RebornFromAshes

It looks like I have been taken by a prolific Ebay seller, Thirdgenranch. This guy seems to have really poor business practices. His communication was poor to start with and got to be absolutely nothing. I received a fraction of what I purchased, and what I did receive was so poorly packed that it couldn't help but to be damaged in shipping.

Since talking to a few other customers who attempted to purchase things from him, I have discovered that I am not alone. Other people have sent off money, got very little communication, and eventually were IGNORED when they started complaining about the fact that he had not sent anything they purchased. Some people have tried calling him multiple times and just can't get a response. It seems that everyone I have talked to felt the same way I did; being slow and having issues is one thing, but not communicating what is happening in an open and prompt manner is another.

I haven't gotten the impression that Thirdgenranch takes everyone, which can be the case with some purely fraudulent sellers. However, why risk it when he regularly takes money and leaves people empty handed. Between my auction and what I have been told by a few other people I have talked to it looks like he has at least $1,000 worth of items he hasn't shipped.

I really wish this guy would clean up his act, make things right for the people he took for their money, and start demonstrating some good customer service skills. It would be great to have a source for descent used parts.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i've known this guy for years and this just doesn't sound like something he'd do. He's out of crete, IL right?

IrocZ85

iTrader: (10)

Are your talking about Denny???? Out of Crete, IL ??? As I have bought some stuff from him and he has actually bought some parts from me to replace certain items he had broken in shipping to replace them for the people so Im sorry but this just does not sound like him at all,

Mongoose

iTrader: (2)

I'll have to agree with the communication part of the posters statements. I bought a set of A pillar trim pieces recently off ebay and never received an invoice for payment. I paid him through Paypal and after the third email he finally replied by asking for my address since he'd sent out several items and couldn't get me a tracking number. I'm like "look at the ebay item number fella, that will tell you which set we're talking about here!". Anyway, I did receive the items within 10 days so other than the lack of communication I guess I can't complain.

RebornFromAshes

Both of you sound like you are thinking of the same guy, at least by description, not action.

If someone knows him put a bug in his ear. It probably won't be long before Ebay starts taking action. I have tried to be exceptionally patient with him, which I doubt is the case with some of his other disgruntled customers. With several problems and a fairly good amount of money involved it won't be pretty once someone does get Ebay looking in to his actions.

327_TPI_77_Maro

iTrader: (8)

Hey IROCZ85, it kills me to hear you stick up for a seller's reputation after you hosed me on those trashed "like new" Sportsman heads and then were suddenly so hard to get ahold of, and finally very rude when confronted. That is some damn irony right there!

FEENING4A92

I totally agree. I paid for a set of polished set of Z wheels and finally after two months recieved two of them. They looked as though he went out back, dug them out of the ground and sent them too me. Never have seen the other two. Never have had any response from numerous phone calls. The guy I am talking about is Denny Bruns from Crete, IL. Don't know about anyone elses experiences, but I would not do business or recommend him to anyone.

gangstar55

thanks for the warning I'll keep it in mind

Blownz28man

iTrader: (2)

Same problem with me! Bought a console lid. It stated "like new condition" And "picture perfection" I got it.. Was cracked and warped...LOL guys a jerk.

midlifeman

I too have been ripped of to the tune of $370.50 for a full set of black interior and some other parts. Paid for them in Sept. still no sign of them. Got an email from him asking for my address because he lost my order, then another saying he was having shipping problems. No answers to any other emails and now I'm too late to take action with ebay or Paypal. Thats what you get for being patient and trusting someone!!! I've bought from him before with no problems a couple years ago, but I guess times have changed. Good at taking money, bad at giving you what you paid for!!

83Chevy__Camaro

Its really sad to see this. There arent many third gen vendors around, and it seems like a majority of the ones that are, are crooks.

Benny K

iTrader: (1)

I bought a few items from him like a dustshield, clutch slave bracket and so on.

I'm from Switzerland, Europe and shipment was no problem and I'd say fast.
Parts were a bit dirty, anyway...you could see it on the pictures.

I think his prices are a bit high, but other than that I have no complaints about him!

jamon8

iTrader: (3)

when I purchase from ebay I look at the feedback

not just the score but the past 12 months of activity

if you give him a bad feedback and in retaliation he gives you one you can contact ebay and really stick it to him- if your payment was recieved right away ebay knows and what can he complain about

fortunatly in life it all comes back to you in the end

coolram62

iTrader: (2)

I've stated this before but when dealing with Ebay always check,as jamon8 suggested,what others have left in Feedback,ask questions before bidding and use sellers that take Paypal.At least using Paypal,and your credit card company offers same,you have recourse if the seller doesn't follow thru.Communication is the key between buyer and seller especially when a problem arises on either end.

Red1992V6Rs

I recently purchased a Camaro Billboard from him without any problems. The item was just as described and was shipped quickly. Sorry to hear your troubles with him.

EvilCartman

iTrader: (1)

I bought a single wheel from him back on the 2nd of Jan. Still no wheel or communications from him. He did answer my question on the 1st though. From another thread in the Chicago board, it looks like he's been sick for the past couple weeks. Still though, it's not that hard to hop on the old computer and type a few emails.

TB2

iTrader: (1)

Wow, Sounds like I have been getting lucky for a while. I've bought my share of stuff from this guy for a while now, and never had any problems. Looks like I'll be staying away from this guy. Can anybody recommend someone else that's got what we need at a reasonable price, that won't scam us?

Red1992V6Rs

Try houseofcamaro.com . Great guys, great service.

I H8 WWD

iTrader: (5)

This is what pisses me off, everyone says look at feedback, look at what people say stuff like that. Well I recently bought a combo kit of side markers and front markers SMOKED.

It started great, feedback was awesome, had 99.9% positive with over 5,000 feedback reviews. He had only 2 negatives which were read to be because of buyer e-mail communication and not him.

Well I finally received my products about 3-4 weeks after paying for them($120), then both front markers were totally mismatched. I left poor feedback because the description was for smoked not for 2 side markers smoked and 1 offset smoked and 1 clear front markers. Well there you have it, a perfectly awesome feedback rate and only 2 neg. in over 5000 sales....Parts were what I call...POINTLESS TO HAVE.

So now I am working with www.klearz.com to get us some QUALITY front and side markers in clear and smoked.

cookie21

iTrader: (2)

wow glad i read this i have him in my favorite sellers list...ill be taking him off there. good luck with everyone hope you get your stuff.

tweeker

This is good to know for further ref. but I did buy some bodyside mouldings and got them in two days dang shisters

85ZzZ4

wow, houseofcamaro.com looks like heaven to me! glad i stumbled upon this thread...

Guy In A 90 RS

Wow, was about to get a Fuse box cover from that guy. . . thanks for the heads up

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

I bought a part from him not too long back. came real quick. dirty but not bad at all. I was pleased overall

left him great feedback and he never left me any and won't respond back

then again perhaps local people get the parts since we can just pay a visit???

creepingdeath

I got some interior parts on the way... doesnt seem bad yet.

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

I have bought many, many parts from Denny with no problem. I am local and always pick my parts up. Denny may be a bit slow or hard to reach but this thread is a surprise to me. He is a moderator on thirdgen.org too.

EvilCartman

iTrader: (1)

My wheel showed up today out of the blue. Still haven't heard a word from him though. So in the end he came through, just wish communications were better.

06Busa

Wish I would have seen this sooner. I paid for HVAC temp controls that I really need. I cant get the blower to move down from the window.

Sent him a email and it was replyed to with a you should have it any day. I am about 30 miles away.

RebornFromAshes

In all fairness, after posting an honest story anywhere I could find him and his friends, as well as leaving messages and sending e-mail I did eventually get everything a couple of months later (about six months after the purchase). Outside of the delays, headaches, and shipping damage from minimal packaging at least I ended up getting everything.


I am not sure if some of the people I found still waiting for items ever did receive what they purchased. Obviously many new customers have received things from him since then.

What really kills me is that if you read his feedback he always has some excuse for any negative feedback that makes it sound like the buyer was a jerk. I don't think it is very honest to screw up and then try to save face by blaming it on your *paying* customers who upheld their obligations honorably.

Rebelhick

I bought some parts from him on Ebay about two weeks ago. I noticed that he was no longer listed as an Ebay member so I got a little nervous and opened a dispute with Paypal yesterday because I hadn't received the parts. Well, I got the parts today. They're in excellent shape and in better condition than described. I can't comment on other people's experiences but I had no problems. I'd buy from him again. The parts I got were a steal!

formula forever

I have bought many parts from denny, and even sold him a third gen. a nice guy never had a problem.

Lucid

iTrader: (4)

I bought from him off ebay a few times. He had some good prices on things that I needed. Parts were dirty, but they worked good.

EGG

I'm not sure where he's gone, but he appears to not be answering his att.net or thirdgenranch.com emails. Also doesn't seem to be picking up the phone.

Ebay have suspended his account, after a fairly lengthy conversation with two of the support staff there, they indicated that if he'd cancelled his store/account, the items listed under his feedback would still be viewable. If ebay had suspended him, they would not be:
http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayI...k&myworld=true

As someone mentioned in this or another thread, he appears to have an answer for most all of the bad feedback he's received, usually it's damaged goods = shipping company's fault, delayed international = "intl shipping will take longer". However I found this feedback fairly amusing:

da.slyboy

iTrader: (1)

I looked back on my ebay buying history and I bought an item from him way back in May of last year. I can't quite remember what it was off the top of my head (might have been my interior heater/ac control box) but I did respond with "Good item, package well".

06Busa

He was fast with contacting me and resolving the situation. I would deal with him again.

langss

Just use House of Camaro.Why bother with the headaches.Life is way to short.

RebornFromAshes

I loved that feedback as well.

I am unaware of how many times his account has been suspended. I know for sure it has been suspended once before, and I am pretty sure this would be at least the third time it has been suspended. He did tell me once it was suspended for something silly, like he paid some fee a day late or something. These days I wouldn't really take him at his word. Most likely his account is being suspended for the stuff he does to his customers.

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

I bought a bunch of stuff from him and then later I bought a spoiler, I always pay immediately and never got the 1st batch of parts, after sending a gazillion emails I got a response that the items were in transit, which was BS...they never got here. The spoiler I did get after a long wait. I lucked out, PayPal refunded my money for the 1st batch of parts. His name is Danny Bruns or something to that extent, thirdgenranch on ebay. Kind of a shame, as I intended to buy a lot more from him, I then went shopping elsewhere.

jrhaus76

I bought from him... no problems... ???

indy82z

iTrader: (5)

I have been buying parts from him for many many many years and never had a problem. He has always been upfront and honest.

It looks like he has over 5600 Positive Ebay feed backs....a 98.7% rating...not sure about your book, but that is pretty darn good in mine. I could only wish my kids would bring home report cards with grades even remotely close to a rating like that!!! Pretty sure he is a one man operation that is out there to help us fellow third gen owners get reasonable priced parts for our cars. If you have had some problems, contact him, provide information that shows you had an issue and see what happens with it. You also have to remember that once it would be shipped, that would be out of his hands...we all know shipping companies suck and unless you paid the couple of dollars for insurance, you are pretty much at their mercy..that is why I would NEVER buy anything without fully insuring it.

As for Ebay accounts, plain and simple...Ebay sucks for sellers!! Found some of the posts in this link pretty interesting...

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/New...-Why/510009566

for those that just buy from there, you probably had no idea of the crap that can occur, but this one post kinda explains how sellers get screwed all the time. I am not sure, but I would put money that this might have something to do with his Ebay account not being open anymore...although, just a guess, wouldnt suprise me if he closed it himself...who knows..

Anyway, enough ranting....been into these cars for almost 20 years, dealt with him for nearly that long and cant say a bad thing about him...I have yet to waste a 6 hour drive on junk parts or not get an item I just had him ship..

Thanks

Tom

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

All nice and dandy, but what about not receiving replies to emails/questions? If the answer is that there were too many to work through then that's not the buyers responsibility. Also, getting lied to doesn't help. Saying parts are shipped but not being able to provide a shipping label, see when filing a paypal claim, when the seller can probve he shipepd the parts, the claim will be turned down, even if the stuff never pops up, in that case buyer should have opted for insurance.

I'm not mad @ Danny, sucks it had to go this way. I would have much rather had the parts than the paypal refund. Still looking for some of those parts, he seemed to have most of what I needed. After about 2 months however there's very little one can do apart from fiing a report and then escalating to a claim afterwards.

indy82z

iTrader: (5)

Definitely not sure what happened in your case, but I just wanted to state that I personally have never had any bad transactions with this guy. I will be checking with him about getting some seats and rims within the next week or so, and cant imagine I will have any issues...he is beyond a doubt, the best source of reasonable third gen parts in the midwest...ok...I will end my shameless plug now

Now lets just hope the shipping companies dont screw me or I guess I will be making another 6 hour drive to pick up parts..

Tom

tony_cogliandro

iTrader: (3)

I dont know much about this guy but i do spend some money on ebay - so i dont need another headache - there are too many people who are not a problem - to actually deal with someone who can be a problem.
there are a few here too - i look to see if there are any problems and if i see any i just dont deal with them. i dont know if the problem is real or not, but i dont want to find out with a personal bs experience.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

let's also make it clear that this guy had something like 3800 positive feedback rating. I'm sure something came up recently to cause this. I've bought parts off him for probably a decade now and since he's local I just call him up then go pick up the parts. Always been a stand up guy for my parts hookup.

tony_cogliandro

iTrader: (3)

I'm not telling anyone not to buy from this guy, I'm just saying I don't buy from anyone that I see a number of negative comments on, especially when they are so recent in time.
Buy from whomever you wish I'm just stating a fact. I look people up on the board before I buy from them, and on this thread there's a number of negative comments and I don't care how many good ones there are I don't buy from them.
I'm not playing the odds here, I'm just not going to be bothered buying from someone where there is a remote chance they are no longer up to it.

EGG

Oddly enough my parts turned up yesterday and they're in ok condition.

The problem is that you either you can't get hold of him, or he tells you the parts are in the mail (02/16/09), when the USPS tracking number says otherwise (picked up on 03/09/09).

85 ZXX

iTrader: (1)

I recently purchased a 9 bolt rearend complete w/PBR brakes for $421.00. What I recieved from UPS was a small box with 2 rotors, 2 calipers (one missing e-brake parts) 2 new e-brake cables and a proportion valve...thats it!

This is the ad ,

This is an 82-92 Camaro/Firebird 3.27/posi 9-bolt rearend. The 9-bolts were a rare option on these cars and are much stronger than the factory 10-bolts. It has about 90k original miles and is in excellent working condition. It has some typical surface rust but nothing bad. This rearend comes complete with the later style PBR rear disc brakes. These brakes are larger and much more reliable than the earlier style iron calpiers. This piece includes both rotors and calipers along with BRAND NEW e-brake cables and WS6 rear sway bar. The PBR brakes were only available on the 9-bolt rearends in 1989 so this is a VERY hard rearend to find. Note: This price includes a $40 UPS "large package" surchange so you're only paying $285 for the rearend. Our shipping calculator is currently set up to give prices based on weight so we have added the surchange to the price of the item.

PRICE: $325.00


My email I sent to him before purchase,

I have a 85 Z28 and I am interested in this posi rear end. are the axles, rotors, calipers in good shape? Can I bolt this up without having to look for replacement or missing parts to complete the swap? I have a 5 speed so the emergency brakes have to work. Thank-you.

Denny's reply,

No, this rearend is a direct bolt in and everything is in good working condition. It doesn't have e-brake cables on it now but I have a brand new set I'll throw in for an extra $50.


thirdgenranch_com Items
1 82-92 Camaro/Firebird 3.27/posi 9-bolt rearend w/PBR disc @ $325.00 = $325.00

Sub-Total: $325.00
Shipping: $96.58 (UPS Ground)

Sales Tax: $0.00

thirdgenranch_com Total: $421.58

THIS WAS FOR SALE ON THIRDGEN.ORG

FireChicken2.8

iTrader: (1)

Just bought a power window conversion kit from him, no problems... I emailed first because it included power lock stuff but i didn't need it. So he knocked $10 off the already low price, and threw in window switches for free... I was pleased!

Thirdgen Ranch

iTrader: (5)

85 ZXX

The last e-mail we got from you was on 6/3 asking if you could include the proportioning valve which we did. If you would have e-mailed again and told us you only got one package you would know that your item shipped in two separate packages because of the weight. The rearend shipped by itself and is scheduled for delivery tomorrow 6/18.

snowman383

but here is what i don't understand.... This piece includes both rotors and calipers along with BRAND NEW e-brake cables and WS6 rear sway bar....
No, this rearend is a direct bolt in and everything is in good working condition. It doesn't have e-brake cables on it now but I have a brand new set I'll throw in for an extra $50.