ClubCJ - The CJ Lancer Club

G'day all, I thought I'd share my story with you up until this point.

A while back (about 10 weeks to be exact) I decided I would get myself a CP-E exhaust for the Ralliart, as while I liked the HKS one, it was a bit too quiet for me. I found online a shop called MPS Garage, that was right here in Sydney, who was the Australian stockist for CP-E. Their website said they had the exhaust in stock, and at $999 it was probably about the same price that I would have paid for it landed here if I had ordered from the US.

So wanting to support the local car modding industry I called up the shop to place my order. The guy on the phone was friendly enough, but told me they had none in stock, but checked on the computer and said that they could have one from the states within 2 weeks. Sweet. So using their online checkout I wired away some of my hard earned $$$.

Now the 2 week thing was no issue for me as I was going to be away with work, so would return a week after the promised delivery date. Perfect, I'll get back, pick it up and be able to put it on the weekend I get back

I decided to call while i was away on work a few days before I got back just to make sure it had arrived. I was told that 'It looks like CP-E didnt actually have stock, and was waiting for us to put money in their account so they could fabricate the system. Yeah they do that sometimes. We aren't sure when it will be in. Probably the next shipment in 4 weeks.'

Hmmm ok pretty bummed about this, but hey these things happen. I call up several weeks later to see how things are going. Still getting a similar response. More excuses. I should also mention that I tried to email MPS Garage and got no response, and it was very difficult to actually get them on the phone. I started getting quite annoyed at this stage and decided to email CP-E myself.

I emailed CP-E in the US and got a response the next day. The guy told me he couldn't help himself, but was passing the message onto someone who could. He also told me they were going to Sema and it would probably be a few days to get a reply. No worries, thats fair enough, thanks for letting me know.

1 week later I emailed CP-E to see what was going on, only to be informed that 'It appears that MPS Garage haven't got a Ralliart exhaust in their last order'. WHAT THE F#*K ?!?! Ok so now I'm really not happy

I call up MPS Garage and tell them what I've heard. The guy there says a delivery has just cleared customs and my exhaust is probably in that shipment, and its from a previous order so CP-E may have got it wrong. Ok ok. I'm a trusting guy, I like to think that people are inherently good. It's all been a mix up in communication. I call back a few days later (last week) and they tell me they are still unpacking the shipment. Ok cool so its there at least, I'll pick it up when I'm back in Sydney.

So I get back to Sydney on Wednesday and decide to call and see whats going on. No answer. No answer. Maybe they are really busy? I go for a drive out there. Hmmm. There is no one there. On Thursday, at 11am. Ahhh I think a business should be open during these hours. There is a hand written note on the door that says 'drop deliveries to unit 1 or unit 5'. Ok so maybe those guys in those units know what is going on. Maybe they are away at a car show or something. I go down to unit 5 but no one is there. I drop into unit 1 and ask if they know where the guys from MPS Garage are. No one has any idea what I'm talking about when I mention the delivery note.

As I said before, I'm probably too trusting. I probably should have clicked earlier that something was wrong. Maybe the guy running the show is away at a car show, or a race, or has a family emergency. I'd like to believe that. But looking at the evidence, it seems like I've been ripped.

I called my bank and explained the situation, and have asked to have the transfer reversed. However, as I paid for it using my VISA debit, it was my actual money, so not sure how successful its going to be. I'm not holding my breath. Anyway the bank is doing a formal investigation, whatever that means.

So this is what happens when I try to do the right thing, and buy from the Australian distributor. Now I'm not saying this is applicable to all shops in Australia, far from it, this is just one experience, with one shop. I'm sure that the majority of shops in Australia are not like this. However, I have to say, in general I have found that the customer service I've received from the guys in the US has been great. And that begs the question - why would I buy locally if its going to cost me more? It's the customer service. Something these guys didn't do well from day 1. Each time I called they tole me they would call back, but never did. They didn't reply to my email. They made up excuse after excuse when I actually got them on the phone.

The whole experience has left me very bitter, and as a result I probably won't be doing any more mods on the car. What makes it worse is that I could have ordered it myself from the US, probably got it cheaper and faster, and with less headaches. I tried to do the right thing, and it appears I've been burnt. If there is one lesson to be taken from this then maybe its this - use Paypal to buy things! At least you have some protection then.

Modding cars can difficult sometimes. Sorry to hear this happened.

It's a shame to hear things like this. Hope it turns out well and that you get your money back. Thanks for the post, very informative letting everyone know some crap that goes on out there.

That sucks man
Have you thought about going to the Ombudsman about the company?

Sorry to hear that and yes overseas people (in general) are way more responsive, cheaper and fast del. Ex: i ordered my springs from US and a set of HID kit from Melbourne in the same day from eBay, the springs rocked up to my door in a week ( 8 days after i bought them), HID kit arrived after nearly 2 weeks ( 12 days ) so i guess they send the springs by plane and the HID kit with a push bike to QLD

That's a pretty bad experience there Nicholas. I hope the bank/Visa can help in someway as it is fraud - might be an idea to submit a report to the police as well.

What this does highlight is that, regardless of where you buy from some research in to the authenticity of the place can be warranted. Some places like Ebay and Amazon make it easy with ratings systems to show numbers of happy customers - for the rest some googling will usually find comments in forums, reviews etc. If it didn't I wouldn't buy online from them

Best of luck with the money there

Sorry to hear about that dude.. I was pretty cut when Fitter took my money and had no intention of giving me my item, it was only $150 but it was pretty frustrating. Luckily turbogirl helped me out and I got it after 11 or so months.

ive spoken with these guys before and they have been pretty good with communication and they seem to have quite a few items for sale. i was very close to getting the same exhaust from them about a year ago but i pulled out, lucky i did because i wouldnt of been so patient with them. let us all know what happens in the end with this.

Cheers for the responses guys. I'll wait and see what the bank can do, and I'll probably lodge a complaint with NSW Fair trading also.

Backing up what SEB said, last thing i ordered from USA (Kamispeed) was a set of springs. They turned up in less than a week! This is actually the second time I've had issues when ordering from guys in Australia. The first time wasn't as bad as it was only a cheap part ($150) and I did end up getting it, but its a bit like how many times do I keep trying to support the locals if every time it seems like more pain than its worth?

I actually had a look around online yesterday after going out there and a lot of people had apparently had bad reviews of the place. Probably should have checked that out beforehand i guess.

Anyway hope the bank can get the money back. I'm just a bit concerned that its been around 10 weeks, so I'm sure that cash is well and truly gone from their account.

Jesus that sucks. I really hope this gets sorted ASAP.

Thanks for post + warning though.

R4LLI4RT wrote:ive spoken with these guys before and they have been pretty good with communication and they seem to have quite a few items for sale. i was very close to getting the same exhaust from them about a year ago but i pulled out, lucky i did because i wouldnt of been so patient with them. let us all know what happens in the end with this.

I thought this too when I was originally speaking with them on the phone. A month or so before i bought the exhaust, I spoke with them on the phone a couple of times and they seemed very helpful which is why I decided to go with them. However, once I had paid for the exhaust it became increasingly difficult to get hold of them. Maybe things just went downhill with them recently, who knows. Its made it harder as I've been travelling a lot in the past 2 months so haven't been chasing it too hard as I didn't really 'need' it anyway. But now I'm back in town it was on my to do list, hence the visit to the shop.

I don't know if its all part of their same BS story, but apparently there was 2 Ralliart exhausts on order, so maybe someone else on here? Who knows the whole thing was probably BS

id call on private number and act like im a new customer and ask when they will be open. then just rock up and ask for the exhaust or a refund cause no1 should have to wait that long. just drop in a few words like fair trading act and litigation and they will change their tune. then jump on their fb page and any mps forums and bag em out for their dodgy customer service

thats not good at all nicholas , one thing i will share with u though VISA are excellent in returning money for goods not received, good luck and hope it all goes well.