Champion motors charged triple quoted labour and 60% mark up on parts.

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CorvetteGuyCanada

Casual User
You're 5
Feb 1, 2015
21
1
Toronto
VetteCoins
666
Car
C6
I was purchasing a used Gm truck and also wanted to find a shop that I could trust with my corvette for future repairs and possible modification. Champion was recommended by many on the other Corvette forum (who have banned me, and removed the post!!! No wonder I can't find anything negative, they just take it down!!)

I brought the truck in for a certification check. The mechanic quoted the work so him to go ahead to do the 4 hours of work, and decided to buy the truck.

When I picked up the truck that day the bill was triple what was estimated. The labour was over triple what I authorized and the parts were marked up 60% from my “off the street” cost for the exact same parts locally at the AC Delco dealer. The $12 thermostat installation was $200 alone!!

The next day I called to get it corrected. The mechanic agreed with the estimate given but they would not move on the price.

This may not be a “big deal” but you if get a bill for triple what you expect, it’s a big deal to 99% of the people.

Now around 2 months later of trying to resolve this problem, running around getting quotes, no reasonable offer to resolve their mistake his been offered.

Hope no one else has this experience with Champion.

My lesson learned: don’t trust anyone, get them to prove it’s worn out, and to get a written quote.

If you were charged triple, what do you think Champion should do to resolve this problem?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My only suggestion with your post is that perhaps you should have talked to a moderator before posting. Not saying you are right or wrong with your accusation it just puts these guys in a difficult position.
 
I edited some specifics of your post and opened it back up for you CGC --

Welcome to CCF and I hope you can get your issue resolved with Champion.

Colin
 
If you find a GOOD mechanic, then stick with him. I have had the same mechanic here in the village for years and he is good and honest. For the Corvette, It would be worth my time and money to send/take it to Dasilva's shop. I certainly haven't heard anything bad about them in the 3 plus years that I have been on this site. I had them install stone guards and a Vararam intake. An hour and a half later we were on the road and their pricing was pretty decent too. If you don't have a mechanic, ask car guys who they go to in your area. Certain names will float to the top if you ask enough questions.
 
...isn't there a ombudsman or something that a guy can complain to ? what about that show on tv that took people's complaints like this and did their own secret camera and stuff trick to catch the guys in the act. No one wants their place advertised on tv to ruin their business, might be worth a shot since they want to play hard ball.
 
There is an easy way. Someone send them this link. All threads are indexed in Google which means this becomes a permanent and publicly available record that can easily be searched and found.
 
So far I have only heard one side of the story so unless I am missing something, I would really like to hear from the other side. Then, and only then can I form an opinion based upon facts! Just my 2 cents FWIW.
 
What really bothers me is when the almighty dollar gets in the way of running a site properly. Having said that, I am not speaking of this site whatsoever and am speaking of Corvette Forums. I run several sites and have been through what I am seeing and at the end of the day, regardless of whether there is a marketing agreement between the site and business, the website has to still stay an impartial resource to its members.

The fact that one cannot supply a link to a seller where he got a good deal because they are not a supporting vendor is wrong. The fact that one cannot offer an honest opinion of a supporting vendor is wrong. The fact that the supporting vendor can do as they please in promoting their goods is wrong. Come to think of it, some of it may apply to this site and I apologize if it does, but an agreement between a supporting vendor and a website is just that, between them two resources. There should be no reason whatsoever that members should feel restricted in their recommendations, links or opinions.

Imagine if Kerbecks went to the other Forum and said we are going to pay you 50k but want our site exclusively on your site. That website just went from being a great impartial resource to a Kerbecks (used for example only) business website. Think of all people who go there lose from not learning about other good vendors.



Just my 2 cents sorry if a bit is close to home...
 
Hey all, this is the nature of the beast rightly or wrongly. The aforementioned corvetteforum.com along with 70 other websites and forums are owned by Internet brands. A company that collects over 100M in revenue from over 50000 vendors. It is a business and a relatively successful one. The nature of IB forums is a thinly veiled storefront for their sponsors so they can get more ad revenue. They are in no way partial and will elect to side with their biggest paycheck as one would expect in 9 cases out of ten.

The side effect of this is gradual disenfranchisement of members as it becomes apparent when credibility is lost in cases of disputes. Unfortunately most of us are habitual creatures who forget quickly when it comes to our forums so we still end up going back to the same place or a sufficient amount of new visitors keep it afloat even with attrition.

This forum I don't believe is run as a 'proper' business and is administered by sensible people so I wouldn't dream of putting it in the same category. BTW, that is a good thing for us casual visitors. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
navion said:
So far I have only heard one side of the story so unless I am missing something, I would really like to hear from the other side. Then, and only then can I form an opinion based upon facts! Just my 2 cents FWIW.
Click to expand...

I agree.

What you might hear is
-yes the mechanic did quote that, he made a mistake, I'm not willing to eat his mistake he is not allowed to quote so I charged what All Data says
-I sell my parts below list (which is 60% over my off the street cost from our local AC Delco dealer for the exact parts)


I'm not sure what a fair mark up is on parts, but 60% sounds very high to me.

I agreed to what the mechanic quoted me
 
CorvetteGuyCanada said:
I agree.

What you might hear is
-yes the mechanic did quote that, he made a mistake, I'm not willing to eat his mistake he is not allowed to quote so I charged what All Data says
-I sell my parts below list (which is 60% over my off the street cost from our local AC Delco dealer for the exact parts)


I'm not sure what a fair mark up is on parts, but 60% sounds very high to me.

I agreed to what the mechanic quoted me
Click to expand...

I don't have an amicable solution to your situation, as either will loose (this could be thought of as amicable). I do have to say, if I have to get work done on my car I email or call Manny (DaSilva). He runs a tight ship, his guys are super and I have not heard anything negative about his operation. He quotes and honors his prices ... and I have shopped around.

Good experience you tell a friend, bad experience and you tell ten people.
 
I look at the internet pretty much as entertainment and nothing more. Lots of good posts about a vendor can be somewhat of a good sign but not always for sure. People can always e-mail each other with their experiences both good and bad. You can always check out the Better Business Bureau but there again, vendors and businesses are paying members so that makes me wonder a little bit too. If a vendor is really bad, it is obvious there. I was about to sign a contract for a stone mason to do work at our place. The BBB had him rated way down with customers reporting all kinds of problems. We eventually got a guy who did a great. Where we bought the stone, I was talking to the owner about the first guy. I didn't even mention his name and the owner knew exactly who I was talking about. We went with his suggested guy. You have to do your homework these days. There are a lot of shysters out there no matter the business.
 
AllFlash said:
What really bothers me is when the almighty dollar gets in the way of running a site properly. Having said that, I am not speaking of this site whatsoever and am speaking of Corvette Forums. I run several sites and have been through what I am seeing and at the end of the day, regardless of whether there is a marketing agreement between the site and business, the website has to still stay an impartial resource to its members.

The fact that one cannot supply a link to a seller where he got a good deal because they are not a supporting vendor is wrong. The fact that one cannot offer an honest opinion of a supporting vendor is wrong. The fact that the supporting vendor can do as they please in promoting their goods is wrong. Come to think of it, some of it may apply to this site and I apologize if it does, but an agreement between a supporting vendor and a website is just that, between them two resources. There should be no reason whatsoever that members should feel restricted in their recommendations, links or opinions.

Imagine if Kerbecks went to the other Forum and said we are going to pay you 50k but want our site exclusively on your site. That website just went from being a great impartial resource to a Kerbecks (used for example only) business website. Think of all people who go there lose from not learning about other good vendors.



Just my 2 cents sorry if a bit is close to home...
Click to expand...

Good points AF. The only comments I have to make besides the fact that you are now banned is that we have to protect the sponsors who make running this site possible. Now, when I say protect, to me this means not allowing other competing companies to come on here and advertise. Otherwise, if companies could solicit and advertise, then what would be the incentive to sponsor the site? Protecting the sponsors also means making sure that if the customer does have a problem with a sponsor, the customer has done their due diligence in trying to rectify the issue with the company first before coming on the forum to talk about it. Otherwise you could have people ranting about how terrible a company is without the company even being aware something is wrong or that they made a mistake and if they had known, they would have done it correctly or corrected it if they were aware. Should the company actually be doing something wrong, I think it would be good if the customer contacted the site admin first and explained the situation so the admin can contact the company to get that side of the story. Should the company be at fault, then I don't see why they should be upset with a customer reporting their experience.
lastly, protecting does not mean removing all links/names/information to a product or company that a customer is super happy with and wants to share, unless that customer has some part in the sales.

As for exclusivity, we have exclusivity with Gateway and Owais for sales in Ontario. It is something we are trying out and fortunately (but very predictably) Owais has been awesome. After this term we will reevaluate is this is working or come up with another agreement. We learn as we go along. Such as banning.... I guess you're not banned. :D And I invite people's thought/opinions on anything they feel I am doing wrong or would like to see improved.....and if I don't like it, ban, ban, ban! :rofl:


ichpen said:
This forum I don't believe is run as a 'proper' business and is administered by sensible people so I wouldn't dream of putting it in the same category. BTW, that is a good thing for us casual visitors. :)
Click to expand...

Administered by sensible people??? :D
We made this forum for Corvette people first....and are learning as we go.
 
Forums, much like the internet is simply a tool that can be used constructively or otherwise. Best to get as much info as possible before deciding, especially for big dollar purchases. But I guess, most people already know this.:D My 1.62 cents US:rofl:
 
This is interesting, I found this post from another Corvette owner about his dealings with Champion:

I had a very similar dealing with champion motors, i called and talk to rob and told i had a 2009 ZR1 corvette and i wanted a set of 18" wheels and mickey thompson tires, he said no problem hes ordered tons of them he said, after i payed for them and picked the wheels and tires up he told me there's no tps in them instead of asking me ahead of time before the tires were mounted, who wants a car worth a 100k with a tire pressure light on the dash i thought to myself. Anyways i was in a rush for the new wheels so i said forget it. I got home and went to put the new wheels on the car to find the rims didn't clear the brakes. I called rob n told him and he said oh just put a spacer on but failed to mention that the studs would be too short to thread the lug nuts on enough, so after buying spacers and finding that out, i told rob i wanted my money back because the wheels were the wrong ones he told me it was my fault and i told him what to order which was not true. He refused to give me my money back and only offer a credit. Why would anyone want a credit and order anything from him if that's how he deals with his mistakes.
 
Welcome to the forum CorvetteGuyCanada. Thanks for your information on your experience. It wasn't a good experience and we have all had these. Now that you have voiced your opinion and heard a varied assortment of replies give us some background of when you bought your car, why you bought it and what you plan to do with it.

Talking about how much we enjoy our cars and the people we meet will hopefully push this into the background and refocus on again enjoying your ride!

Take care.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Top Bottom