How to catch a thief, Reese Tuning finally busted.
I'll make this as brief as possible.
Back in August when we had the 19th Annual DSM/EVO Shootout, James Reese of Reese Tuning needed a new engine in his EVO and arranged to have us build it and install it here for him.
While the car was here and we were looking things over I noticed something didn't seem quite right about the "Buschur Racing" battery tray that was in the car. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the parts was a poor copy of our tray. This was rather odd as James seemed to be constantly promoting us, I sure as hell know being a Buschur Racing dealer helped him establish himself and he's used that to his advantage every chance he has gotten.
We then checked our records to find that orders for our battery tray from him had stopped and it was nearly two years since he had ordered one.
The hunt was on to catch a thief. A good friend of mine sent James an e-mail and inquired about replacing his old style BR battery tray he had with the new style we are making now (the copy he had in his car) and about his bad ass cams the 276KK's. My friend got the total, I transferred money to my friends PayPal account and the order was placed. This was on 8-31-11.
A few days later the cams and a battery tray showed up. Both were forwarded to me. Upon inspection I could see the battery tray was in fact a genuine BR battery tray, the problem was I could also see it was used. So one of our dealers at this point, had sold a customer looking for a BR battery tray a used tray. The tray had been drilled for a CDI box to mount and then was sandblasted to appear to be new. My friend was contacted to tell James there must be a mix up as the tray was obviously used. James responded with a customer had sent one in to have the rod repaired and it must have been a mix up and a new one would be shipped right out. This was on 9-13-11.
So my friend and I waited and waited for the new tray. Numerous e-mails were exchanged asking the status. James said he had a huge order placed with Buschur Racing and was waiting for it to come in and would like to ship the battery tray out of that order. He offered that if my friend was in a hurry he could have us drop ship a single tray to him but would rather just ship it from the order he was waiting on to come in from us. Knowing we had to catch James in the act, we waited.................and waited.
Let me add something humorous here. Back in August/September I posted on the BR Facebook page that we had a dealer copying our parts and I was going to bust his ass. James Reese is on our Facebook page. He had the balls to post in there numerous times he couldn't wait to see who the guy was!
Keep in mind that this order was placed on 8-31-11, yesterday on 12-8-11 the new "Buschur Racing" battery tray finally showed up here at our shop, after being shipped to my friend and then on to us. Here is a customer, who is looking to buy Buschur Racing parts, paid his bill in full and then was sent a used BR part and now finally after over 3 months is finally sent.................a poor copy of a BR part.
Now let me be clear. I have learned over the last 20+ years that dealers eventually think they know more than I do and will branch out and build their own parts. Typically though the dealer has enough balls though to sell the part as his own, so a Reese Tuning battery tray, for example. They usually aren't dishonest, thieving, lying two faced pricks who copy my parts and then sell then under my name and THAT is what pisses me off the most.
The fitment of the copied battery tray is horrible. The battery floats around in the tray and that is a serious safety issue.
I'd suggest anyone who has bought a battery tray from Reese Tuning check to be sure the battery is extremely tight when installed and if not ask for a refund, then call us and get the real thing.
I hope this piece of shit goes out of business after this. I don't know how anyone could go to his shop after this and trust they are going to get what they are paying for. I've had my concerns over the years on some engines and this just proves to me that he is dishonest and my concerns are well justified, if not flat out correct.
I hate liars and I hate thieves, there are few other things lower than either of those.
I made a little video to explain all this and show the differences in the trays.
Here is a link to it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTEDEXHMX4
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Originally Posted by Turbotalon1g
