Source of my "E30 Nightmare" is still in business and killing dreams

"Battery Tender Unnecessary" (carac)
06/09/2015 at 15:25 • Filed to: None

Oppo member, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! shared his interactions with Robert Berry and Eurohaus Motorsports as well. Echoing much of my own experience with him.

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So I thought I would offer my own transcript of my communication with Robert. I will leave out my personal opinion of the man and just share the facts. He has had my 1968 Mercedes 250 SL now for over 18 months for an engine rebuilt. Court Date is set for Aug 5

2/23/14 – 1968 Mercedes Benz 250 SL dropped off. I was told that a total engine rebuild would take 3 weeks at a total cost of $4,500.

2/24/14 – Deposited $3,000 upfront for Robert to do the work

3/19/14 – work not started. Claims he’s been backed up

4/2/14 – Engine broken down and in pieces in the shop (personal observation)

Robert claims he’s waiting for a part from Buds Benz before he can start

4/02/14 – Buds Benz has no record of Robert ordering parts

4/09/14 – Robert claims he will start back on my car next week. The part he ordered from Buds Benz is “being delivered by UPS” —— Buds Benz still has no record of any order from Robert.

4/21/14 – Called Robert with no return phone call

4/24/14 – Called again with no return call

4/29/14 – Told that car would be “back on his schedule” next week and could be done in just a few days after that

5/12/14 – Told that engine has been sent to a machine shop to have the valves reworked

5/26/14 – called with no return call

5/30/14 – told that the engine still at machine shop (Robert refuses to tell me which shop)

6/11/14 – Engine “still at machine shop”

6/27/14 – Called with no return phone call

7/09/14 – Robert says he has been sick and has not been working

7/25/14 – I receive a call from a former employee of Roberts’ that tells me that my car is not being worked on, that the engine never went to a machine shop and that he has not touched my car since march

8/20/14 – after travelling for business for two weeks I return and visit the shop where I see that my car has not moved nor been touched since April.

8/22/14 – Robert says he needs to send the body off to a body shop to have the engine compartment refinished

9/10/14 – Robert says “his body shop guy has been out sick, has been travelling and I hear of a story where Robert has evidently shot himself in the leg with his own gun and has not been working. I do not know what story if any to believe.

10/21/14 – I inform Robert that I will be picking up my car and that I do not want him working on it anymore. He informs me that he now has a mechanics lien on my car and that he will NOT tell me where the engine or the body of the car is located.

10/22/14 – Robert contacts me to call him at which time he apologizes and promises to start work immediately on my car

10/24/14 – Im told that the body shop is sanding the car, that Robert is finishing up on a Porsche engine and that my engine would be next

11/3/14 – told that parts were being ordered that engine would be ready when body got back from the body shop.

11/07/14 – told that Robert has been out with the flu

11/11/14 – told that work would begin on 11/13/14

11/13/14 – work not started

11/24/14 – told that car was being painted

12/09/14 – work still not started

12/15 14 - car still not back and engine still not started

12/17/14 – told that Body shop guy has been in the hospital

12/29/14 – told that body shop work was done and that Robert would be picking up the car that day. Called Buds Benz. Parts have never been ordered and they have never heard of Robert Berry or Eurohaus Motors.

1/16/15 – car picked up and brought back to Roberts shop, Engine still not started

2/03/15 – Told that the fire wall was “being put back together”……. It wasn’t

2/09/15 – told that “parts were being cleaned for reassembly”

2/19/15 - told that parts are being prepped

2/20/09 – told that the snow has kept them from working this week

2/25/09 – Robert ordered piston rings from Buds. Buds sent wrong rings and had the new ones to him 4 days later. When I spoke to buds they said they thought it was odd that he was rebuilding my engine and yet the only parts ordered were a set of piston rings. A rebuild requires many dozens of parts.

3/19/15 – Told that the car would be back on his schedule next week

3/27/15 – told that the engine would be installed on 4/01/15.

4/09/15 – Visited the shop where I found all the pieces of the engine completely removed from block. Engine has not even begun to be rebuilt.

4/23/15 – Texted for an update with no response

4/28/15 – texted for an update with no response

4/29/15 – texted for an update

4/30/15 – Robert says he is still waiting on parts

5/08/15 – Robert says parts are in and that he will begin work on it “the first of next week”

5/08/15 – Texted Robert to confirm that the car would be completed the week of 5/11/15 with no relpy

5/20/15 – went to Robert’s shop with a tow vehicle and two sheriffs deputies (PTL. T. Cook and PTL. M. Lawson) with the intention of retrieving my property. Robert refused to return my car or any of it’s parts to me even after the sheriff asked him to be reasonable. He stated that I would need to sue him to get my car back before he was finished with it. He told Officer Cook that my car would be completed next week.

5/20/15 – Civil case filed in Knox county General Sessions Court – Civil Division. Docket # 55259H

6/09/15 – 1968 Mercedes Benz 250 SL still held hostage at Eurohaus Motorsports owned by Robert Berry at 10219 Upper Ridge Way Knoxville, TN 37932

A damn shame this is still going on there. I hope one of the 2 or 3 lawsuits currently against him stick.

DISCUSSION (13)

RallyWrench > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 15:37

Unbelievable.

functionoverfashion > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 15:40

Wow, it is sad that this continues to happen to people. Has your case gone anywhere?

I worked for a guy at a wooden boat shop a long time ago who was definitely above this guy’s practices but not by a huge margin. My employment there was brief, and he’s no longer in business. One day I saw him out in a boat he was “working on for a customer” and he smiled and waved, saying “It’s too nice to work!” I got the impression that it was “too nice to work” quite often.

Party-vi > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 15:41

What a bastard. Also, FYI DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ANYONE THAT REQUIRES MONEY UP FRONT . Chances are, if they cannot afford to begin work for you without a deposit then they cannot afford to stay in business. A reputable shop should have backlog and should have money in the bank.

Also a mechanic’s lien can only be requested in Tennessee if payment for the vehicle hasn’t been made 30 days after the work has been completed . With a deposit of $3,000 for $4,500 worth of work and no completed project I don’t see how Mr. Berry filed for a mechanics lien on the car, because Ryan would have also had to have received an official notice of the lien.

functionoverfashion > Party-vi
06/09/2015 at 15:58

I would contend that you can ask for a deposit if you don’t know the customer at all, but it can’t really be more than, let’s say, 10% of the total on a job like that. Then you can “progress bill” by showing, you know, progress. Like, with pictures. Or a bill from a subcontractor.

We used to take deposits from customers we didn’t know (minimal amounts, just to be sure they are intending to pay us at all), or from customers we DID know, but knew they tended to take forever to pay.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 16:11

I thought it couldn’t be any more worse than it has been.

I was wrong. It’s worse. Jesus Unholy Christ, a few more people involved in this catastrophe. To the man in the Benz, I feel for ya.

whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 16:29

Man, I hope this guy dies of one of the many things he gets sick with. . . It’s making me sick just thinking about it.

cazzyodo > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/09/2015 at 16:33

Nobody should go near this guy...he and everyone he knows apparently gets sick, injured or otherwise shot.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Party-vi
06/11/2015 at 11:57

I wouldn’t say that’s entirely true. I worked in construction for years and it’s very common to get money up front in that industry. One thing that’s nice, though, is there are some “milestones” more or less legally required, depending on the scope of the project - getting a permit, getting a rough-in inspection, getting a final/occupancy inspection. Most people will charge something like 20% up front to cover permitting and initial materials, 30% at rough in, and balance due after the final inspection.

Automotive work is different - generally more labor than parts. But with something like the Mercedes in question parts could be difficult (pricey, long lead time, etc.) so I could see a request for a deposit upfront. But not 66%. That to me is highly suspicious.

Party-vi > Snuze: Needs another Swede
06/11/2015 at 12:04

I’m not sure what type of contractor you are, but I’ve yet to find an owner or end user that approves money up front to start a project. Most of our customers don’t even let me charge for mobilization - if they do, it’s usually 5% max. I’ve never seen a sub ask for 20% before boots hit the ground unless there was some special long lead item like a $30k SCIF door (true story) or something.

I wouldn’t hire a contractor that needed money up front for materials and rough-in for a normal project because that would tell me they’re having cash flow problems. At the same time, we don’t hire contractors with an EMR over 1.0 or that can’t figure out certified payroll, so we usually avoid that issue anyway.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Party-vi
06/11/2015 at 12:37

Sounds like you’re doing some heavy duty gov’t contracting or something (SCIF door...). I don’t do construction anymore, I’m a full time engineer now for a gov’t contractor, but I don’t deal with the money side of things, just the engineering. As long as I get my pay check I don’t care.

But when I was doing construction, I was working for my dad, he’s a small (usually one-man-band) electrical contractor. Mostly does renovations, custom homes, etc, no big developments, or large commercial/industrial type stuff. Also, thinking back, 20% up front was probably not the norm, maybe more like 10%, but I know it did happen on occasion. As far as I was aware, it’s a common practice in residential construction. I’ve only worked with handful of contractors who don’t ask for some kind of deposit up front.

Also, that kind of stuff depends on the scope of the project, and the customer. If it was a small job, like repair or service work, or maybe even a small remodel and we knew the customer then we wouldn’t ask for a deposit. But for large jobs it was very common.

When you’re doing large scale contracting work you’re *usually* working with established players, people in the industry you know have the money behind them. Also, as you mentioned, you have the EMR rating to look at. Doing a project like a one off custom home has it’s own set of risks and it’s much harder to evaluate your client. Getting money up front can be a good way to evaluate your customers willingness/ability to pay their bills. There have been quite a few occasions where we couldn’t settle with a customer on terms before we started work, so we encouraged them to find a different contractor. And more often than not we would hear later that the contractor who did take the job wasn’t getting paid or work had stalled on the project, or something like that.

Party-vi > Snuze: Needs another Swede
06/11/2015 at 13:11

I must have had my government hat on - yep, deposits are normal in the residential and some commercial industries, but still anything over 20% is egregious and should be viewed with cautions.

NJAnon > Battery Tender Unnecessary
06/11/2015 at 19:33

I don’t even know what to say to this. I bet even Steve Lehto would have trouble finding words.

nemesis443 > Battery Tender Unnecessary
11/07/2015 at 22:30

This might have something to do with it.

http://www.tn.gov/revenue/news/1…