How Gabe from T3 Screwed over his own Sponsered Driver

[oldeskewltoy]

You REALLY need to know the PEOPLE involved..........

*IF* you know Al...then you know 3/4 of the story

[Mux213]

Thats the problem isn't it Dan?

We know neither Gabe nor Al.

Problem is that people do business or want to do business with Gabe and these stories don't really give much faith. In the end though, its just one story seen from one perspective.

Problem really is, you always hear the bad stuff, never the good stuff. People have gotten into trouble with Gabe (either by their own fault or not, we don't know), people have gotten problems with shipping from T3, but also many many people have done successful business with him. But you rarely hear about the latter.

So all this is speculation and gossip. If Gabe screwed up, it may be a valid warning to anyone wanting to business with him, if Al's just being an ass its damaging his business unnecesairily.

[matt mead]

NoHachi Wrote:What parts would that be? Most of the stuff I've seen was pretty solid and I haven't read of any failures to date. They were also one of few companies that actually bothered to make parts for these old cars..even before the whole hype happened.

How exactly did Gabe fuck the two people that built the car?

You seem to have a very negative attitude towards me... but u get that..

ive had lots of problems with t3 stuff in a motorsport application... i could create a very long list... which i CBF writing now... but i may tonight when i get home....

gabe has the market cause there is nothing out there anymore...

read the above post to find out how gabe fucked over them...

[Mux213]

Matt,

Removed double post

I can't debate on the quality of T3 gear, what I've seen from them looks good but I have no experience to compare. I've heard good and bad stories about shipping. There is no way to comment for me on whether Gabe is good or not but so far I have no reason to doubt his products. If you have other experience with his products its always interesting to hear about especially if you can back it up with facts.

As for the whole Al story, the guy is pissed off and reading his story made me for one, doubt whether I should take it on face value. He's to goody goody about himself, I don't think what he wrote comes near the exact full truth, it just reads like a guy throwing a whole lot of dirt. It just doesn't read right. But thats my humble opinion as someone who also doesn't know Al at all.

That still does not rule the possibility that Gabe screwed him for whatever personal reasons Gabe might have. But it does seem all the more likely that the problems that started between Gabe and Al took longer to develop and climaxed in Gabe withdrawing his support. You have to wonder, why would a company like T3 invest a lot of money into a track/drift car, regardless if they do it right or not, and suddenly pull out of it. You don't come to such a decision over night, especially not if your reputation is on the line. You also have to wonder, if Al thinks the T3 stuff is crap and Gabe didn't listen to him, and Gabe treats everybody so badly, why the f would you want to promote their company for 2 hole years? If it really was that bad, he should have walked away long ago.

Whether that makes Gabe the good guy, or Al, and who's the bad guy in this? How should we ever know? If Al's pissed at Gabe, he'll probably have thickened his story, if you judge Gabe on such a story, I think you're just doing yourself wrong. But on the other hand, could be Gabe didn't do things nicely either. Its really hard to judge someone properly if you don't know what exactly happened, and you only have one side of the story, the side in which Gabe always is the bad guy as Al naturally won't see himself as such and I can't blame him for that, we all do that

If you personally have bad experiences with Gabe, thats a whole different story. I know more stories, some of personal friends whom I believe fully, who've had shipping problems with T3. Most were resolved in the end, one or two remain open. I also know of many stories where they delivered fast and the goods are still mounted on those peoples cars and the drivers are still smiling happily and would buy from T3 again and as such do so.

In the end though, trying to start a business of my own, I know how damn hard it is to put the reputation of your company in the hands of others like shipping companies that really don't give a damn. Things go wrong, thats part of the risk of running a business. There will always be one or two customers that think you're an asshole and screwed them over, probably they have good reasons to think so, but you can't please everyone. You can only do your best.

[matt mead]

mux very good response... this topic is all about opnions.. but u get that with little things... t3 products are good quailty but alot of the product designs are knock off of other ppls failures... and i have used some parts and i wasent to happy.. when i get home ill post up the problems i have had...

[NickBW]

Dont skimp on the details.


I've never been able to take Al Lagura's posts on club4ag seriously so I'm having a hard time believing his side of the story. While reading it I kept thinking I was going to see "he said I couldnt have any cookies!! He's such a dooky head!". Perhaps my view on him is a little harsh, I really hate to think he would be so malicious to go to the trooble seen on that site just to try harm Gabe's business just because he is upset about loosing his sponcorship.
So yeah, I too would like to hear the other side of the story. Good luck to them both and their future endeavors.

[TE71corolla]

t3 stuff is very good,i never had any faillure,onley the shipping........

[ZaX]

TE71corolla Wrote:t3 stuff is very good,i never had any faillure,onley the shipping........

Good point here.

[Mux213]

matt mead Wrote:mux very good response... this topic is all about opnions.. but u get that with little things... t3 products are good quailty but alot of the product designs are knock off of other ppls failures... and i have used some parts and i wasent to happy.. when i get home ill post up the problems i have had...

Well thats the good thing. We encourage people to share their opinion even if its negative towards another person/business aslong as we keep things civil and keep it factual and not throw mud just to make that person look bad. We do have to caution people not to base their opinion on a single story, especially one such as Al's who until yesterday, I had never heard about (allthough I knew the car) and that goes for may people here.

No company out there is perfect. I'm sure that in the future there will be people who will have a negative thing to say about the AEU86 shop products and it is highly likely its something that we can't do a thing about. Shipping is in that way the worst, things can get lost, things can be kept by customs for weeks without anyone being able to tell us why, but in the end, when a customer doesn't get his goods, its the seller that gets all the heat and blame.

As for T3 copying designs for their products. I have no knowladge of that but again I'm no expert. Only thing I can think of is, how much different can you design certain things. An RCA is an RCA, a camber plate a camber plate. Asfar as I can judge T3 is very forthcoming in informing you what they sell, if you think the more expensive item at a competitor is better constructed, you are free to shop there. But in the end, you are buying through the internet and often you can't make accurate judgement until you have the item in hands.

Thats why Dutch goverment has put up a law that any item bought over the internet can be returned with full refund of purchase including shipping within 7 days of recieving the product (unless its perishable goods or a produced on order goods), provided the product is unused and undamaged. A highly impractical law when you're selling abroad though which is something we're still trying to figure the details of when we're expected to adhere to this law.

[matt mead]

i said before that i would talk about the problems i have had with t3 stuff, but ive decided against as its how the dude makes a living and i wouldnt like someone doing that to me..

would be good to see gabes reply to als comments but