Hi folks, after owning my mini for many years (04) and doing many mods to make this great car even better. I bought from a lot of different vendors, which enabled me insight to the character of these people. I invite you all to see my review of one in particular in the "vendor review" section of this great website . This is a community that is here to help each other, please share my experience with "Mini-Madness"

 

That was a raw deal. Not a great way to do business. You might be interested in posting on Motor ing allia nce your experience with Mini Madness.

 

Thanks for your interest, I hope George decides to explain to the Mini community his rational as a retail vendor vs wholesale vendor. Maybe he doesn't understand the difference.

 

Certainly don't want this to get buried, to important for all of us that love to better our cars.

 

Please look at the vendor reviews for Mini-Madness. I posted one yesterday,I am glad that George has responded to my post. Ofcourse I did contact him 1st, he never responded to my questions about problems with the clutch kit I purchased from him. Furthermore I did not contact Competition Clutch, they contacted me. This after a call from another vendor. I was hopeing to hear George explain how a retail vendor decides to keep the profit on a sale of a bad part he sold to me. I am still waiting for an explanation. I am curious if anyone else has purchased a product from a retail vendor and then been given the wholesale price back. Jim

 

Seems about right for George and MINI-Madness. You will find out that most of the folks in the Portland MINI club will not do business with him. Just saying.

 

Ridiculous. If everything is how you say, it sounds like George is a short sided businessman.

I realize that times are tough, but come on...

I personally hear your advice loud and clear and will take my business to vendors who actually want to be around for the long term.

 

It is exactly as I have stated. I have all the E-mail correspondence to back it up . I still can't wrap my mind around this treatment of a customer. I spent $1200.00 at the time of the purchase. He made money on all the other things I bought from him. Competition Clutch was upright and totally honest with me, I thought wow what a great company to step up and come to me. I never called them, they heard about my bad clutch from another vendor who knew they were having some problems with the Mini clutch kit. I owe that other vendor a debt of gratitude and he will get all the business I can afford. As for George and Mini-Madness, I am waiting for the rational behind this business practice. When you go to his website it all looks good,along with his howto videos on Utube. Do not be fooled! I was and regret it now. Jim

 

Hey folks, I want to make sure you are all aware that there are wolves in sheeps clothing out there, as far as vendors that want to serve the Mini community. I have owned my Mini S since 2004. I love the darn thing, I also have an BMW 335xi. I only tell you that to say, although its a great car my modified Mini is sooo much more fun to drive. Along the way to doing the extensive modifications ( all performed by me in my lil garage) I have learned a lot both mechanically and about the vendors that want to sell us their products. One vendor stands out from all others Mini-Madness, George is the main man there. Please read my review of his company and his response to my review and my response to him. You will have to scroll to the bottom of page 1 and then on to page 2. Thanks, Jim P.S. George you deserve all the attention you get

 

I agree with you on that. I live in the Seattle area and I drove all the way to Hillsboro OR to Mini Madness. George was very humble and very knowledgable and showing me about different products. Anyways I had some work done there and I told him I had a European Car Show to go to and anyways I was short like 200 bucks so I told George not to give me the strut bar till next paycheck. He never met me till that day and offered me to put the strut bar so I can show off my car and engine at the car show and told me to mail him a check the following week. What person does that who's running a business, well not very many that's who. Next year Im getting adjustable coilovers and am going back to Hillsboro back to MINI Madness and getting more work done, He is the man.

 

I gotta get their 7mm or 12 mm spacers.

 

Sounds like you were lucky el chupacabra, I too was treated well, until one of the parts I bought was bad and then George went bad on me. Apparently you didn't read the review. You should, money seems to be more important than customers to George.

 

I read it when you posted your first thread about it.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...y-vendors.html

I get it that you're unhappy and you want to spread the word far and wide, but I think you've done that. Move on.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I am about to spend some money on mods and now I know who to stay away from. What ever happened to customer service?

 

Thanks gloomchen for your opinion, but George still owes me $212.00. I would really like him to explain in public why he thinks he is entitled to my money. The one he gave me "I don't see why I should give up my profit" just makes absolutely no sense.

 

Keep plugging away MyFastMini. No one deserves that kind of service. I wouldn't do that to my customers; I wouldnt be able to stay in business acting like that.

 

Thanks Minipuck, I can't imagine holding a customers money hostage. His 2nd to last e-mail to me said I will give you a full refund when I get my money from CC. The last e-mail I got from George said " I credited your card the $486.00, you will have to get the rest of your money from them". All of my correspondence with George was polite and professional, his back to me was rude, mean spirited, and selfish.

 

I agree. Keep going brother. I would not stop until I got my money back.

If people actually take the time to read your review, they will understand.

Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong.

 

Wow that's a lot of negative feedback. Now makes me wonder if I should not make that drive to MINI-Madness and get my coilovers from someone else in the Seattle area. Anyone have recommend a good shop good custom shop in Washington state?

 

Thanks ufomini, I appreciate the sentiment. When one considers the time and effort to pull the tranny on a Mini S and replace the clutch and flywheel it is a tough task for a backyard mechanic. But I used to pull apart VW motors back in the sixties when I was a teenager. The fact that I had to do it twice in 1 summer and could'nt drive the car for quite sometime only compounds the distaste being mistreated. I don't blame George that I had to do it twice, there is some inherent risk in modding your car. But I do blame him for cheating me out of my money. Also being absent when I inquired about any problems that there might be with CC kit. When I got no response from George I decided to call another vendor and order a stock clutch. I was really bummed the lightened flywheel didn't work for me. When I mentioned the reason I was ordering a clutch kit, I was immediately told that CC did have some engineering issuses. It didn't happen with all the kits produced, but enough that it was a known issue.

 

Thanks for spreading awareness. I know where NOT to go for my own parts.

 

Certainly, glad to to help. I would not want anyone to fall victim to business people who take advantage after a sale. George did eventually relent and refunded $209.00 of the $212.00 he owed me. Why he decided to keep the other $3.00 plus the $23.00 it cost me to ship the bad clutch kit back , one can only speculate. If you read his post in the review section of Mini-Madness on this great website (last post page 2) he continues to blame Competition Clutch. Funny thing is George has done some things so right, I really like that he has video on utube of mods for the Mini. But in the end he doesn't understand his roll as a middleman for the products he sells. More importantly the character that all customers would like in the people that they decide to invest their money with. I for one do know that Waylen of WMW is who I will be investing my hard earned money with every time I do more upgrades. He has proven to me to go out of his way to do the right thing even when he isn't required to. I would suggest to George to read the book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino, it would change his whole perception of what he does for a living. Jim