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Lovefab strike again...

Joined
10 August 2010
Messages
633
Just wanted to throw out a review of my terrible experience with Cody at Lovefab. The last 11 months have been filled with nothing but lies and delays.


In January of 2016 I began working with Cody on getting my C30A built. I needed a crank which Cody had, and I had a spare motor ready to send out. I outlined my exact specifications, and Cody indicated this would not be a problem. The build consisted of several processes that would need to be performed by various machine shops, Benson was doing the sleeving, the main caps would need a line bore/hone, the rods would need the bushings resized, and the crank would need to be balanced. These processes were all known up front. I was supplying Cody with the billet oil pump which was being worked by SOS. This had a delay of it’s own but was not on critical path at any point of the build. The block was on the critical path during the entire duration of the build. I sent Cody a wire transfer of $9575 on the 4th of February. This covered parts and machine shop costs with a relatively small balance to be paid for the assembly. I also shipped the block to Benson myself on the 5th, payment for the sleeving was through Cody. More on this below…

The first few months consisted of waiting on third parties to finish up the sleeving of the block and oil pump machining. During this time Cody had all of the resources needed to balance the crank, and address the cylinder heads so they were ready when the block was done. Cody indicated Benson was finished working the block in the middle of May which was in line with our expectations. Over the next 2 months I didn’t receive any communication about the build. Several status updates were requested but no response. I finally received the oil pump from SOS on the 17th of July and sent it to Cody and emailed again requesting update. The first response I finally got was July 18th, over 2 months later. This response was not of any substance, it just indicated he would focus on my build during the first week of August. I Requested Several status updates in August, no response back. September 1st Cody responds that the block is still at the machine shop for the line bore/hone and that it had been there all summer. I would later find out this was all a lie, and Cody actually didn’t even pay Benson until September! See below.

October 11th, Finally I have had enough. At this point it seems like nothing has actually been done, I have no evidence of the work and have only had 2 communications from Cody in the last 5 months neither of which indicated that he had actually done anything at all! I emailed Cody informing him I would need to pick up the motor complete, or incomplete in one month. Cody called on the 13th and claimed he didn’t see my correspondence…at this time he claimed the machine shop could not perform the line bore/hone due to the dissimilar metals of the aluminum block and steel main caps and would need to send it to another shop…but was confident he could meet the one month deadline. Allegedly the heads were done, rotating assembly(balance and machine rod bushings) was ready for pickup. I made it clear I needed an update per week and I conceded if there was progress made and updates delivered weekly I would be more flexible on the one month deadline. Cody agreed to deliver one update per week. I only received one weekly update, the first, over the next 4 weeks.

On the 14th of November I posted on the in the owners group on Facebook to find out the rules on calling out shops since this seemed to be taboo for some reason. This gained a response within minutes from Cody indicated he would call me the next day. I missed the call but Cody emailed me indicating the rods were back from having the bushings worked, and the crank ready to get balanced. The block was still not line honed. Cody called me on the 18th and indicated he would find another machine shop to do the line bore. At this point, to my knowledge, Cody has had almost 10k dollars of my money for 9 months and only finished the head work and machined the C30 Carrillo rods for the larger C32 wrist pins. I told Cody to stop the build immediately and ship me back the motor unassembled. I outlined my expectations for a refund on the services that were not rendered and the parts I would not be expecting and my reasoning. I requested we work out an amicable agreement for this refund, but instead was given an invoice with restocking fees, shipping costs and added labor. I wasn’t interested in arguing about this, I just wanted to move on. Cody indicated he could not ship back until December 13th.

December 13th came and went. On the 15th I emailed requesting a status on the shipment and tracking numbers if applicable. Cody responded that day and indicated he was too busy with paid work to ship everything. I had to remind him that my work was paid work. Several more weeks go by, no word from Cody. January 4th I inform Cody I will be coming out to pick everything up myself on Friday January 6th 2017. Everything went as planned on Friday I drove 15 hours each way to Michigan and back. The motor and refund was ready. Unfortunately it turned out the crank was actually damaged which was not disclosed until the day I picked it up. The journals are fine, but the motor snapped a rod and nicked the counterbalance. Upon further Inspection I also found the shipping labels from Benson machine affixed to the box the block was in. The label and subsequence phone call would confirm the block was not shipped until September 15th due to a lack of payment. Finally, I would also come to find the pistons spec sheet provided by CP was not even printed until September 14th meaning Cody could not have received the pistons until a later date.

More info:

Emails
Benson Shipping
Piston Spec Sheet
 
F@cking terrible. Such a shame man. Take your hard earned cash and buy a fast car right out of the box with a warranty.
Sorry man....
 
Cody has dealt out nothing but BS to me as well. Zero communication until I commented on his many Facebook project updates, then he magically responded instantly.
 
Well......hate to say it butttttttttttt.....I told you so. Cody has no scruples as a business owner and will lie, spend your money to fund other projects and steal parts that you have already paid for and sell them to other people. He is nothing more than a common criminal and has proven himself s such time and time again.

I used to believe that he just had a racing addiction and no funding to do so.....but I wonder if there are other vices involved as well.
 
sounds like hennessey
 
Why does he still have a 100% feedback score?

If you have negative experiences, PLEASE leave feedback as it may help others down the road.

A newbie doing a search on Prime would only encounter a few hidden threads about the problems, whereas the feedback score is right under the account name on all posts.

Sorry to hear about your issues E-nough Logic. I concluded long ago after reading these types of posts that Cody will take care of the local folks but the out-of-state customers frequently get screwed... like Hennessey customers.
 
Bumping this for visibility. Vendors with no morals and shitty business practices can burn in Hell. I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you. As a victim of a "tuner" shop to the tune of over $17,000 with nothing to show for it, I empathize. Hopefully you can get your stuff back and just move on. Please please PLEASE leave negative feedback on this forum so that others will be steered away from him.
 
Why does he still have a 100% feedback score?

If you have negative experiences, PLEASE leave feedback as it may help others down the road.

A newbie doing a search on Prime would only encounter a few hidden threads about the problems, whereas the feedback score is right under the account name on all posts.

Sorry to hear about your issues E-nough Logic. I concluded long ago after reading these types of posts that Cody will take care of the local folks but the out-of-state customers frequently get screwed... like Hennessey customers.

Unless something on this site has changed, you have to cite a specific thread regarding the feedback you leave.

That works fine for a product that has been offered FS, but not for something like an engine build service that hasn't been advertised in its own individual thread.

As to Lovefab favoring local (Michigan) folks over those farther away.........from my experience that hypothesis doesn't hold up.

As much as I truly want Lovefab to thrive, if I've learned anything running my own business over 30+ years is that you have to under-promise and over-deliver to your customer base.

Period. No excuses.
 
Unless something on this site has changed, you have to cite a specific thread regarding the feedback you leave.

That's exactly right. This thread may be linked to the negative feedback if the OP wishes to. Same thing with NA1MT and his thread on the issues he had with Lovefab. The deal thread may be anything.
 
After all of the documented threads on this site regarding other members having issues with him, why would you send money to him in the first place?
 
After all of the documented threads on this site regarding other members having issues with him, why would you send money to him in the first place?

I think because those threads aren't very visible.
 
How does it not hold up? You're in Michigan! It just proves my point!

Maybe I could have worded it better, what I meant was it sure seems like the folks in MI have no advantage timewise (or any other factor) over those far away.
 
I know a lot of you guys live far away from SOS, Autowave, or driving ambition. But if you sink so much money into a motor, what's another grand for a transport or plane ticket and a couple thousand miles? I couldn't even imagine how pissed I would be if it was my car and my cash. Those three mentioned are the only 3 I would ever consider. SOS being the top dog.
 
A little icing on the cake I forgot to post about. When I had originally spec'd out the motor I had intended to run Pauter rods, but as these were a custom order it would have been a 2 month delay. Instead I chose to switch to the more expensive Carrillo Rods. Normally Cody charges $1725 for these rods as seen on my first estimate, but had agree to work with me on the price due to the delays on Pauter rods. I paid $1625 for these rods. Instead of providing the agreed upon rods for $1625, Cody chose to order the cheaper Carrillo Rods without the upgraded bolts. The typical price from most vendors on these rods are under $1450.
 
It's all typical Cody behaivior........I remember him telling someonelse that their trans was out of the car and they pulled the sneak attack on him to find the car hadn't even been touched. He lies without hesitation or conscience......he is really just a con artist.
 
Yet people are still going to him now and planning in the coming months/future to Cody for their turbo build, I don't get why after all of the negative feedback.

It's all typical Cody behaivior........I remember him telling someonelse that their trans was out of the car and they pulled the sneak attack on him to find the car hadn't even been touched. He lies without hesitation or conscience......he is really just a con artist.
 
His work sucked.....he blew up three motors, with the car in his possession, and his "proven" systems are mediocre junk anyway.
 
Lovefab turbo systems: A proven way to drive up the cost of C motor parts.:biggrin:
 
A little icing on the cake I forgot to post about. When I had originally spec'd out the motor I had intended to run Pauter rods, but as these were a custom order it would have been a 2 month delay. Instead I chose to switch to the more expensive Carrillo Rods. Normally Cody charges $1725 for these rods as seen on my first estimate, but had agree to work with me on the price due to the delays on Pauter rods. I paid $1625 for these rods. Instead of providing the agreed upon rods for $1625, Cody chose to order the cheaper Carrillo Rods without the upgraded bolts. The typical price from most vendors on these rods are under $1450.


Did you speak to him about this or try to contact Cody?


I bet this isn't the first time he's pulled such a trick either!
 
Yet people are still going to him now and planning in the coming months/future to Cody for their turbo build, I don't get why after all of the negative feedback.

I just wanted to touch on this subject as it continues to come up on these threads. Why would someone go to Lovefab knowing their history? I was well aware of their history to a certain extent. Many delays and missed deadlines were expected up front to be honest. I looked through many threads, and it did seem like the bulk were more than 2 years old(at the time) and that Cody may have improved since downsizing and moving back to his house. More importantly most of the bad threads appeared to result in a customer who, in the end, did receive a quality product. What I did not expect were the lies, deceitful practices and complete lack of any progress at all. At least this year they opened a gofundme for their race car... I guess last year, when i made my deposit, they had more resources to work with...
 
sounds like a small business owner that sloppily burns thru all the cash and needs fresh projects (income) to pay off the previous jobs; sadly the musical chairs method of running a small business happens unbelievably often. good luck OP
 
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