Feel free to call me

I have heard some truly wild rumors about me and things that I've been accused of doing. Even some people that know me WELL were convinced that I did some questionable things, THAT I DIDN'T EVEN CONSIDER DOING.

One thing that I've heard I've been accused of was calling some government organization to turn in other shops for not having shop insurance. While I think that not having shop insurance is a bad idea I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT IT'S ILLEGAL. So, if I don't even believe that it's illegal, why the heck would I try to turn anybody in for it???

SO, I stand behind every action that I've taken.

The one rumor thing that I DID do was that I registered sargentpower.com

The reason I registered it was that about 2 months before he announced that he was starting Sargent Power he and I were discussing tuning and (on 10/20/08) he said "I specifically tell people that you do a great job and that I would trust you with my own car. I refuse to tune anyone's car other than my own."

About 2 months later he announced Sargent Power with a link to sargentpower.com. I clicked on it and it wasn't even registered. I was surprised that I had a new "competitor." Being a little surprised, but mostly thinking it would be funny, I registered it, BUT I LEFT IT PUBLIC AND PLANNED ON GIVING IT TO MIKE WHEN HE CALLED. Seriously, I thought it was funny, and I thought Mike would contact me and I would give him the domain...

As for anything else between Mike and I, I have NOTHING against Mike. Would I rather people come here for tuning, sure, but it seems like we have a little different customer base, and honestly, I like the guy. He's always been very open and honest with me and strikes me as a highly intelligent good person.

So, if you feel that I've done something wrong, PLEASE CALL ME. I will happily be totally honest about anything.

Siegel

 

You sir, are not a douche.

 

Well thank you. I thought most people felt that way about me and have been very surprised at how things have gone lately... I'm now hearing that there were false rumors running around about me which I guess explains it.

I have to admit that it has really bothered me that after I had worked so closely with so many people on here, and I thought there were so many happy with me, that now I was taking so much flack...

I think that most people understand that I have ALWAYS tried to provide every customer with the absolute best information and service possible...

Siegel

 

That actually is funny. :rofl:

Now answer the PM damnit.

 

I have to admit, I've almost done it a few more times... You'd be shocked at the number of people that ADVERTISE a URL that they don't even own. We had one customer that had vinyl graphics cut and on his car to a site that was still available...

Actually, he had two URL's, one was to some totally random other company in some other country and the other was still available

Siegel

 

I really have been trying to stay out of all the shop drama, but I guess now I am mentioned specifically and I will respond. It is not my style to bash people or competitors. It is not my style to try to sabotage them or their efforts. In fact I try to help out where I can even if I am helping out a competitor.

But let's set things straight. I had started having a number of people coming to me that were unhappy with some of the tunes they had received. They wanted me to check them out for them. MOST of the time I found they were tuned pretty dang good. If there were ever any flaws they were minor stuff that was really not a worry.

Yes I talked to Scott a couple of times, running some stuff by him. I never said that I refused to tune anyone's car but my own. I told him that I tried to help folks out. I also told him that a couple of his customers had come to me and were not happy with some of his work and wanted me to check it out and see if I saw anything wrong. I was actually trying to help Scott out by doing this and let him know that he was starting to get some unhappy customers. To be honest I don't remember the specific date we talked...and Scott I really would be surprised if you didn't pull the above date out of your ass. Scott told me that I should refer any of his customers back to him. I told him I would.

But regardless, it got to the point where I had people coming to me by word of mouth wanting me to tune their cars as they had friends I had helped out and it was taking up a good bit of my time. Don't get me wrong, I love tuning and monkeying around with cars, but at some point it gets to be a lot of time out of your day. I was approached by a shop that asked that I start tuning cars for them as they had heard good things about my work and were impressed with how my customers talked about me. (This was Orton Performance). I decided that I might as well get paid for all the time I was taking working on other people's cars.

As for the website, to set the record straight, it was SargentPerformance.com I would think if it was a joke, you would have called me and we could have enjoyed a laugh....I mean my number is posted all over and you have my number Scott. I did register the website, but somehow the site I registered it with did not get to it before Scott did. In fact I registered it the day before announcing that I was going to start up the business. I got an email a couple days later saying that they appologized but it was not available. But I never knew who had it until someone came to me and told me months later that they had overheard Scott BRAGGING about how he screwed me over by grabbing the website from me. Not too cool. But, I never made a big public deal about it. I switched the company name over to Sargent Power, got a new website domain name and continued on.

I was already working on developing some parts, that has never changed. I am always more than willing to offer advice to anyone, help folks out and try to make the community better. My goal at this point is to avoid all the bickering and fighting and try to improve the availability of good parts and (dare I say it) have a little innovation with Subarus.

In fact I am always willing to lend a hand. Cicio and I were just talking about this Saturday when I was up at Topspeed using their dyno (we won a contest and got some free dyno time). He helped us out by lending Ben some tools to check compression (trying to figure out the whole blow by thing) and I in turn offered a couple opinions on a car he was working on. But I love it when shops can get along and work together and try to help each other. It not only benefits both the shops, but also the customer in the end and everyone wins. I am not going to say that I don't sometimes get stumped. Everyone does. It helps to be able to run stuff by a fresh mind to get a second opinion. If everyone can get past bashing each other, reporting people, trying to sabotage each other, they may just benefit in the end!

Provided the air can clear, I would really like it if everyone could get over shit and get back to having some cool cars posted up, some innovation, some improvement of the community. That is what these forums are for.

 

I guess it's better for some to discuss things in private rather than airing your dirty laundry to everyone.

 

Well said!

P.S. I am sorry you had to wait for the dyno, I will admit that I am the slowest tuner in the Atl :rofl:

 

No worries. BTW why is this in the competition forum? Shouldn't this be in off topic or something?

 

Mike, every time I've tried to register a site that was already registered it showed who owned it... I really thought you would see that it was me and contact me... When you changed your name I just thought that you had preferred that to contacting me...

Siegel

 

This is in my SRDEC forum...

Siegel

 

Because this is Scott's section of the forum as a sponsor.

*edit* Scott beat me to it.

 

or it shows the registration company. I don't list my personal details when I register a domain, just the hosting/registration company.

 

i has idea!

ever watched that west coast custom show? or the orange county choppers?

you know all the shows with all the workers bitchin about their manager and the manager bitchin about his workers and them not being willing to work 24 hours a day 8 days a week to complete a custom vehicle for a blind baby or tribute sled for some ole geezer used to build hotrods in the 50s?

well i has idea.. the three (or more i get confused lately) shops with all the various hangers on and supporters need to contact whoever does these shop-dramas and suggest a pilot show wherein ALL 3 (OR MORE) shops/tuners compete to build something for some charity (seems to be the norm) and they all bitch slap each other during the show each complaining about how the other shop lies and only builds cannastoga wagons or billy-goat carts etc...

i mean there's enough folks involved to have one of those shows where each week someone gets voted off the shop floor..

oh and the show needs apes, lotsa apes.. they can even be retarted (how you tell if an ape is retarded?)

anyways. HAR!

someone register SHOPDRAMA.com

3 shops enter, no shop leaves...

 

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I see you

 

YEEEEEHAAWWWWWWWW Hang on to ya nutsacs folks, her we go!!!!!!!!!!:fawk:

 

Dont forget me.

 

I didn't hear anything. But I dont care what people say about you, all i know is that you are one hell of a tuner.

 

I stand behind you SS..

 

+1 to SS..looking forward to you tuning my car on the new turbo setup

 

oh so nice of you to join us since you're very active in the community

 

Well some rumors that is FACT and I will stand behind it 100% is the biggest one that lost a lot of my respect for you.

1) Trying to sell a business without the owner of the business knowing
2) Discussing financial information about business to people that have no business knowing
3) Discussing inner workings of business to people that have no business knowing that information in an attempt to 'win' that person's business

Those 3 things made me lose a lot of respect for ya and was 75% of the reasoning why you will not get my business ever again. The other 25% was personal that I would have quickly gotten over.

 

While the domain thing is kind of funny it is not very sporting. It may even be illegal.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property00/domain/legislation.html

 

1) When I was GM Doug was MINORITY owner. The MAJORITY owners had asked me to anything I could to get someone to buy them out. Doug was fully aware that I was trying to sell the business.
2) When I discussed financial stuff with you I thought it was with a friend... you and I have talked about some rather personal things at some late hours...
3) I'm not sure if you are still talking about my discussions with you, or with someone else... If you want to go into details, I'm sure we'd both agree that it would be better in PM's or texts...

Siegel

 

1) So Doug was still minority owner two weeks prior to you leaving? I was told he was unawares.
2) So talking with the owner of Prosport Gauges at the same time qualified?
3) The inner workings and claims that were made, were discussed to other people besides me to make Topspeed 'look' bad. Don't underestimate how quickly word of mouth can go round.....really all it takes is a few beers in someone.

As a person, Scott I'm fine with you. On a personal level I have no gripes, as stated above I got over that quickly. Hence why I stand by what I said in my review that included you and Doug.....both of you are excellent at what you do. You have always given me what I asked for, even when you knew later I would gripe and complain and want more.

But as far tuning my car (since I brought it up), I dunno if I could ever get to that level of trust again as that's something I've always had a tough time dealing with. And I 'know' you wouldn't ever trust me so what's done is done I guess.

 

I am in no way posting anything to start something, and frankly hesitate to post at all due to the extremely unprofessional manner that this is being handled.

HOWEVER, there have been so many false statements flying around that I might just have to start pointing them out here and there.

That being said....↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ Wrong

 

I heard these EXACT same rumors from a few other corners...all of those sources indicated "SS told me...." "SS informed me..." "Guess what SS says hes got going on with TS...."

Not to mention that I have very reliable source*S* that indicate Doug has been more than a minority owner for longer than SS has worked at TS.

 

We have not seen this in a while:

 

wtf?

 

Listen.. to clear some things up.

I started TopSpeed and have always been the president, owner and for the last two years the only officer of TopSpeed. However up until September or so of last year there were still 3 share holders in TopSpeed. Myself and two other silent partners, they technically had more shares in TopSpeed then me giving them the controlling interest.

My two other partners were nothing more to TopSpeed then a name on a piece of paper and I could probably count on all my fingers the amount of times they actually stepped into the shop in the 5 years we have been open. I believe they told Scott to try and sell off their interest in TopSpeed, because like I said they had little to no involvement with the company and just wanted out. This was all done without my knowledge, and honestly still really upsets me today. But Scott did nothing illegal as he was just doing what they asked... but it would have been nice to be filled in on what he was doing as i keep hearing rumors of what some people have been told and its far from whats actually correct.

When I found out all this was going on was the time I bought out their interest in TopSpeed. I did not spend so much blood, sweat, and tears building this company to have it sold from under me without my permission.


If anyone has any questions shoot me a PM and I can explain it better to you, as I don't want this thread to turn into the crap threads we have been getting lately.

 

That is fucking fantastic!

 

I dont think you owe anyone an explanation, after all that is your business!

 

Back when I was writing for SubieSport I pitched them an idea to have an Atlanta Tuner shootout. That idea never materialized but I think it still needs to happen.

For the record I have heard non of these rumors. I stop by Topspeed once in a while and know Scott for a few years.

Frankly I'm glad I wasn't privy to any of this.That said, Scott I'm not mad at you.

 

I agree.

 

Scott is the man, dont doubt him. Next time im in town he is going to tune my daughters barbie jeep.

 

Gah this thread makes me want to puke.

 

I didn't bump it Look above me.

 

an 07 harley with a UTEC and how the fuck is someone going to tune a barbie jeep? a big ass battery and upgraded wiring and motor? :unamused:

 

wow..jon..where the eff you been..this is not the best thread to reappear in though

 

....