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Beware: Bulletproof Automotive in Hawthorne, CA

4.5K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  R35Power  
#1 ·
BEWARE: Horrible Customer Service, Damaged Wheels.

I just wanted to share my last experience with Bulletproof Automotive in Hawthorne, CA. On or about 9/26/19 I dropped off my RCF to get my headers and exhaust taken off. When I dropped off my car, I had just installed brand new 20" Work Meister S1Rs with gloss anodized bronze lips/barrels and gloss faces. My car has never seen rain since I bought my car new, it always garage kept, and doesn't have 1 single scratch on the car. Currently, car only has 11,800 miles and I bought the car back in ~April 2015. When I dropped it off, I dropped it off with David, one of their sales guys and/or manager. I told him I'm anal about my car and it's taken really good care of it, it's 100% garage kept, rarely gets driven, it has no scratches, just put on brand new wheels, etc., so I requested a walk-thru inspection of my car. Myself and David both did an inspection, and after I was about to leave, my friend and I watched him do another full walk-around of the car before heading into the office. While my car was there for over 2 months, at one point, Avi (one of the owners) told me they had to move my car to their other location, but don't worry because it will be "safe".

Fast forward, I didn't get my car back until 12/7/19 (OVER 2 MONTHS for a header/exhaust install back to my stock parts!). Anyway, I'm sure they lagged on my car to finish whatever they had to do for SEMA 2019 and Avi (one of the owners) charged me a fraction of the cost to do the job from the initial cost to install my Novel exhaust and headers. Avi mentioned the headers/exhaust job is a 10-12 hour job, so it takes a really long time and it's a PITA. So with SEMA and not making much profit from my vehicle's work order, I can see why he lagged it, but this is still no excuse. (They also did not mention any lag because of SEMA 2019, I just assume this because they do SEMA every year). Horrible customer service. While this time and delay, I was never notified about status. I was the one that had to reach out once every couple weeks to get a response, if I hadn't contacted them, I would be waiting forever. I was about to leave the country for almost a month mid December 2019, so I contacted David again during mid-1st week of December 2019, I told them my situation and I did not want my car to sit there for ANOTHER month and they need to get it done. I called on Wednesday 12/4, and they said they will schedule my car to be worked on Friday morning, 12/6/19. Friday afternoon around 5/6pm, I was told my car is ready and told me it's ready for pick up the next day, Saturday 12/7/19.

When I arrived to pick it up, it was dirty since it was sitting in the on/off rain, ready to be driven home. I did an inspection of my car when I picked it up. I looked for the obvious dents, dings, and curb rashes. I also checked for exhaust leaks since they did exhaust repair. After this, I drove it home and parked it in my garage where it usually stays. Once the weather cleared up and I had some time, on Wednesday 12/11/19, I washed my car down and while drying my car, I noticed HALF of my wheel coatings on BOTH my rear wheels were missing. The gloss bronze metallic finish from Work Wheels was gone, and you can see lot of fine scratches on the raw metal. It looks like someone spilled something corrosive and tried to wipe it off.

I contacted Avi and David and told them the situation. They both denied that it was them, and that was that. Communication ends. I contacted the other owner Ben Schaeffer, via IG, and he read my messages, but did not reply. When I called Avi, all he could say was my car was parked in a safe location and I asked where, and he said, "OUTSIDE ON THE SIDE OF OUR BUILDING". ARE YOU SERIOUS? After I told those guys how anal I am about taking care of my car, and the condition it WAS in when I dropped it off, this is how they take "care" of my car in a "safe" location. So my car was sitting outside for over 2 months, getting sun damage to my paint, leather seats, etc.

Avi and David said their techs did not damage my wheels. Okay. But it could have been ANYONE else in that area, especially if my car was parked outside for over 9 weeks. My car was under their care for 9-10 weeks and my wheels were damaged at some point. They should take care of this situation instead of just brushing it off and not replying to my messages or concern besides saying, "it wasn't us". Their other location is a detailing garage, perhaps, since my car was sitting for so long, they tried to detail the car and damaged the wheels with their cleaners. This is also another high possibility. Either way, they are not taking responsibility for this damage while under their care for nearly 10 weeks.

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#2 ·
Man. Sorry to hear that about the wheels and the experience. Very frustrating. I once had a tire shop mount some tires on my brand new CCWs and they scratched the piss out off ALL the lips. Denied it was them and told me to take a hike.

Perhaps the mfg would know what type of damage that was to the wheels? Maybe get a quote to repair the wheels and send them the bill and see if theyll be decent enough to handle it. GL either way
 
#3 ·
Man. Sorry to hear that about the wheels and the experience. Very frustrating. I once had a tire shop mount some tires on my brand new CCWs and they scratched the piss out off ALL the lips. Denied it was them and told me to take a hike.

Perhaps the mfg would know what type of damage that was to the wheels? Maybe get a quote to repair the wheels and send them the bill and see if theyll be decent enough to handle it. GL either way
It sucks, especially coming from a shop that is highly or supposedly highly reputable in the GTR and Auto community. Work Wheels said that the finish can only be done at their manufacturing location in Japan, and even if that, they still do not do any repairs for any of their wheels as they are not in the business of repairs. Only other option would be to redo the whole set of wheels at a wheel repair/customization shop, which I really don't want since I paid Work Wheels extra for the bronze lip/barrel finish from them, as their normal finish is silver.

At this point, to remedy the wheels to their original state would be to order new wheels via Work Wheels and have the custom options done to it. IF not this, I would have to have the whole wheel custom finished somehow but this would mean, I paid $5K for custom colored Work Wheels, then I would have to pay another $1K+ to redo all 4 wheels to match. I'm not trying to spend anymore than that since the wheels would not be worth all that.

I just hope Bullletproof Auto comes to the realization they messed up while having my car for 9-10 weeks, and they remedy this situation ASAP. But so far, it doesn't look like its going that way. It's definitely NOT how to run a business, especially with a customer that spent nearly $20K (although, it shouldn't matter how much a customer has spent and I know you GTR guys have spent much more than that on your GTR's, especially the ones I have seen at BP).
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Man, that really sucks!! I had to put new tires on my GTR and the place I took it to had 5 stars on Yelp from a lot of people, so I thought I would be ok. After I got home, a few days later, I noticed that a couple of my wheels were scratched. They were premium wheels, and there is no touch up paint for out wheels. I have a new set of wheels now, but everytime I washed my car I got pissed at them all over again. And all they would do is deny it, so it was just a f&#@%d situation.

But that is nothing compared to what you went through with these people. That's just terrible!!
 
#5 ·
ooooof..................ouch. Sorry to hear that.

I had a pleasant experience with Bulletproof and David, but i definitely didn't leave my car overnight.

Seems to me that the walk around done initially should prove that your rims were perfect before you left it. They're obviously NOT now.

Maybe in the future if you ever have to leave your car, have them put in writing that they will never move your car to another location, nor will

it be left outside. (??)

Goodluck.
 
#7 ·
Better to pay the going rate, than getting a deal on service. The shop made very little on the work they did, and now they dont want to pony up for the damage they caused. Their probably feeling like they did you a favor. Leaving the car for two months to get 10-12 hours of labor done seems crazy. Take the car home until they have time to get the work done. Sorry this happened to you.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
Man, that really sucks!! I had to put new tires on my GTR and the place I took it to had 5 stars on Yelp from a lot of people, so I thought I would be ok. After I got home, a few days later, I noticed that a couple of my wheels were scratched. They were premium wheels, and there is no touch up paint for out wheels. I have a new set of wheels now, but everytime I washed my car I got pissed at them all over again. And all they would do is deny it, so it was just a f&@$d situation.

But that is nothing compared to what you went through with these people. That's just terrible!!
^ Never again dealing with them.
ooooof..................ouch. Sorry to hear that.

I had a pleasant experience with Bulletproof and David, but i definitely didn't leave my car overnight.
Seems to me that the walk around done initially should prove that your rims were perfect before you left it. They're obviously NOT now.

Maybe in the future if you ever have to leave your car, have them put in writing that they will never move your car to another location, nor will
it be left outside. (??)

Goodluck.
Lucky for you!

David is incompetent. (This is NOT mentioned above in the OP, but ill add more details to my experience) After leaving my parts with him and placing on the pallet he told me to, on the day of repair, after weeks after I dropped off my parts, he texts me that he "thoroughly looked through all my exhaust components, and your headers are missing", "Are you sure you dropped it off?", "Maybe you forgot to drop it off", etc. I was pissed at this point.

They LOST MY HEADERS?? and David is trying to place the blame on me. I furiously called back David like WTF is going on?!?! Then, couple minutes later, "Oh we found it"..... in the same place where I was instructed to put them.

This is the same person who is not acknowledging the walk-thru we did. Very incompetent if you ask me. I even told Avi, one of the owners, to check their surveillance on that day I dropped it off. It will show him the two walk through that was performed by David. I had a witness with me on the day I dropped my car off, dropped off my parts, etc.
Wow, usually they are pretty good with service just a lot of jdm parts are all delayed.
JDM parts is cool, but horrible with service, read above ^. They have a lot to learn about how to run a business, especially working with all these Japanese vendors, I'm surprised they don't have JDM business customer service etiquette.
Better to pay the going rate, than getting a deal on service. The shop made very little on the work they did, and now they dont want to pony up for the damage they caused. Their probably feeling like they did you a favor. Leaving the car for two months to get 10-12 hours of labor done seems crazy. Take the car home until they have time to get the work done. Sorry this happened to you.
Yes, but was not expecting this kind of service from Bulletproof Auto. I live and I learn. There are a lot of instances within this time frame that I had with them that is not mentioned, but once it comes to light, it doesn't make them look any better. Take for instance, the situation I mentioned above, about losing my headers for a period of time.. WTF. They need to get their shit straight. They need to hire competent people, or at least tell David and their employees not to get high on the job.

Avi mentioned to me over the phone, "we only made couple grand of profit from your order, we can't afford to lose couple grand on every customer". This statement is frightening. I wonder how many peoples' cars were damaged and they had to pay for them, with that kind of statement coming out of the one of the owner's mounth.