Anybody know HOTRODSURF boys?

I hate to air out my dirty laundry here, but was wondering if anybody knew or could vouch for the guys at HOTRODSURF dot com?

Heres the quick of it. I bought a steering gear from them on ebay on 11-15, and a few days later get a message from them saying its on the way. Long story short, still dont have it, and its holding up further progress on my project.

I tried callijng the number on the website, which just referes you to email, and when i email i get no response.

Was wondering if i just got F'd, or i should be a little more patient.

***Moderators*** If this post is in poor taste, I apologize and feel free to pull it.

Thanks for the help

 

everything i've ordered, i've gotten on time, and with no complaints. i ordered some things from their e-bay site, too, and the shipping was a little slow, but i eventually got everything.

although, i wasnt waiting nearly as long as you have been. maybe it got lost in the mail? try contacting them through e-bay. if they dont respond, e-bay has a decent dispute resolution system or whatever they call it

anyway, good luck with it!

 

Thanks Dave.

Im not wanting to slander them. Weve had a major holiday and the storms in the midwest, so a ton of things could have happened with shipping. Im just a tad upset i havent heard any response from them. I guess that you have had good luck with them still gives me a little encouragement my part is till coming.

Thanks

 

A friend bought a car from them, said they were good to deal with. I just checked thier ebay feedback rating 99.1% with 4441 feedbacks left. I would say that's pretty good.

 

Bought some stuff from their store when I lived in SD in '04.

Seemed really good to deal with and definitely had the talent to back up their website claims.

Hopefully just related to the weather or a USPS snafu.

Good luck.

 

All my ebay deals with them have gone off without a hitch. Plus they send out a cool hotrod cd with their orders. I'd be lookin at the post office.

 

Not trying to spread anything either, but my honest experience with then hasn't been favorable. I contacted them (or tried) several times enquiring about having a frame built a couple years ago. Not a peep back from them. They were at Rockabilly Rod Reunion a couple years ago also and were very unfriendly and really didn't want to help. Could be just all coincidence or a couple cases of just bad timing. I honestly don't know. Never got through to them to ever order anything though.

A personal experience of a friend of mine, I recently learned of, was not favorable either. He bought a 33/34 PU chassis with a flathead in it and the entire thing turned out to be a hack job (according to him). Again, mostly hear-say, but I haven't had any good experiences and haven't heard from anyone else one way or the other.

Again... not looking to spread any bad feelings because I realize shit happens out there, but just wanted to share as an FYI only. Maybe if I called them next week it would be a different story.

 

I have been to the shop in SD. I was there a couple of years ago. My nephews live close to the shop and said that they either clolsed up or moved.

 

I used to live by them. Seemed OKAY? to deal with. I was in the store once and a customer was goin off about the owner, and how rude and mean he was.

 

Well as for me, I do wanna spread the slander. The owner of Hot Rod surf is a Nazi son of a bitch!! (Please read on)

I am a 20 year old Hot Rodder from San Diego. I am currently going to school studying Graphic Design. A few years back I designed a poster for the guys at Hot ROd Surf as and art project promoting an event that they were having at their shop. Although they did not ask me to do this, I needed to make a poster for a project, and thought that it would be cool to design a poster for a local shop that promotes my two greatest passions, hot rods and surfing. I walked into their shop with my head held high, poster in hand, thinking that I was going to make their day GIVING THEM a kick ass poster that they would have paid some graphic designer $100 to make. I barely held the poster up before the owner was calling me every name in the book, telling me how dare I do this without their consent. Saying that he was going to kick my ass and pushing me out of his store, with my poster still on his counter. He basically told me that if I ever stepped foot in his ship that he would personally kick my ass.

I can't even begin to tell you the countless other friends that I have that will tell you about their horrible attitudes, rediculous business practices, and their PIECE OF SHIT "RAT RODS". Yeah, I said RAT RODS. I don't believe in the terms "RAT ROD", but if there is one, they make them. THey make these pile of shit cars, call them traditional hot rods, and them sell them for $20,000.

Alright, I'm done, sorry if I offended anyone. I just never have gotten over how a 19 year old kid that is purely obsessed with the hot rod culture, could get treated like this by someone in this position. Funny thing is, I walked back into their shop a few months later, and my poster was hanging on the wall.

I drove by their shop a few months ago, they went out of business. They are strickly doing online sales now. On top of this all, they are the most racist people I have ever met.

Sorry about all of this, I'm just a kid trying to do the things I love and promote the culture that I love. As far as I think, Hot Rod Surf does not have a place in this hobby. PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THEM!!!

 

Just joined the HAMB and see we have comments. We are bikers and hot rodders and are not nice to everyone. Every type of yahoo can walk in the door when you have a business. We also meet a lot of good peoples.

Making a poster with some elses hot rod and our name on it is NOT COOL for us since we actually DO build hot rods and only want our name associated with what we do. We stand by our lifestyle and are in it for the thrills. The Good and The Bad. It's nice to see how traditional hot rods are catching on. We are on the HAMB into connecting with dudes and gals who own and drive their hot rods around.

P.S. If there's problems with shipping contact us through Ebay or our website and we'll take care of it. -JP

 

This statement makes me wonder why this kid's poster ended up hanging on your wall rather than torn to shreds in the dust bin.

 

Since when is that an acceptable excuse? Especially if you're running a business. I would have given you the benefit of the doubt, right up until you posted that...

 

Gee, amazing how you "just joined" the biggest tradional rod site when there are comments about your business...also seems amazing that the only thing you are concerned with is the poster, not the other complaints about service. I think you just told everyone how you feel about us. Can't say as I would buy anything from you now (and by the way, I am a car parts business owner too, so I know of what I speak)

51FourDoor

 

WoW... Open Mouth...Insert A$$...

 

I like that too. You are in contact with him right now with an audience that can make or break your business, but you tell him to contact you through ebay?

 

this is ginna get real ugly...bet he just lost alot of business....chewin out a young kid...i bet so-cal wouldn't a done that

 

This is going to be interesting... (good time for that little popcorn eating smiley)

 

Most likely should not post, but here goes...

hot rodding is YOUTH............wether you are young or old........encouraging the youngsters is the key to keeping our sport or lifestyle going and growing............not bad mouthing ...even if the poster was not to your liking..........We see many youngsters out there while we are racing our ole 63 Ford in Nostalgia Super Stock...I don't think that there has been a race in ten years that we haven't had a kid .........or grown up have a seat in our car and experience what it feels like to be behind the wheel...........
Young artists.........have seen some of the best work in the world on this board............from some very young, talented people....
Shipping parts...........we ship with UPS mostly and always send the tracking # to the customer asap...........yes, it sometimes takes a couple of days for me to get off my lazy ass and pack it up...but when it goes out....there is a record...both for the shipper and the customer.
I am constantly reminded of attitudes on this board..........some are good..........some are simply bad.............but to run a business, you better keep your dam personal attitude out of it........these people are all of our customers...........wether we want them as customers or not.........I send many away from our shop.........but first I explain that we don't work on that type of car, do that type of work or simply don't want to work on it and why.
It only takes one bad word to ruin a business.................

Now, not to say that you can't run yer business as you please...I do and will continue to pick and choose my work and customers...If I don't like ya...I most likely wont work on yer car........depends how broke I am...a few years ago, while starving in the middle of a very cold winter....we actually built a couple of Hondas..........but you still can't trash anyone that walks into your shop.........a little diplomacy goes a long way in the success of any business.

..."don't do as I do...do as I say"...........lol

Mark

 

What I just don’t understand about a lot of these businesses these days is how a lot of them are in fact still in business and how the customer doesn’t seem to come first. I don’t know about everyone else but where I come from and how my father brought me up is that the customer always comes first. From watching and learning how my father has ALWAYS conducted business is that you go out of your way for each and every single customer no matter what because one bad apple can spoil the bunch. Meaning if one customer walks away angry feeling short-changed then that is the start of the cookie crumbling and after that his bad word will spread like wild fire. I’ve never seen my father turn a customer away even if he couldn’t cater to that individual he would still figure out how that person could get his needs met. For example a guy walks in one day looking for something that my father didn’t have, however he got on the computer right in-front of the customer and found someone else who did and sent the customer on his way to get what he sought after. That goes without saying that your customers are your livelihood and without them your never going to make it, to me the customers always come first and I’m always willing to go out of my way for them. In the end that only boosts your image for benefit and believe me when I say that word of mouth definitely spreads faster and farther than you’d ever think. Even if you have an unruly customer and I have dealt with many of them, all you can do is idle down the situation and figure out how to satisfy that individual to the best of your ability. But if your ability sucks then your just plain ole’ fucked!
If these guys continue to conduct business this way then they’ll fold in no time especially if they’re not in a unique corner of a given market. Just my 2 cents. I’m not trying to upset anyone.

 

Hmmmm.........

 

There's too many dealers and distributors to put up with this shit...fuck em!

 

This hot rod surf dude sounds like a real dickhead to me. If someone walked into my shop with free art, the last thing I would do is threaten to whip his ass over it. Why not just explain yourself without being a prick about it? Are you just that ignorant? I would have shattered your fucking nose if you talked to me that way.

 

i can just say they are weird, i also created a poster that i proud as f*ck send them...a good story going along with it, never heard from them...

Agent Orange, US Bombs played in my venue, and a girl from there site, with one of there rods stood for the drawing in vector...

good poster....

so Hotrodsurf, maybee try to support the "new" customer...

and send Jagerbomb hist stuff....

This is your change to proof yu are good people!!

 

i agree with ryan,to many yonger guys are into ricers,its refreshing when the younger guys are into traditional/vintage hotrods & kustoms,the last thing we would want to do is run them off

 

I'm sitting here eating breakfast out in the shop and I just can't help but chuckle over these guys. By no means should anyone "run off" the younger generation, who else is going to keep Hot Rodding alive? Personally and I know that this likely does NOT go the same for alot of guys here but no mater what you drive I will help you out. But that also doesn't mean that I'm in favor of Rodding some rice burning four banger either, however I won't turn you away if you have Money! If you want something done I'll do it...

 

I liked them better when their website showed nearly naked babes.

 

I wasn't going to add anything else to this... but I just wanted to say something after actually reading the one and only response from hotrodsurf. I guess I would have used my "one phone call" a little more wisely.

To speak generally from a consumer's point of view (not directed at any shops/vendors commenting in this thread), when I go out and spend my hard earned money on parts for my cars I'm a little particular about who I spend my money with. I first start with the HAMB vendors to support what we have going on here, but when there is something that I need that just can't be purchased from one of our members, I have to go outside. Now, when shopping for what I need or when choosing someone to do some serious work (like have a rearend built from scratch or maybe a trans adapter or something) then I tend to think that a good reputation for customer service and quality work is a good place to start. If someone has a reputation that is little to be desired or lacks in attention to the customer's needs/wants and completely lack in communication with their customers they're X'd off my list faster than anything. As far as attitude and lifestyle is concerned, I could really give a shit if you think you're a bad ass who lives the lifestyle and can pick and choose "who you're nice to". I want a good product and if I'm spending some money I want some fucking respect as a person and a customer (assuming I haven't created circumstances to where I deserve to be treated with little/no respect). I also know as a consumer that if someone doesn't do the type of work that I need, I shouldn't ask and if they don't do that type of work I wouldn't expect the same quality as someone who DOES do the type of work I need. I also find that if I'm happy with the business/vendor that I'm very likely to put out positive press for them. I know what it's like to be in business for myself. It's hard work and reputation and attitude is everything.

As for you hotrodsurf dudes... pretty sad I was willing to give you money to build me a frame at one point (before i was the wiser) and you couldn't even return my phone call or emails. Too bad for you.

Good luck with your business. You must be doing okay and must not need much extra business.

 

I agree with Ryan, I have owned 2 auto parts stores and the only color I see is Green. If you take your time with the young kids they will come back evey week and spend thier paycheck.