COMPLAINT ABOUT MARK JOHNSON OF DALI RACING

[19inchNSX]

This a e-mail sent today to the Big NSX Mailing list by a guy named Henry. I am posting this so that this guy hopefully will get his money from Mark and so that people in this forum can see the different side of Mark Johnson that most do not know about except for some people on the e-mail list.

Hello All,

Sorry for the waste of bandwidth but I'm running out of option and getting really desperate.


Complaint about Mark Johnson at Dali Racing

If any of you remember, I had a set of Japanese lightweight forged bbs wheels for sale last year and Mark Johnson from Dali racing agreed to buy it at a certain price. I've dealt with Mark before and he seemed to be a nice and upright guy so I sent him the set of bbs wheels LAST year hoping that he'll either send me money for the wheels or some of his nsx products as an exchange. Well, it has been 7 months now and I still haven't received any payment or car parts for the wheels from Mark yet. I've tried emailing Mark privately a zillion times but throughout these past months, I only got a couple responses from Mark and he kept saying he's too busy to honor our deal.

WHAT?! TOO BUSY TO HONOR THE DEAL??? WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS IS THAT???? It seems that Mark has all the time to reply others and have time to have fun but no time to work on our deal! And the fact that Mark ignores my emails doesn't help the situation much!

Mark, I know you're reading this. Is there a problem? What's going on?? We had a good business relationship, what happened???? Talk to me!!!!

Again, sorry for the waste of bandwidth for I'm really really desperate. I need all the help I can get. Thnx.

Regards,

Henry.

[email protected]




[This message has been edited by 19inchNSX (edited 09 May 2001).]

 

[Sig]

That really sucks. I hope he gets something worked out. Meanwhile, I just ordered some stuff from him last week. I hope he doesn't get too busy that I don't see the goods till December. Additionally, there are probably 2 sides to this story.

 

[19inchNSX]

Originally posted by Sig:
Additionally, there are probably 2 sides to this story.

That is true, but its been over a day and he has not responded to the NSX mail list about this yet but had time to fire off 2 e-mails about products and etc. Another list member who knows Henry, has asked the NSX list community to talk about this so that Mark would take care of this matter. Here is the e-mail.


Guys, it is time that Mark should respond to this publicly. I think it is
appropriate to discuss it here. The list is not only a NSX list but a community.
I don't
know all the details but apparently a few months ago Henry has inquired about
this issue. I thought Mark finally paid Henry but apparently not. I met Henry
in Hong Kong and had seen the set of BBS wheels. Henry is one of the most
generous and kind people I have met. He is always offering helps to me
and other list members. He has shipped NSX parts to me and George and so on
without asking us for money first. One time he miscalculated the shipping
charges and under-quoted me and he ended up paying for the extra shipping
HIMSELF voluntarily. If you guys have seen my car, you will notice the beautiful
factory NSX foglights. These foglights were given to me by Henry as GIFTS the
FIRST TIME I met him!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are all very scared of sending money out to buy something but never receive
the goods especially sending it to foreign countries. Now Henry sent the
wheels in good faith a few months ago and the deal is still not closed yet.
There is something really wrong here!
Please do not brush me off for posting non NSX content since I feel that this
matter requires the community acknowledgement and guidance. Mark has been
an invaluable member supporting this community. However, from time to time, we
all hear people looking for him for various reasons mostly not receiving
replies, merchandises, etc. As I said, I don't know all the details so I cannot
make any judgement here. But I do want to know the details since I likely will
do some business again with Mark in the future. If what Heny said is true, I
urge Mark to honor his promise now. So, tell us the story, Mark!
Regards,
Steve
[email protected]

 

[RPM]

Hey 19inch or whatever your name is:

You seems to be a good fan of Mark Johnson and Mark Basch, first it was your litigation against Mark Bash, now is Mark Johnson. Why are you so worry about someone else's problem. I bet you that if it would have been another person with this problem,rather than Mark Johnson, you wouldnt say anything.

Stop the BS..........................

[This message has been edited by RPM (edited 09 May 2001).]

 

[Andrie Hartanto]

I agree that 19inch sounds like he has another agenda.

But I'm a friend of HEnry, Steve and George, and would like to hear what Mark J has to say.

I've been dealing with Mark J with great success. So this should be really interesting

 

[19inchNSX]

Originally posted by Andrie Hartanto:
I agree that 19inch sounds like he has another agenda.

But I'm a friend of HEnry, Steve and George, and would like to hear what Mark J has to say.

I've been dealing with Mark J with great success. So this should be really interesting

Hey that's great if you had a great dealing with Mark. But Myself and others have not.
Look at other people's posts about items they paid for and never received. Have another agenda? No. I just have a bad experience with Mark & Mark.

 

[19inchNSX]

Originally posted by RPM:
Hey 19inch or whatever your name is:

You seems to be a good fan of Mark Johnson and Mark Basch, first it was your litigation against Mark Bash, now is Mark Johnson. Why are you so worry about someone else's problem. I bet you that if it would have been another person with this problem,rather than Mark Johnson, you wouldnt say anything.

Stop the BS..........................

[This message has been edited by RPM (edited 09 May 2001).]

Had it been just another person other than Mark, maybe I would have not posted it because I haven't dealt with the person. But I believe its perfectly fair to voice my opinion about someone that I've had dealings with and someone that is a "Vendor" and not just regular guy.

Hmmm........it seems like you've been around the forum long enough to see my previous posts. It seems rather odd, that with such interest and knowledge in this forum that you have just registered today and have only one post ever. So RPM....."or whatever your name is" what is your "agenda"?


[This message has been edited by 19inchNSX (edited 09 May 2001).]

 

[erobbins]

I don't know the whole story, and quite frankly I don't care to. Everything posted above is heresay, but that's another matter altogether.

Anyway, this doesn't sound like the Mark Johnson that I know. Note: He and I have struck up a bit of a friendship since I met him in Dallas last year, so I may be a bit biased - I think that full disclosure is important so that no one is accused of having an "agenda". I'm just tossing in my opinion because I think Mark is getting trashed unfairly.

Yes... Dali Racing is a "vendor". But, as a community, we all know that Dali is one guy - Mark Johnson. We all know that he has a hectic schedule and travels out of the country quite a bit. We also know that to keep cost down, he carries little or no inventory and often takes backorders for a quantity of products so that they can be manufactured in quantity. Mark does this to keep costs down and keep many of his products affordable.

However, this also seems to be a key point of frustration for customers who don't know this or aren't expecting it. I went through it when I first got my NSX, but as soon as I knew the deal, I had no problem with the level of service. He isn't Comptech - he doesn't have a staff of R&D and Inside Sales people. But we aren't paying for those people's salaries in the products we buy from Dali!

Bottom line is this - there is no reason to be posting this type of personal dispute in an open, public forum. Your intent was to try and force Mark's hand to respond to these allegations so that he doesn't look like a crook. That's a pretty low thing to do. My recommendation to Mark would be to ignore it and don't bother responding.

EDR
91 Black/Ivory #3012

 

[David]

Bottom line is this - there is no reason to be posting this type of personal dispute in an open, public forum. Your intent was to try and force Mark's hand to respond to these allegations so that he doesn't look like a crook. That's a pretty low thing to do. My recommendation to Mark would be to ignore it and don't bother responding.[/B]

I respectfully disagree. What should he do? Sue him? That's hardly a realistic option. If he has really been trying to get a response for that long and is being ignored, then he has every right to move the dispute into the public arena. Any vendor that has had that much time to deal with the issue and has chosen not to can not complain if it spills out into the open. That is how business should work. Irate customers have the right to air their grievances and that should also be one of the functions of a public forum (as long as it does not degenerate into school yard name calling). I think the original message was posted in a very matter-of-fact way and have no problem with it. We can hear both sides if Mark chooses to respond and decide for ourselves what the situation is. In any case, this process - when it works - leads to better informed consumers. I for one am happy to hear any and all complaints about any and all vendors so that I can decide for myself what I believe and make purchase decisions accordingly.

Whew - didn't mean to be so long winded.


[This message has been edited by David (edited 09 May 2001).]

 

[nsxhk]

Hello All,

Yes, there're always 2 sides of a story. I shared my side of the story and want to know Mark's side of the story. Communication is one of the key elements in doing business. If there's indeed a problem, why didn't Mark tell me? Instead, he sent me a couple replies months ago saying he's too busy?! We're not talking about days or weeks here, we're talking about months of ignoring my emails!!

Put yourself in my position, you sent out your wheels to the buyer and never get paid. You ask the buyer to pay up but he ignores you, how would you feel? What would you do? This is totally different from emailling Mark to purchase parts and he ignores you. You lose nothing if Mark decides to ignore you. The BBS wheels that I sent Mark were over US$3000 when I bought it!!

You might say I'm stupid to send out the wheels without payment in the first place, What can I say... I trusted Mark!

Again, what I'm trying to do here is to get Mark Johnson to talk to me instead of ignoring me. We can always work something out.

Henry.

 

[justin hall]

Originally posted by erobbins:
...We also know that to keep cost down, he carries little or no inventory and often takes backorders for a quantity of products so that they can be manufactured in quantity. Mark does this to keep costs down and keep many of his products affordable.

However, this also seems to be a key point of frustration for customers who don't know this or aren't expecting it...

erobbins, to say "we all know" is a bit of a stretch, especially for new owners. You make a good point, which illustrates my INITIAL issues with Mark / Dali / NSXGOD / whatever he calls himself. It is called managing expectations. Close to a year ago I ordered a simple cup holder and koni shock adjuster from him, paid for them, and got the shock adjuster almost immediately. However, no cup holder. After what I consider some badgering from my end, I got parts of the cup holder, but I ordered the "separates" and did not get the holder for the big cups. After about 4 months, he FINALLY told me that he needed to get some more orders to justify getting the part fabricated.

Once I got some feedback I was totally okay with it. Since then I have ordered many other things from Mark and had no problems and found Mark to be very responsive. I would think we have struck a bit of a friendship, although we have never met f/f.

So, the moral of the story here (only from my perspective) is Mark has some strengths and weaknesses (as we all do) and one of his weaknesses is he doesn't do a good job communicating delays - managing expectations. It seems that he sometimes does not realize the sense of urgency some of his customers have, and when they don’t get feedback on delays they get frustrated. Once I reached that understanding with myself, "that is just how he is" I came to like Mark.

About the wheels, while as I said before I don’t know him very well, that seems out of character.

 

[SigEpUCI]

I bought stuff from him before, and plan to buy again, but now im concerned. I don't understand why you guys are criticizin 19Inch, you should be smart enough to tell if hes trying to slander or not. The bottom line is hes showing 'the other side' and that for one matters to me. I don't want to send money if i'm not going to get the merchandise in a year. In addition, i would like to see justification/explanation from Marc. This is his business, and one of the responsibilities is to defend public criticism.

 

[nel]

Originally posted by nsxhk:
...Again, what I'm trying to do here is to get Mark Johnson to talk to me instead of ignoring me. We can always work something out...

Henry, have you tried to phone him directly instead of email? Please keep us posted.

 

[jag]

I am new to this forum, but I am not new to running a business. Customer service is what it's all about. Whether it's good news or bad news, you have to tell it like it is... honest communication. As stated previously, I agree that this forum should be used to share our experiences... positive and negative about vendors that vie for our business. If it's important to Marc he should respond.
jmo

[This message has been edited by jag (edited 13 May 2001).]

 

[erobbins]

Quote: "If it's important to Marc he should respond."

I agree. However, it's not important to anyone other than the guy that shipped him the wheels, so he should respond to him directly... not to all of us in a public forum.

EDR
91 Black/Ivory #3012

 

[David]

Originally posted by erobbins:
[Bit's not important to anyone other than the guy that shipped him the wheels, so he should respond to him directly... not to all of us in a public forum.[/B]

Again, I disagree. Mark's dealings with other customers have a direct impact on how I feel about dealing with him.

 

[queenlives]

i think a key component to creating a positive vendor reputation is how the vendor interacts and works with their customers. treat the customer well and the word gets around; treat them poorly and *that* word gets around as well :<(

i'd say it's perfectly reasonable to expect markj to give his side of the story on the various non-delivery issues in the same forum that supports his business.

be well.
hal

 

[ilya]

I have never personally met or spoken to Mark. However, I support 19inchNSX in posting this on the forum. We have a right to know what is happening between customers and vendors.
This was posted on the nsx listserver, and many more people probably saw it there than here. This is part of the NSX community and should be here as well. It's important for us to be informed of what is happening, and if this should have been posted anywhere... it's right here.
I don't believe that many of us are looking for some kind of apology or extended explanation by Mark. Hopefully they can work this out personally. I would just like to see a happy post in the end from Henry stating that all is resolved and that it was a misunderstanding. It's none of my business of who, what, when, why and how. Just our perogative to know that all promises were kept and resolved by one of this forum's vendors.

 

[Sig]

Just an FYI-

I recently purchased some suspension stuff from Dali. Mark was very responsive to my questions and the products were shipped in a timely fashion. It is unfortunate that bad experiences happen, but I had no problems. Good luck to all.

 

[queenlives]

19,

i'm curious if your issue with mark johnson was ever resolved?

best,
hal

 

[David]

henry posted on the mailing list that Mark finally contacted him to work something out.

 

[queenlives]

thanks david.

 

[Ag NSX]

FYI, This matter is still unresolved.

 

[Mantra]

I am another UNSATISFIED client of Mark Johnson. I read right now this topic, and 19inch... has all my comprehension. I ordered and PAID in advance through Internet a pair of fix-it thingies from Dali Racing. Mark sent me three prompt e-mails about these objects, about their price, availability, compatibility, and so on... After a month I paid, I started asking him about these parts, and HE NEVER ANSWERED E-MAILS for the following 20 days !!! As soon as I menaced him of telling this behaviour on every NSX-related forum I knew, he IMMEDIATELY refunded me, and told me he hasn't the time to follow my order and that I surely would have found someone else for buying these items. HE LOST ANOTHER CUSTOMER just trying to earn A FEW easy bucks !!! I wouldn't have believed this until I read the other complaints here, so I decided to tell my story, too. You guys defending him, I think you should consider ALL these complaints before judging, and before buying again, too: it is not happy to find a similar behaviour when you decide to trust someone, especially from abroad !
Just look at how much free help some other vendors give on these forums (ScienceofSpeed over all) ! Please notice I am from Italy, so I don't know any of these guys personally, nor am interested in helping anyone against any other guy. Regards. Cristiano.

 

[Ryoma]

I just moments ago wrote Mark a thank you email for the awesome service and impressive product I received. I ordered the polished coolant bottle last week (I sent my money order Wednesday, I believe) and got it yesterday. It is fantastic looking. He answered all my emails and my annoying questions in a timely and pleasant manner.


My only other transaction with him was buying the clutch and the only nit-picky things that I can say about that are that he doesn't always have them in stock (I understand the reality of that - I'm just your typical spoiled American consumer) and that I never got my core charge back for the old clutch. That eventuality however was made perfectly clear from the very onset. He was extremely helpful with product support following a rather mediocre (at best) install by my dealership, too, putting me in contact with Mark Basch almost instantly.


Obviously I can only offer as evidence of his character my experiences with him, as I know nothing of anyone else's (beyond this thread). I would recommend him as someone to do business with based on the service I received and the quality of the products that I received.