Guten Parts + Service - ZM Blue Devil

[OSU Bimmer Fan]

Guten Parts + Service

Just ordered my cabby an OEM Wind Deflector from these guys. I called to confirm, and the guy said he was personally packaging it, and it would be in the mail today!

Great customer service!

I'll report back when I have the windscreen.

:-D

P.S. Here's the link for the wind deflectors:

http://www.gutenparts.com/gps-genuine-bmw-e30-convertible-windscreen-wind-deflector.html

They bought the last 5 from BMW.

[willworkfore30s]

Also just purchased some exhaust hangers, intake gaskets, and coolant parts to get my m42 back on the road. Prices were excellent. Shipping was cheap and prompt. For the east coasters, they are the people to buy from imo.

[OSU Bimmer Fan]

The part came in less than a week! Couldn't be happier with Guten Parts + Service!

[slammin.e28]

Ordered some SS brake lines for work. Fantastic. Levent even PM'd me on FB to make sure everything was good!

I am so impressed with the level of service! Really didn't expect that. Levent and GPS are fantastic people!

[ForcedFirebird]

Thanks Guten! Once again helping us little guys make big things happen. :)

[robrez]

Whether it's that big-ticket item you've been saving up for or the last tid-bit you need to complete a project, Guten Parts always comes through.

[F34R]

I realize that many people on this board respect Levent and even consider him to be a personal friend. I'm the new guy here and I fully expect that some flaming will commence. But again, nothing I've said in this post cannot be substantiated.

There are good people out there like myself who are honest, trusting and prompt paying customers that have gotten screwed over by him and people like him and it's very disappointing and frustrating. I will never do business with him again and I have already contacted both PayPal and my credit card company to dispute charges.

First off, I would like to thank you for your professional approach on the situation, I consider myself to be a "personal friend" with Levent. NO ONE will flame you here, it will be removed the moment one of us moderators are notified. Clearly something has gone sour here and I have always respected the work Levent and his crew produce. I have seen many of the GPS cars at the events Levent holds.

I hope everything gets sorted out, we are a community and we build one another up. I watched GPS rise from nothing and into a household name within the BMW world, they are build off the backs of the BMW family. That is all I have to say right now.

[Shadyhaze13]

Sorry to hear that you have to deal with that crap! I will never get any work done by them or order parts with them!

[hyperE30]

Sorry to hear your bad experience. If you need a compressor shoot me a PM I'm local.

[robrez]

I'm not a moderator, but first off, you should not have started a new thread as there is already a Transaction Feedback thread for Levent and Guten Parts.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=172320

There is a reason for keeping all feedback in one thread - any experience you had, should be viewed in conjunction with his body of work. It's not to diminish your experience, but neither should one bad experience be highlighted.

[Benjamin_Button]

This was very insightful. Sorry for your loss. I'm learning that a lot of shady stuff goes on unvoiced on these forums from very surprising people.

[Andy.B]

As a former mechanic, who worked for a new car dealer, and used car dealer, I want to weigh in with a few observations...

One: AC systems (especially finicky 20+ year old ones) are temperamental.
Two: If the customer opened a sealed system, then complained about problems with it, they would be on their own. If the customer proceeded to take apart said sealed system, they are definitely on their own. That's just how it works. And regarding the receiver/dryer, that needs to replaced if open for an extended period of time, but not every time the system is worked on. LEAVING it open means it junk. Leaving it open as part of a sealed (albeit low) system means it can still be used.
Two: Dirt and surface corrosion are normal, and don't indicate the proper function of parts. Used good parts can fail. It sounds like he sourced used parts to keep costs down and it ran into problems, which unfortunately happens. If the customer brought it back to me intact I would address it as necessary.
Three: Using alternate brand oe fitment parts is the norm. Shops use a supplier for their parts. You use what the supplier can get you. Sometimes it's a different brand then expected. If it has a problem and the customer comes back, I'd take care of it. If they disassemble it, They are on their own.
Four: I don't know what Levant pays for r134a, but I am betting it is comparable to market prices where I live. If that is the case, a good portion of your bill is refrigerant alone (which was lost when the system was opened), and labor.
Five: The poorly soldered wire. If that happened at Levant's shop, that was a mistake... but mistakes happen. Moreover, that was a mistake with an easy fix.
Six: It's unfair of you to blame any shop for issues your car has that they didn't fix when they had it in for service... All those other issues? It's a 24 year old car. Things are going to constantly be breaking, unless you drop the money for a Cabriolet style restore. As a repair facility, it is hard to know where to draw the line between recommending 'safety' issues and 'annoyance' issues. When someone brings a car in but wants to be notified of every single charge when the bill varies by a few dollars (within a couple hundred on a large job like that), then it quickly becomes only 'safety' concerns. Diagnosis takes time, and if I don't think the customer is going to pay, I'm not going to keep diagnosing things. And FINDING the EXISTENCE of problems, not just the solution to problems, falls under the umbrella of diagnosing them.

As someone who worked in shops for 10+ years, and was lead technician for several of those, I will readily admit I am typically defensive on the side of a shop, but I don't see anything that seems to be unexpected. Shops get the parts that the supplier has available, and some small mistakes or misdiagnosis happen. It is unavoidable. But like I said, as a technician, if you take it apart after I work on it, it's your problem at that point.

[Benjamin_Button]

As a former mechanic, who worked for a new car dealer, and used car dealer, I want to weigh in with a few observations...

One: AC systems (especially finicky 20+ year old ones) are temperamental.
Two: If the customer opened a sealed system, then complained about problems with it, they would be on their own. If the customer proceeded to take apart said sealed system, they are definitely on their own. That's just how it works.
Two: Dirt and surface corrosion are normal, and don't indicate the proper function of parts. Used good parts can fail. It sounds like he sourced used parts to keep costs down and it ran into problems, which unfortunately happens. If the customer brought it back to me intact I would address it as necessary.
Three: Using alternate brand oe fitment parts is the norm. Shops use a supplier for their parts. You use what the supplier can get you. Sometimes it's a different brand then expected. If it has a problem and the customer comes back, I'd take care of it. If they disassemble it, They are on their own.
Four: I don't know what Levant pays for r134a, but I am betting it is comparable to market prices where I live. If that is the case, a good portion of your bill is refrigerant alone (which was lost when the system was opened), and labor.
Five: The poorly soldered wire. If that happened at Levant's shop, that was a mistake... but mistakes happen. Moreover, that was a mistake with an easy fix.
Six: It's unfair of you to blame any shop for issues your car has that they didn't fix when they had it in for service... All those other issues? It's a 24 year old car. Things are going to constantly be breaking, unless you drop the money for a Cabriolet style restore. As a repair facility, it is hard to know where to draw the line between recommending 'safety' issues and 'annoyance' issues. When someone brings a car in but wants to be notified of every single charge when the bill varies by a few dollars (within a couple hundred on a large job like that), then it quickly becomes only 'safety' concerns. Diagnosis takes time, and if I don't think the customer is going to pay, I'm not going to keep diagnosing things. And FINDING the EXISTENCE of problems, not just the solution to problems, falls under the umbrella of diagnosing them.

As someone who worked in shops for 10+ years, and was lead technician for several of those, I will readily admit I am typically defensive on the side of a shop, but I don't see anything that seems to be unexpected. Shops get the parts that the supplier has available, and some small mistakes or misdiagnosis happen. It is unavoidable. But like I said, as a technician, if you take it apart after I work on it, it's your problem at that point.

While I see your point, he paid good money for work to be done that obviously was not. This cannot be merely brushed aside. He lives out of state so it would be impossible to simply "bring it back" to be corrected.

[Andy.B]

I didn't say I think Levant is blameless by any means.

But to be fair, $1200 is not expensive for ac work. Like I said, r134a is not cheap, nor is labor. With used parts, that is a pretty cheap job that looks like it needed to be straightened out as a 'comeback' (as it's called), not torn out and thrown in a box.

[FLG]

Agree with the above.

I'm a personal friend of Levent but also was a customer at first. I hope this can be resolved in a good way. Also just because a part is slightly aged does not mean it isn't new. A lot of these parts sit on shelves some in damp places and they can build up some corrosion or what not on unpainted portions. That part number looks crisp in relation to the rest of the part.







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