WARNING!!

I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING ANYTHING FROM THESE GUYS.

Cliffs:
- Dude sold me counterfeit knob through craigslist, claiming it was legit ARC one day before Blackline registered on EvoM. (The next James Reese? Awesome!) I'm pretty sure that Blackline is aka srtoad4 on EvoM as well btw.
- I haven't used the knob and I asked for a refund when I realized it wasn't a genuine part just over 60 days after I paid for it.
- Guy agrees to send return label so I can return it and get my money back.
- I texted him today (6.19.12) asking about that label since it's been a week and we both live in AZ- (should've been here the day after he shipped it).
- He changed his mind and said he and his "partner" agreed that they won't refund past 45 days (which btw is the length of time PayPal allows for a dispute). He tells me there's nothing they can do.
- Fortunately I paid with my credit card, so I filed a dispute and I'll be getting my money back anyway, but this isn't the way it should've been done.
- I have all the texts we exchanged saved on my iPhone and I don't mind taking screenshots for everything if people have doubts.

- I have been in this game a long time and I've seen many companies come and go due to shady characters. Can anyone say "James Reese" as a most recent example? The kind of BS I experienced is a telltale sign that these guys are capable of doing much worse. I don't recommend buying from them. Who knows? Maybe in the future they'll start carrying more expensive products and then pull a PeakBoost move on everyone (For those who don't know- https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ve...-kits-etc.html).

I wouldn't buy anything from Blackline. It's not worth supporting a "company" like this due to the potential risk IMO. If nothing else, I learned a long time ago that people who don't stand by their word are people you don't want to do business with and I think that's reason enough to avoid them.


Details:
I'm not a person to write any kind of negative reviews at all really, but what happened here is not right and I decided I need to post this so other people can see what kind of a "company" you're dealing with and determine whether or not you want to risk buying anything from these guys.

4.8.12- I email a response to a craigslist ad claiming to be selling genuine ARC knobs.

4.9.12- I text the number in the ad because I haven't heard back in my email. He tells me $115 shipped and I quickly PayPal him the money.

4.13.12- I receive the knob, but it's missing the white insert/adapter that comes with the ARC knobs to make it fit the shifter. I send him a text asking about it. In the text I gave him a link that has a pic showing the piece I am missing. (MORE on this link in a moment!!!) Check out my screenshot here:


He says he'll send out the piece ASAP.

4.19.12- I text him because I have no insert yet and I'm already feeling this is a squirrelly deal. He then says he will send it out that weekend.

~ 4.25.12- I get the same brass piece that comes with these replica knobs. (i live in AZ- takes one day to deliver items from PHX to my location btw). Why the long wait in the first place when he was much quicker to ship the knob? Was he waiting to get these brass adapter pieces in stock?

6.12.12- I start thinking that I'd like to get one or two more of these "ARC" knobs for my other rides since he had them priced pretty well on craigslist. I find his ad on craigslist, but it's now updated to say that they are ARC-style knobs and they're $80 (I have a screenshot of the updated ad which he reposted to craigslist on 4.30.12, if needed). Now I start thinking, you know what, I think I saw these posted on EvoM- I wonder if it's the same dude? WAIT! I start to wonder, did I get scammed for a counterfeit part?! I find his ads here on EvoM and start looking through his posts. I find this post here: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/10180022-post16.html, and it gives it all away:

In that post he explains that it's exactly the same as the real ARC, except it has a brass insert. Now if you remember my text above, I sent him a text with a link to that same exact pic on 4.13.12. He used that same pic from my text message link and he even hot-linked that actual pic, which, if you google search that image as of 6.19.12, you'll find it is only found 3 places online- the link I sent him and his 2 posts on EvoM.

I'm starting to think this dude sent me a counterfeit knob and lied to me saying it was genuine ARC. Well I did receive it in a box that says ARC on it, as seen here though:



But it's the same freakin' box as I see he's using for these counterfeits- it just with an ARC label.
Hmm… How am I going to be able to tell if he sold me a counterfeit? I decide to text him the following (see 6.12.12- earlier text is from 4.23.12 with him saying I could buy more brass adapters from him in the future for $10).



What a coincidence that he's out of the boxes now according to his text but he doesn't say anything that they're counterfeits now! He'll still sell me one and it's discounted even, but still $5 more than his updated craigslist ad at that time. He also didn't mention running out of boxes anywhere in either of his threads on EvoM.

I think he ran out of "ARC" labels, not the boxes.

Now I'm pissed. I present the evidence to him and he claims my knob is legit. I tell him I just want my money back. He agrees to send a shipping label so I can return it and he'll give me my money back.

6.19.12- I text him to ask about that shipping label. He says he lost my phone number (seriously?) and he wanted to tell me that he and his partner agreed that they wouldn't accept a return past 45 days (same number of days PayPal gives you for filing a dispute- cute). All well, there's nothing they can do he says. Here, just read the texts (My autocorrect likes to fail me, haha- "past" is supposed to be "post", and "Thus" = "This").




I consider myself scammed. There's too may "coincidences" not to feel scammed. There's no way I would've bought this in the first place had I known it was a counterfeit. It pisses me off, but all well. I contacted my credit card company and I'm getting my money back anyway since I paid for it with my credit card through PayPal and it's still within 90 days. I wouldn't have posted anything here on EvoM at all had this guy just stuck with his word and refunded this like he said he would a week ago.

Am I overreacting by posting this detailed warning? Maybe, but if I had been warned in advance, it would've made me consider not ordering from these guys at all due to the sketchiness and that would've saved me from this headache. Posting this certainly isn't worth my time, that's for sure. Stuff like this pisses me off though and it's the principle behind it all that made me decide to write this warning for my fellow Evo enthusiasts. It's one thing to buy a counterfeit part and know it, but it's totally different when you buy a part that you think is legit when it's not. I don't really run counterfeit parts on my cars much at all because they are just that- counterfeits and they should be illegal if they're not. If it's an item that is unavailable here in the US and isn't being offered by anyone in the US, then I would consider buying a replica/counterfeit, but I still always prefer to buy the legit parts. I mean come on, I'd rather support the originators and not the wannabes who have no creativity of their own to make something unique and they have to copy someone else.

So in summary, I don't recommend these guys whatsoever. Remember this post/thread in the future for if these guys pull more squirrelly actions down the road. At least no one will be able to say they weren't warned!

 

wow.... typical BS, what a great stand up guy.

 

I like how he lost your number all of a sudden .

 

Shady for sure... I still like the knob though. Maybe he should refund you your money and start a group buy...

Izzy

 

Cliff Notes of what actually happened:

1. You purchase an AUTHENTIC ARC shift knob from us on April 9th, back when we still had authentic knobs in stock.

2. 71 DAYS LATER...after doing who knows what with the knob, you contact us asking for a refund because you think it's "fake"? What happened to the first 71 days of having the item, were you analyzing it for authenticity 2+ months?

3. Threaten to send you your money back or you will post slander/libel about us online.

We will be taking proper action to try and make sure this buyer does not do this to other vendors in the future.

 

As I mentioned to you via text, my cars are in storage. I'll upload screenshots of the text in a minute since you forgot that.

 

 

Wow, I think I'm one of the victim as well. I also purchased an "authentic" ARC knob from SRToad4 (I still retained the PMs I had with him) back in Nov of 2011. When I received the knob, I was also a little sketchy about the brass insert, as I didn't remember that part when I had the ARC knob for my S2000. I never installed the knob I got from him, and if the knob is indeed an counterfeit, I would like my money back as well (he charged me $135 for it btw), since he knowingly sold something that he knew it wasn't "authentic".

I can post pictures as well of my knob and the insert that came with it.

Eric

 

Maybe I'm not following but as far as I can tell this guy sold you an authentic part... and he now actually owns ARCs old factory and produces the same knobs, but they are actually replicas. When you bought this part months before this, you very well probably received the real deal.

If you did take two months to contact him and say you didn't want it anymore, I'm surprised he didn't laugh in your face.

If you thought it was a fake part the day after you got it... why did you ask for a refund 60 days later? Maybe he wasn't the nicest guy when it came to returns and customer service, but it sounds like you were a bit shady during the whole thing.

From all the information i gathered off of these posts, you are being very critical and ignorant and potentially slamming a vendor who doesn't deserve it. Maybe I'm wrong and he sent you a piece of ****... but I know he operates out of ARCs factory now and his rebuttal to your accusations seem very legitimate.

 

Thanks Chaz for seein what's going on here.

Guy buys something and is happy with it, 2+ months later asks for a refund, and then THREATENS for one or else he will spread fake rumors about me online?

I can only imaginge how many times kpt6 has done this to other vendors online now. Great way to get free products.

 

This dude does not own the factory in China. That's BS.

I felt the knob was sketchy when I first got it, but didn't think anything of it until I saw his craigslist ad had been changed to say that the knobs were replicas. I contacted him as soon as I noticed that.

If he sent a legit piece, then what's up with the text I showed here where he says he's out of boxes now after I asked him if he still had ARC knobs for sale? Seriously.

And if it's real, why wouldn't he refund my money anyway since he could surely get more for it than I paid?

 

not sure why people are terribly surprised that someone who was making replicas tried to pawn a few off a real ones. not like packaging is hard to fake.

either way, i'm on the seller's side. 60 days is way out of any normal return period (most is a week and still in original packaging). even if you didn't use it, that's messed up to just chargeback a credit card because you've now changed your mind and are having second guesses. these second guesses should have happened right away

 

I bet you yours is fake too.

 

okay since there are four paragraphs ill answer them one at a time:

1) somebody has to own it. for you to just say "he doesnt, thats bs", is just ignorant and stupid frankly. unless you have some kind of proof.

2) you felt it was "sketchy"? what was sketchy about it? it came without the insert, oh nooo. he took a while to send you an insert after that, well guess what - map performace (one of the most highly revered vendors on here) has multiple cases where they take weeks to get small pieces out to customers. took them almost 3 weeks to get me brake pads. sometimes, **** happens.

3) He could have easily been referring to his ARC replicas. As far as everyone knows, the one you have is legitimate. He is selling ARC replicas now, technically still an "ARC" product.

4) Because he sold it to you two months ago, you could easily send back a fake or what not. It doesn't matter if he can resell it. He's a vendor and doesn't want to put up with your bull**** as an extra hassle.

I've never dealt with them personally and I don't know who is truly at fault here, however, the details provided thus far it really seems like you are being paranoid or attempting to scam. They have done nothing that appears sketchy to me except maybe take a little too long to get you things which, when considering vendors as a whole, is very common.

If there is some break in this case and new information comes to light actually PROVING that what you have is fake and they scammed you, then I sincerely apologize for all of this. However, thus far, this is a bull**** argument. Bring in some hard evidence or stop trying to scam.

EDIT: maybe find some body with an older real ARC knob and compare -- as long as ARC never changed their design/material when they actually existed...

 

The second guess did happen right away, as mentioned in my first post. Either way, he said he'd refund my money but he's not now. So here we go. I'll get my money back.