[Slow335i]

VIP Tuning - a stern WARNING to the community

Grab a cold beer (or a 6 pack), hot coffee, box of donuts, and relax for a while so you can get through this. PLEASE take the time to read this!!! I have taken hours of my time to compose this because I feel very strongly toward illegitimate and bad businesses, but I also feel part of the family when we all own the same cars and love them equally. E90, etc. brothers, this is here to protect you so we all can enjoy our cars and mods without fret.


We have a lot to talk about here and I want to begin by offering my sincerest, most stern warning to all those considering doing business with the fraudulent VIP Tuning “Inc.”. It is to be noted that VIP Tuning “Inc.“ is owned and run by an individual named Jacque Deas. It is also to be understood that I am utilizing quotations around the Incorporated title because that is how he advertises his business, as an incorporated entity. Here is a picture of his business card, clearly listed as incorporated. Through a simple background search, my lawyer has determined that VIP Tuning is in fact not incorporated (reference http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/ficide...m=G07219900039), but only a DBA (doing business as), or more formerly a fictitious name under his brother’s transport company. The business is owned and operated near Boca Raton, FL off of Hillsboro Blvd. and Lyons Rd., as the address listed on the business card is accurate. The ‘shop’ is a one-lift undersized warehouse in a warehouse district that isn’t even coded for this type of work, but he tells the landlord that he is doing R&D only in there. Clearly, he benefits profitably off of the customer that arrives at the shop to have work done. Some on SOFLAE90 have had the delight of this guy doing work on their car, actually because I unfortunately made what little name he had on there.

Getting into some background information, I helped him on occasion at the ‘shop’ with random jobs, but I am not a mechanic nor do I have the know-how to do such work, so my help was somewhat limited. I created a name on N54tech.com and SOFLAE90 as Mike@VIP Tuning, mainly to help market products and spread the word, because at the time I was close with him and he took care of me and the needs for my car. As I began to help him make a name in the BMW community, I realized some of his sketchy practices I will elaborate on later. In return, I got random labor performed on my car at no cost, only the cost of material (like piping for example). As I participated in the community, especially locally here in South Florida, I met new people and made new friends. One of which has been screwed as well. Mr. Deas works as the master technician at Vista BMW in Pompano Beach, Florida. He often works on Vista BMW’s customer’s cars.

Progressively, as things seemed to be going well and my trust built up in Mr. Deas, I felt it couldn’t hurt to have my mom benefit off this relationship by hooking up her R230 Mercedes Benz SL 550 (2007) on 19’’ and 20’’ Maya wheels. I was looking at some body kits and figuring out which to order, as my mom fell in love with a certain kit formerly known as the Lorinser GS03 Widebody Kit for the R230 SL 550. I called Mr. Deas up and asked if he knew anybody that dealt in body parts and if he knew where exactly I could purchase such a kit. I gave him the specific information and he returned with a price quote on the Lorinser GS03 Nardo Widebody Kit. Since the chrome on my mom’s wheels wasn’t in the best aesthetic condition, I opted to have the wheels sandblasted and powder coated for the cost of about $200 and the AMG tail lights for about $400. The bill in its entirety came out to be $6,700 in which my mom personally wrote the check, in full, to him and we both delivered it on the premises of Vista BMW in Pompano Beach, Florida. My lawyer researched this matter and revealed that the check was deposited same day to his bank. Keep in mind, I had the check in his hands around 5 PM EST so you can realize the urgency to have the money deposited. He normally goes straight to his shop after work at 5 PM so he delayed such plans in order to have this check deposited immediately. At the time, he was complaining to me how he had missed certain areas of his taxes and owed the IRS a large sum of money around $10,000, and that they seized just about all of his personal funds and put a freeze on many assets. It seems logical he was in a financial pickle, but I thought I knew him well enough to trust. I guess not.

We were told the kit would take about a month from order to delivery. After about a month, he revealed (takes forever to get a response) that part of the kit has arrived at his distributor’s premises in California and the rest was in Germany being built. Every time I asked for an update, he would tell me he would email his distributor, as his distributor answers emails only and prefers not to speak on the phone. Not sure what that is all about. I call shenanigans that there even IS a distributor. After about another month (2 months since order), I kept bothering him about finding out where the kit was and he kept shrugging me off until I forced answers out of him. He finally informed me that it was all ‘in transit’ and it would take a couple weeks to arrive from California to Florida. I was very patient during this entire time and said ‘fine’. After 3 weeks and no products, I demanded answers and an order number as well as the distributor’s information. He declared that the distributor’s information was ‘disclosed’ and it was secret so he would not tell me. I told him to give me an order number so I could contact Lorinser and see if they knew anything. After about 5 days of promising to give me an order number, I get texted a random number so I take that and send it directly to Lorinser in Germany via Email. They forwarded that email to Lorinser in the US where the CEO of Lorinser US contacted me. Shari Hale informed me that she was worried I wasn’t getting legitimate, authentic Lorinser products as she doesn’t know who I am working with or where I am getting such parts from. She told me that no GS03 Nardo wide body parts have been ordered since January where a customer used the kit and put it on an SL that went to the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction. I ordered this kit after that kit was delivered. She expressed concern and informed me of the ONLY distributors in the US that sold these parts. I took note of these two names and called Mr. Deas and asked him if these two people were his distributors and he said no. That’s when I knew I had caught him red handed. I still don’t know, to this day, whether something was actually ordered or whether he was kiting my mom’s $6700 for three months, unable to pay us back or order something with it. Regardless, he advertised to give us authentic products from Lorinser. Ms. Shari Hale wrote to me and informed me that the kit has an MSRP of $39,999, far from the $6,700 we’ve paid in full to Mr. Deas. That’s when we knew he had scammed us so I promptly asked for my money back immediately. He told me that he had to go through the ‘refund process’. Now let me be honest, I’ve done some business, as I am only 18, but I am not retarded. I deal with people for my car/boat/jet ski and my detail business all the time. I am currently dealing with a body shop for my car that got hit (E90 335i) and when I told the owner of the body shop of this ‘refund process’ he laughed and said ‘that is just really bad business’. Basically, he told me the products had already arrived at his other warehouse (speaks of his warehouse all the time, but I’ve never SEEN it whatsoever) and his shipping/packing guy John had to repack and ship it back out. I’ve never seen or met this John through the 8 months I’ve known Mr. Deas so I call shenanigans on the John as well. Months before that, he told me he had a few people working that did packaging/shipping/quality control of his intakes that he was producing, but they were such terrible products nobody would buy one, so I’m not exactly sure why there was a need for people to be doing this. The next lie I caught him in was his ‘gorgeous secretary’ named Jennifer that worked in the office of his warehouse that is about as big as my bed room is. He told me she works normal business hours in the office and uses his iPhone to answer calls. I never got in touch with her after calling numerous times and arriving at the shop during normal business days/hours and seeing the shop closed and lights turned off. I believe this is another BS part of his scam story, as he doesn’t even have the money to pay my refund back to me, or any of my friends (more coming on that). Back when he was selling the intakes because no other intake was out and this was the only option until UR came out with an intake that was actually a good design, he would continually delay intake orders because his ‘manufacturing’ couldn’t do it fast enough. His manufacturing was his physical body sitting on the TIG welder every night in his one lift warehouse, not able to produce enough intakes to meet demand. Many customers became upset and the excuses just continued. The lies only kept adding on. Remember those 416 RWHP dynos that everybody claimed he used nitrous? A friend of mine was there and told me this was true. I’ll post the dyno, just ask.

So about the ‘refund process’, I was informed the products had arrived (but wait, I cancelled because they didn’t arrive and I caught him) and they had to be sent back out. I asked to see them to see if I liked them but he made up an excuse that I couldn’t see them as they already have been packaged up again. I know nothing had ever arrived in the first place because if it did I would have gotten a call to see it. I, also, am not aware of any refund ‘process’ that takes two weeks because he said he had to get the money from his distributor so he could write me a check, informing me that he is not a ‘millionaire’ like my mother is. Classy. I was still okay as a person with him at the time, and just wanted the money and no BS, so I gave him two weeks from a Tuesday and specifically explained to him on the phone that I want it no later than that two week deadline (the Tuesday two weeks later). As the deadline approached, he confidently informed me that he was getting the money and as it came closer, he said he’d have the money by the Friday of the week that I was supposed to get the money (on a Tuesday). I said this is unacceptable, he was just trying to keep stalling us because he didn’t have the money. I told him that we’d have to get our lawyer involved if we don’t see the money on time, and he got all defensive about it so that was that. Of course we didn’t see the money on the deadline. Of course. So, we contacted our attorney and he found out the information I listed earlier about the incorporated title which he wasn’t and about the history of what he did with the check. I regret not actively verifying PayPal so I could send that sum of money, this would be over with. So I went to his shop and spoke with him and he told me to have my lawyer contact his lawyer, but he never gave me contact information. I called him later and he became enraged when he knew I was contacting my lawyer and told me that my lawyer needs to call him. So I give his information to my lawyer and my lawyer calls him and gets no answer so he leaves a message and doesn’t get a call back. Classy. What a legitimate business, huh? So we’re still out of pocket $6,700 and I feel so bad for my mom since it’s my fault I recommended Mr. Deas. I know it’s only money, but this is serious principle of bad business here. He said now that his lawyer will be giving us the check (what, his lawyer needs to sign the checks?), but it’s been two weeks since the deadline and one month since the refund was promised and we haven’t see anything yet. My lawyer sent out a certified letter stating the circumstances to Mr. Deas and if they are not satisfied that further measures will be taken. The letter concluded with “Please govern yourself accordingly”.

But wait! There’s more!

My car was hit by somebody else about two months ago. The right rear quarter panel and bumper were damaged. Insurance totaled the bumper and the gave us a check for the fender damage (the other insurance company). She also cosmetically damaged one of my wheels so insurance compensated for that as well. The Mtech bumper was on backorder for about a month before I finally got it (thankfully!) and I gave my stock 162 wheels to Mr. Deas to have them brought to a shop to be powder coated (he could get me a good price on it). I sold some merchandise off my car and had the buyers PayPal his account and I had him use that money for payment for wheels and for H&R springs for my car. I ordered the springs about a month+ ago and have not received anything. I gave the wheels to him a month ago and have not got them back. My car is almost complete and I am sitting on a friend’s stock 189’s with tread so low a lot of the mesh is showing. They could literally blow at any time. My tires are more than likely sitting at BMW because he used their shop (dealership) to demount my tires off the wheels. I have been bugging him about both items and have not received anything, after many broken promises. Finally, about 4 days ago he told me to pick up my stuff on this past Saturday so I bring my truck to his shop and ask for the wheels. He tells me he doesn’t have them. I respond and tell him that he told me to come by on Saturday to pick my merchandise up and he said that he didn’t “have time to pick them up”. Bull shit. He didn’t have the money to pay the shop that powder coated them to pick them up. He doesn’t have the money to purchase my springs. Both items have been paid for. He doesn’t have the money to refund my mom’s $6700, and you know how I have come to this conclusion? The owner of my body shop informed me that Mr. Deas owes HIM $700 for some bumpers that he had painted for him, for about a month. Mr. Deas has since charged and delivered these bumpers to customers, profiting off the money he owes the body shop. The owner of the body shop usually calls Mr. Deas whenever I show up to talk to him and Mr. Deas never returns calls or pays up.

Today, my mother and I went to BMW and had a meeting with the General Manager of the dealership and informed him about the whole story and how Mr. Deas won’t give me my wheels back and how he owes my mother $6700 along with many other people. They are going to investigate the cause, since I emailed Lorinser US and they will probably get involved as well. He is in big trouble now, I am wondering if it was worth it.

Not done yet.

My friend Andrew’s car was wrecked by Jacque Deas during a test drive after installing PROcede V1.47. There’s more to the story, but I’ll let Andrew explain that in better detail. Mr. Deas promised to give him some compensation for Andrew’s troubles since he had to go through insurance and wait for a new car, but over time Mr. Deas blew Andrew off and ignored his phone calls and such to the point where he denied having ever offering Andrew compensation.

Lastly, a well respected and well liked member named Grant off of SOFLAE90 did his website design for him in return for an exhaust and $350 cash. After over a month of asking for his money to be paid to him, Mr. Deas has ignored his phone calls and never returned them. Now he owes Grant, the moderator on SOFLAE90, $350. Grant will come on here and elaborate more on this. His username is thegeneral101.

And as a final note, my friend Anthony brought his Acura RSX to have a turbo kit installed and have the car tuned. As much as Mr. Deas talked about his experience with the Japanese Domestic Market and his old 1JZ SC300 that supposedly made 1291 WHP (I call shenanigans now), I figured he’d have no problem on the RSX so I recommended my friend to bring it there. My friend bought a crappy EBAY kit so most of it wasn’t even usable. Mr. Deas had to fabricate a lot of it and let me tell you it was some of the most piss poor workmanship I’ve ever seen (along the lines of how his crappy his intake was). He basically TIG welded a bunch of piping together, stuck some couplers and clamps on them, and called it a day. My friend also ordered a StandAlone tune for his car and paid a lot of money for it. He also asked for A pillar boost gauge mounts and Mr. Deas gave him a dash mount. After three months of excuses and BS by Mr. Deas, my friend’s car is ready and I take it home to him. I was warned to go easy on it as the tranny (auto) needed work. I was told it made 340 WHP on the GT35R turbo. The kit looks like a joke inside the hood. They kept having a problem about the charge pipe blowing off so they fixed it twice and sent me on my way. On the way home, the charge pipe blew off the coupler so I brought it to my friend’s house and ended up fixing it myself, and I am no technician. After the charge pipe stayed on, I floored the car in first and the turbo didn’t spool until 4800 RPM and when it did (big turbo ) it hit about 8-10 PSI max (based on boost gauge) and the car didn’t pull WHATSOEVER. This leads me to believe that the car is not tuned because it spools at almost 5000 RPM (redlines around 6K), doesn’t pull whatsoever when it does pull (leaning out - inadequate fueling = no tune!). So he lied and deceived my friend into thinking he spent $800 on a tune when he got screwed. His car now sounds like crap (they let it go with an exhaust leak) and the workmanship is horrible. I found a shop that turbos E36 M3’s and the plumbing is gorgeous. Now THAT is a legitimate shop. I am having my friend bring it there to have it all redone (after wasting 3K with Mr. Deas) and bringing it to a reputable shop to tune the car. What a joke VIP Tuning is.



Bottom line: This guy is nothing but a fraud, crook, and a thief. He engages in sketchy and unprofessional business practices, screws people out of money, and doesn’t care whatsoever about his business practices (or lack thereof). I have written this post with the permission of Anthony, Andrew, and Grant in their situations and I have written this to extend a stern warning to those not to give your business to VIP Tuning because adding up all the costs that have been stolen by Mr. Deas are $6700 body kit, $700 painting bumpers, $350 website work, $3,000 wasted on a turbo kit, $1500 market value powder coated 162s on good runflats, and $200 springs = $12,450.

The other day he was bragging to me how he ordered a GTR and bought his wife an $18,000 ring. I doubt I’ll see this $12,450 come back to me, even as he continues to BS people with all the money he has, he can’t even pay $200 to get my wheels back! These fraudulent practices both constitute breaking federal law (jail time) and there will be court time at an infinite expense to serve justice.

Other friends of mine continually warned me about how sketchy he was, but I was stupid and turned a blind eye.

Trying to screw us over just put his job, business, and financial livelihood and legitimacy at huge stake. At this point, he has made a huge mistake and can avoid litigation with a check for $6700 and my wheels, and very soon because the paperwork is being drawn up by my lawyer as we speak. We are prepared to sue for what we are entitled to and I will fight to have Grant and my body shop compensated for what they deserve.

I’d like to thank those of you for reading this, and I hope you make the wise choice to keep your money and your car as far away as possible from this fraudulent business. I, like many of you, hope to see Mr. Deas end up in jail for this sooner than later. He is a grown man at 29 years of age and should know to pay the consequences for his actions.

Grant and Andrew will come on this thread when they are ready and make their own comments about the situation. VIP Tuning's site has been closed down by Grant until further notice.

Thanks,

Mike, Grant, Andrew, and Anthony


UPDATE 1:

Vista BMW of Pompano called up today and stated that Mr. Deas said that I NEVER gave him my wheels/tires, which I clearly did and my body shop is witness to that. My wheels are now officially stolen by Mr. Deas.

[Sal@AUTOcouture]

wow. (1. that all this shit happened and 2. that I read that all LOL)


Good luck bro

[AU335]

WOW indeed!! So wait, you(Slow335i) is the same person as Mike@VIPTUNING?

I am shocked!! Bought 1 peice from VIp, that CAI...WHICH SUCKED!!!! not in a good way

[darkphantom]

Originally Posted by AutoCouture

wow. (1. that all this shit happened and 2. that I read that all LOL)
Good luck bro

+1 Damn, I was scammed overseas so I know exactly how that feels....but this was in China...I should've known better...but man, I would go out and put an arrest warrant out for this guy...

[TheAcAvenger]

I read the entire thing... and wow. The only thing worse than a $40k bodykit for a van is getting ripped off as badly as you guys. Good luck in your resolution

[Sal@AUTOcouture]

Originally Posted by TheAcAvenger

I read the entire thing... and wow. The only thing worse than a $40k bodykit for a van is getting ripped off as badly as you guys. Good luck in your resolution

LOL R230 is the model designation..ie: E90/ E92 etc. Its for her SL 550.

[addy85]

I cant believe I just read all that. Good luck man I hate hearing stuff like this! He'll get what he deserves

[TheAcAvenger]

Originally Posted by AutoCouture

LOL R230 is the model designation..ie: E90/ E92 etc. Its for her SL 550.

Wowwww. Much better! I was seriously worried for a second.

[wj4]

I hope you take this clown down, man. Sadly it's not too uncommon as shops like these pop up all the time, and don't really last long. I'm glad you got a lawyer involved. Best of luck.

[EdmBimmer]

Man,

More and more are we seeing cases like this. Thanks for posting this information, hopefully more people read it and will NOT buy anything from him.

This needs to be spread like butter on toast!

[lawdude]

Man you went from being his biggest apologist to being his biggest detractor - or in the verncular of the boards - from being his biggest nut swinger to being his biggest hater. Amazing.

[hov333]

good luck to you bro

[Dubbedoutbimmer]

WTF ANOTHER SCAMMER ERRRRRR witch hunt time im so sorry you at the age of 18 have to go through shit like this sounds to me he used you local young guys to make a quick buck

[flyer333]

thx for postin.. will watch out for them

[O-cha]

http://www.soflae90.com/forum/showthread.php?t=470


It seems like the things people argue with me the most about always come back around eventually. I feel bad for all the south Florida people, but I mean come on guys? Really?

Kind of funny to see that kid who was such a fanatical zealot of VIP go full circle.

[imaznumkay]

jebus, i knew it.
very well-written

Kind of funny to see that kid who was such a fanatical zealot of VIP go full circle.

he was betrayed regardless of his loyalty to this guy (no lube, up the ass style. no offense mike)...give him a break

[scalbert]

Big surprise.

[b335i]

A more local link...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...02#post2762002

[jahwerx]

Looks like I have a collector's item. I feel sorry for Mike for getting screwed, however he was just as guilty of the same practices when representing them. I've still got it all in PM's and email when I ordered the intake. "In the warehouse", "just ran out of stock", etc. normal run around. Although its ghetto, I finally DID recieve the intake, with all the parts, and it fits very well.

Anyone want any VIP tuning stickers

p.s. Yes it was the only game in town and yes, I should have waited for a UR solution.

[jahwerx]

Originally Posted by AU335

WOW indeed!! So wait, you(Slow335i) is the same person as Mike@VIPTUNING?

I am shocked!! Bought 1 peice from VIp, that CAI...WHICH SUCKED!!!! not in a good way

Mine fit and i'm still rolling with it . . . thank goodness its "hidden" - lol

[AU335]

Originally Posted by jahwerx

Mine fit and i'm still rolling with it . . . thank goodness its "hidden" - lol

Yeh, i was just saying its not the most appealing/well crafted CAI option out there for the price he sold it as. It works of course, but the welds and design was IMO.

[sflgator]

I feel bad for Mike, but I warned ppl a very long time ago, and predicted that there would be some young, gullible guys who bought into Jacque's garbage. I had sources close to Jacque that specifically told me to stay away from the guy and I knew that some ppl would get burned. I was told that his mods were b.s., and his time at Moroso was in fact "on the bottle" and b.s. He never released his 335i parts for sale other than to local "prey." His reputation as a BMW dealer mechanic is not exactly free from controversy, and neither is his past work at his VIP Tuning shop.

The bottom line is...caveat emptor and don't deal with 1-man shows with sketchy work ethics and histories.

One thing I cannot understand is why Mike's mother would just write a $6,700 personal check to this guy???? When it comes to spending thousands of dollars (on anything, especially things like car parts and services), you should have enough brains to know that using VISA, MC or AMEX is best so you can dispute the charge should something go wrong; NEVER write a personal check for something like that. Mike's mother should've had the common sense NOT to do that. That is just begging to be a victim of FRAUD!!!!