Well it has been a wild couple of years.
When I first started making templates for my own car and realized that I could sell the parts to other J owners, it created a lot of excitement. I think that I have proven that my graphic design skills translate well into the automotive field, but unfortunately I seem to lack the planning and time it takes to properly run an efficient business at it.
Customer service issues such as record-keeping, inventory maintenance and speedy shipping are obviously not my strong points. I ran several GPs on the hope that the parts would be ready to ship by the time I started collecting payments, which left me wide open to trouble.
Sometimes parts would be ready but require preparations such as slight sanding or back-taping that I did not have time to do. Or I'd fail to have enough shipping envelopes on hand to get them out. Or I'd have a stack of people's orders all addressed and ready to go to the post office but they'd get left on the back seat of my car. You get the point.
And when I made a big fuss in here about how the business was being transferred to A Plus Performance, it seemed like everyone was finally going to have access to my parts from a reliable vendor, but even that got screwed up when my supplier dropped the ball the worst of all and can no longer even make them.
I would just like the opportunity to apologize one last time and move on. Many of the problems with Blue Cav Customs were not my fault, but could have been avoided with proper planning. I literally went from doing stuff for my own car to trying to launch a complicated business in one week. I hope that everyone can understand this and maybe even learn from it.
I am currently in the process of refunding quite a bit of money to some of you from the carbon fiber GP that has been 4 months of disaster. It will all get paid back - I like being a member here and no one wants the stigma of being a thief or a bad businessman. Once I get that part taken care of, I plan to find a new supplier and get these templates over to Jason right away (if he is still interested) so you guys can get these parts.
I doubt that I will ever be able to fit running a second business into my schedule, but I did enjoy it for a short time and it helped me get the extra cash to get a lot of things on my car finished. I hope that I have not ruined my reputation in anyone's eyes and that everyone can see that I never intended to cause anyone any problems.
Anyway, this has been bugging me for a while and I wanted to get this out in the open. I am embarassed about the way things went and just wanted everyone to know where I stood. I'm normally a very organized and efficient person (just look at my garage
) and it disgusts me to represent myself in a negative light.
Thanks!
Steve Wood
Blue Cav Customs
(still alive on eBay until the aluminum parts run out!)
live learn fail succed and move on(not always in that order) , the stories of our lives
the few parts ive got from you ive been very happy with
things happen , as long as something is learned , its not a complete failure
i thought you did good....thanks.
FOR SALE: (5) '95-'99 Z24 Rims
got my parts, in a timely fashion so i gots nothin but love for ya
Hmmmm....never had a problem with anything I ordered from you!
Eh...old man with a Corvette now...it was bound to happen sooner rather than later right?
if you never did anything wrong youd never know what right was
and your life would feel empty cuz you would never learn
From what I've heard, the stuff turned out nice. I saw the CF bowtie you sent scorpio1. Nicely done. Just wish there would have been some Sunfire lovins.
Only issue I ever had was the bowtie messing up, which you made right...I say you're a great businessman!
live and learn steve...as far as i'm concerned your an upstanding guy and never had a problem with anything ..was always a pleasure to do business with ya and products were always top of the line....so as you can see alot of us feel the same way....
http://members.cardomain.com/bozeybeau
I appreciate all of the positive comments.
Hopefully things will get worked out and I can have a second go at this later this year or early next year.
nice to see you stand up and accept your responsibillity instead of run and hide like allot of people do. my suggestion is to just skip the group purchases and just do things on a 1 on 1 basis. someone sends ut hte money u make a part. and so on. this requires you to make an investment on ordering the materials but if people like the product u shouldnt have an issue with that sence allot of people like what your making and are willing to pay. this way if you get bogged down your only concern is one customer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
I'm still said cause the Ecotec CF Thing you sent me was to small...
*tears running heavy now*
And you never sent me a replacement like you said you would.
*Boo Hooooo, keyboard wet with tears*
Can you still make things right, I helped you when you needed it....
I was planning to send it along with the order for brushed you said you wanted. I even sent you the PayPal request you wanted...
Let me know whats up with all that and I'll get it in the mail.
Wow, you are an upstanding and honest guy.
As for supplies, am i to understand you were making real carbon fiber parts?
No wonder you went out of business, i can't even get a few yards of carbon fiber shipped here without being an aircraft company. There is virtually no supply left for the little guy.
I've had to switch over to kevlar in order build any parts.
So you ran a company that worked for a while and died, so what. We all have thoes war stories. The point is that you did it, you tried. It takes a lot of balls to start a business and even more to pay back thoes who didnt get parts when it fails, i salute you.
I'm looking to buy a CnC machine as there isnt enough parts for the LN2 out there, and I would like to produce parts for my own, and then maybe even start selling them. I realize if i begin production for sale, i'll have to get an assembly line going or a warehouse of cnc's, but thats okay, i got a warehouse already bottling naturals, so it would be but a minor purchase for cncs.
Good luck in the future, perhaps if we could get you some materials you could finish up orders?
Takes alot of back bone to stand up and say I made a mistake.Even more to try and make things right.
Thats Him Officer The WICKED One.
I still think you freakin rock!!! And will always.
The parts I got were awsome and I will enjoy them for years to come, if I ever see your name pop up again in the GP forum, and you are selling something I want, I will not hesitate to buy it. I ordered my CF parts and got them within a week which is much more than I can say for some businesses. I ordered from you know that I was dealing with a small business making custom parts for a "uncustomized" platform in the aftermarket and was prepared to wait as long as needed for the parts.
ANYWAY, enough of that, good luck in all you do and hope we can all get this whole CF GP behind us for now. Hopefully it will come back someday?
we could use more apologies from other bussiness's that ran in problems on here.
either way, good luck.
-Borsty
Kardain wrote:From what I've heard, the stuff turned out nice. I saw the CF bowtie you sent scorpio1. Nicely done. Just wish there would have been some Sunfire lovins.
True dat!
Steve, your work on the parts was amazing! And evryoneof the parts i ordered from you (i think i have like all but 1 of the carbon fiber parts you offered) were of excellent quality, looked great, and fit perfect!
In fact when people ask were I got my parts I proudly say, "My boy Steve at Blue Cav, but he dont make them no more, limited production products." And they respond, "Damn, those are sweet, I wish he still made them. i want some!"
So the product was there and working, but it was as you stated planning and bad luck issues that set you on the downward spiral.
But this happens with every business, so there are no hard feelings from me, and if anyone else has hard feelings abut this, well then, they are being ignorant and ignoring the facts.
Good luck Steve with your future endeavors, and if and when you get better panning skills, make more custom stuff for us! LOL
I know Steve has been nothing but an upfront person to deal with.
I had been working on him for some time to get some items templated for the Sunfire dash I swapped into my Cavalier. I sent him some of my dash parts to use, and sent my Sunfire cluster to Martin (buzz122) to get the lights colors changed, then it would go on to Steve for templating.
With my delays in shipping, and the other random stuff that came up, these parts never came to fruition. Good thing is (I guess I can call it good) I no longer have my Cavalier that I send him Sunfire dash parts out of, so no loss for me.
Good luck Steve, and in whatever you do in the future, best wishes.
My Car Domain
