ohio...We don't vacation in March unless we're heading south for warmer weather...not north to drive through a blizzard & place ourselves & spouse in harm.

5) So they picked the bike up in an open trailer...BIG DEAL!!! Not everyone can swing an enclosed trailer, and is Kevin's work that fragile/delicate that it's can't be exposed to the elements...WTF?!?


6) I'm REALLY sick of 'ol Cameesha using the "It was free" card to try & justify their forgetting about Sam's bike all winter, then hurrying up here the last month & doing a LOUSY job on it to hurry it out of their hair. As I said before....Kevin & Cameesha WERE paid for this job! Make NO mistakes...Their payment was basking in all the positive press/word of mouth they received 7 months ago when this contest was first hatched. They seemed to have PLENTY of time to lap it up & respond to everyone back then!! Not to mention any work they received after that as a result of said contest/positve publicity. So yes...I'll repeat...THEY WERE INDEED PAID!! Had they done this job correctly & capitalized on their initial investment, the payment could have proved substantial, and been leveraged & multiplied!

7) I've heard some of these VM's with my own 2 ears, as I was at Sam's when a few of them rolled in. I would suggest to alleviate any confusion from here on out, that Kevin handle this entire situation & any future communication...HIMSELF! Quit blamin' the middleman. It's your shop...your reputation...Your future & livlihood on the line here Kevin...Think about that! No other bike get's modded as much as a 'Busa, and you're already alienating yourself & your company on several of their boards. Doesn't seem like a very smart business plan to me!

I'm off to the pool. Sunny & mid 80's....gotta love it!!