United Speedometer Gone? Need Help!

United speedometer has had there doors closed all last week and this week so far. But someone one was there today and a friend was going over there to see what is going on. I will post tomarrow what I found out.

 

Public Service Announcement...

 

Uh... he started the thread.

That's great if they are still open. But that doesn't help us (or anyone else) get our customer's gauges back if they are not answering or calling their customers via SOMEONE'S cell phone, now does it?

 

Ok guys United Speedometer has a water temp guage for an 82 corvette I have in the shop. I got a picture on google and called a shop that is right next door and he told me the gates have been closed for weeks , I'm piss'd and my customer is piss'd .
I called the city of riverside to see if they had filed anything and they said no she had me call the lady that takes care of emergency info to see if I could get a phone number so I could at least pick up my guage. Well needless to say she had info but wouldnt give it to me becuase its private.

 

I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't call the police and see what they could do.

What we really need is someone with boots on the ground that can go over there enough to meet someone coming or going or that might just happen to be there.

 

I just talked to a nice guy at Bloch and Shelton Garage around the corner from them. He's gotten other telephone calls from the rest of us. He talked to an employee this morning of United, and the employee said that the business has been sold to an investor along with the building. He also says they will stay in business, and will be back on line soon. He was nice enough to take my telephone number and name, and says he has a list of others, and will give it to the employee next time he sees him. And it might be later today.

 

In my opinion, United Speedometer should have been the ones calling all their customers about what was going on, not the other way around. I think this is ridiculous. It's not as if they were burned to the ground. If they did sell the business (or replace their 800 numbers, or go on extended break, or whatever) their FIRST obligation is to keep the customers posted whose merchandise they have possession of, period.

 

Amen. Bad decision making on their part. And it will not bid well for the new "investor" either...

 

This is the kind of stuff that closes shops, how can they expect a good referal from anyone now! new or old owner, like posted above they should have been calling us. Is the new owner going to do as good of a job? Are the old employes staying? Am I going to get a crappy gauge back in a month for an inflated price? Held hostage to get my gauge back? Ron

 

I haven't heard anyone talk about the money they sent United to get started on their guages, or am I the only sucker that bit on that one. They have $567 of mine and my gauge panel.

 

Thats who I talked to , I've dealt with United since I was a kid and this just blows......I think I'm going to go ahead and order another gauge and eat it , its not fair to my customer, the bad thing its the only thing holding up the job

 

If the place has been shut down for two or three weeks, it's hard to imagine that the old employees are still going to be around. As a new owner they would want to have a smooth transition, that doesn't seem like that is the case here; there could be extenuating circumstances though.

 

This is a lot more info than the owner volunteered to me when I went there on Monday to see what was going on.

 

When my friend went by there yesterday and they were closed again, They are coming in and out of the building. I am trying to get ahold of the owner Rick to find out what going on. I will let everyone know what i find out.

 

thank you ted

 

Wow. Different stories from everyone, and all from people within the same little building in California. WTF? Not that I'm one to start dropping the lawyer comment, but perhaps the nice kid at Bloch and Shelton should mention to the guys over there that some of us are starting to think lawyer.

I've had people call me minutes later when an email was sent informing them that if I didn't hear from them by a certain time/date, that they could expect the next call to be from my lawyer.

I just want to know what's going on. Same employees with same or better quality? Why all the secrecy? Do we get our gauges back as well as money if they aren't going to be the same employees? Do the quotes for work stand or will there be new quotes for more money?

 

Hello Everyone, John McLeod here from Classic Instruments. I was informed of this thread and we have been getting phones calls on this, I'm sorry for United Speedometers issues and we have been unable to figure out what is going on.

For everyone's info Yes, We offer the same work as United and Yes, Redline and Bob's Speedometer do too and both are very good at what they do. I have seen their work and they both have wonderful craftmenship.

Reference to the the 4 times the amount?? Find it hard to believe and wonder if apples were being compared with apples. But you as the customers have the choice and all us understand this, I truly hope United Speedometer gets their situation figured out and we have some friends trying to help get the story straight too.

Good luck to all of you and Happy New Year!!!

John

 

Any updates?

 

Ok. I'm still getting conflicting stories, but I got a hold of someone AT THE SHOP. Maria. I have spoken to her in the past. She says, "we are not closing. We will have a new system up by next week, and will be calling all of our customers." She also stated to me that she has tried calling people on her personal cell. Now, I don't really know what "tried" means, as I either "DO" or "DO NOT" call someone on my cell.

I also arranged to have our gauges picked up by a person tomorrow between 8am and 10am. I also informed her that I was going to post the number I called her on here, and she said that would be fine. I told her that if everything was on the up and up, and there were in fact staying open, I would have the same gauges dropped off after that was confirmed and everything copacetic.

Here it is: 951-756-1560

Two things:

1. I would suggest that everyone that is nervous, suspicious or just plain upset to call her and have them box up your stuff and have it ready for pickup tomorrow morning along with our stuff.

2. We need a volunteer to go over there between 8am and 10am tomorrow morning and pick everyone's stuff up. Someone we all trust, and someone willing to do it. At least then we all have someone we can talk to, and that's willing to send our stuff back to us and we'll know it'll get here. I can send this person a UPS call tag so they don't even have to leave wherever the pickup point is to send it back to me.

Now for the F-ed up part. I just talked with a "former employee" whom we'll refer to as X. X told me that they are in a very hard way. They owe a ton of back bills, and that they have, in fact, gone under. If the back pay part is correct, and Cali is like Illinois, they're fucked. X also told me that there is NO NEW OWNER.

Now, I'm not there. And I don't know any of these people. X, Maria, the owner, any of them. And I believe all of them. Even though the stories are conflicting. Why? I DON'T PERSONALLY KNOW ANY OF THEM. Or PERSONALLY know any of the information. So, I'm going to give everyone the benefit of doubt, and wait it out. But with my property in my possession. If they are out of business in the end, I'm sorry for that. If they are staying in business, I'll probably try something small with them, and see how it goes. Trust is like that. Also, Maria was very helpful, and didn't try to hide anything. She had all of our stuff accessible, knew who I was, and had no problem with boxing the stuff up and having it available for pick up. Sooooooo, what next?

 

They are there this morning but there phone is still off. I will post as soon as i here more.

 

hope everyones gauges get returned with all of the parts! it's a shame when these specialty services go away.

 

Hello again, I received a call from the owner of North Hollywood Speedometer today and he was told that all will be ok at United and that they have had major problems with there phone service and web provider. Someone he knows actually went there today and talked to Rick the owner who assured them that they are still in business and that no one has bought them out or purchased the building. If all goes well there phones will be back on next week. I worked at North Hollywood Speedometer for 15 years and the owner has been friends with Rick for over 40 years so hopefully this info will ease the minds of some people that have work there.

 

so is there a volunteer to pick up the items? will you guys hold him responsible if all your stuff is not in the boxes they pick up?

 

A business that is without phone or web service for over two weeks does not sound like one that is fine. Sounds like a business that is not paying it's bills and has had their services turned off. How hard is it to make some phone calls from another phone ,cell, home whatever to assure customers know what is going on.

 

it sounds like they never went anywhere, although it's strange that both the phones and the website both went down at once.

 

A little update as I too unfortunately have a tach at United. I called the 951 cell number posted above and it immediately answered with the Message saying 'this is Rick' and went to voice mail. I left a polite message requesting return of my tach.

 

I just got off the phone with Ricks son at United Speedometer and he assured me that everything is fine and that it is just a phone problem. You can give them a call at 951-756-1560 and chat with him.

 

Exactly

 

Of course everyone in managment is going to say everything is fine. To many different stories to make me feel good. I still wonder if I'll ever see my gauge. Maybe I'll buy another one and call it a lesson learned. When they call to tell me it's ready in a month after it was promised, I just won't answer my phone, see how they like it! Ron

 

Exactly my thoughts. It's possible what they say is true BUT with so many people who have already reached the workers and owner about concerns, don't you think they would come here to post something or make a call to one person to ease tensions?? Apparently they know everyone is up in arms about this and so far nothing has been done to save face or their reputations. I've seen this sort of thing done here in NJ far too many times. The M.O. here is to close the doors one night and say they are closing to do renovations. 100% of the time the building winds up being renovated into just empty space leaving workers & customers high and dry. Lets be real. With this economy, lets say he is having problems. Do you think they will tell people they are closing? If they can't make ends meet how do you think they will afford to return deposits, pay for return shipping and deal with those who decide legal action for missing or incomplete work? I hope this turns out positive for all you guys but those holding their breath may just have to come up for air and face the music.