Wits End Order Issues / Joey Romero (1 Viewer)

[concretejungle]

well I finally just initiated a charge back on my CC. Apple Pay made it pretty easy. We will see. I did reach out to Joey via email and have no response.

 

[katalytic]

this is what really bums me out. after being in the car hobby for a while now, there are SOOO many cool parts lost to time. usually one-off parts made by a guy in his garage, not an entire catalog from a business like wits end. more than once over the last few years i've considered just buying all the unique parts he sold, just in the case of this exact thing....but didn't....figuring this was a solid business that wasn't going away anytime soon. or it was out of stock at the time.

saddened i didn't scoop up a mirror mount or that angled cubby adapter.

Or the JDM Shiftl Lock Release button replica. Can't find the damn cover and this would have been perfect...

 

[thatcabledude]

It does suck.

From the outside looking in the business almost made enough for one guy to break even paying for (and not paying for) machine shops making parts for him and a lease on an industrial building.

This business would be well suited to someone with great customer service skills who is also a skilled machinist with a small, fast cnc mill and lathe at home. If you cut out the industrial building lease and paying a fortune to job out small quantities of machinework a person could probably make an OK living after investing a small fortune into building up inventory.

Once you had slashed overhead and shelves were fully stocked and word was out that Witsend sold stuff AND delivered it and the whole s***terie was profitable, then take on more burdensome products like turbo kits.

AND DON'T SELL STUFF IN BATCHES AND PREORDERS!!!!! IF ITS A PRODUCT WORTH PRODUCING USE YOUR OWN MONEY TO DO IT!

He may have been OK if he didn’t go extreme overkill on everything.

 

[PIP]

He may have been OK if he didn’t go extreme overkill on everything.

I happen to like extreme overkill. I think it's a good quality to have if you want to offer niche products.

The products are pretty good. The marketing seemed to work. I think his downfall was just too much overhead for a one man show. He was robbing Peter to pay Paul for awhile by the looks of it. The treachery of relying on outside vendors for everything revealed itself during the pandemic. He said he couldn't get things, but I'm betting it was more like he couldn't afford to get things because nobody stopped making stuff or powdercoating or anodizing during that time, but if you were a slow paying small time customer you got back of line privileges.

Ego, vanity are my best guesses as to the root of the downfall. Focus on making it big time without realizing he had a house of cards.

 

[Mace]

To be fair, he (to a minor extent) and his wife had some pretty large medical problems. Super unfortunate, but at the same time, communication and realistic expectations are important in any business.

 

[concretejungle]

To be fair, he (to a minor extent) and his wife had some pretty large medical problems. Super unfortunate, but at the same time, communication and realistic expectations are important in any business.

That's kind of where I'm at with it too. I can only imagine what he could be going through and Land Cruiser orders are not top priority..... but that's no excuse as a business owner.

 

[ChargedSHOTaco]

To be fair, he (to a minor extent) and his wife had some pretty large medical problems. Super unfortunate, but at the same time, communication and realistic expectations are important in any business.

The personal issues certainly did not help the situation, but how he ran the business was the downfall....Not the medical issues, not the pandemic and not the bigfoot sightings. He could have paused the business when the medical issues arose, but because he was robbing Peter to pay Paul, he couldn't afford to.
He was draining the business for his personal use and it caught up to him.

He delivered my turbo tho, so he and I are good.

 

[PIP]

The personal issues certainly did not help the situation, but how he ran the business was the downfall....Not the medical issues, not the pandemic and not the bigfoot sightings. He could have paused the business when the medical issues arose, but because he was robbing Peter to pay Paul, he couldn't afford to.
He was draining the business for his personal use and it caught up to him.

He delivered my turbo tho, so he and I are good.

Exactly.

 

[bajaguy949]

No sympathy here. I'm glad he is going out of business.

He was your typical big ego a****** and am glad he got what was coming to him. You treat people like s***, run a shady business, and steal money from people? I have no sympathy for people or business that operate like that.

 

[CJK]

The personal issues certainly did not help the situation, but how he ran the business was the downfall....Not the medical issues, not the pandemic and not the bigfoot sightings. He could have paused the business when the medical issues arose, but because he was robbing Peter to pay Paul, he couldn't afford to.
He was draining the business for his personal use and it caught up to him.

He delivered my turbo tho, so he and I are good.

Not that I wish it happened, but his inability to fulfill the other turbo kit orders likely made ours more valuable due to scarcity

 

[Francis K]

The guy was collecting money for product he didn't have for years and in the next breath saying how busy he is with orders that he had to purposely ignore customers.

You guys talking about overhead and personal BS....give me a break.

 

[ChargedSHOTaco]

Not that I wish it happened, but his inability to fulfill the other turbo kit orders likely made ours more valuable due to scarcity

Indeed. I’m guessing he delivered less than 25 turbo kits.
I’m certain mine was one of the last to be fulfilled, and I ordered it around February 2020.

 

[PDXDave67]

I would be curious to know exactly how many he DID deliver.
He was never willing to share that info....

 

[fjbj40]

It’s interesting reading through some of the 80’s forum posts where people are still recommending to order parts from Witts End!

Don’t people research

 

[Feldrian]

I would never have come to this thread unless it's predecessor appeared in the 80 Series Tech section first. I don't think a lot of people think to check here - Especially for a Vendor that they have had positive experiences with previously, or read a lot of glowing reports about.

 

[woodsman 44]

The Mods should make this a sticky on the 80 and 100 series forums to get the word out on this bad seller

 

[PDXDave67]

It’s interesting reading through some of the 80’s forum posts where people are still recommending to order parts from Witts End!

Don’t people research

I don't even go there anymore.
There's so much mindless chatter and misinformation, it's not worth the frustration.
The fact that people are still recommending WE is sad, but at least he's not actively selling at the moment.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

Not that I wish it happened, but his inability to fulfill the other turbo kit orders likely made ours more valuable due to scarcity

I mean, assuming people actually want that kit... lot's of money for no tune and heat management with blankets. A reputable race shop could build you a better system for similar money.

 

[jgonzales55]

I mean, assuming people actually want that kit... lot's of money for no tune and heat management with blankets. A reputable race shop could build you a better system for similar money.

Which kit is this?

 

[Somebodyelse5]

Which kit is this?

The turbo kit