I would like to share my experience with a parts vendor with the Stangnet community in an effort to prevent other incidents from occurring with our Stangnet members and other mustang forums that this information might migrate to.
Some of you may know this vendor, but I didn't, and I broke the first rule of buying parts. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Had I researched a bit, I would have quickly discovered the long term problems associated with this vendor.
All the information I post here will be my experience and references to publicly available information. I will provide links to references where possible.
This will also be a work in progress as I will need to pull together material not readily at hand.
The vendor is Jack McCane who owns and operates McCane Enterprises in Garrison KY. My supervisor (who has a 67 Mustang) and I attended the 2010 Superswap in Columbus OH and encountered Jack's vendor area at the event. We both needed center sections for each of our cars and contrary to some of the references I will post, Jack seemed very amicable and talked a good game.
We came to an agreement and paid Jack in cash for two 8" trakloc center sections with detailing, with us providing our empty cases. Jack wrote us a very detailed receipt.
Upon return to Maryland, we shipped out our cases the following week. Over the next month when I called his cell phone I encountered "mailbox full" but Jack immediately called me back and we let him know we shipped the cases, however he did not want to talk and claimed he was "very busy" and ended that call. That was the last time I spoke with Jack on the phone. All future calls resulted in the same "mailbox full" and no return call. My supervisor got one returned call on his phone and no more. In my opinion: I suspect once Jack got the number, called back, and found it was NOT a new sale, you are marked for no more contact.
Jack did respond to email, constantly lamented how he lost his shop help, and was so backed up. The shortened version is that this was the broken record response to all inquiries. We were EXTREAMLY understanding and flexible and afforded Jack every opportunity to deliver on the agreement.
In August/September 2011 we sent basically a demand letter with a deadline, he responded, agreed, and completely ignored it. Note that in all the emails, he readily acknowledges that he owes us the parts and that he received our cases and so on.
In early October 2011 we advise we will need to take legal action to obtain a refund and begin looking for another source for our center sections.
I discover TJ via an online store on Ebay which has a phone number listed. So we call TJ and put on speakerphone and before we could even get 30 seconds into the story, he knew who we had dealt with. The statement "Jacks sends me more business than you would believe" TJ also conveyed that he had sold Jack parts in the past and never got paid, until he confronted him at another swap show and Jack paid him. So a plan formed...
We cut off all communication with Jack (not that there was much) and planned to return to Columbus this year for the sole purpose of confronting Jack and forcing a refund.
I printed up copies of the excerpts from threads from Stangnet and VMF, printed off Jack's complaint section from his Better Business Bureau profile, a flyer we made up to hand out to customers around his table, took my two step sons along and set up everyone with a huge armful of paper.
Now, I need to explain that it was a good thing my supervisor is more of a negotiator than me cause I was pretty hot. Jack was NOT pleased when I told him we were going to surround his table all day and hand out flyers, and when he became irate and stepped away, I found the first guy at his table and started telling him my story and handed him a flyer. My supervisor took the role of the good cop and tried to calm Jack down and he gave Jack two hours (Jack had no money to refund our purchase, but had our center sections there-we had no use for them anymore)
I would have lost the bet. I bet my supervisor $20 that he would never call and we would have to go back to the original plan. At EXACTLY two hours, Jack called and said he had our money. I was in shock. I let my supervisor go deal with him and danged if he didn't come back with the refund.
So, Jack still has our cases which we have written off, other than my efforts here. And after reading through the research I should have done, I discovered that the product Jack provided was sub-standard junk (as written by other people who purchased from him) that failed and had to be replaced. We are extremely fortunate to A: get our money back (mostly) and B: to not actually take delivery of the parts.
The parts TJ sold us were period correct for the cars they were going in, were real updated traklock carriers, were detailed, and were built and shipped the same day NEXT DAY AIR for $50 shipping cost. Now, I'm not saying he will do that for anyone else, that’s the service we got from TJ. He also made it clear that the WARRANTY didn't start till it was installed in the car and run-all on the honor system. And the cost? About $150 more than what Jack charged us...
Here are some links I can find readily, I may add some more later as I go through my folder
From the BBB:
http://www.bbb.org/lexington/busine...nterprises-in-garrison-ky-11000233/complaints
From Stangnet:
http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/662573-mae-racing-wtf.html
From Vintage Mustang Forums – all the way back to 2006…
http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vintage-mustang-forum/515076-maeracing-anyone-dealt-them.html
I also plan to send a letter to the states attorney, file a BBB complaint, and file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency or whatever that’s called.
Also, I would like to apologize to anyone that may have gotten involved with Jack McCane at Columbus this year. I could not risk posting this on Stangnet and possibly alerting Jack to our plan.
Some of you may know this vendor, but I didn't, and I broke the first rule of buying parts. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Had I researched a bit, I would have quickly discovered the long term problems associated with this vendor.
All the information I post here will be my experience and references to publicly available information. I will provide links to references where possible.
This will also be a work in progress as I will need to pull together material not readily at hand.
The vendor is Jack McCane who owns and operates McCane Enterprises in Garrison KY. My supervisor (who has a 67 Mustang) and I attended the 2010 Superswap in Columbus OH and encountered Jack's vendor area at the event. We both needed center sections for each of our cars and contrary to some of the references I will post, Jack seemed very amicable and talked a good game.
We came to an agreement and paid Jack in cash for two 8" trakloc center sections with detailing, with us providing our empty cases. Jack wrote us a very detailed receipt.
Upon return to Maryland, we shipped out our cases the following week. Over the next month when I called his cell phone I encountered "mailbox full" but Jack immediately called me back and we let him know we shipped the cases, however he did not want to talk and claimed he was "very busy" and ended that call. That was the last time I spoke with Jack on the phone. All future calls resulted in the same "mailbox full" and no return call. My supervisor got one returned call on his phone and no more. In my opinion: I suspect once Jack got the number, called back, and found it was NOT a new sale, you are marked for no more contact.
Jack did respond to email, constantly lamented how he lost his shop help, and was so backed up. The shortened version is that this was the broken record response to all inquiries. We were EXTREAMLY understanding and flexible and afforded Jack every opportunity to deliver on the agreement.
In August/September 2011 we sent basically a demand letter with a deadline, he responded, agreed, and completely ignored it. Note that in all the emails, he readily acknowledges that he owes us the parts and that he received our cases and so on.
In early October 2011 we advise we will need to take legal action to obtain a refund and begin looking for another source for our center sections.
I discover TJ via an online store on Ebay which has a phone number listed. So we call TJ and put on speakerphone and before we could even get 30 seconds into the story, he knew who we had dealt with. The statement "Jacks sends me more business than you would believe" TJ also conveyed that he had sold Jack parts in the past and never got paid, until he confronted him at another swap show and Jack paid him. So a plan formed...
We cut off all communication with Jack (not that there was much) and planned to return to Columbus this year for the sole purpose of confronting Jack and forcing a refund.
I printed up copies of the excerpts from threads from Stangnet and VMF, printed off Jack's complaint section from his Better Business Bureau profile, a flyer we made up to hand out to customers around his table, took my two step sons along and set up everyone with a huge armful of paper.
Now, I need to explain that it was a good thing my supervisor is more of a negotiator than me cause I was pretty hot. Jack was NOT pleased when I told him we were going to surround his table all day and hand out flyers, and when he became irate and stepped away, I found the first guy at his table and started telling him my story and handed him a flyer. My supervisor took the role of the good cop and tried to calm Jack down and he gave Jack two hours (Jack had no money to refund our purchase, but had our center sections there-we had no use for them anymore)
I would have lost the bet. I bet my supervisor $20 that he would never call and we would have to go back to the original plan. At EXACTLY two hours, Jack called and said he had our money. I was in shock. I let my supervisor go deal with him and danged if he didn't come back with the refund.
So, Jack still has our cases which we have written off, other than my efforts here. And after reading through the research I should have done, I discovered that the product Jack provided was sub-standard junk (as written by other people who purchased from him) that failed and had to be replaced. We are extremely fortunate to A: get our money back (mostly) and B: to not actually take delivery of the parts.
The parts TJ sold us were period correct for the cars they were going in, were real updated traklock carriers, were detailed, and were built and shipped the same day NEXT DAY AIR for $50 shipping cost. Now, I'm not saying he will do that for anyone else, that’s the service we got from TJ. He also made it clear that the WARRANTY didn't start till it was installed in the car and run-all on the honor system. And the cost? About $150 more than what Jack charged us...
Here are some links I can find readily, I may add some more later as I go through my folder
From the BBB:
http://www.bbb.org/lexington/busine...nterprises-in-garrison-ky-11000233/complaints
From Stangnet:
http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/662573-mae-racing-wtf.html
From Vintage Mustang Forums – all the way back to 2006…
http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vintage-mustang-forum/515076-maeracing-anyone-dealt-them.html
I also plan to send a letter to the states attorney, file a BBB complaint, and file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency or whatever that’s called.
Also, I would like to apologize to anyone that may have gotten involved with Jack McCane at Columbus this year. I could not risk posting this on Stangnet and possibly alerting Jack to our plan.
