It was BULLETPROOF AUTOMOTIVE! Hello folks, I don't think it's necessary to hide anything. While everything that transpired occurred before I joined BulletProof Automotive, I feel it's necessary to get everything out in the open. BulletProof Automotive has long been a sponsor of this board and has provided service to many satisfied customers. If you disagree with what happened, that is fine. But give me a chance to make it right again and rebuild our reputation. Longtime members of the board know me and hopefully know that I will do my best and what is right for everyone. Many other sponsors such as Evolution, 4IGS2000, MP Tuning know that I am here as someone who will help everyone and anyone that I can. Believe me I didn't join BulletProof to make money, it's a small side gig to occupy my time. The past is the past, Ben approached me with an opportunity to help turn BulletProof around and take it in the right direction. This is hopefully what we will bring to the new S2K International.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bigpurp
[B]CMi, that is one tight, clean and SWEET@$$ setup!!

 

I have had nothing but the upmost professional treatment from (Jeff)Evolution, (brandon)4IGS2000 and Jeff(hardtopguy). These are great sponsors to compare to, I hope you can pull it off and get things back in the right direction.

I would assist in organizing a GB, but since I will not be buying a kit I can't do so at this time.

A GB organized and let the participants deal directly with the distributor like we did, went flawless and was organized with out a phone call between any of the participants. The only phone call made was to the distributor to confirm placement on the list for the BUY.

 

I'd like to follow up a bit where Turbo_Pwr's post left off.

First off, I'd like to unconditionally apologize about Bulletproof's involvement in the original group buy thread of Vortech products. Every once in a while in business, mistakes are made that are deeply regretted. I think its important to recognize the mistakes, rectify the problem and make things right. If you are one of the s2ki members who feels hurt by what had transpired, as the founder/owner of Bulletproof I am both sorry and embarrassed that we've made you feel that way. I can not expect you to forgive us, but I would like to set a few facts straight and hopefully lay out what I feel is an unbiased viewpoint on Bulletproof and what has happened here.

1. When we started the Vortech group buy, it was essentially a disaster right from the start. We had a new S2000 representative handling the group buy (not Turbo_Pwr who is doing a great job and is now our official S2000 rep), and it was his first group buy with us. This s2ki member, with all of the right intentions, simply posted discount rates that were impossible to meet. This was an internal miscommunication between our organization, as he had posted his estimated GB pricing without consulting our manager to verify that we could indeed meet his pricing objectives. This was the beginning of a very messy/ugly group buy, as we were unable to meet his goals, and were ultimately unable to sell these kits at a loss in order to keep everyone happy.

2. For those newer s2ki members (past year or two), please understand that Bulletproof has been active in the online S2000 community for the past 3 years. I founded the business, as an enthusiast and owner of a S2000 the business has always been run from an enthusiasts perspective. Simply put, anyone that knows us will know that money is not the bottom line for us, it's making people happy...if we make people happy the the money will always follow anyway. With this being the case, it makes me sick to my stomach when people imply that we shut down/ruined someone's group buy because all we care about is money. This is simply not the case at all, and is not a proper representation of Bulletproof. We never had anything to do with closing any GB thread, and we never took any actions towards stopping the group buy. Once I had found out that we could not offer the group buy without LOSING money on the deal, I simply wanted to remove us as a potential GB product source and offer warnings about potential illegitimacy as I've seen other potentially impossible deals be attempted, group buys happen, expectations made, and a month or two months later people posting about how they got burned...I feared that the Vortech group buy would be that, I personally made my posts raising caution and awareness...and luckily for everyone, the group buy did indeed turn out well and people were happy with it. Please feel free to read my original posts if you have any doubts about what was written here. Here is one brief exerpt: "I will also speak on bulletproof's behalf. I have no interest in disrupting this group buy. However, it does sound suspicious, so everyone just be careful out there and proceed with caution."

3. We are one of the few early sponsors remaining after 3 years on s2ki. I've seen so many sponsors come and go because of customer service problems, complaints and scandals. We've been here for a while, and our track record is not something that I have any interest in hiding. Feel free to do searches on Bulletproof, talk to other S2000 enthusiasts and get unbiased feedback on our business. We never have anything to hide, and that's why I've asked Turbo_Pwr to post here that we are the sponsor in question...We're not going to hide. It's trial by fire, and I'd have it no other way. While some sponsors run from conflicts, I'd get active in them and let the issue work itself out. Like I said, both myself personally and the business have nothing to hide. I've busted my ass for 3 years to make sure that every S2000 owner that we encounter walks away from their interaction with us extremely satisfied and I can assure you that 95% of the feedback that you hear about Bulletproof will be flawless.

With this history, there also comes growing pains. We've expanded from a one man team (me) to a relatively large team of over 7 people. This expansion has been particularly significant recently. As evident from the number of Bulletproof staff that has been active in the Vortech fiasco (Myself, Rich, BlueS2000Boy). With so many people involved, we handled the vortech GB poorly and it was a significant flaw and scar on our near perfect reputation. I'm very proud to have Turbo_Pwr as our new and sole S2000 representative and point of contact. He has the full authority to speak and act on Bulletproof's behalf and he'll personally ensure that problems like this never happen again. I have an open door/email policy to so to say, and I always welcome feedback, critiques and information on Bulletproof so that I can continually shape it into something better and more satisfying for the S2000 community. Please always feel free to email me directly at ben@bulletproofautomotive.com if there is ever anything that you'd like to discuss or changes that you feel need to be made. I respond fast.

So to wrap up...I am genuinely glad that the group buy worked out in the end, that everyone got their parts and expectations met, and no participants got burned. From all of the impossible GB deals out there (deals in which it is nearly impossible for even the deepest level of distributor to make a profit on a given item with the prices quoted), this was one of the only I've ever seen that actually worked out where people received their products. I'm glad that it did and that my warnings were incorrect and not needed. Lastly, Bulletproof is a constant work in progress. We will continue to improve, and I'm always looking for new ways to become stronger with our customer service. Our activity in this group buy was not up to par and not up to my expectations as the owner of the business, and will never happen again. We will continue to improve and we will continue to be one of the most trusted, reputable and customer centric businesses in the industry.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions or comments on my post, please feel welcome to email me at ben@bulletproofautomotive.com. I hope to not deviate too much further on this thread. If enough questions/comments are asked by email, I will start a new thread devoted solely to this issue so that it may remain in the public eye and all feelings/thoughts/opinions/perspectives can be shared in an unbiased venue.

Sincerely,

Ben

 

Geez! What a super job. Congradulations.

 

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ben
[B]
1.

 

I can field this..

I had been in contact with BlueS2000Boy and he was very eager to try and help out with sales. When the thread was first posted, he mistakenly posted 20-30% off. Being as we were the deepest (I thought) discount level with Vortech, there was no way possibly we could do 30%, that is deeper than W/D. The price we finally came up with was $4250 satin and $4450 polished, shipped, which is roughly equal to 20% off (list prices 5243 and 5508, respectively). Upon hearing the low prices that were being offered, I contacted Vortech to determine if it was possible for us to do these prices as well, and there was no way. Even with a 10 unit purchase they would not accommodate these prices. At the time I was not aware that there is an even lower price level at Vortech, available exclusively for some vendors. I then questioned the legitimacy and all the secrecy involved, since noone was willing to provide a name or a contact, and I brought those issues to the front.

At no time did I intend to derail the group buy, I was merely looking out for the members of the forum, and I worded my responses inappropriately. I can honestly say I was trying to act in the forums best interest, but it was overly tinted by our vendor status. I did not mean any disrepect to the organizer of a legitimate deal, and I apologize for any construed. Congratulations on a highly successful group buy, and I hope my involvement did not dissuade any of the participants.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to get this in the open and hopefully clear the air regarding this, and we look forward to providing you with any of your S2000 needs.

 

I am personally over the situation now that I have the kit and it is installed. Clearing the air is what we needed.

I posted this thread to come back and show that the deal was legitimate and that no one was taking to the cleaners. I did this to hopefully open the door back up for future possibilities of other owner's taking advantage of good deals that are legit.

BP,
It is too bad that Vortech has derailed sales for you by not giving you the best W/D prices. It is a shame with the economy that we currently have, there is business being practiced in this way.

 

Thank you for your concerns for other members Richard but you spammed my thread/GB, ie broke the S2ki.com rules by doing so and failed to respect my GB. Did someone mention a fine for this before one of my thread was closed?

Never mind, we all have more better things to do than talk about the past. I hope you can do better business as you promised and good luck with your business.