if anyone is in the northeast read this

[clean]

Northeast auto Design, (NEAD) sucks. guys these guys in my mind are horrible. first off i dont flame, but this is bad. first experience i have w/ them is when i had my civic and go and talk bout turbo w/ Ryan the owner for bout an hour, all nice and all, whatever. bout 2 weeks later i buy a used greddy kit off ebay for hella cheap. i have a broken banjo bolt so he's an authorized dealer so i figure he can hook me up. go down there, long story short says " no you didnt buy it from me, not my prob, not gonna waste my time to make 50 cents" my cars apart and have to deal and was ****ed off. kenji @ greddy took care of me personally and was mad bout what had happedned. anyway so just now i emailed them bout some gramlightsc in 16x8 w/ dunlop 8000 tires and the quote comes back as $1999.99, WTF? the wheels alone on the site are $290, so $1160 + tirerack has the tires for $430 so thats $1590 and the rest is for balance and mounting and lugs? i have heard alot of **** bout them and thier customer service and after this im really bent. the only peeps that buy from them are alltezza buying punks for thier civics. they suck in my mind and i think its sorry for a shop to be like that. sorry mods if this is not aloud.

[mrmephistopheles]

this post makes baby jesus cry

[clean]

yeah i know it's lame, but these guys dont know how to run a buissness w/ good customer service. im just saving some of you trouble

[mrmephistopheles]

it's not so much the content of the post, but more, the presentation of said content.
I don't think it'll be too long before we have a business experience forum.

[KOUKI KA-T]

Uh oh, Ryan's ****ing off more people again huh?.... well I'll let you know I've known Ryan for about 3 years. I met him when he was first opening his tiny little shop in Forest ave. He's a cool guy if you know him, but I'll be the first to admit that his customer service sucks, especially if your not one of his friends. (sorry ryan!) It's funny but I'm actually wearing a NEAD shirt right now.
Anyways, I'm sorry you went through that man, I know how he can be, I myself hardly go see him anymore. Last time i did was only because i had those Volks I oprdered delivered to his shop since its only a mile up the road from me and i didn't want UPS to leave them outside my door. I feel like I should defend Ryan since we've been friends, but it seems I can't. I now help out at Palmer Sport Tuning about 20 minutes from here, so if you need a quote on some volks or anything let me know man!
By the way where are you located???

EDIT: Hey that whole banjo bolt thing, was that like a year or so ago?? I was sitting right there when a kid came in looking for the same thing and he said no. I think I was there man. weird.

[Bill Roberts]

It is dissapointing for shop owners to cop an attitude.

He could have been more forthcoming.

Lets look at Ryans side..

First, is he obligated to deal with the banjo bolt? Well, he could at least have quoted you a fair price to send it to greddy including shipping both ways, or at least give you a quote. Little things are what make businesses tick. You **** off one customer, they tell the world..you treat a customer right, they tell their friends.

About the tires. Making 410 for the total install is almost legit. His cost is about the same as tireracks. He will have to pay the shipping on the rims and the tires and take an hour putting them on your car. Lets figure he had to pay 80 for shipping the tires and 70 for shipping the rims. So you have 1590+150=1740. I figure 35 per tire mounting to be fair with balance and another 70 for 4 wheel alignment. Offset parts if needed another 40.

1740+140+70+40=1990. He is about 10 dollars too high...If he broke this down this way, it could be justifyable..but since he obviously did not, I can see your point.

He does have to make a living but does not need to be a jerk about it. Also shipping may not be quite that high either.

[KOUKI KA-T]

Yeah Bill you're kind of right. Ryan's shop does not really do any installs, so no need to figure install and alignment. He had a garage here once but lack of a qualified mechanic ended that. The place that does tire mounting for him is up the road and they do charge a lot because Ryan makes sure the wheels aren't scratched..(we are talking VOLKS here) Being a friend of Ryan I have noticed that now that his business is huge (and it is, his new shop in NH is large!) he has stopped tailoring to minor things. He really just wants to deal with supras and other supercars and not really deal with small things. He would rather do wholesale than anything. It definitly sucks, because there are lots of angry people around here that hate his service, it's just the fact that he is doing so well now and has become a dealer for so many places in New England that he kinda doesn't care about anything else. To each his own ya know? I don't like it, but when I sit back and think about it, if I was in his shoes I'd fell like i was on top of the world too. The man is all business and he puts making money on top of list, even before friends and customer service. May make him an asshole to a lot of people but he is making money and that's what he went into business for....

EDIT: please remember while he may not have gotten the part for you or given you a price you liked, he is not screwing you over, stealing your money or wasting your time. He chose not to order the banjo bolt, which sucks, but he didn't take your money and not deliver or tell you he'd look into it. I don't feel he is a bad person to do business with, just very direct and some people take offence to that.

[-E-]

You should have never delt with them again after the whole banjo bolt incident, well thats what I would have done.

[KOUKI KA-T]

the only peeps that buy from them are alltezza buying punks for thier civics.

This is the only thing I have to really disagree with, it's actually the opposite. Those "punks" are the ones that actually hate him because he doesn't really give 2 ****s about hondas anymore, or pretty much any car that's not turbo. I did roll up to the augusta autocross with him and some other cars form that shop a month ago and it was the most impressive line up of cars i've ever seen around here.

[negular]

Originally posted by Bill Roberts
You **** off one customer, they tell the world..

lol. apperently so.

[boosteds14]

I remember goin through him for some parts in the past when I first start my business up. He is cool on the phone and all and he becomes your best friend when you place big orders. I understand where he stands now. if you asked him years ago for the fitting, He would problably get the part for you because he would gain a customer. I am sorry to hear about the poor customer service. You should go to ppl you know have a great Reputation therefore they can hold up to that and satisfy the customer.

But I also disagree with Ryan. In this business Customer Seervice is the most important thing to have in order to succeed. If I or any of my employees dont satisfy a customer, it could hurt my business tremedously. this business is also about word of mouth, so one bad customer will spread the word to ruin your reputation.

[clean]

what bugs me is the fact that he's the local guy and you should always be able to depend on the local guy right? i havent bout anything off of him and won't. Kouki KA-T did you have a audi 1.8t? if so i know who you are and remeber seeing you round USM, i talked to you a couple of times. and i cant stand mike. damm kid, i put a i/h/e on his civic and hes was supposed to hook me up on parts but never did, that was when he first started working for ryan, he asked me if he could but a bov on his aem intake and i laughed. anyway i do think customer service should be a priority cause the word of mouth is very strong. if thats how he wants to run the bus. thats fine but dont depend on alot of local support. and i dont think mike should drive period, 2 mr2 totalled and a mirage wannabe evo? i shouldnt have come on here and flame but i just couldnt see how he can throw out a quote like that? i would just rather support the local man and see him do good than have to buy from someone in cali, does that make sense. and bout the banjo bolt, i was in a pinch and my car was all apart and i had to wait 2 weeks for it cause the shop in cali forgot bout the order from greddy. are there any sr20det's in Maine, i wouild love to be the first

[KOUKI KA-T]

Hey clean. No the owner of that silver 1.8t was Jamie, he was going to USM, I drove 2 different Integra's, a black LS and A teal GS-R, the one that had the 18 inch white TE-37's on it. (I'll be the first to tell you that thing was pretty ricey ) You might see my 240 around there now, the purple one with the gold GT-Ns.....anyway, I don't argue with you for a second that Ryan's customer service isn't that great and that customer service is an important role in business, but I think this might be a little too much flame on the guy. All he did was not get you a part and told you right away he wouldn't, and quote you a price that was high. It may actually be a big hassle for him to call up Greddy and get a banjo bolt, although kenji sent it to you and claimed he was "****ed about it", I'm sure he wasn't really ****ed at ryan, just slightly aggravated that he had to be the one to do it...( EDIT: Greddy doesn't have the best service towards there dealers either, they love to use the phrase "national backorder", and smaller orders often take months to actually show up from them, so that banjo bolt could have tamken a month anyway and you would have been even more ****ed at ryan)
...that's kinda how it goes ya know. And as far as high price on something, there are a million places out there that ask an arm and a leg for product, but we don't need to get on here and **** on them for it. Running a business is earning a living, plain and simple.
Now a legite flaming would be the post i made on eastern autosports. They lied, took 5 months to recieve three wheels and then the 4th took another month and they eventually just sent me the one they messed up....and don't forget those fake tracking numbers and the time the guy dared me to come over there by myself and hung up on me....
Ryan is a good guy, i used to be there everyday and there are lots of kids that come in there and just run there mouth, one kid came in and asked for two AEM intakes for his twin turbo del sol one day. ha! I had a field day on that one...
Anyway man I guess all I could tell you is maybe not go there, as I mentioned before there is Palmer Sport Tuning in Brunswick if you don't want to deal with Ryan. Check it out, you'll usually find me there on weekends, and we do motor swaps if you want to go SR20...
So what do you drive anyway? I've probably seen you around, I live right here in portland about a mile away from NEAD.

[KOUKI KA-T]

Hey Boosteds14, I went to a BBQ at Ryan's place on saturday and he mentioned speaking to someone at CIP about custom manifolds for the KA, he told me i should look into speaking to you on KA-T buildups, I told him i was familiar with your car already! I'll have to make a road trip down there soon once mine's finished and check it out.

[clean]

yeah i know i blew the whole thing outa proportion and i really shouldn't have made a post bout it. i was just dissapointed that when i wrote the email to mike that he couldnt give me a good price seeing as i went outa my way to work on his car and i didnt get anything outa it. i drive a red s13 coupe that looks like ****. are there any sr20's around? i have only seen a couple of 240s and they are s14's. i thought i was different but i guess not. im not gonna have a prob w/ the swap, ive put a motor in before, still looking for a good price on a clip. i'd love to talk to some of the 240 guys in maine, but im hella busy w/ work. im a stern man on a lobsta boat and work at a fry shack, im a fry whore. so far i have tein he's, sparco evo's, mugello wheel, apexi n1, safc, and now trying to get wheels. he didnt seem like a bad guy, but i really would rather buy from the local guy like i said before. anyway my car really looks like ****. i want the motor and run at least 13's so it would be somewhat a a sleeper. i live in scarborough if you wanna meet up sometime and im 22.

[SimpleS14]

Originally posted by boosteds14
You should go to ppl you know have a great Reputation therefore they can hold up to that and satisfy the customer.

That's EXACTLY how you are with your shop and online store.

[Heartwork]

well, i've never encountered Ryan over the phone, but i've talked to Mike several times, and he has always been helpful and very nice over the phone. Heck, even their secretary has been helpful. I know they have 2 shops, but the one i've dealt with is in Maine....

[KOUKI KA-T]

I only know one guy with the SR20 sway in his red S13, he actually works in the NH NEAD shop. He was over here this weekend and went to the autocross with us, other than that i haven't met anyone else with the swap done. I just dropped my car off this morning so it's in the shop for a few weeks fixing the rear quarter i ruined, I'd like to get a meet together by the end of the summer though.
Totally off topic but the lobster season sucks so far huh??! I was a stern man until last year out in harpswell then i moved to portland, i wasn't making much money the last season i did it, and i was down at the wharf the other day and i guess best average out there now is like 1/2 pound per trap!
I have a couple friends with 240's and a few other various turbo shop cars so I'll try and set up a meet next month some time once we have some more time. I'll keep you posted, I've got big lot so we could have a bbq and some with plenty of room for parking...Good luck with everything, let me know if you need a quote on any wheels, But we don't have a source for clips so I wouldn't be able to help you with that.

sean