And the story is? That's just a link to a guys Facebook?
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And the story is? That's just a link to a guys Facebook?
Cant see anything either, in what area/location was this?
***WARNING*** Attention Fellow Car Enthusiasts and in fact anyone who is thinking of getting work done by A-Class Customs ( Dean Strickland ). This is just a post to highlight and emphasise the point, ''Be careful who you leave your pride and joy with. ''
PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE so nobody else has to deal or get stung by there disgraceful carry on and complete disregard for customers property!! ***WARNING***
Many of you know my Toyota JZX100 Mark II and may have heard the story from myself in person but I feel now is the time to put the word out public of how my property was treated and the manner in which this so called ''Reputable Company'' treats its customers. Its not a life or death situation and there are many more pressing things going on in the world right now when its all put in perspective, but at the end of the day when somebody damages your property and the likely hood of you having to fork out approx. 5k euro because of someone elses negligence coupled with the stress of a 9 month saga, I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it happening to you.
On March 19th of 2014 I left up 3 sets of 15'' wheels (12 No.) and one set of 18'' deep dish wheels (4 No.) from my JZX100 to have some curb rash polished out and the centres of the 3 piece wheels powder coated (along with painting of the centres of the 15'' wheels. He explained he would be doing the polishing and he would be getting a third party crowd to do the painting (A-Class Customs).
After a price was agreed to carry out the works I was told I would have them all back within two weeks. A month had passed and still no sign and after a few unanswered calls and msgs I received a call from Dean Strickland apologising for the bad news news that some how he had managed to completely melt the centre of the wheels off my JZX100 Mark II when dipping them in acid.
As many of you might recall I was in the process of restyling the car and was pricing around bodyshops for a change of colour and I was also looking to sell my current wheels and had many prospective buyers for them once the wheels had a fresh polish. The car in question is pictured below and is an on going project of mine for the last 5 years, it is one off BN Sport Demo JZX100 putting out in excess of 500Bhp.
A-Customs offered to try and reweld the back of the wheels or find a replica BBS centre be made up somewhere that might fit the wheels and tried ringing a few wheel suppliers prior to calling me to find a solution to no avail. I explained that no European or any replica wheels would be going on my car and that I wouldn't be willing to accept that as compensation. He proceeded to argue that his company was just up and running and he has used a lot of capital in getting started and if he could work off the value of the wheels instead
(Note: To get a similar set of genuine Quality SSR or WORK Japanese Custom made wheels in the sizes required to fit the body and arches of my car you are talking in the region 3.8-4k euros alone.
He asked if he could work off the value of the work instead of paying cash or replacing the wheels with a new set. I agreed a deal as I felt a bit of compassion for the situation in the unexpected circumstances and his story was believable at the time. (In hindsight,I cant help but feel the saying don't judge a book by its cover should have been taking more seriously).
He proposed a few options and so did I on what would need to be done to cover the costs. An agreement had been reached that 2 x No. of cars would be resprayed in full and the cost of the other wheels I had left up with Hubs Customs finishes would be refurbed and covered free of charge.
The first of these cars to be sprayed was my JZX100 and the other wasnt to be dedided by me until a later date.
(Note this was a very reluctant decision as I'm very picky about who I let work on the car!! Prior to the damage and agreement of works I had at the time narrowed down for the car to be resprayed by either Vinny and Paddy @ Retro Autos , Keith @ Ricks Car Car or Jackie Fitz, all of whom have reputations that precede themselves.)
It was left in on May 17th 2014 and he gave me his word it would be completed within 3 weeks. The car was left up on a set of wheels I had to borrow and was in very clean condition and the majority of the interior was removed by myself to help with ease of painting. The dash, gauges and stereo, new LED controls ( 0.0km brand newly Fitted TRD 320km/hr odometer and a single drivers seat is mostly what had remained inside.
I specifically asked that they be covered over to protect them and if anyone knows the car the interior was in impeccable condition when I left it up. I also removed the lights etc for him.
Weeks passed and a continuous string of broken deadlines and promises were starting to get tiresome. I had to call in numerous times only be greeted by his Polish partner
''Bill'' saying 'I'm not sure what's going on with car, you have to ask dean' - That was kind of hard when Dean made a habit of not being there anytime I called up especially if I gave notice. He constantly made himself hard to contact and return my calls or msgs.
Eventually when I caught up with him in his workplace he would would give me numerous excuses as to why the work wasn't done,
'''Too much work on at minute, foreigners who were working on my house at home done me out of money, someone hacked my visa card and ran up a couple of grand debt ive to wait for the AIB insurance to refund it, Im waiting on this fella with the Blue Range Rover to pay me once I have it finished l will be using the profit towards funds to pay for materials for yours,'' the list goes on.
Yet in the same timescale, I was checking his company FB account along with calling in sporadically after work and noticing new jobs were just been taking on all the time and my car was left idle and neglected in the corner used as a work bench for all the world with stuff dumped on top of it.
The doors, bonnet and boot removed and first wack of primer was applied to see the lines of the car better was about as much work was ever done on it on the first week it was there.....Nothing else was done on it for a 4 month period. All these excuses and yet he was swaning off to Spain on holidays and the likes living it up whilst I missed out on the entire season of car events.
I grew sick of the situation whilst remaining calm I explained I would need to agree one final deal in writing with strict deadlines that if weren't met he would have to bite the bullet and cough up price of new wheels and costs of wasting my time transporting car up etc. Also by this time I was completely at a loss of confidence in his ability after seeing his and his colleagues work first hand on other customer cars. Most were all different shades coming out of the shop, reactions, fishholes and lot of orange peal in the paint from a lot of there ''finished product'' projects.
My car was destroyed in dust and residue and overspray.... the engine bay was completely exposed as was the interior to damage.
A further month had passed past the last deadline agreement that had been made which was signed on paper by both parties and recorded on camera. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt on numerous occasions and ultimately had to accept that I needed to take the car out of the place after 9 months in their premises. I needed to try and wait for the end of that particular month to try fund transporting the car back home and organise with work to take a day off.
About 40 missed calls and dozen of un-replied msgs had passed and I finally get a message back from him on a wednesday evening about a week before I had planned to remove the car, stating I cant do your car and im not giving you any money and you have to get the car out of my place by Friday cause my landlord is kicking me out and otherwise I will be leave it out on the street. (In Cherry Orchard, BallyFermot.)
I said you cant leave it on street its in your possession and you have a duty of care to ensure the safety of my property, I need more notice as Im working full time and need to organise transporter and a lend of money to get it out as I had a lot of overheads at the time of the year with Xmas coming up and bills/insurance etc.
He said ''I dont care collect it or Im leaving it on the street.''
So I had to get off work and hire a transporter and get it out. He was'nt even man enough to come down on the day of collection instead he said he had a soccer match and that some of his lads will be there till 3pm and if your any later it will be locked up and left outside.
I arrived to a skeleton of the car without door or bonnet etc and on a set of wheels they had with strict instruction they had to be removed (they were ragged old nissan primera wheels worth about 50quid is all anyways). Luckily I had anticipated that and bought a set of cheap 17's the night before.
The car was outside, but all the other ancillaries, trim and panels scattered all around there big premises and dumped in corners with loads of other customers and spare parts piled on top of them. Bumpers were cracked, parts were missing like wing mirror etc, parts of trim were damaged beyond repair. These parts were never found or returned to me.
On the day, I rang loads of time to try and see if he would he would source the parts inside his place to no answer. I got one of his friends to ring him and he answered first time. I got on the phone to him and asked f he would come down, was getting late in the evening by this stage, he refused and said he was not paying me any money whatsoever whether it be in Full or Partial payment with the rest coming from the value of parts he had in stock. (I had a look and he hadn't anything in stock worth giving me anyways bar replica shite)
But he was brave enough on the phone to tell me that Im not getting a penny off him in a disgusting manner and if I was thinking of taking anything from the workplace that your in the wrong neighbourhood that he would have me SHOT within the hour!!
This is coming from a little weasel who after 9 months of lies and excuses I couldn't help but laugh at his threat. He then said, ''do you think im joking , I will fucking murder you.'' I just said we will see about that I will be packing the van with rest of my parts for another half an hour here if you want to come down and talk in person.
The little 2-stone Hardman never showed, and I heard off one of his colleagues which seemed sound enough that the bullshit story about his landlord kicking him out of the premises isn't true at all, it was all a hoax.
But at the end of the day Im stuck now with a car needing more bodywork done prior to when it was left in and a big hole in my pocket from diesel calling over and back and costs of transporting car up and down for nothing. And to top it off I've still got no replacement wheels to go on the car.
Anyways there is more to the storey but I'm tired of typing now. I haven't heard from him since but he will be hearing from me in due course.
He obviously doesn't know me very well or the harmful repercussions of his actions will have on his company's ability in attracting new business. This not how to treat customers or people in general.
The sooner he realises ''Kindness shouldnt be mistaken for weakness'' the better.
I wont stop till I get every penny that is owed to me and his reputation is exposed for everyone to see what a Conman he is.
Please like or share to put the word out there so no one else will fall victim of A-Class Customs Dodgey Dealings.
https://www.facebook.com/aclass.customs?fref=ts
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...06f3f496090f03
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...68ad45fc206c3b
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...c74086fc0cbc50
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...fc54f3ed85bbd0
https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/...7e&oe=553329FD
https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/...16&oe=5538307C
Saw this on FB and couldn't believe it!!...Shocking way to treat customers and shouldn't be let away with it!...
On a funny note, the size of your man thinking he'd do damage to Anthony is hilarious!! :p
thanks for posting this..
truly shocking, ive no words left :O
I hope he gets all his money back and his car sorted, I could have never stayed that calm :O
I hope karma is a bitch
Thats so bad to think this day in age people still do this and the modified community is so small do they not think that "shit runs downhill" and itll bite him in the ass when everyone hear it :confused:
One way to sort this. Hit em hard in the pocket. Hopefully Anthony takes him to the cleaners. Ruined unreal wheels and Anthony is a genuine sound fella too. Hopefully sorted sooner rather then later. What business is run by a someone who threatens to kill someone
Thats fucked up dude sorry to hear what that fucker done to you. Shared it on fb aswell