Ripped off, what to do?

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rathlure911
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by rathlure911 »

Hi My name is Ciaran Woods and I am the person being discussed here. Firstly I want to remind everyone the old proverb "Believe what you see, and not what you hear" I'm sure you guys are all pretty well educated and understand what I mean. I wasn't going to reply to this but since I have got so many emails over the last few days from my customers, encouraging me to speak up, that I have decided to say something. I don't want to get into a whole argument or a lot of back and fourth of who's right and who's wrong.

The engine in question was a perfect running engine when I removed it less than a year before I sent it to Phil and I always stored it indoors so I don't understand how it was covered in water. Phil emailed to say he couldn't get it to turn over and found it seized, but if I could supply a few parts he would be happy to get it fixed. I'm not trying to run Phil down, we have spoken lots of times and he is a genuinely nice guy. If one of my customers has any problem with anything I supply, I only have one aim, and that is to do whatever I can to make them happy, even if I feel I have done nothing wrong "the customer is always right" I agreed to supply Phil with the parts he requested, and the only reason there was a delay was because the inlet manifold he wanted was really hard to locate, it literally took me 100 hours of calling everyone in the industry before I finally found one. It wasn't a case of me messing him around. I know Phil knows this is true.

I regret that this has been publicised over the internet and a really bad image has been envisioned, but I can assure everyone that I conduct my business in a very ethical manner, and like to treat people properly. I generally don't bother with forums or social networking, but I am going to put more of my projects up on here, and let you guys see that I am a genuine enthusiast, and also let you see lots of my happy customers cars. Most of my customers wanted to speak in my defence here, but they where afraid to get involved because they didn't want to start a war. I am grateful to them for emailing me privately though.

Phil and I have reached an agreement where we both are happy, and I have promised to do more business with him in the future and give him whatever help he needs to find the parts etc he needs to see his project through to the end.

Thanks Phil and looking foreword to seeing all you're awesome cars! and he has a Ferrari too!!!!
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Sam »

That resolves that then, it's Phil that's dodgy not you. And your other grotty eBay feedback? I guess that was dodgy buyers too.

Seems legit.
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by markmws »

Sam wrote:That resolves that then, it's Phil that's dodgy not you. And your other grotty eBay feedback? I guess that was dodgy buyers too.

Seems legit.

Hmmm - it doesn't read that way to me :?

I have dealt with Ciaran many times , and he has always been fair and honest with me.

He phoned me a couple of months ago regarding several engine parts he was looking for , and bought a gasket set from me , which I sent direct to Phil on Thursday .... Dodgy ? - I don't think so.
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Ants »

rathlure911 wrote: it literally took me 100 hours of calling
hhmmm - "literally" - really!?
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Darren65
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Darren65 »

430phil wrote:Hi all,
Here's an update:
Today I have received some of the parts promised and also been in lengthy discussions with the seller regarding the other parts.
I really believe the seller intends to make good this transaction after all.
So to be fair, I intend to leave this post run for people to see that for a few days and then ask for it be removed.
Thanks all for your helpful comments and hopefully soon I will be posting some pics of my finished engine :-).
Thanks Ciaran for your help resolving this.
Phil.
It appears Phil has resolved his issues and Ciaran has stepped up to the plate and is delivering on his promises. Hopefully everyone ends up happy :)

Probably best if this issue is left to the two of them and this thread put to bed.

IMHO
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Bootsy »

Well put Darren
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by gridgway »

so that's just rubbish isn't it? We know that the story goes one way or the other and doesn't just sit by accident in between. What do I mean? Well in a year a perfectly running motor stored inside doesn't get full of water and sieze. So one way or other someone is telling a duff story. Either the motor is fine or it's not.

Oh silly me I thought I'd stored the motor inside, but by some strange accident it's outside, wet and siezed.

Oh, my goodness, what a dope I've been, I thought the engine was full of water and siezed, but it turns out I just had the wrong size spanner.

Come on, it's not hard. It's either a load of old tosh or it's not surely.

Or have I got the wrong perspective?

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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by chris68 »

Hi All,

I've followed this thread with interests over the last few weeks. In the past, I like so many others here no doubt, have been 'stiffed' by shady dealers who haven't delivered on their promises.

Any business transaction is reliant on trust from both parties. If one party isn't trustworthy it's very difficult to resolve things through the small claims court (you might get back 50% of what you owed if you're very patient and very lucky).

Thank god for the internet and forums like this. I don't imagine Phil have would faired anywhere near as well if he hadn't been able to share his experience with a wide audience of Porsche enthusiasts.

Hope everything is resolved now Phil.

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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Sam »

gridgway wrote:So one way or other someone is telling a duff story. Either the motor is fine or it's not.
This.
Darren65 wrote:Probably best if this issue is left to the two of them and this thread put to bed.
Not this.

It's great for *them* that the situation between Ciaran and Phil is being resolved in private, but what about the rest of us? What if one day someone else has to choose whether to trust Phil or Ciaran?

I think one of the benefits of DDK and other forums is that the community determines who to trust by experience and this saves other members being burned.
chris68 wrote:Thank god for the internet and forums like this. I don't imagine Phil have would faired anywhere near as well if he hadn't been able to share his experience with a wide audience of Porsche enthusiasts.
This too.
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Bootsy »

Sam, the rest of us have this thread to draw conclusions from. It will stay on DDK

Speculation from those not involved though with not help it
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by 430phil »

Hi all,
Thanks for your help with this, clearly this has gained a lot of interest.
As you'll see from my initial post, I was unsure whether or not to name the seller, hence the initial question, what to do?
I now find myself in the awkward predicament of trying to thank the person that I was originally in disagreement with!
But, I will, I believe it's important, in fact equally important as the original thread.
Ciaran, (the seller), has now supplied the parts requested, and more. Also, we have had a good chat on the phone about what happened.
There are several factors that I could bang on about for ages, including the power of this forum, my own impatience, the difficulty in obtaining parts for a 40 year old engine etc, etc.
But, the most important point to mention is that the seller has rectified the situation, he is a true Porsche enthusiast (as we all are here!), and good to his word, albeit not as quickly as I would have liked, but I've already mentioned my own impatience!
So, thanks again Ciaran, I'm sure we'll do business again, and all you DDK Porsche lovers like myself.
Phil.
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Loz »

Amen.

:)
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by mycar »

Err, just a minute, was the engine...
430phil wrote:seized and lots of parts missing or damaged.
And
430phil wrote:Basically the engine was seized and appeared to have been left out in the rain for a while, when looking through the manifolds some inlets were full of water and sludge. On top of this, the carbs were also seized up and needed completely stripping down and rebuilding, one of the inlet manifolds broken, throttle linkages and air intakes were missing. There were numerous other problems with it.
Or was,
rathlure911 wrote: The engine in question was a perfect running engine when I removed it less than a year before I sent it to Phil and I always stored it indoors so I don't understand how it was covered in water.

I can't have been both can it ?

I can see that if you leave something out in the rain it might get wet... but full of sludge ?? How does that happen ?

Somebody's at it with the porky pies and if it's not either of you then it must be both of you.

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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Bootsy »

Mike, let's just leave it at that. The OG and the vendor concerned have reached an agreement. The thread stands on DDK for anybody wanting to draw their own conclusions. End of.
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Re: Ripped off, what to do?

Post by Richard83 »

Hi folks,

I've read the posts with interest. With regards to the post as to whether either one person or the other is lying I would disagree. From my own experience I have found in the past that intermediaries can often create difficulties at times between two innocent parties. I must say that I have over the last few years of Porsche ownership regularly bought from Ciaran Woods and have always found him to be great to deal with and I would have no problem dealing with him again.

I think its important to be realistic. We are all Porsche enthusiasts. I would much rather buy from a fella like Ciaran because I know there's a comeback. Hes an enthusiast, his business is Porsches, and at the end of the day from my experience he would never do anybody a bad turn as like any good businessman he knows its a small world and word spreads. In the past I have had him search for a few bits I needed that were both rare and expensive and he has always produced the goods at very reasonable prices and of great quality.
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