Waiting on wheels from DriverZ

[68nogoat]

What is going on with this??

I am waiting on my wheels from this company. I paid $4200. Half in December during the end of year Forgeline sale, and half in early March, when they were supposed to be shipping my wheels. I check today, and the website is down. Of the 2 phone numbers I have, one is disconnected, and the other goes to voicemail, but will not accept any messages. Anyone have any information???

[parsonsj]

I've moved this to its own thread. I don't know how much longer I can keep writing the same thing: Feedback is different. You can't add your comments to another's thread. The idea is to provide a searchable ability forum for parties to interact when traditional methods seem to have broken down, without interference from others not directly involved.

[Forgeline1]

Brian, Please call Forgeline Motorsports @ 800-886-0093 ext 12.
Thank you
Mark

[68nogoat]

My apologies, John P. Yesterday was scary. I barely scraped together the money I paid to purchase Forgeline wheels from Jon Henson/Driverz Inc. during the Christmas sale. Otherwsie I would not have been able to afford them.

I ordered the Wheels in the very beginning of December, and was told by Jon Henson of Driverz Inc./New Gen Wheels to expect delivery in March. I paid $2,000 down. In early March I was contacted and told that these wheels would be shipping in the next two or three weeks, and that I should pay the rest of my purchase price. I paid the remaining $2,300 which covered wheels and Nitto tires.

March comes and goes, and I hear nothing. Then, I try to call, and one phone line is disconnected and the other will not accept voicemail. The website is down. No one responds to my emails. Thankfully after postin here, a member of this forum contacts me to tell me what is going on - that they are closed. Now the credit card company says I may or may not be able to get all of my money back, and that it will take at least 90 days to resolve the issue. While it's great that Forgeline has my wheels (others are reporting their wheels were never even ordered from the manufacturers back in December), I have no way to conceiveably pay for these unless I get all of my money back.

I don't care if someone else was supposed to buy the business from Jon Henson or not. Travis is here saying the deal fell through. Either way, this is on Jon in my opinion. You cannot charge people money (especially calling in the full payment in March) when you know something is going on without saying so. Then he closes the business without a call or anything. They just closed up shop, and to hell with anyone who ordered wheels made by anyone other than New Gen.

Beyond all of that, when I check to see if there is anything about this on the "Wheels" forum, I see that Henson is there under the New Gen name, hocking new wheels he just made. It's insane that this guy has the audacity to even post here. You would have to be out of your mind to buy anything from him. I went out of my way to order from Driverz because Jon's reputation. Clearly, this reputation is undeserved.

[Rod]

I think Jon Henson is no longer part of drivers inc, I see he left advice on facebook to call you card companies for recourse

hope that helps

[Off Duty]

I don't know any of the parties involved; however, I do know that you do have recourse. Several avenues as a matter of fact.

On the CIVIL side:

1) Dispute the purchase with your credit card company. If you used a CC (not necessarily a debit card), and the product was never delivered, you should be able to recoup all of your lost funds.

2) Civil court-File a claim against the corporation, it's principles and owners. Do this in YOUR jurisdiction, and force them to come to you. Sometimes, this simple inconvenience will be enough to get them to settle in your favor. They'll spend more in travel and legal defense, than they stand to make even if they prevailed (which almost impossible in something like this).
If applicable, go for treble damages. Three (3) times the "stolen" amount in a civil theft case.

Once you get your judgment (by default if they fail to appear), file everything with the clerk of court, then start looking for assets to garnish/seize. Depending on the judgment (individual, corporate, or inclusive), and certain state laws, you can attach and have the Sheriff seize cars, boats, houses, equipment, etc, etc. They will sell them at auction to settle the judgment plus Sheriff's fees. Anything left over goes back to the defendant(s).

Once you have a judgment, you can also consider garnishing wages. If any of the parties included in the suit should open their own business, or start working elsewhere, you can garnish a portion of their wages/salary/income, pursuant to statutes.

On the CRIMINAL side:

State:
1) File criminal fraud/theft charges against the parties involved. Most police agencies will try to shy away from these cases, simply because there's money and promise to deliver goods that never came to fruition. They try to consider it a "civil" matter or contract dispute. Depending on the laws in your state, that may be true, but check first. In most states, it's still a crime to take money for goods or services and not deliver. And they can still be sued on top of that


FEDERAL:

Since a portion of this transaction involved use of the telephone, internet and/or mail/wire services, you also have a federal violation. Interstate commerce is serious stuff, and wire fraud and the like carry pretty decent penalties to those involved.

To prosecute on any of the above however, you're going to need a name, title, etc., of a "person" who committed the act. If "John Doe" simply processed the order, and had nothing more to do with, or no control over it's fulfillment, you're not going to be able to charge them. They will make a great witness, but that's about it.

If OTOH, Jon Smith was the president/CEO of the company, took your order, and promised you delivery, then this is a horse of a different color
If he did so knowing they were closing the doors, you're in an even better position. A lot will ride on WHY he failed to fulfill the order, and whether or not he's willing to reimburse you in full for your losses.

The really neat part about the civil actions, are if you have an IQ over "duh", you can do a short bit of research and do it all yourself. You don't need an attorney to represent you if you have all of your evidence and documentation

If you have questions, feel free to contact me and I'll see what I can do to clarify.

STANDARD FREAKING DISCLAIMER:

The above information is NOT intended as legal advise, and the author is NOT an attorney. You should always seek competent (good luck) legal advise in such matters!

All the best.

[Off Duty]

I think Jon Henson is no longer part of drivers inc, I see he left advice on facebook to call you card companies for recourse

hope that helps

was he a principle (shareholder/owner, etc), or just an employee? If he was a principle, then there's more he can do.

[andrewb70]

I am letting Gordan's posts stand because they are filled with excellent information.

Gordan, if you can copy and paste the same info into the other Driverz Inc threads, I will approve them.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...nc-Information

Andrew