I placed an order with Riley on 11/20/10 (wish I found this thread first) still have not received ANY of my order. Have spoken to Eric on the phone several times and received emails got lots of excuses, and a big charge on my credit card but no product---
So why is this guy still in business?! This has been going on for YEARS, according to what I've been reading here...Has anyone else contacted Better Business Bureau??
Partly because it was being brushed under the carpet for a long time. And partly because he treats some customers very well and uses others for unauthorized lending. Most of his victims are foreigners who can't really use the US legal system. And he keeps baiting you with promises every few months until it's too late to reclaim the money over your credit card. The $2000 he owes me has probably cost me $4000 over the last 13 months. Interest on borrowing, being forced to sell parts off cheap to keep afloat and not being able to do business with the money. Losing a good customer who would of ordered more and the 25% import taxes I paid on the whole order that never came! It's also made me ill with worry. And all we can do is wait until he finally comes up with the goods! Right now I'd just like my money back. Ed
edwardlloyd, Have you had any communication from him at all? An email? A pm? A phone call? When was the last time you heard from him?
The last Email was dated January 18th, where he promised to have everything shipped out within the next week or two. I've not given up hope, but I'm not holding my breath either ;-) I'll let everyone know when I have my stuff. Ed
Received word that $65 worth of parts have been received by the body shop where the work is being done....still leaves an $1845 rear end...Better Business Bureau involved...Riley still has till 3rd week in March to respond...again.
Called Eric a little over a week ago. Got him to send me some tracking numbers and sure enough i have started to receive parts. so far its only a small part of the order but its better than nothing. Are other people not able to get a hold of Eric? He seems to answer every time that I call
The final chapter: Had contacted BBB in Colorado 2-16-11..They advised that they'd notified Riley's and that Riley's had till 3-4-11 to respond to my complaint..On 3-8, received another e-mail from BBB advising that Riley's hadn't responded so they were sending Riley a 2nd letter of notification. On 3-16-11, Riley's responded to BBB, "Parts that are due are special order (custom built size) and the supplier is shipping direct". On the same date, I received an e-mail from Riley's stating that "they have all the components and your order is completed, shipped direct" to the body shop as per our instructions. On 3-21-11, Riley's advised that he'd rec'd confirmation from the factory on that date, and that he thought the "axles were the hold up, I guess". On 3-25-11, another e-mail from Riley's stating that all our parts were delivered to the body shop, He also wondered if "you're big enough to say that on the HAMB". He also advised that I owed $353. for shipping. The body shop confirmed that the order was, indeed, delivered on Mar. 24, tho they believe that what Riley's said was a "special order" is nothing but a STOCK 9" Ford rear end w/ small axles. As of today, all parts that were ordered last Oct. have finally been received and a cashier's check has been mailed to Riley's for the shipping. I find it interesting that all this action came about ONLY after the Better Business Bureau of Colorado was contacted...that link, again, is: http://denver.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/
The posts from Zurebraus and 5 Window were deleted because they were comments and they have no deals going with Riley's Auto. If you read your own post with a copy of Ryan's post - it says if you don't have a deal going then don't post to clutter things up. I hope guys who read this will see it as a re-reminder not to post if you don't have any deals going with Riley's Auto. Thanks Cob Moderator
Well I'm still waiting. I've written to him again asking if he's intending to fullfil the order like he promised in Feb, or not, because I have another car in now I could use the parts on. No answer so once again I've had to buy everything again from someone else. Eric is a strange businessman, because if he'd delivered my order last year like promised I'd have ordered at least $6.000 - $10.000 of parts from him up til now. Ed - waiting for his dry lakes front end since Jan. 2010
Here is an update on my deal with Riley's Automotive. Today I received a refund from Riley's Automotive. I consider this deal done. Thank you HAMBers for the support on resolving this issue. Rich
Glad to hear someone had a good outcome from Riley's...an addendum to our problem: Continuing story of the "special order" rearend that took over 5 months to receive because of all the excuses from Eric, was actually ordered on 3-11-11 from an outfit in Michigan that we were advised he'd never done business with before...the order was shipped to me on 3-22-11 and was NOT a special order; just a stock 9" Ford rearend. The rearend I received would have cost me $221. less than what I paid Riley's, plus the fact that he got it $250 less than I could which gave him a nice profit of $471 on the rearend alone and he got to use my money for over 5 months. Around the first of April we got an e-mail from Eric that said he'd be sending us all of our paperwork and we haven't seen it yet, nor do we expect to.
HOLY....COW! In the mail this am was the "paperwork" from Riley's....with .17 cents postage due...how typical was that!? LOL
Eric did write to me about 2 months ago saying he was getting ready to ship my stuff out but since then has ignored my mails. It's now exactly 16 months since he billed my credit card and I'm still waiting on $2000 of parts. I must be his longest suffering creditor by far! Ed
I have now, extremely reluctantly, informed the Denver BBB. I wanted to give him a chance to come up with the goods but after 18 months, came to the conclusion, that Eric never intended to make good his debt to me. Ed
Eric has ignored both letters from the Denver BBB, so I'm left with no alternative now. I'll have to engage a lawyer. The case value is just under $2000. Is there a simpler way to take him to court, or do I need a lawyer? Anyone know? 17 months now. I can prove I've been at least that much in debt these last 17 months at about 17% interest, so I guess I can go for a lot more that $2000! Ed
You can take him to small claims court without a lawyer. You really have to have your shit together though if you don't acquire a lawyer and I'm not sure how this process would work when one party is out of the country. Disgraceful. It's conceivable that a fella can go through a hard time, make some poor business decisions, and end up with some folks on the line that shouldn't be. That kind of thing can happen to an otherwise good person. The way Mr. Wilson has been treated and ignored considering his own hardship is another thing all together. Really angers me.
Just thought I would update. It will be 7 months tomorrow since I placed my order and I have only received 1/3 of my order. The part that upsets me most is that I received the frame which he produced. I am waiting on parts that I could have ordered from Pete and Jakes myself and had them in a few days. All he had to do was order them, and he has had the money to do so since the day I placed my order.
Well its been 18 months since I paid him and I'm still waiting for my $2000 refund for parts I never received. The amazing thing is that he is still in business, buying and selling parts within the hot rodding community and seems to have no problem, ripping some of his customers off. Actually what he's doing is scamming on the Internet. I thing he'd do jail if enough people reported him to the local police. It's also credit card fraud. Who does he still owe money too? Me ( Ed Lloyd) $2000 Bob Wilson $? Anyone else?
i'm one of the guys who continues to do business with eric. i've never had a problem with him. he's always been straight forward with me and ships the same day i send him payment. i'm about to purchase more parts from him. he still gives me the alliance discount.
If any of you have orders that include anything made by Bob Wilson you are probably going to have a hard time getting it from Riley Automotive. It appears to me based on my speculation that he might have always taken orders/might still be taking orders for stuff he does not have on hand/never had in stock and he will not be getting any items direct from Bob. He could possibly get the brakes from another source Bob ships to. It is common practice in many industries for companies to take your money/payment for items they do not have in stock and ship later. I am guessing that his how Riley Automotive operated from what I have heard from people who have contacted me. Riley Automotive is more than welcome to correct me on this forum if I am mistaken. On that note I will point out Bob Wilson will never cash a check or take money until an item is ready or shipped. Yes he had a good period of product trickling out slowly with his sickness but has been caught up and sending out stuff for months, just ask the people who have PMed me and bought from Bob recently. He also had friends working as best they could to keep product flowing even when Bob was at his sickest. I can only make educated guesses about what is going on with Riley and speculate. I felt some of you might need to know this aspect if your order from Riley does include anything from Bob Wilson.
Amazing... I am not speaking for Bob and this has no connection to him. All I can say is... He started out selling Bob's stuff. He fell behind on paying Bob and would not respond to Bob and became involved with a competitor of Bob's: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428749 He suddenly paid Bob and mended fences and Bob started dealing with him again. Once again Bob sent him product. Once again he has never paid Bob for that product and will not respond to Bob Wilson. People can make their own judgements based on your opinion and mine Silent Rick. So, he still gives Alliance discounts but is banned? Kind of odd I think...
I can't blame you for doing that, but hate that you do. Eric was very straight forward to me as well... And lots of guys are upset with me for defending him for as long as I did... But he did all of this himself and has handled a number of people with a lot of disregard. The Bob Wilson thing absolutely sickens me. He's one of the best guys I know and is in one of the toughest situations a guy can be in... I can't support anyone that would put anymore stress on Bob.
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