33 replies to this topic

[slimjim]

Thought id add my experience of dealing with Chris. i bought a stage 3 head for my 998 from him about a year ago maybe longer i cant remember, it did take quite a while i think i got it about 6-7 weeks after payment, i was told it would only take 2-3 weeks and i contacted him on various occasions but didnt get a response for a while, im guessing he was just really busy!

When i did eventually get the head i was extremely impressed with the workmanship, i fitted it and my god did it make a difference, we all know 998's are slow but the new head seemed to give mine a massive increase in power (was quicker than my mates 1293) which as you would expect i was very happy with.

I hope Chris can sort out all the problems he has had and make his business work.

Si

[andyc142]

I have had similar experience as slimjim with the same product, yes it did take a bit longer but the product is good and to me that is all that mattered as i wasn't in a rush, generally i had responses to my emails/calls and he always seemed helpful, and for the price i couldn't complain. i just hope Chris you get through this and build a better reputation.

Andy

[mk3 Cooper S]

Burnard - Athough the work done on the head was less than acceptable, you were lucky to get a £200 refund on the head, when you only paid £50 for the parts. I personally would have only given you a refund for the parts. The head you bought was second hand, therefore anything on it would have been classed as 'used and possibly diy replaced', even if it had just sat on the shelf since being bought.

You also state in your thread, that you direct us all to in this thread, that you were more than happy with the agreement of a £200 refund. Yet you seem to impose in this thread that he ripped you off.

If you had been dealing with me, then i'm sorry but you would have only got your £50 back with a possible £20 good will gesture depending on your attitude at the time. A bigger company would have laughed at your appeal for a full refund on the head and work, and taking them to court would have been a waste of money for yourself. Why do people threaten court action without checking their legal standings first?

I have to agree with this, Deffo beyond the call of duty.

Chris, your prices have always been keen which may have added to the problems by needing to select cheaper components that let you down?

[Burnard]

Burnard - Athough the work done on the head was less than acceptable, you were lucky to get a £200 refund on the head, when you only paid £50 for the parts. I personally would have only given you a refund for the parts. The head you bought was second hand, therefore anything on it would have been classed as 'used and possibly diy replaced', even if it had just sat on the shelf since being bought.

You also state in your thread, that you direct us all to in this thread, that you were more than happy with the agreement of a £200 refund. Yet you seem to impose in this thread that he ripped you off.

If you had been dealing with me, then i'm sorry but you would have only got your £50 back with a possible £20 good will gesture depending on your attitude at the time. A bigger company would have laughed at your appeal for a full refund on the head and work, and taking them to court would have been a waste of money for yourself. Why do people threaten court action without checking their legal standings first?


Chris - All you can do is try and rebuild your rep now. Its not easy, but if you put your head down and churn out the best work you can possilbly do everytime, then it will eventually work out. Give a realistic leadtime on the job and if your busy explain this before taking the job on to the customer, as you'll be amazed how people can wait for perfection. The only other advice i'll give before shutting up, is price the engine with parts you'd want in your own engine. Your not the first to make mistakes, but remember your in the 'mini community' and it can take a while for certain people to get off your case.

I must admit Chris has never done work for me, but as i currently get all my engine work done by Moorspeed, a good friend and another company hammered by TMF, I know how it can affect things. It can pick up Chris and your friends will hopefully help you get back on your feet.

I am mutual in all this due to not having work done by Chris but as Roofless is a good friend, I can also see why he has done this thread.

Im as happy with the £200 as ben was when he got his initial refund, its just not worth the hassle.
What ******* me off is him repeatedly saying he gave me a full refund when he did not. Its an out and out lie. It was a mutual agreement that he would buy the head back off me for £200.
And even after it being deemed scrap by 2 independent companies, from what i can tell he has just put it back together and sold it on to another customer at £300+

[Kam]

For what its worth I've popped upto Chris's place and dealt with him and it was all straightforward and simple and seems a nice guy aswell

I do hope you do get all this sorted out Chris, will take time but as said before well done on replying back as most would just shy away

[wolfie]

Personally i think Burnard you were very very lucky to get paid off and have no cause for complaint at all, you bought a head second hand not from smart then smart performance after being paid only £50 somehow have cocked up the head and you get paid off £200!!! come on lets get real here you are taking the p***.

With the others it seems on the face of it they have a justified claim and it really does seem a shame this has happened there are no excuses for using others property, or missleading customers.

It seems Chris is/will be part of a wich hunt now (the TMF way? ), this is a real shame it does seem that he did not deliberately mess things up and is/was very nieve in some of the things hes done however he also needs to toughen up a bit as Burnard has clearly taken the micky.

Seems the Morespeed saga that hit so many people has left a bad taste on the forum and people are less tolorant to mistakes, smart is not morespeed and this clearly shows in the way he has tried (if not completely) to resolve the issues, you would not have got that in coalville! looking at the investment he has made in the business and the potential he has i hope that he can turn this around it would be sad to see his business go under because of a witch hunt on here for a couple of mistakes that sadly have happened to TMF staff.

[Jordie]

Theres no is witch hunt on TMF for Smart Performance.

Been a trader on TMF is a privilage and TMF decided to revoke that privilage from Smart due to a series of incidients, some involving members of the TMF Team and some not. TMF staff team are also members of this forum and were members of this forum for a long time before becoming staff members.

Sadly, in this day and age unfortunately we cannot trust everyone within the mini community and thus TMF needs to take any appropiate steps to help protect the members of this forum.

[Shifty]

The decison to allow this thread and also to remove Smarts trader status is not one that was taken lightly. This has been going on for several months behind the scenes.

As a forum we have a duty of care to our members and this is one of those cases where we're dammed if we do and dammed if we don't. If we'd have taken steps to cover all of this up and killed any mention of wrong doings by smart we'd have been accused of favoritisim.

This thread was allowed to go ahead because all the events that Roofless detailed actually happened and can be proven.

I personally hope that Chris gets back on track and delivers what he is capable of.

However at the moment I would struggle to recommend him as a supplier to anyone, I sincerely hope this can change.

[ukcooper]

I have bought 1275cc stage head of Smart Performance and have no complaints as head works well (4000 Miles)and the work was second to none in my book.

I'm sure Chris has have the book read to him and thrown at him in some cases and i do hope he learns from it, I'm sure he will have many people watching every move he makes good or bad.
But i hope that we do not force him from the mini world and in years to come I'm sure we will value him more as he learns what he can and not do to cars and people.

If you do buy from chris then keep on top of thing's and dont let it slide away after all it your money.

[wolfie]

Theres no is witch hunt on TMF for Smart Performance.

Read it again i never said there was i said that its something i expect and considering wardy's response in the other thread i think this is a justified comment.

Been a trader on TMF is a privilage and TMF decided to revoke that privilage from Smart due to a series of incidients, some involving members of the TMF Team and some not. TMF staff team are also members of this forum and were members of this forum for a long time before becoming staff members.

Sadly, in this day and age unfortunately we cannot trust everyone within the mini community and thus TMF needs to take any appropiate steps to help protect the members of this forum.

I wonder if this "privilage" would have been revoked if not forum team member and trader had been affected? from this thread alone there is quite alot of happy customers.

I am not saying he's not done wrong but there seems to be alot of happy customers out there and this always gets forgotten again this is not morespeed.

Edited by wolfie, 25 September 2010 - 08:50 PM.

[Jordie]

Yes it would have. The team discussed this before hand as allready said above. We have a complete area for the staff to discuss traders and classifieds issues, we have recieved many compliants againist traders from general members of this forum and I have worked with the traders and forum members where possible to resolve these issues. Traders have been removed in the past for issues raised by members of the forum, Smart performance is not the first. No single one person makes the decision to remove a trader, it is discussed on across the team of members before an agreed action is taken. In this case, we had no other option then to remove the trader status from Smart Performance in order to protect our users.

Jordie

[Shifty]

Theres no is witch hunt on TMF for Smart Performance.

Read it again i never said there was i said that its something i expect and considering wardy's response in the other thread i think this is a justified comment.

Been a trader on TMF is a privilage and TMF decided to revoke that privilage from Smart due to a series of incidients, some involving members of the TMF Team and some not. TMF staff team are also members of this forum and were members of this forum for a long time before becoming staff members.

Sadly, in this day and age unfortunately we cannot trust everyone within the mini community and thus TMF needs to take any appropiate steps to help protect the members of this forum.

I wonder if this "privilage" would have been revoked if not forum team member and trader had been affected? from this thread alone there is quite alot of happy customers.

I am not saying he's not done wrong but there seems to be alot of happy customers out there and this always gets forgotten again this is not morespeed.

Absolutely not, don't forget that this isn't just a one-sided thread, people who are happy with the service they've recieved from smart have spoke up in his defence as well. Chris has also made a statement.

The Stroker has made a point of staying out of the TMF team debate as he was too involved.

We take any disputes or accusations very seriously indeed, no one wants to see someones business ruined because of an ill founded complaint.

This matter has been fully investigated, and we believe the most appropriate action has been taken.

[BenH]

i totally agree with Jordie,Shifty and tmfs decision, i dont think people should come onto this thread without having experience from Smart as you can not for one minute understand how much stress the company has caused us. You cant just turn around and defend Chris because hes made an apoligy,fair enough he may of not meant it but we were paying customers and when you pay 2k for something,you dont expect it to come back a year later completly scrap. I thought he was a sound bloke but anyone taking 2k off u isnt going to be any different. Id understand if it was a one off but 3 engines in a short space of time. I didnt want to comment again as i think people can make there minds up but it just annoys me when people come on here and completly miss the point. How about you give me 2k and an engine and in a years time il give you 1700 back and no engine! Sound good to you?

[01smartc]

Ben H

Had a few people asking me where my project thread had dissapeared to.

My Smart performance engine had a fault and was taken for an inspection and report after 40 miles.

The report concluded that all the parts used were as described on my invoice and very high quality
Also that it had been built no differently to how they built theirs.
It seemed like it hadnt been getting any oil but the galleys were clear, the inspection couldnt not put a finger on a fault and both Smart and the gargae carrying out the inspection could not come to a conclusion to what had happened. The garage carrying out the inspection are a very well known mini company and knew their stuff.

Anyway i was offered a complete rebuild or a refund from Smart Performance,
In the end i went with a refund as i never really thought id spent so much on the engine but it all built up over the last year.Not saying that i wasnt happy with it as it looked and sounded great but i knew that being so modified it wouldnt be long before something would happen down the line.

my refund was sent to me within 7 days without any problems whatsoever so i would like to say thankyou to Smart Performance for their customer service in dealing with this.

So Project kermit is still not finished but the car will be back with me Saturday or Monday.
I have a complete new plan for the car

The webasto roof is coming out,it must weight easily 20kg i now have a carbon roofskin to fit
the subs and amp and bootbuild is being removed which will shed at least 50kg
bootfloor out for a carbon/fibre one
doorbins and rear bench
lots and lots of weighsaving to do.

but i have also bought a complete allspeed small block kit and 2 1.6 8v vauxhall engines and pretty much everything to go with it.

So drop by monday and project Kermit shall be underway again.


Please can i ask that any posts in relation to my engine or smart Please be sent to myself or Smart before going onto here.
This thread is just to let everyone know the outcome and why kermit vanished for a few weeks!

Ben

Verdict of the inspection, nothing Smart Performance did wrong... yet you still got a refund. I would be happy with the outcome you got. How many other companies would still refund after an independent engineer has put them in the clear?

Smart Performance has sorted all the issues that any of its customers may have had.

Chris

[wolfie]

The Stroker has made a point of staying out of the TMF team debate as he was too involved.

We take any disputes or accusations very seriously indeed, no one wants to see someones business ruined because of an ill founded complaint.

This matter has been fully investigated, and we believe the most appropriate action has been taken.

Shifty that seems fair however if you dont tell people the process then assumptions will be made, it might be prudent to inform people of the process taken especially when staff have been involved its not like theres not enough staff for someone to do it, its fairer on people trying to make an informed choice.

i totally agree with Jordie,Shifty and tmfs decision, i dont think people should come onto this thread without having experience from Smart as you can not for one minute understand how much stress the company has caused us. You cant just turn around and defend Chris because hes made an apoligy,fair enough he may of not meant it but we were paying customers and when you pay 2k for something,you dont expect it to come back a year later completly scrap. I thought he was a sound bloke but anyone taking 2k off u isnt going to be any different. Id understand if it was a one off but 3 engines in a short space of time. I didnt want to comment again as i think people can make there minds up but it just annoys me when people come on here and completly miss the point. How about you give me 2k and an engine and in a years time il give you 1700 back and no engine! Sound good to you?

What tosh!
The other thread was locked not giving happy customers a chance to reply with the excuse that smart was advertising, the only people that posted were people who have no expeiance of the company pointing them to this thread however i am sure thats fine, there is also significantly more people on here that are happy customers, no-ones denying that something has gone horribly wrong with a few customers, my concern was with an unfair witch hunt.