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Unread 09-22-2010, 06:08 PM   #1
Fatbum
My car got Xtremely F'd
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sanityville
Posts: 213
Name : Daniel Halpin
Fatbum has disabled reputation
Thumbs down Xtreme Motorsports Complaint

http://motorsportsxtreme.com redirects to http://sportscartech.com/ now.

Administrative Contact:
Harwood, Chris chris@sportscartech.com
Sports Car Technologies
16119 Hwy 71 S.
Blountstown, Florida 32424
United States
+1.8509079100 Fax -- +1.8508932345

The site is still registered to Chris Harwood, same address and everything.

This is an epicly long story, and if I can stop one person from ruining their vehicle, being scammed for money and having parts stolen from them, it's worth me putting in the time to share my experience...


I talked to the investigator today and apparently he submitted his findings and a review board is in the process of fining him. If he gets charged criminally its only if I take him to court civilly and they also find him guilty of the felonies that he did commit. Regardless, here is the affidavit I submitted to the Investigator.

Some things may seem redundant, but its from posting on multiple places, adding stuff over time etc


There are a lot of individuals who have had issues with this shop (or rather the owner Chris Harwood, who seemingly is the only one who consistently works there) so first off, if you have had issues, save someone else from pain by filing your complaint with:

Bob Buchholz
Investigator II
Division of Consumer Services
Bureau of Investigations
PO Box 6281, Panama City, FL 32404-6281
phone: (850) 528-1909 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (850) 528-1909 end_of_the_skype_highlighting fax: (850) 410-3839
email: buchhor1@doacs.state.fl.us

He is the Florida Investigator for consumer affairs and handled my case as well as anothers.


Here ya go...: Starts off way back when in September. This is an excerpt from the affidavit I wrote for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs investigator.

I took my car to Xtreme for some cam work, intake manifold install and tune.
We ran into issues that were caused by another shop, which although not Chris's fault, would have been observed quicker if Chris hadn't procrastinated on the car. I went up there the first day and Chris said he would meet me at 9am. He didn't show up till 1130ish.
The next 4 times I went to pick up my car, Chris was only there before me 1 time. Because he spent the night "working on my car", although, nothing had changed from when I left the day before. The last time I went to pick up my car, I called and asked if the car was ready to be picked up, because he said it would be done that day, and he said to come at 3, and when I told him that I had to take my 2 week old baby and wife with me because I had no other way, so I wanted to make sure it was really done, he said yup everythings good. I family ended up being there that night till 9pm, when I got there at around 2:30, the car had been barely worked on from the last day I came and it was NO WHERE near completition. Justin (the other guy who works there) was working on it, and all the times I went there, he was the ONLY one working on my car, Chris would touch it for a couple minutes and then literally dissappear for an hour leaving the shop and no one would know where he went. He left to get something to eat one time and came back an hour later and said he had a snickers bar...he would also just sit in the one room with AC for long periods of time just texting and talking to someone on the phone. It puzzled me that he was always on his phone txting people, but never could respond to me when I asked about the status of my car. (Of course, that is perception, and that happened to be mine)

The night I stayed till 9pm the rocker arms starting falling apart when they started the motor. Chris said the rockers just go bad sometimes, even though I made the comment that they were fine before and the same cam is in, the only thing that changed was the valvesprings. He said it just happens so I ordered some trunion upgrades from comp to add to stock rockers. He said the car was ready to be picked up a week and a half or so later so I came with my father in law who had driver down and picked the car up. He said he didnt install the trunion but would have Justin come out and install them as soon as they arrived, but he replaced the stock rockers. The entirety of him having my car, he would never keep me informed on progress.
I drove home and never took the car over 3kish rpm, and parked it, I drove it to work the next day and while on base going 25mph, the car started going clank clank clackity clack. I called Chris, and called a tow truck. This was on a Thurs or Fri I believe.

Chris asked me if I could wait till Monday for them to pick the car up since they had their show in blountstown that weekend. I said yes. Justin came and picked the car up on either Tuesday or Monday, I can't recall. I had taken the liberty of taking off the valve cover to see any clues. I took pictures and posted them on a board with some reknown LS engine builders and they all agreed that the wrong valve seals were used when Chris had a machine shop put the heads together. (He had the machine shop put the heads together because the old ones wouldnt come off because of something a previous shop had done that is unrelated).
Due to the wrong valve seals being used, it caused the valve stem to snap in half and drop in the motor. I asked Chris and asked Justin to MAKE SURE they took pictures of the heads and motor when they took the engine apart at their shop and still to this day do not have pics. The motor blew up Oct 6th. Chris had originally called me and said he would "make me a deal" on a new motor since I was having so many troubles, and then once the valve seals being the wrong ones came to light, he called me immediately and said that he was "going to take care of it". I was relieved at hearing this and said ok.

He had to have an insurance adjuster come out and inspect the car. They came on a Wens/thurs and Chris said he would know the next day about the check. He never called me back about when they were getting the check and didnt answer my calls. The next week sometime I finally got a hold of him and said they had gotten the check (one thing that oftened seemed to happen was: I would call Chris and not be answered for days on end trying to find out the status of something and then when i would finally get a hold of him, he would say they had gotten something (a part, check etc) a few days prior, why he wouldn't inform me of this is beyond me).
He had originally told me that he had no idea when the check was coming and that the insurance people were working in, after a week or so I asked him for the name of his insurance company so I could call and inquire about when the check was coming because he had refused to do so. He refused to provide me this information. I wanted to know when the check was coming and Chris wouldn't call. I asked him who he was buying the new motor from and he won't tell me anything other then "a dealer in Atlanta". I am unsure if he ever was even insured.

I asked him if I needed to get a lawyer to make sure my car got fixed and he said "Your car is going to sit for months on end, you know how long court cases take". I asked him if he was going to fix the car or not, and he again said yes. This was after tons of calls, emails and txts that went unanswered.
Finally got the check and motor in Nov. I was told by Chris originally that when they got the motor it should only take a week for the motor to go in.
He told me "the end of Nov first week in December" my car should be done.
November goes by and nothing. Some of this is partially due to Rich Zs car being on the lift, and his time being tied up with that. Chris says the lift is not an issue, I am assuming he used the floor where the dyno is because you can stand below it by removing some panels.
First week in december goes by and Chris says he is working on it. He says he is staying everynight to work on it. The motor is in my car by the 10th or 11th, after the first week of December.
Car won't start at Chris' shop when they go for initial start up. "dealer" gave them a motor with a 58tooth reluctor wheel, (that is for vette LS2s, GTOs have 24tooth except rare 06 models).
Chris said he made sure they had the Vin model etc and I don't blame him for that. I do realize though, that if it hadn't taken him so long to put the motor in to begin with they would have found this out weeks prior.
So Chris says he is having someone take it back up to Atlanta to swap motors.
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