John Lavene Refuses to warranty the item he sells. Built VERY CHEAPLY not NSF - no stamp anywhere on cart. Clearwater Florida
John is very personable and seems to go the distance to help the customer or so I thought. Most of his business is out of town. He was nice enough to deliver the cart to me but the customer service ended there. Where do I start....
well 1st of all John uses a cheap 14in burner that is not stainless steal. He put PVC on a Hot water pressure line with no pressure fittings. The Motor for the water pump was defective to begin with it would never shut off. I had to install a kill switch in order for it to operate. After 3 weeks the motor is leaking water out of its seal. The cart is not insultated at all so when you use the extended table....watch out you will get one heck of a burn.
The frame itself is from Harbor Freight and is not solid steel at all. The frame started to bend and twist on day 3. The hot water line sits over the burner so the solder never takes and water is forever leaking out of the unit. This guy is a piece of work. He sells this unit for $2600 with all the upgrades. he only charged me $2000.00 but I have had to put in over $700.00 of repair including labor charges.
He now has a woman answering his phone and claims he will make good and return the call but he never does, What a piece of sh**! I really got the screwing of my life with his company. The cart is poorly built and everything is cheap and it is not insulted nor is there the nsf stamp of quality. So BEWARE!!!!
Veryconcerned
JACKSONVILLE, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Ace In The Hole
Clearwater,Florida,
U.S.A.
Dog eat Dog world
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, June 09, 2008
I was a bit taken back with the comments made by "VERY Concerned"
I purchased 3 carts from John about 6 months ago. I had owned a cart made by another Miami based cart builder and it was a piece of crap-I ended up selling it after a year of use anyhow I was searching google for another company to build me 3 more carts and ran across your post. The reason I'm not buying from Island Time/John is not because I didn't like the cart(S) the reason is John told me he is running 3-6 months behind because he has so many orders in front of me I wouldn't see any carts until November. I had suggested he hire a bunch of employees to build more carts but as he put it-he will not compromise quality for quantity.
I just think you might have just had a stroke of bad luck-I really do.
One of my carts had a broken grill on it and John offered to replace it no questions asked and did just that.
All 3 of my carts are in use and I have had really no problems to speak of-I had to have the burner replaced but that was because of something I was trying to do. It did take a little bit more time to get me my carts but I did receive them.
Maybe your cart was damaged during shipping?
Anyhow 2 bad u had bad luck-after I lost my job getting these carts was the best decision I have made!
Good Luck
Veryconcerned
JACKSONVILLE,Florida,
U.S.A.
Islandtime HDC or Islandtime Hot Dog cart, Inc.
#3Author of original report
Wed, June 04, 2008
I attempted to call him again and went straight to voice mail.