Not a big poster on this forum...but wanted to share this story as a warning to others:
Alright...some of you are familiar with the ongoing saga of my boat..some not. Over a year ago, I contracted Rob Grabowski of RPM Xtreme Powersports in Clinton Twp. MI to do gimbal rings and drive couplers. That job slowly morphed into a new transom....and then expanded into a partial rebuild/re-core of the bilge, resulting in the fuel tank having to come out. This guy used to work for the factory (confirmed with them before major work started) and came with recommendations (no gripes against the recommenders...past record is never a guarantee of future behavior).
After multiple completion/delivery dates came and went (May, June, early July, end of July, mid-August...end of August) he called me in mid-August and wanted to renegotiate the the price for the job. I advised him there would be no renegotiation of price, as the amount of work to be done had not changed in the 3 months since he had given me a final quote...and several negotiated repairs had been canceled to meet the required budget. He then requested I pay the remainder of the outstanding balance to complete the repairs. The remaining $9500.00 of the total $15K was paid to him and I recieved a receipt indicating the job was paid in full. The next day (08-18-09), his shop was shut down by the Macomb County Circuit Court as a result of a civil judgement he was not complying with. The seizure order remained in place for about 4 days and was lifted. However, RPM Xtreme has failed to reopen since that time.
Since that time, Grabowski has, for the most part, failed to respond to phone calls, messages or texts (unless you count a string of bizarre texts at 4am one night telling me not to contact him any further; he would call me whenever he got the work done). A criminal complaint was filed with Clinton Twp. PD in mid-September, after almost a month with no contact from him. Just days prior to a search warrant being served on his shop and criminal prosecution for Larceny being brought, he turned up and we caught him with his bay door open one night in late September. We got the boat, motors, drives and all the parts that had been stripped out of it at that time. The glass work was not finished and the boat was a mess; but at least we got it back.
At that time, we did not get back the almost $5000 in new parts that had been paid for...the gimbal rings, couplers, mechanical drive indicators, etc. The boat was taken elsewhere to get the glass work completed. Weeks again went by and we again managed to catch him at his shop at night in late October. That night we managed to get back the new couplers, gimbals and drive trim actuators. That saved us a bit more cash (that we'd already spent).
The boat is now with a reputable shop to get re-rigged. As you can imagine...all this crap is costing thousands over what I already paid RPM to complete the job (note...as of last week, he STILL has not reopened or touched a job in his shop in over 2 months). He's already said he won't refund any portion of the job and if I want anything cash-wise, I'll have to sue him for it.
Instead of boating this summer, I spent the entire season doing 50 mile round-trips up to twice a week to this guy's shop trying to keep him "motivated" to get my boat done. Sadly, bike racing is a greater priority for him than customer service.
While I've gotten most of the big-ticket stuff back from this guy, he still has my starters, a new drive indicator panel and owes me about $400 in additional parts and...oh....just got a text from him telling me to essentially screw off. He's now refusing to return my starters and other parts that were paid for.
Was originally just going to ask for anyone out that way to give me a bump if they saw his shop open...as I was tired of driving out there all the time to find a closed shop....now I'm asking for any help from anyone willing to give me help in spreading the word to avoid this guy at all costs for any type of business. Hopefully Sunsation will also cease in issuing future recommendations for him as well. As a nice parting touch, he says in his text 5 minutes ago, and I quote,: "hope it floats on ice."
Now THAT's the guy you want to fix your stuff....right?
Alright...some of you are familiar with the ongoing saga of my boat..some not. Over a year ago, I contracted Rob Grabowski of RPM Xtreme Powersports in Clinton Twp. MI to do gimbal rings and drive couplers. That job slowly morphed into a new transom....and then expanded into a partial rebuild/re-core of the bilge, resulting in the fuel tank having to come out. This guy used to work for the factory (confirmed with them before major work started) and came with recommendations (no gripes against the recommenders...past record is never a guarantee of future behavior).
After multiple completion/delivery dates came and went (May, June, early July, end of July, mid-August...end of August) he called me in mid-August and wanted to renegotiate the the price for the job. I advised him there would be no renegotiation of price, as the amount of work to be done had not changed in the 3 months since he had given me a final quote...and several negotiated repairs had been canceled to meet the required budget. He then requested I pay the remainder of the outstanding balance to complete the repairs. The remaining $9500.00 of the total $15K was paid to him and I recieved a receipt indicating the job was paid in full. The next day (08-18-09), his shop was shut down by the Macomb County Circuit Court as a result of a civil judgement he was not complying with. The seizure order remained in place for about 4 days and was lifted. However, RPM Xtreme has failed to reopen since that time.
Since that time, Grabowski has, for the most part, failed to respond to phone calls, messages or texts (unless you count a string of bizarre texts at 4am one night telling me not to contact him any further; he would call me whenever he got the work done). A criminal complaint was filed with Clinton Twp. PD in mid-September, after almost a month with no contact from him. Just days prior to a search warrant being served on his shop and criminal prosecution for Larceny being brought, he turned up and we caught him with his bay door open one night in late September. We got the boat, motors, drives and all the parts that had been stripped out of it at that time. The glass work was not finished and the boat was a mess; but at least we got it back.
At that time, we did not get back the almost $5000 in new parts that had been paid for...the gimbal rings, couplers, mechanical drive indicators, etc. The boat was taken elsewhere to get the glass work completed. Weeks again went by and we again managed to catch him at his shop at night in late October. That night we managed to get back the new couplers, gimbals and drive trim actuators. That saved us a bit more cash (that we'd already spent).
The boat is now with a reputable shop to get re-rigged. As you can imagine...all this crap is costing thousands over what I already paid RPM to complete the job (note...as of last week, he STILL has not reopened or touched a job in his shop in over 2 months). He's already said he won't refund any portion of the job and if I want anything cash-wise, I'll have to sue him for it.
Instead of boating this summer, I spent the entire season doing 50 mile round-trips up to twice a week to this guy's shop trying to keep him "motivated" to get my boat done. Sadly, bike racing is a greater priority for him than customer service.
While I've gotten most of the big-ticket stuff back from this guy, he still has my starters, a new drive indicator panel and owes me about $400 in additional parts and...oh....just got a text from him telling me to essentially screw off. He's now refusing to return my starters and other parts that were paid for.
Was originally just going to ask for anyone out that way to give me a bump if they saw his shop open...as I was tired of driving out there all the time to find a closed shop....now I'm asking for any help from anyone willing to give me help in spreading the word to avoid this guy at all costs for any type of business. Hopefully Sunsation will also cease in issuing future recommendations for him as well. As a nice parting touch, he says in his text 5 minutes ago, and I quote,: "hope it floats on ice."
Now THAT's the guy you want to fix your stuff....right?
