Redzman Withdraws All Support For Kspec - Shop Elsewhere! Reply
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 34,642
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From: Los Lunas, New Mexico, USA.
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon, 2004 Kia Sorento, 2010 Kia Soul
I've had a few members from different sites contacting me lately to ask why I left Kspec. For those of you that didn't know, or didn't read it before, I managed to find a copy of the thread I posted in the former Kspec forums, posted at a sister site of ours, streetkiaz.com
This is going up closed, just so folks can look here, instead of me trying to explain it again and again.
http://www.streetkiaz.com/streetkiazx/modu...forumpost101713
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Thought this might interest some of you that are looking to or are waiting for parts from Kspec.
I copied the whole post, in case its deleted later ...
This is the original posting - Link
REDZMAN is/was the US Kspec Contact ...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:36 am Post subject: REDZMAN Withdraws all Support For Kspec - Shop Elsewhere! Reply with quote
Unfortunately, this long friendship and partnership of mine with Kspec.com is now over. I officially withdraw all support for this company.
Everyone is going to want to know the reasons why, and so I figured I should tell everyone in public.
I started working on my Korean cars in 1993, when I bought my first car on my own, a 1991 Excel. When I started having medical problems and surguries in 1997, I started drinking and after some bouts with near alcoholism, I found I needed something to do. I needed a hobby. With knee surgury and some other problems under my belt, soccer and other former hobbies like Paintball were out of the question. Thus entered my life in October 2001, my first Tiburon.
In 2002, while stationed in Korea, I made close personal friends with David, also known as joonie78, the owner of Kspec.com . We met up several times and got to be close enough to talk about our personal lives.
During these talks, the passion we both had for working on Korean Cars came up often. The passion to help others that didn't have access the the wealth of parts in Korea, came up also. David had been running Kspec.com in his spare time as a teacher for awhile, and he asked me if he should make it his full time job. We talked about it for hours over Soju and OB, and the conclusion brought a fully operational and updated Kspec.com out.
Things were good for some time, and Kspec was often mentioned to be very trustworthy and respectable. I had ordered a few parts from Kspec while in the USA and always got what I needed on time, and with updates on the status.
Things have changed.
Several other members in the Hyundai community have come to me over the past several months mentioning that I should leave, that my name was being dirtied in the various hot spots and that the constant fire fighting that I was being forced to do was really taking a toll on my health, my sleep, my family, and most of all, my passion.
Officially, the last time I've talked to my good friend David has been well over a year now. Almost a year and a half. No emails, no phone calls, no IM's, nothing. He magicly left the company, and didn't even tell me. Supposedly he runs the "real shop" now where they work on cars over there. Taekmin took over the online portion of the site.
Things were going somewhat downhill at this time, and got worse for awhile.
The problems?
1. Contact. There have been a few times where I've gone over a month without being able to contact anyone at the Korean offices. In the meantime, I'm supposed to sit here and try to fix everyone's problems, with no means to do so. These increased dramatically after Taekmin "took over".
2. Contact. Using my international calling card, they wouldn't even answer the phones there anymore.
3. Contact. Daily I would get a email together of the issues they needed to view or answer and mail it off to them. They wouldn't get replies. My attitude got worse here and I would just do the only thing I could. Tell everyone here the truth of what was going on and continue to try to do my job.
4. Pay. I used to do this for free. Yup, for free. I have plenty of time off and wanted to help everyone out that I could. Money eventually made it's way into the picture. Not much, but enough to help out my hobby. I'm supposed to be paid on the 1st. I've had one time gone more than 45 days without pay. Currently, I haven't been paid for the last month. None of the last of my 4 email shave been returned.
6. Ignored. I've been ignored enough. If I can't even get prices for the simple OEM PARTS that I need, what good is this company for me? I had to go to a competitor for parts for my new sorento because the Korean office "didn't have a good relationship with Kia". Kia AND Hyundai = MOBIS. It's the same frigging company! I've had a list of 3 parts I'd been trying to get for my 2001 Tiburon for the past 10 months. 10 MONTHS! I finally got them from another friend (Mad John), and then Kspec sent me the wrong parts a week later. Beyond this, I asked for months for some contact information for David, and I get nothing, but when the partnership emails for Alpine were going around, HE WAS SIGNING THE EMAILS AS DAVID AGAIN? Taekmin = David? Who knows.
7. Policy. Most of you don't know this, but I go through sites like Powerbest.co.kr and others monthly. I add new parts and interesting things to an email, and once it's pretty big I send it out. Usually quarterly. This list is of parts that folks in the US and other places are interested in or just would sell. They refused to add them to the site, "that won't sell" being the answer. Many of these items had people on various forums ready for group buys, but they just wouldn't add them to the site. Other sites out there offer them now, and they sell well.
8. Lies. The lack of contact was bad enough, especially now, but when you directly lie to me or a customer, telling them their parts were sent, but werent, or that an item is not available, but it is, really bothers me. Competetors of kspec.com have several items listed, READY FOR SALE on their sites, that the Korean office tell me are no longer made or can't be shipped.
Well, my name has been dirtied enough, and I was seriously just considering selling my car and moving on. This site is going downhill rapidly and I'm not going with it. I've gone WAY beyond the call of duty to try to prop up the rotting boards that are holding this place together, and refuse to do so any longer.
For those of you that have kept my spirits up, I thank you.
On to new ventures. I'm not leaving the scene, and I began to seek employment/partnership elsewhere, with several other companies that work in this field some time ago.
There are SEVERAL other companies out there that I recommend doing business with over Kspec.com .
www.seoulfulracing.com for sure is one of the major ones. Jay (the owner) and I have become good friends over the past year. They pack their items well and have very good customer service. Don't be surprised to see it get even better soon. Very Happy
www.importshark.com is another long time importer and hard working site that I am friends with the owner. Tom is a hell of a guy, and will do what it takes to help you out.
If you see an item you want but can't get, post on their forums and make sure you let us know about it, so we can help out.
For anyone with remaining business here at Kspec.com
1. Give your item one month to arrive. If it hasn't at that time, file a Paypal complaint or call your Credit Card company for a chargeback. GET YOUR MONEY BACK IF YOU DO NOT GET SATISFIED!!!
2. Email sales@kspec.com and admin@kspec.com daily for updates or for information on your parts. Do not give up, eventually, you will get through.
3. Contact the forums and let them know you are unhappy!
Word of mouth does a lot folks, it really does, so make sure other folks don't get screwed if you do.
I wish things had gone differently, but honestly, I'm in a better situation now by all means. If you have problems and have gone through steps 1-3 above, contact the admins of the sites that they sponsor (newtiburon.com, CrookedH.com , ect) and ask for their help.
Lastly, you can contact me. There's nothing I can do for anyone here anymore, and I can pretty much guarantee I'll never get paid for this last month, but it's worth it to help you, the customer, out. I can help advise you of what to do to try to get your money back or get in touch.
Socks, MrPhotoman (yup, you too), Sparticus, Javageek, BMS321, Deez337, I appreciate your input and conversations. Positive and Negative, you all helped me make this difficult decision.
To Taekmin, you seriously need to work on this site, and the way you treat the customer should be over the top. It's the only way to ever make this place 1/2 way successful again. Ignoring your own partners is the worst thing you could ever do, and the constant email problems make you sound like S**** R***** used to.
To David, you were a good friend, I'll miss that, but friends don't treat other friends this way. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
To everyone else.
Thanks for your support, patience, advise, and patience. Yes, I said that twice. Twisted Evil
It's important that everyone understands that I wasn't approached by anyone for this and that this is of my own accord. Those out there that know me well, know that I've been thinking about this for some time. My moving on to another site also means a hell of a lot about that site. It's not about money, as I offered to do the same work there for free. It's about filling my time up, keeping my mind busy, and about helping everyone out there. It's also about learning. Both me learning more about other cars from you all, and about you all learning more about the useless knowledge I have gathered over my 32 years. This is mostly about me wanting to be able to move on and help the Korean Tuning Movement by working with another VERY PASSIONATE site for the same goals I had before I started out with Kspec.
I am open to talking to anyone about this, either here, via phone, email, or IM. Feel free to contact me.
Former Kspec US Admin
Jeremy "RED ZMAN" Zimmerman</div>
This is going up closed, just so folks can look here, instead of me trying to explain it again and again.
http://www.streetkiaz.com/streetkiazx/modu...forumpost101713
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Thought this might interest some of you that are looking to or are waiting for parts from Kspec.
I copied the whole post, in case its deleted later ...
This is the original posting - Link
REDZMAN is/was the US Kspec Contact ...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:36 am Post subject: REDZMAN Withdraws all Support For Kspec - Shop Elsewhere! Reply with quote
Unfortunately, this long friendship and partnership of mine with Kspec.com is now over. I officially withdraw all support for this company.
Everyone is going to want to know the reasons why, and so I figured I should tell everyone in public.
I started working on my Korean cars in 1993, when I bought my first car on my own, a 1991 Excel. When I started having medical problems and surguries in 1997, I started drinking and after some bouts with near alcoholism, I found I needed something to do. I needed a hobby. With knee surgury and some other problems under my belt, soccer and other former hobbies like Paintball were out of the question. Thus entered my life in October 2001, my first Tiburon.
In 2002, while stationed in Korea, I made close personal friends with David, also known as joonie78, the owner of Kspec.com . We met up several times and got to be close enough to talk about our personal lives.
During these talks, the passion we both had for working on Korean Cars came up often. The passion to help others that didn't have access the the wealth of parts in Korea, came up also. David had been running Kspec.com in his spare time as a teacher for awhile, and he asked me if he should make it his full time job. We talked about it for hours over Soju and OB, and the conclusion brought a fully operational and updated Kspec.com out.
Things were good for some time, and Kspec was often mentioned to be very trustworthy and respectable. I had ordered a few parts from Kspec while in the USA and always got what I needed on time, and with updates on the status.
Things have changed.
Several other members in the Hyundai community have come to me over the past several months mentioning that I should leave, that my name was being dirtied in the various hot spots and that the constant fire fighting that I was being forced to do was really taking a toll on my health, my sleep, my family, and most of all, my passion.
Officially, the last time I've talked to my good friend David has been well over a year now. Almost a year and a half. No emails, no phone calls, no IM's, nothing. He magicly left the company, and didn't even tell me. Supposedly he runs the "real shop" now where they work on cars over there. Taekmin took over the online portion of the site.
Things were going somewhat downhill at this time, and got worse for awhile.
The problems?
1. Contact. There have been a few times where I've gone over a month without being able to contact anyone at the Korean offices. In the meantime, I'm supposed to sit here and try to fix everyone's problems, with no means to do so. These increased dramatically after Taekmin "took over".
2. Contact. Using my international calling card, they wouldn't even answer the phones there anymore.
3. Contact. Daily I would get a email together of the issues they needed to view or answer and mail it off to them. They wouldn't get replies. My attitude got worse here and I would just do the only thing I could. Tell everyone here the truth of what was going on and continue to try to do my job.
4. Pay. I used to do this for free. Yup, for free. I have plenty of time off and wanted to help everyone out that I could. Money eventually made it's way into the picture. Not much, but enough to help out my hobby. I'm supposed to be paid on the 1st. I've had one time gone more than 45 days without pay. Currently, I haven't been paid for the last month. None of the last of my 4 email shave been returned.
6. Ignored. I've been ignored enough. If I can't even get prices for the simple OEM PARTS that I need, what good is this company for me? I had to go to a competitor for parts for my new sorento because the Korean office "didn't have a good relationship with Kia". Kia AND Hyundai = MOBIS. It's the same frigging company! I've had a list of 3 parts I'd been trying to get for my 2001 Tiburon for the past 10 months. 10 MONTHS! I finally got them from another friend (Mad John), and then Kspec sent me the wrong parts a week later. Beyond this, I asked for months for some contact information for David, and I get nothing, but when the partnership emails for Alpine were going around, HE WAS SIGNING THE EMAILS AS DAVID AGAIN? Taekmin = David? Who knows.
7. Policy. Most of you don't know this, but I go through sites like Powerbest.co.kr and others monthly. I add new parts and interesting things to an email, and once it's pretty big I send it out. Usually quarterly. This list is of parts that folks in the US and other places are interested in or just would sell. They refused to add them to the site, "that won't sell" being the answer. Many of these items had people on various forums ready for group buys, but they just wouldn't add them to the site. Other sites out there offer them now, and they sell well.
8. Lies. The lack of contact was bad enough, especially now, but when you directly lie to me or a customer, telling them their parts were sent, but werent, or that an item is not available, but it is, really bothers me. Competetors of kspec.com have several items listed, READY FOR SALE on their sites, that the Korean office tell me are no longer made or can't be shipped.
Well, my name has been dirtied enough, and I was seriously just considering selling my car and moving on. This site is going downhill rapidly and I'm not going with it. I've gone WAY beyond the call of duty to try to prop up the rotting boards that are holding this place together, and refuse to do so any longer.
For those of you that have kept my spirits up, I thank you.
On to new ventures. I'm not leaving the scene, and I began to seek employment/partnership elsewhere, with several other companies that work in this field some time ago.
There are SEVERAL other companies out there that I recommend doing business with over Kspec.com .
www.seoulfulracing.com for sure is one of the major ones. Jay (the owner) and I have become good friends over the past year. They pack their items well and have very good customer service. Don't be surprised to see it get even better soon. Very Happy
www.importshark.com is another long time importer and hard working site that I am friends with the owner. Tom is a hell of a guy, and will do what it takes to help you out.
If you see an item you want but can't get, post on their forums and make sure you let us know about it, so we can help out.
For anyone with remaining business here at Kspec.com
1. Give your item one month to arrive. If it hasn't at that time, file a Paypal complaint or call your Credit Card company for a chargeback. GET YOUR MONEY BACK IF YOU DO NOT GET SATISFIED!!!
2. Email sales@kspec.com and admin@kspec.com daily for updates or for information on your parts. Do not give up, eventually, you will get through.
3. Contact the forums and let them know you are unhappy!
Word of mouth does a lot folks, it really does, so make sure other folks don't get screwed if you do.
I wish things had gone differently, but honestly, I'm in a better situation now by all means. If you have problems and have gone through steps 1-3 above, contact the admins of the sites that they sponsor (newtiburon.com, CrookedH.com , ect) and ask for their help.
Lastly, you can contact me. There's nothing I can do for anyone here anymore, and I can pretty much guarantee I'll never get paid for this last month, but it's worth it to help you, the customer, out. I can help advise you of what to do to try to get your money back or get in touch.
Socks, MrPhotoman (yup, you too), Sparticus, Javageek, BMS321, Deez337, I appreciate your input and conversations. Positive and Negative, you all helped me make this difficult decision.
To Taekmin, you seriously need to work on this site, and the way you treat the customer should be over the top. It's the only way to ever make this place 1/2 way successful again. Ignoring your own partners is the worst thing you could ever do, and the constant email problems make you sound like S**** R***** used to.
To David, you were a good friend, I'll miss that, but friends don't treat other friends this way. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
To everyone else.
Thanks for your support, patience, advise, and patience. Yes, I said that twice. Twisted Evil
It's important that everyone understands that I wasn't approached by anyone for this and that this is of my own accord. Those out there that know me well, know that I've been thinking about this for some time. My moving on to another site also means a hell of a lot about that site. It's not about money, as I offered to do the same work there for free. It's about filling my time up, keeping my mind busy, and about helping everyone out there. It's also about learning. Both me learning more about other cars from you all, and about you all learning more about the useless knowledge I have gathered over my 32 years. This is mostly about me wanting to be able to move on and help the Korean Tuning Movement by working with another VERY PASSIONATE site for the same goals I had before I started out with Kspec.
I am open to talking to anyone about this, either here, via phone, email, or IM. Feel free to contact me.
Former Kspec US Admin
Jeremy "RED ZMAN" Zimmerman</div>