johngriff

[spdfreek0o]

I bought something from his cheap sale and it got here by usps in 2 days. Very easy transaction. Would def do business with him again.

[adrians_s13]

yeah, John is cool people... :)

[Irukandji]

John is a good guy. Sold me parts very cheap and shipped it immediately.

Very nice guy

[corriganjoshua]

Great seller! This guy has answered all questions I've had with the Haltech I purchased through him and has been a great guy to deal with. Not to mention very fast shipping. For any Haltech needs, PWR or Clutches I recommend this guy at rpsport.com. 2 Thumbs Up for this seller!!!:bigok:

[GoodOl'S13]

Good guy. Answered all of my questions. fast shipping

[240ztt]

Mr. Grefe has perpetrated a fraud, and I have pursued legal action against him and recently won judgment.

As you may know, Mr. Grefe was advertising (http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=147534) a lot of new old stock (NOS) A.R.E. mesh automobile wheels which were supposedly left over in a warehouse that his friend’s father had purchased. Mr. Grefe apparently offered to help his friend sell the wheels, instead of scrapping them.

I started to communicate with Mr. Grefe in late July, 2007 via personal messaging from this website. After a few personal messages we agreed upon a price of $732, with shipping, for four wheels of varying diameters and offsets. The wheels were all advertised as NEW, but he offered to take them to a local wheel shop to be polished, at no additional cost, since they had been gathering dust in the warehouse for so long and had possible scratches.

Since I had all of his contact information, and he had good ratings on this site, I felt confident in the sale, and arranged a PayPal transaction to get him the money on August 1st. That’s when the trouble began. Ten days later, according to an e-mail from Mr. Grefe, the wheels I had purchased were picked up by his brother to be shipped to me, but he noticed they were not “up to his standards,” so he sent them back to the wheel repair shop to have the lips repaired.

Another two and a half weeks passed before I heard from him again; this time, he e-mailed me to apologize that the wheel shop was backed up, and he himself had been involved in a car accident. He claimed the wheels would be shipped on August 30th. They didn’t ship for another full week, according to Fed Ex, and it took 8 more days for them to arrive (http://www.putfile.com/240ztt/images/145964) (that’s 44 days from the date I paid for them).

When the wheels arrived and I unpacked them, I could see that they were in no way NEW, and the offsets were not what I ordered. What I received wouldn’t fit what I bought them for, and they looked like they had been pulled off of someone’s car. There were signs that wheel weights (http://img2.putfile.com/main/9/25718224847.jpg) had been removed; one wheel hub had rust (http://img2.putfile.com/main/9/25718224819.jpg) on the back side, as if it had been mounted on a car and the rust had transferred from the rotor hat to the wheel hub, and there was curb rash (http://img2.putfile.com/main/9/25718224896.jpg). Immediately I called Mr. Grefe to complain. He apologized again and claimed that they had been shipped by a family member and that he hadn’t seen them first. The day they were shipped (Sept. 6), however, Mr. Grefe had sent me a personal message with pictures (http://www.putfile.com/240ztt/images/152496) that he supposedly took before they shipped. [I didn’t catch it at first, but look at the dirty paper towel next to the roll sitting beside the wheels…it looks like Mr. Grefe did the polishing himself, not any wheel repair shop.]

Mr. Grefe suggested I send the wheels back, saying he would refund my shipping cost, and have them brought up to standards, or he would exchange them altogether. The more I examined them, though, the more I noticed what was wrong with them, so I said instead that I would rather just send them back and get a refund (half right away and the rest when he received the returned wheels – to show good faith.) He replied and said that he could not refund my money and that he would put the wheels on consignment, refunding half of the money when he received the wheels and the other half once they were sold. That did not suit me, since he sold them straight to me in the first place, and didn’t have any problem taking my money for shoddy merchandise that took more than a month to arrive.

I contacted PayPal to file a dispute, but was told that they have a 45 day dispute period - awfully convenient for Mr. Grefe, since I didn’t receive the wheels until day 44. PayPal recommended that I should have filed a dispute after two weeks, and dismissed it once the merchandise was received and satisfactory, which, honestly, hadn’t occurred to me because we were in contact at that time, and he gave reasonable excuses for the delay. There was, of course, NO excuse for the condition of the wheels I actually received, nor any of his conduct since.

After weighing my options for a few days, I finally caved, and, on October 12th, I sent Mr. Grefe ALL four wheels back, with specific instructions in each box as to what needed to be done to each to bring it “up to standard,” per his earlier recommendation. I sent him an e-mail the same day, with all of the tracking numbers. More than a month passed, AGAIN, with no word, no wheels, and no refund. On November 19th, I e-mailed him for a status update, and replied saying he had actually SOLD all of the wheels I’d returned and would now be sending out NEW ones once he found some (he claimed to be looking for the perfect set), and he’d get back to me then. Patient and trying to be understanding, I waited another week before again asking for the status of my order. The next day he replied with a claim that I would (finally) be receiving 4 wheels that matched the condition of the instructions I’d sent with the returned wheels. WHAT? Those instructions were for the repair of the wheels that I returned; wheels that he never repaired and, in fact, sold out from under me (making even more of a profit)! I e-mailed him one final time on January 3, 2008 (remember, I paid for the wheels on August 1, 2007) once more asking for a full refund, giving him a week to comply, and explicit instructions on how to send me the money back. More than a month had passed and I still had not received any refund, nor had I heard from him at all.


In February 2008, I filed a small claims case against Mr. Grefe. He was served in late February 2008 with a summons to appear before the District Court in May 2008. Mr. Grefe failed to appear and my case was heard before the judge and judgment was issued against Mr. Grefe. It is now my responsibility to attempt to collect from Mr. Grefe. I wanted to wait until the court date had passed before telling my story to everyone. I hope this has been informative.

[spitfire7]

john is the bomb. geat service, and never ripped me off. he is the only guy i fully trust with my car.

[eulalia]

john is the most legit person i have ever ever met, did my swap perfectly

+million for john

[S14DB]

Looks like two people that have not had any business on this forum before decided to post a fake review then battle is out with members.

This area is only for business conducted on the Forum. Not to spam as many forums as possible.

I also do not appreciate moderators/admins from other forums coming here and entering the fray. We do not do this to your forum, do not do it to ours. If you have a problem with a member please contact an Admin.

All posts related to this have been deleted as carbon copy posts have been made on other forums claiming that the business was done on that forum. This is not what this section was designed for. It is for business on this forum.

[S14DB]

Post restored as the posted claims the transaction was started on the site.

[georgesal]

+1 for john, real good guy

[240ztt]

I wanted to update everyone on this forum since he will not comment on here. Mr. Grefe has failed to contact me since posting on another website on June 16, 2008 that he would resolve this matter within that week. This is still an on going battle. I could only wish that this would get resolved quickly as my case was heard in a court of law and judgement was made in my favor. Bottom line, I would like my money plus court costs as awarded in my judgement returned to me so that we both can move on!

[widegts]

john is legit, helped me without question... thanks!

[dirtdiggler666]

super cool guy got my parts fast:bigok:

thanks john

[240ztt]

It has been 2 months now and I have not heard anything from Mr. Grefe. I am concerned as to when this will be "resolved" as he stated to me on another forum where he has only responded twice in 2 months? I would assume that if he didn't know before, he must know by now that I have a judgement against him. None of my contact information has changed and I would like to get this resolved as soon as possible so that we both can move on. Is this too much to ask?

[240ztt]

It has been relatively sometime since I updated this thread. JohnGriff has made no attempts to contact me to resolve this issue. I have all the proof as to what he promised and he never followed through. I sent him back the wheels for replacement and now he has both the wheels and my money.

Buyers beware if anyone has any business dealings with him be VERY cautious. If he screwed me over who is to say he won’t screw anyone else over. His track record was excellent up until our transaction. This was a very sobering lesson for someone who I trusted and ended up getting taken advantage of since I live on the other coast. I have exhausted all possible ways to collect other than knocking on his door in which I am a better man. I have learned from this and will chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on. Thanks to all who have supported me in this debacle!