Complaint Review: German Performance

Since 1999, I have been going to German Performance in Riverside because they specialize in all Volkswagon and Audi cars. I have gotten to know the owner(s) Shawn Setterstrom and his Ex-partner Brett Watson. We had developed a friendship and have been friends for sometime.

Brett and Shawn had a falling out of the business and decided to go there separate ways because of Shawn Setterstroms actions and how he rips off customers. I stayed with German Performance because of the friendship, knowledge history of my car and the good deals. In 2000, I was talked into a deal of installing some turbo items for my car and guaranteed it would be great. It cost me about $5,000.00. Still pretty cheap on the price for what I got.

However, the mechanic that worked on my car (later fired) had no idea what he was doing. They winged it together and cost me $2,000.00 more than I wanted to spend but was guaranteed some extra service and things down the road. In Dec. 2002, I wanted to take the band aid of a turbo they had put in my car and replace it with a better system. I got a low quote and a better mechanic to do the job. I felt good that the job was going to be done right with a friendly price.

The vehicle sat until around Aug 03 and we finally got a quote of how much it would cost to get the upgraded turbo and some extras put into the vehicle as well as saving me money by rebuilding my transmission to work better with the turbo. They handed me a quote for $6,965.47. Shawn(owner) said that in order to get started and ordering parts that I would have to give them a deposit. I gave them $4,000.00. They started to order parts and the car still sat. The parts ordered and paid for sat in my trunk.

I paid the remaining balance in Aug 03, hoping to get the ball rolling. The car was slowly being worked on. I figured don't rock the boat because I was still getting a good deal. In Apr 04, I started to complain and was handed another bill A PADDED BILL! The bill was in the amount of $9,472.47. I called the owner/friend immediately thinking there was a mistake. He snow balled me and gave me some used car salesman answers that resulted in us falling out of a friendship.

I have paid for everything to include the original labor (32 hours) price of $1,460.00. The $1,460.00 included rebuilding my old transmission to save me money. I had bought a new transmission and the price for labor went up to $2,220.00. The car today is still sitting in his shop because I am unable to afford to take it out and pay for another mechanic.

As of Nov 04, my car is running but still undergoing some minor fine tuning to get the car to run right. I have paid to have my car done in a timely fashion and a labor time of 32 hours. It will be 3 years later and $2,500.00 more this December 04. When I call the mechanics they say they are short handed and have to work on the paying customers cars. I respond with me saying how I spent over $9,000.00 in labor and parts. I am the PAID customer! Not paying customer. I have watch him do this to other customers over the years and finally have to put a stop to it.

David
Colton, California
U.S.A.