Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB - View Single Post - How Works Motorsports stole my money & how I'm fighting to get it back UPDATE 7/4/19

TachyonBomb · 05-01-2019, 03:59 PM

Hello, this is a consumer report on my never ending ordeal with Peter Kang & WORKS Motorsports.

I purchased my BRZ in April 2017 and I noticed there were no CARB legal forced induction options for the 2017+ models. After a couple of months I saw an FT86club post from Works Motorsports stating they were interestined in finding someone who would let them use a 2017+ 86/brz so they could R&D their already existing 2013-2016 CARB legal turbo kit to fit onto the 2017+ models. The end goal was to produce a CARB legal 2017+ turbo kit.

Here is Works Motorsports mentioning that they are looking for a 2017 to r&d on in the beginning of July 2017.

Here is Works Motorsports agreeing to the accept my car for turbo kit r&d testing and CARB certification testing.

Because they already made and sold a CARB legal turbo kit for the brz I had no reason to doubt that would not be able to adapt their existing 2013-2016 kit to the newer 2017+ brz models. I recognized that adapting the old kit to the 2017+ models would not take much effort. So I decided to contact Works Motorsports and answer their request for a 2017+ brz to conduct R&D on.

To make their pre-2017 kits fit onto the 2017+ models the only 3 components that had to be changed were:
- 2 Intercooler Pipes (To Accommodate New Intercooler Location)
- Intercooler Bracket (To Relocate Intercooler)

Here is a helpful visual to show what changes were needed between the two turbo kits

This is about as condensed as I could get this story

Works Motorsports estimated around 3 months for them to r&d their 2013-2016 turbo kit to fit onto the 2017+ brz along with going through the CARB certification testing.

Works Motorsports had my car from July 2017 to July 2018 (12 months). In that time they produced nothing. I kept getting excuse after excuse for delays. After 12 months with nothing being produced I decided to pull the plug and get my car back. It did not seem right to keep someones new car for that long with no results in sight.

Back in November 2017 Works Motorsports requested that I pay $3700 up front for parts and labor because according to them the final product was almost finished.

So when I went to pick up my car from Works Motorsports on July 6 2018, the owner Peter Kang did want to refund me any of the money I payed 8 months earlier for parts and labor toward a finished production version of the 2017+ brz turbo kit. He told me to leave without my money and that he would refund me the next day.

One week later my money had not yet been refunded and I contacted Peter Kang of Works Motorsports to see what was going on. He eventually only sent me a partial refund but kept the majority of the money. He felt justified to charge me for the installation and uninstallation of a turbo kit that did not exist at this time for the 2017+ brz.

I felt that it was very shady for him to charge me for his failed r&d process and to think that he is entitled to money without producing anything in return. It was not my fault that he could not produce a finalize version of the turbo kit after 12 months which was 4 times the original estimated project timeline. Life has to move on, it was silly of him to feel that he was justified to an indefinite or unlimited amount of time with a car I was making loan and insurance payments on.

Here is a picture showing the invoice charges he was placing on me for installing and uninstalling a turbo kit which did not exist between July 2017 and July 2018 for the 2017+ brz.

To further cement the fact that no 2017+ brz turbo kit existed from Works Motorsports during the time they had my car (July 2017-July 2018) here is a link showing when Works Motorsports publicly announced the release of a finalized production version of the 2017+ brz turbo kit on October 2018. It should also be noted that no 2017+ brz turbo kit was for sale on their site before this posting.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130707

I decided to sue Works Motorsports in an effort to get my money back from this attempted to defraud/scam me. The original court date was November 26 2018. Peter Kang had it postponed until the end of January 2019.

Peter Kang brought a friend with him to the court house. This friend was being aggressive to me and my girlfriend during the mediation process. He was cursing and being loud which brought us a lot of unwanted attention. We were moved to the far side of the mediation room because of his actions. I'm not sure why Peter Kang brought this random aggressive guy to do all his talking, Peter Kang barely said any words during the whole process. The whole intimidation process and experience was embarrassing. Needless to say the mediation was a failure and a waste of time. So we moved on to having the case heard in front of a judge.

In the end Works Motorsports lost the case and I was awarded close to $3000 in damages. Here is the paperwork showing they lost and what I got awarded.

Instead of calling it over and thinking the decision was fair to pay me back after this attempt at defrauding me, Peter Kang of Works Motorsports decided to hire a lawyer and appeal the decision. Kind of sucks that he attempted to defraud me of my money and wasted a lot of my time but he can't even face me in court to argue why he deserves my stolen money to a judge in person for a 2nd time.

Here is the paperwork showing that he will be represented by a lawyer named David P. Pierini for the appeal court date.

To just to keep wasting more of my time Peter Kang of Works Motorsports decides to postpone the original appeal trial date. One of his reasons for requesting the postponement was so that I could be given enough time to find a lawyer. That was super nice of him.

Here is the paperwork showing why Peter Kang of Works Motorsports could not show up to the original trial date of April 24th 2019.

Things To Note

- I called or emailed every 30 days to ask for updates

- I made it clear that I would be needing my car back several times once things passed 5 months. Every time I pushed that point I would get told the r&d process was almost finished so I would hold on a little longer

- I was completely ignored, with no contact made for 2 months around March and April 2018

- I was being charged for installing and uninstalling a turbo kit which they never finished at the time. Pretty much they wanted me to pay for their r&d process.

- I had to remind Peter Kang at Works Motorsports a week after I picked up my car to take any sort of action toward refunding my money. He really did not want to give any of it back and still does not.

- He completed the public production version of the kit around October 2018 which was 3 months after I pulled my car from the project.

- They never completed any CARB testing

Take Aways From This Cautionary Tale

- Don't ever leave a shop without getting your money back first

- A shop should not take on a project of they feel that can't adequately complete the project in a timely manner.

- If any shop asks you to pay for parts and labor on a finished job, don't pay unless the job is actually finished. If you are made to pay before a job is finished cancel your paypal payment before the 6 month window to contest a charge closes. After the original payment is contested and returned, send another payment to the shop to restart paypals 6 month window to refund a charge.

I will be updating this as more events happen and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read and digest all this information. Poor performing or shady shops should really be identified and avoided in the car community. We work hard for our money and we spend a lot on our hobby. Predatory behavior out of a shop should never be tolerated or accepted by the automotive enthusiast community.

If anyone wants to come to the appeal trial and see Works Motorsports & their lawyer fight to keep the money from an attempted scamming!
It should be a good learning experience for anyone that is curious about how the legal system in relation to a shop which attempts to defraud customers in person

Trial will be held on:
May 29th 2019 @ 8:30AM in Department 19
3055 Cleveland Ave.
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

If anyone wants to follow this case online feel free to look up case# "MSC-189120" on the Sonoma County court website.

Update: May 2nd 2019

Got this in the mail today.
I'll just leave this cease & desist letter here and let it speak for itself.

What do you guys think about it?

**Update** JULY 4th 2019

Well the verdict came in the mail...

It's been 2 years and great as this victory was the ordeal isn't over until the award payment is made.

The instructions that came with the verdict state to make contact with the defendant "Works Motorsports" to make arrangements toward paying the awarded amount of money.

After I have received the payment I have to sign and date the bottom of the instructions in the following picture and submit it to the court to essential confirm that I received the payment from Works. In the fine print it states "As soon as you have been paid in full, you must fill out the form below and mail it to the court immediately or you may be fined."

Here is a picture of the payment instructions that came with the verdict.

Unfortunately I contacted Works Motorsports to try to work out how they want to go about paying me. They still have not replied to my email or made an attempt to contact me back on the matter. (7/4/19)

**As of 7/12/19 still no response from Peter Kang/Works Motorsports about payment**

05-01-2019, 03:59 PM	#1
TachyonBomb Senior Member Join Date: May 2017 Drives: 06 Evo GSR SE, 17 Series Yellow BRZ Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 227 Thanks: 279 Thanked 169 Times in 79 Posts Mentioned: 2 Post(s)	How Works Motorsports stole my money & how I'm fighting to get it back UPDATE 7/4/19 Hello, this is a consumer report on my never ending ordeal with Peter Kang & WORKS Motorsports. I purchased my BRZ in April 2017 and I noticed there were no CARB legal forced induction options for the 2017+ models. After a couple of months I saw an FT86club post from Works Motorsports stating they were interestined in finding someone who would let them use a 2017+ 86/brz so they could R&D their already existing 2013-2016 CARB legal turbo kit to fit onto the 2017+ models. The end goal was to produce a CARB legal 2017+ turbo kit. Here is Works Motorsports mentioning that they are looking for a 2017 to r&d on in the beginning of July 2017. Here is Works Motorsports agreeing to the accept my car for turbo kit r&d testing and CARB certification testing. Because they already made and sold a CARB legal turbo kit for the brz I had no reason to doubt that would not be able to adapt their existing 2013-2016 kit to the newer 2017+ brz models. I recognized that adapting the old kit to the 2017+ models would not take much effort. So I decided to contact Works Motorsports and answer their request for a 2017+ brz to conduct R&D on. To make their pre-2017 kits fit onto the 2017+ models the only 3 components that had to be changed were: - 2 Intercooler Pipes (To Accommodate New Intercooler Location) - Intercooler Bracket (To Relocate Intercooler) Here is a helpful visual to show what changes were needed between the two turbo kits This is about as condensed as I could get this story Works Motorsports estimated around 3 months for them to r&d their 2013-2016 turbo kit to fit onto the 2017+ brz along with going through the CARB certification testing. Works Motorsports had my car from July 2017 to July 2018 (12 months). In that time they produced nothing. I kept getting excuse after excuse for delays. After 12 months with nothing being produced I decided to pull the plug and get my car back. It did not seem right to keep someones new car for that long with no results in sight. Back in November 2017 Works Motorsports requested that I pay $3700 up front for parts and labor because according to them the final product was almost finished. So when I went to pick up my car from Works Motorsports on July 6 2018, the owner Peter Kang did want to refund me any of the money I payed 8 months earlier for parts and labor toward a finished production version of the 2017+ brz turbo kit. He told me to leave without my money and that he would refund me the next day. One week later my money had not yet been refunded and I contacted Peter Kang of Works Motorsports to see what was going on. He eventually only sent me a partial refund but kept the majority of the money. He felt justified to charge me for the installation and uninstallation of a turbo kit that did not exist at this time for the 2017+ brz. I felt that it was very shady for him to charge me for his failed r&d process and to think that he is entitled to money without producing anything in return. It was not my fault that he could not produce a finalize version of the turbo kit after 12 months which was 4 times the original estimated project timeline. Life has to move on, it was silly of him to feel that he was justified to an indefinite or unlimited amount of time with a car I was making loan and insurance payments on. Here is a picture showing the invoice charges he was placing on me for installing and uninstalling a turbo kit which did not exist between July 2017 and July 2018 for the 2017+ brz. To further cement the fact that no 2017+ brz turbo kit existed from Works Motorsports during the time they had my car (July 2017-July 2018) here is a link showing when Works Motorsports publicly announced the release of a finalized production version of the 2017+ brz turbo kit on October 2018. It should also be noted that no 2017+ brz turbo kit was for sale on their site before this posting. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130707 I decided to sue Works Motorsports in an effort to get my money back from this attempted to defraud/scam me. The original court date was November 26 2018. Peter Kang had it postponed until the end of January 2019. Peter Kang brought a friend with him to the court house. This friend was being aggressive to me and my girlfriend during the mediation process. He was cursing and being loud which brought us a lot of unwanted attention. We were moved to the far side of the mediation room because of his actions. I'm not sure why Peter Kang brought this random aggressive guy to do all his talking, Peter Kang barely said any words during the whole process. The whole intimidation process and experience was embarrassing. Needless to say the mediation was a failure and a waste of time. So we moved on to having the case heard in front of a judge. In the end Works Motorsports lost the case and I was awarded close to $3000 in damages. Here is the paperwork showing they lost and what I got awarded. Instead of calling it over and thinking the decision was fair to pay me back after this attempt at defrauding me, Peter Kang of Works Motorsports decided to hire a lawyer and appeal the decision. Kind of sucks that he attempted to defraud me of my money and wasted a lot of my time but he can't even face me in court to argue why he deserves my stolen money to a judge in person for a 2nd time. Here is the paperwork showing that he will be represented by a lawyer named David P. Pierini for the appeal court date. To just to keep wasting more of my time Peter Kang of Works Motorsports decides to postpone the original appeal trial date. One of his reasons for requesting the postponement was so that I could be given enough time to find a lawyer. That was super nice of him. Here is the paperwork showing why Peter Kang of Works Motorsports could not show up to the original trial date of April 24th 2019. Things To Note - I called or emailed every 30 days to ask for updates - I made it clear that I would be needing my car back several times once things passed 5 months. Every time I pushed that point I would get told the r&d process was almost finished so I would hold on a little longer - I was completely ignored, with no contact made for 2 months around March and April 2018 - I was being charged for installing and uninstalling a turbo kit which they never finished at the time. Pretty much they wanted me to pay for their r&d process. - I had to remind Peter Kang at Works Motorsports a week after I picked up my car to take any sort of action toward refunding my money. He really did not want to give any of it back and still does not. - He completed the public production version of the kit around October 2018 which was 3 months after I pulled my car from the project. - They never completed any CARB testing Take Aways From This Cautionary Tale - Don't ever leave a shop without getting your money back first - A shop should not take on a project of they feel that can't adequately complete the project in a timely manner. - If any shop asks you to pay for parts and labor on a finished job, don't pay unless the job is actually finished. If you are made to pay before a job is finished cancel your paypal payment before the 6 month window to contest a charge closes. After the original payment is contested and returned, send another payment to the shop to restart paypals 6 month window to refund a charge. I will be updating this as more events happen and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read and digest all this information. Poor performing or shady shops should really be identified and avoided in the car community. We work hard for our money and we spend a lot on our hobby. Predatory behavior out of a shop should never be tolerated or accepted by the automotive enthusiast community. If anyone wants to come to the appeal trial and see Works Motorsports & their lawyer fight to keep the money from an attempted scamming! It should be a good learning experience for anyone that is curious about how the legal system in relation to a shop which attempts to defraud customers in person Trial will be held on: May 29th 2019 @ 8:30AM in Department 19 3055 Cleveland Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95403 If anyone wants to follow this case online feel free to look up case# "MSC-189120" on the Sonoma County court website. Update: May 2nd 2019 Got this in the mail today. I'll just leave this cease & desist letter here and let it speak for itself. What do you guys think about it? Update JULY 4th 2019 Well the verdict came in the mail... It's been 2 years and great as this victory was the ordeal isn't over until the award payment is made. The instructions that came with the verdict state to make contact with the defendant "Works Motorsports" to make arrangements toward paying the awarded amount of money. After I have received the payment I have to sign and date the bottom of the instructions in the following picture and submit it to the court to essential confirm that I received the payment from Works. In the fine print it states "As soon as you have been paid in full, you must fill out the form below and mail it to the court immediately or you may be fined." Here is a picture of the payment instructions that came with the verdict. Unfortunately I contacted Works Motorsports to try to work out how they want to go about paying me. They still have not replied to my email or made an attempt to contact me back on the matter. (7/4/19) As of 7/12/19 still no response from Peter Kang/Works Motorsports about payment __________________ On 8/20/19 Works Motorsport have sent me their first payment of $450. Only 5 more payments to go. Follow what happened here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...96#post3213496 Last edited by TachyonBomb; 07-12-2019 at 02:06 PM.