NW WA Meet / BS Thread

It wouldn't have been so bad if the guy hadn't disappeared, when it became obvious there were some issues there were a lot of people willing to help but as soon as he went radio silent all hell broke loose.

On a better note I got front and rear plate bumpers ordered today, now I wait 10-12 weeks to .

 

My Sawzall is always looking for another victim.

 

Yeah, but it took a while for ours. I think @mahaloTaco is a good guy, but shipping stuff from convict land is always iffy at best. They will get the snorkels, but they need to be patient.

 

They got them, as Jeffroy said above, but now tcbob is sitting on 30+ because mahalotaco went MIA and had to step into save the sinking shipment of snorkels.

And now GB #3 via tcbob and his surplus snorkels.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/airflow-snorkel-group-buy-3.474811/

 

Was just going to ask if it was at a further reduced price haha.

 

Ok shitshow there. I feel lucky..

 

Yeah, the worst part is it was all a result of him being greedy and trying to double the significant profit he was making off the deal, hence the animosity that built up.

 

317 pages of "nope". Care to share the cliff notes?

 

About 300 pages of bs, 10pages of it going sideways, and 5 pages of threats against the GB host, and 2 pages of actual start to finish results.

Here's my take.
The 1st GB which included me, cam, Tom and Brian went as I expected. Max expressed that there really was no deliver date up front and that it hinged on how long to get interest to 50ppl. It went fairly quick, and then it was the overseas journey from Australia. I think I waited just under 3months from the time I gave max money and the time they arrived at the port in Cali. In approx a week from that time, I had it at my door.

He probably didn't anticipate the interest initially and based on the out come of the 1st GB, decided for round two. It seems somewhere along the way he thought he could cut a fat hog by upping the order from airflow to 100 units rather than the original 50.

Behind closed doors he essentially locked the initial 50 participants/presold snorkels of gb2 into a holding pattern while max rounded up another 50 buyers. The interest petered off after 60ish buyers and Max's worst case scenario date came and went. His attendance to the site was rather Shakey after that point which he excused with being busy working 70hrs at work. Somewhere in the cluster fuck, tcbob stepped in to resolve the situation. GB2 started early August 2016 with a cap at 50ppl, and then pushed to 100.. I'm not sure when @JeffRoyJenkins started participation, but it would seem people only received them a few weeks ago. 5 almost 6 months.

Fast forward to current times and tcbob is now the owner of said extra snorkels and is selling them in gb3 personally, and I would assume he has them on hand ready to ship. Once they are gone, the whole mess will be forgotten except by those who had to endure this. Looks like Bob has roughly 20 left.

 

Smittybilt

$164 Smittybilt 5.65 CFM Air Compressor - 2781

2781 5.65 (don't sell yourself short...)

 

That covers most of it. After the first 50 were all paid up he said he had ordered them from Airflow and that everyone even beyond the first 50 would get their snorkels as soon as they arrived if they were paid up (leading us to believe he had 100 on their way). As some time went by we waited and people with ties to the shipping industry were asking for a container number or ship name so they could track it but he could not produce anything of the sort. Then he told us that they had arrived in port but somehow the deal had changed and now all 100 had to be sold before he could release any of them and basically wanted all of us to help.

This is the point where people started to call him on his BS and he started to get defensive and then began responding less often with vague answers before he finally just stopped posting at all. This is about the time TcBob got involved and started having to find a way to bail him out. In the mean time a few people started doing the research to figure out that right after all the money was collected for his first GB he somehow found the cash to install a new SC, glass fenders and some other pricey mods which seemed a little odd for a guy that works at a surf shop.

The general consensus is that he was ordering the snorkels for Airflow at wholesale prices, hence the blocks of 50, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $200-225 and then pocketing the remainder he got from us. So when he decided to up the order from 50 to 100 to double his profit, Airflow would not fill the order until he was able to pay for the full 100.

So fast forward about a month from when things went completely sideways and TcBob tells us that we would all be getting snorkels but it would be another month+, meaning that they have not even shipped from Australia yet. Since I was one of the last people to buy in I only waited about 3-1/2 months from payment to receipt but some people waited 5+ months, not to mention the period of time in there that we all thought we were screwed out of our money.

At one point a few people went as far as to contact the FBI and there was a case opened up regarding it, not sure what happened with that though. I would like to think at the very least that Mr. Mahalo may be getting some attention from the IRS regarding undocumented earnings but I'm sure we will never find out.

In the end at least we all got what we paid for even if it was a little bit of a roller coaster.

Edit: I just did some more looking and now that this whole mess has cleared up he just got a new cap and RTT, hmm.

 

2nd gen bumper w/ hitch for sale

@Captain Taco

 

Who's your friend in the GX?

 

I got a question for you all. Who on here would be wanting a set of seat covers from WET OKOLEs for there truck? My brother works for the HI branch and the owner offered for him to open 1 in WA. Of coarse the sets will be coming straight from my house and distributed to u all. Just wanted to see how much of you would be interested. I have no details on pricing and you won't be charged for shipping, but I will keep u all posted when the official date arrives. Happy Aloha Friday!

 

Interested! Ohana!

 

Just Tacomas? Or any vehicle they make them for?

 

I already have a set in front but was planning to buy another one for the rear seats one of these days.

 

I bought my 4runner from Magic Toyota in Lynwood. its the same owner as Michaels. My wife and I met the owner while we where there. They guy hooked us up on the 4runner. He was pleasant. That was 12 years ago.....

 

We're leaning more towards the Toyota/Lexus brand, but what ever the website offers we can bring in