Bolt on turbo kit

[slow95z]

What's Joey's business PayPal? I'd like to send funds too. Maybe we should start a separate thread also?

absolute.witsend@gmail.com

 

[YotaTrail]

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through Joey. Hang in there, this too shall pass. You're a good guy and have the strength to get through this. Let us know how we can help.

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

absolute.witsend@gmail.com

Thanks for the address @slow95z , I just sent $100 too. Everyone that can, should send some funds Joey's way even if its just a few bucks. In the true holiday spirit, we should all try to support a man with exceptional personal standards that supports our community so well.

 

[iptman]

When this came up initially, several months ago, he was not interested in charity, only to make sure the MUD community understood what was going on behind the scenes. Sounds to me like he needs to get some turbos sold to folks who are ok waiting for them....in silence.

 

[scottryana]

Well I hope that’s the right PayPal, because when I sent money it says “Clandestine Lab Partners, will receive your money”. Haha.

 

[thebfg]

Well I hope that’s the right PayPal, because when I sent money it says “Clandestine Lab Partners, will receive your money”. Haha.

It is. For some reason, my credit cards never work on the site and I'm forced to use PayPal for my orders.

It would be great if Joey would accept backorders for items that are out of stock on the site as most of what I'd like to order isn't in stock right now. I wouldn't mind waiting, but I imagine he doesn't want more hassles from customers that can't wait and there probably isn't a good ETA on those items at the moment.

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

When this came up initially, several months ago, he was not interested in charity, only to make sure the MUD community understood what was going on behind the scenes. Sounds to me like he needs to get some turbos sold to folks who are ok waiting for them....in silence.

This is true. Initially @NLXTACY wasn't/isn't looking for charity. But he wasn't looking for cancer, wild fires, or a pandemic either. So Joey can take the classic 'mud salute , and realize that he's an integral part of this community and provides way more than just parts, and roll with any and all donations. It would be great if others can recognize that too. Even though he wouldn't say it, I'm sure it would mean a lot to him.

 

[pgmatt]

Funds sent. Thanks Joey and better days ahead.

 

[lumbee1]

I've been eyeing some components and gear on his site. I might just make a purchase with the message when it gets here it gets here, no rush.

 

[thatcabledude]

Well I hope that’s the right PayPal, because when I sent money it says “Clandestine Lab Partners, will receive your money”. Haha.

Lol, that’s it.

 

[slow95z]

nothing like some christmas day orders to cheer you up.

 

[rdcnj]

My legs will wait for the seat extension a while longer, sent a small donation to help you through the time.

Good luck and godspeed.

 

[myersman]

I will be sending this to all folks with orders via email but figured I would post here first:

Ok, this is going to get way more personal than I wanted to but I’m writing this because there seems to be this massive disconnect.

At the end of Aug I rushed my wife to the E.R. after a phone call from her doctor. She was bleeding out internally. She was anemic and she was dying. We didn’t know. We just thought she was tired and was losing weight, a lot of weight and quickly. She got six units of transfused blood and was made stable three days later. That day we were told she had a blood disorder, specifically Stage 4 Lymphoma. Doctors wanted to attack it immediately. 


Since that first week in September we have been in the E.R./hospital now a total of eight times spanning now almost 32 days. Our latest ended this past Friday after nearly seven days for an infection and low blood oxygen. If you understand cancer and chemo, you understand that infections can be a death sentence because you have no immunity. To top it off the medication that is typically used to boost your immunity in these instances, my wife had a negative response to and can’t use it. Watching your wife nearly die a FEW times over a very short period of time is something that I never ever ever hope any of you ever have to go thru.

Two days before Thanksgiving I got a call from a doctor back in Los Angeles. It was my aunt and she had suffered a massive stroke and I was listed as her emergency contact since I was the only other California family she had. We had no idea what her “plan” was/is or if she had a DNR or really anything. Because of COVID we were told either she can pass away at the hospital or be sent to hospice. My sister is a hospice nurse back in North Carolina so I flew her out to CA and we set up my aunt’s home as her hospice center. We were told she likely wouldn’t make the next two weeks and to prepare ourselves. So we did. As of today she’s still with us but she cannot communication, cannot eat, and only barely moves but her vision and hearing were severely affected. So I have been back and forth between my aunt and my wife since this all happened. In fact I was on my way home last week from my aunt’s when I got the word that my wife was going back to the E.R.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because not everyone knew what was going on. Unless you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you would likely never have known. I am writing this because of only one reason: THIS IS WHY MY COMMUNICATION SUCKS RIGHT NOW! I have been open that my communications sucks. My last newsletter spelled out that my communication sucks. Anyone trying to get a hold of me already knows my communication sucks. But I’m not making any apologies for it because my wife and family comes before everything and everyone. My communication won’t improve until she is totally out of the woods. That time has not come yet.

“What the hell does this have to do with my freaking turbo order!??!!?” <— actual response from a customer.

Not a damn thing! Why? Because my wife’s situation and YOUR turbo have ZERO to do with each other than the fact that I’m not answering emails, text messages and emails. Do you understand what it’s like to get a text message that says, “You f***ing suck where is my god damn turbo?!” literally two minutes after talking to my wife’s doctor about what is next to expect for my wife’s internal bleeding and what they hope to find when they drop an endoscope into her stomach hoping to find the source of the bleeding. It makes me want to throw the phone into traffic.

I am writing all of this to say that LITERALLY nothing that I just wrote has LITERALLY anything to do to why turbo orders have not been shipped. The two are utterly unrelated. You know what had everything to do with why they haven’t shipped? There is what many of you think is a hoax going around called COVID, and it’s been kicking my ass and I’m sure some of you understand what that means.

On Oct.1 I sent out emails to 11 of you that within a couple of weeks your kits would be shipped out. Why did I bother telling you folks that? Simple, that was the information I was given. I was told by the hydraulic shop that the hoses were being done. I was told by the pipe shop that the pipes were nearing completion and would be shipping soon. I was told all sorts of things by various vendors. THAT is the info that I have and that is the info I give out. Garbage in garbage out.

As it turns out those items didn’t ship. Did they lie to me? No. Instead they were hit HARD by COVID. My pipe shop on Oct. 7th had 80% of their business pulled because their contract was pulled due to COVID. On Oct. 9th they had to shut down for 15 days because one of their workers contracted COVID and brought it to work. Eight of his workers were sent to the hospital, four in the ICU and his foreman, the man I have been working with DIRECTLY for two years now putting all of this kit together, died on Thanksgiving day from COVID.

My next batch of turbo parts, for the orders after the next 11, are being put together as I write this and waiting for pieces coming from my metal shop also back in Los Angeles. I’ve been waiting for stuff but it wasn’t front and center since I had components for the eleven going out. They were shut down for COVID months ago and they were back up a few weeks later. But on Nov. 2 they had a sick worker show up for work. He thought it was just a cold. It was COVID and he infected everyone. On Dec. 5th, my birthday, the owner of the metal shop (and the person I had become friends with previous to my move to Oregon) passed away from COVID and the metal shop closed pending decisions to be made by the family and remaining employees.


Since COVID reared its ugly head in March and started shutting down the country, I have received 11 refund requests for turbo orders. The reasons given ranges from:”I lost my job and need the money”, “I have a medical emergency and need the money” to, “I’m worried about money and I don’t think I need a turbo right now”. All of these are totally valid reasons. 


But what I think gets forgotten about is I have ALREADY paid for the pieces of your turbo. That money is spent and those pieces are sitting on my shelf, in a box or waiting to be delivered. When a refund request comes in I not only loose the funds for that one turbo kit, but I lose the funds I paid to get those components in. I lose twice. Why am I losing twice? Because since COVID hit only three turbos sold. Where does the money come from to make up that difference? Directly from my business.

So this is where I go into discussing how the sausage is made…

Because I was getting so many requests to cancel turbo orders because of COVID I knew it would be physically impossible to refund everyone. So I took out a loan to help make sure Wits’ End would exist long enough to make sure COVID doesn’t shut me down. I took out just enough to last, what I THOUGHT, was only going to be a three month problem. Boy was I, and the country, wrong. That loan is a sales based loan. Meaning 30% of GROSS sales goes RIGHT back to paying that loan. Ugh. Then I learned another harsh reality, PayPal does NOT refund their fee when a refund is given. I eat that fee but other folks are made whole. So tired of losing because of a problem I DID NOT CREATE, none of us reading this now created the problem. It was out of our hands. As I write this there are THREE folks still waiting for their refund that I need to make whole. I am working on it but its just going much slower than expected. 


So please, before you send me another pissed off message about the importance of your turbo and your need to have it RIGHT NOW, please, lets take a step back and realize that we are all in the crap together and that I am doing everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in my power to get these things out of my shop so that I can NEVER look at them again because my own experience with these has ruined me emotionally.

Super sorry to hear what you’ve been going through. I hadn’t checked on the status of mY turbo for a while so I’m just seeing this now. Covid is a bitch. Just had a friend of mine die on December 23rd. My wife and I are holed up and waiting for the vaccine. So I’m not cancelling. I want my turbo. My bigger concern is after I receive it, will you still support it? Will it get CARB certified?

 

[categorytheory]

@NLXTACY Hi, I am considering this turbo unit but want to know what’s the timeline for CARB approval? Thanks.

Looking through this thread for the status myself on CARB cert. Any word here?

Thanks!

 

[categorytheory]

Looking through this thread for the status myself on CARB cert. Any word here?

Thanks!

Damn!!! I just read Joey’s message about his wife.... s*** man I’m sorry! @NLXTACY hope she’s gets better! I feel like a dick asking where my orders are at!

 

[thebfg]

Got my Turbo today!!!

I think I could have gotten it way back in 2019, as I pre-ordered on day 1 of public sales, but I kept pushing my shipping date back because I wasn't ready to install, and I would have happily waited longer. Just got my smog renewal notice though, so this seems like good timing! After the smog, I'll have 2 years for the CARB cert to get sorted out.

Only small hiccup was the shipping address, which I had as my work, but the office has been closed due to the pandemic, so I wanted it shipped to my home, but I think Joey forgot that part between our call and making the shipping labels. I was able to get UPS to hold the shipment for pick-up at the local depot, or so I thought. Turns out there were three separate tracking numbers, as opposed to 1 master tracking number (I had only received 1 tracking number in my shipping email for some reason), so UPS attempted delivery at the closed office with the other 2 boxes and left an info notice. Luckily, a co-worker had stopped by the office that day and sent me a photo of the info notice. But of course, the UPS driver didn't bother to scan in the info notice, so the info notice was rather useless (other than giving me a head's up that there might be separate tracking numbers).

Got to UPS this morning and they only had the one box ready for me, and they claimed there were no packages on the truck going to my office, either today or yesterday! But Joey came through with the other 2 tracking numbers while I was still at UPS, and after a bit of searching, UPS found the other 2 packages (on the truck they claimed had no packages going to my office...).

Hopefully, there will be more turbos shipping soon, but more importantly, hoping Joey's wife gets better!

 

[myersman]

Got my Turbo today!!!

View attachment 2560048

I think I could have gotten it way back in 2019, as I pre-ordered on day 1 of public sales, but I kept pushing my shipping date back because I wasn't ready to install, and I would have happily waited longer. Just got my smog renewal notice though, so this seems like good timing! After the smog, I'll have 2 years for the CARB cert to get sorted out.

Only small hiccup was the shipping address, which I had as my work, but the office has been closed due to the pandemic, so I wanted it shipped to my home, but I think Joey forgot that part between our call and making the shipping labels. I was able to get UPS to hold the shipment for pick-up at the local depot, or so I thought. Turns out there were three separate tracking numbers, as opposed to 1 master tracking number (I had only received 1 tracking number in my shipping email for some reason), so UPS attempted delivery at the closed office with the other 2 boxes and left an info notice. Luckily, a co-worker had stopped by the office that day and sent me a photo of the info notice. But of course, the UPS driver didn't bother to scan in the info notice, so the info notice was rather useless (other than giving me a head's up that there might be separate tracking numbers).

Got to UPS this morning and they only had the one box ready for me, and they claimed there were no packages on the truck going to my office, either today or yesterday! But Joey came through with the other 2 tracking numbers while I was still at UPS, and after a bit of searching, UPS found the other 2 packages (on the truck they claimed had no packages going to my office...).

Hopefully, there will be more turbos shipping soon, but more importantly, hoping Joey's wife gets better!

View attachment 2560045

That’s awesome! Hopefully that means I’ll get mine soon. Keep us posted on how the install goes.

 

[White Sheep]

Got my Turbo today!!!

View attachment 2560048

I think I could have gotten it way back in 2019, as I pre-ordered on day 1 of public sales, but I kept pushing my shipping date back because I wasn't ready to install, and I would have happily waited longer. Just got my smog renewal notice though, so this seems like good timing! After the smog, I'll have 2 years for the CARB cert to get sorted out.

Only small hiccup was the shipping address, which I had as my work, but the office has been closed due to the pandemic, so I wanted it shipped to my home, but I think Joey forgot that part between our call and making the shipping labels. I was able to get UPS to hold the shipment for pick-up at the local depot, or so I thought. Turns out there were three separate tracking numbers, as opposed to 1 master tracking number (I had only received 1 tracking number in my shipping email for some reason), so UPS attempted delivery at the closed office with the other 2 boxes and left an info notice. Luckily, a co-worker had stopped by the office that day and sent me a photo of the info notice. But of course, the UPS driver didn't bother to scan in the info notice, so the info notice was rather useless (other than giving me a head's up that there might be separate tracking numbers).

Got to UPS this morning and they only had the one box ready for me, and they claimed there were no packages on the truck going to my office, either today or yesterday! But Joey came through with the other 2 tracking numbers while I was still at UPS, and after a bit of searching, UPS found the other 2 packages (on the truck they claimed had no packages going to my office...).

Hopefully, there will be more turbos shipping soon, but more importantly, hoping Joey's wife gets better!

View attachment 2560045

Are you part of the group that got the email about a month ago?

 

[thebfg]

Are you part of the group that got the email about a month ago?

I actually don’t recall getting an email. I was surprised when Joey called and said my turbo was shipping out. But as I understand it, I was originally group C, but since I kept pushing the shipping date back, I’d be at the front of future group shipments.

 

[spyduh]

I actually don’t recall getting an email. I was surprised when Joey called and said my turbo was shipping out. But as I understand it, I was originally group C, but since I kept pushing the shipping date back, I’d be at the front of future group shipments.

Welcome to the Turbo club =). Installs actually pretty easy. If I had to do it again (not including the PM stuff). I could knock it out in a day while taking time and drinking beer. It's pretty easy as Joey's thought through a lot of the install process. Make sure to email Joey and get the latest version of the install PDF.