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BritishRacingGroup/LotusGarage

7K views 32 replies 22 participants last post by  Europa TC 
#1 ·
This forum has terminated their relationship with BritishRacingGroup/LotusGarage. Any and all disputes will need to be addressed with the vendor directly.

San
 
#3 ·
Man that is indeed an ouch. I'm not sure what happened with Robert and the team over at BRG but they used to be held in decent regard. Last I communicated with him, he was handing the business over and there were some hiccups....or at least that's what he told me.

I myself have purchased things from them in the past. Some things came quick but the last two items, an air bag cover for the Evora and the stock tow hook, I wasn't happy with the experience. Both items took months to deliver. The airbag cover took literally 7+ months to get and the tow hook over two. I eventually got one from Greg in two days because I wanted to have one on hand. Murphy's Law.....BRG delivered the ordered product a few days later after receiving Greg's. I will say that I was in monthly contact with Robert directly and he always responded. I eventually did receive all products ordered. Its unfortunate. However at the same time I saw many others in the same predicament, paying in full for parts upfront only to have them delivered months or in some cases a year later.

Thanks for the heads up San.
 
#5 ·
Man that is indeed an ouch. I'm not sure what happened with Robert and the team over at BRG but they used to be held in decent regard. Last I communicated with him, he was handing the business over and there were some hiccups....or at least that's what he told me.
First of all, everything in this post is from San the forum member. No information I will discuss used any forum resources not available to any fourm member here. Everything I will post is my opinion. I was trying to ascertain the truth, and to walk a fine line between supporting the vendors and forum members. Usually when there is an issue between vendors and forum members, we get both sides of the stories. In this scenario, we (the moderators) never really had any explanation(s) from the vendor.

I will say that from what I found here and online, there were only two persons on the staff, Robert and Rebecca. I believe they share the same last name as well (Konick), or it's a coincidence. If indeed Robert was in poor health, that might explain why the staff couldn't support the business.

If you Google the contact address for Lotus Garage, you'll see it appears to be a residence. I wouldn't normally mention it, but Robert portrayed staff and business locations that don't appear to exist. He even posted here about taking the business seriously, and seemed to imply others working out of their garage didn't.

I myself have purchased things from them in the past. Some things came quick but the last two items, an air bag cover for the Evora and the stock tow hook, I wasn't happy with the experience. Both items took months to deliver. The airbag cover took literally 7+ months to get and the tow hook over two. I eventually got one from Greg in two days because I wanted to have one on hand. Murphy's Law.....BRG delivered the ordered product a few days later after receiving Greg's. I will say that I was in monthly contact with Robert directly and he always responded. I eventually did receive all products ordered. Its unfortunate. However at the same time I saw many others in the same predicament, paying in full for parts upfront only to have them delivered months or in some cases a year later.

The behavior that bothered me personally, was seeing that forum members were being charged up front and when their parts weren't provided in a timely manner, and they attempted to contact the vendor, they weren't receiving any replies. I know some of the members received a refund, but some have been waiting for many months and made large purchases amounting to thousands of dollars. They didn't state that eventually they received the product, but rather that the vendor wouldn't reply to their calls/emails, or that the replies didn't turn out to be factual and that they never received their product.

Thanks for the heads up San.
I only wish I could have replied earlier, but we were waiting for the site staff to do their review, and that took some time. I posted as soon as the forum staff came to their decision. As I stated in another post on this subject, the moderators were not involved in the review done by the site staff. We brought the issue to their attention and provided all the information available to us.

This was and is an unfortunate outcome, but something had to be done.

San
 
#7 ·
So have I, but this has been going on for as long as I can remember.
 
#15 ·
Ouch. I'm out about $280 (a part I returned and never got refunded for). But $10k? Yeesh.

Unfortunately that order was too long ago to dispute.

I used to go back and forth with Robert. Bought my first Elise from him. Always seemed like a good guy. Hope he's OK.
 
#18 ·
Hmm, I just now joined because my daughter ordered a part from them, BRG, for her Elise and they’ve had the money (on my credit card) since end of January. She said she kept trying to contact them. I thought she was messing up something! I’ve tried emailing and calling, figured she was scammed, but... Any idea how we can contact them?
 
#20 ·
I've known Robert for over 10 yrs. He is a generous, charming fellow who has earned my respect.

I'd be surprised if anyone has met Robert and didn't really like him.

He was in a terrible accident in his Elise yrs ago (not his fault; he wasn't even moving IIRC) and may be suffering some health issues due to that traumatic event.

He has helped many, many Lotus owners. I've not heard a bad word among them.

Look, I know it's frustrating being in your positions.

But, I am asking that you allow Robert as much time and leeway as you can muster. He has made this community better (he also organizes events) and I imagine he will in the future.

Please.
 
#21 ·
Highlighted in red above. I don't think you've been listening to the forum members here or on the other sites.

Some here have lost thousands of dollars. It doesn't matter if the owner is healthy or not, it doesn't excuse charging for goods/services that never arrive. That's a crime. Some have waited more than a year. They deserve the good/services or their money back. It isn't like they've been contacted and asked to be patient. They've been ignored. I have to wonder if you'd feel the same if you were one of the unfortunate forum members that were taken advantage of.

San
 
#22 · (Edited)
I got an invoice in the mail last week from Stratton Motor Company asking for payment for an order placed 5 months ago with British Racing. They are the UK source for factory parts and said they were sitting on the order since December waiting on BRG to send payment. I sent them a paypal and the items shipped next business day. Never fun to pay twice but at least the parts are coming.

When I emailed BRG in February Rebecca replied back saying the parts were already shipped from the UK and they were expecting arrival any day, so that was an intentionally fraudulent response. They never paid Stratton for the items ordered, just kept the money and lied about it.
 
#23 ·
I finally reached out to paypal and filed a claim for my order placed in Feb. "Rebecca" said that my order had been "forwarded for cancellation" - this was early March and I've yet to see a payment post. An upstanding seller would shut down their site and stop taking orders if they felt that the business wouldn't survive without them. What's happening here is fraud.
 
#25 ·
my order never delivered

I had a small order with them that is still open since October 2018. Periodically I get a response but it is erratic, and promises to ship don't seem to ever happen. I am not out a great deal of money, but I did want the trim part I ordered so will have to get it from someone else now

discouraging...
 
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