DWALKER (Don Walker, Donald Walker, Fusionsport, Firestarter, 3r_tech, crankwalkdotnet(ebay),
don.walker1@comcast.net,
don.walker@crankwalk.net,
don@crankwalk.net, Don-HRD, Dwalker(Why make so many names and emails??? Read Below) from Commerce City(Aurora) Colorado Posts here and claims to be a Porsche mechanic and tuner of ALL EMS and ECUS. General Automotive Service / Grid-1, 4940 Niagara st, Commerce City Colorado 80022
On August 12th 2008 I had my car towed to Don Walker’s shop, Owner of Horse Power Research and Development, to be left there while I deployed to Iraq to have work done to the car. He has a guy pick the car up on his trailer that was in Colorado Springs to have towed to his shop hand me a digitally signed copy of the agreement between Don Walker and I stating what was to be done with the car while I was to be gone for 365 Days. Days later I went to the shop to talk to Don and his employee Chance (painter at the time) about things I wanted done to the car. Don looked over the engine not listening intently to my suggestions I gave Chance, and things I wanted done to my car as I told Don Walker I wanted Chance only to paint the car, no one else (as was listed in the agreement Don signed). We talked for about an hour and his shop was under COMPLETE understanding of what I wanted done to my car and he even says he pay for my car to get a full clear bra kit installed after paint free of charge so I accept the offer. Day later I leave for Iraq with Don Walker assuring me that pictures will be taken and updated, receipts all updated and emailed, and he was to be done “on time” or 365 days from when I left the car there. The engine was under warranty and was having issues with compression so he was going to pull that anyway to have it rebuilt since it was under “verbal warranty” so I figured hell time to paint the engine bay as well. I paid a local shop here in the springs to run a compression test as well to get a second opinion and it showed 2-3 cylinders with bad compression and the engine was having horrible oil issues as well with smoking, but Don told me it was the valve covers releasing high amounts of oil into the exhaust since it was such a “high horse powered vehicle.” Don said he would take a look at it, and did. He told me the compression was great across the board. This plays out later as we will find out that there indeed were issues with my engine.
As the first few months went by and I started to email Don asking typical questions. Things like “when is the car getting started”, “is the engine apart, “how’s the body work” but all the answers became more like reasons, or excuses. “I’m having the turbo rebuilt” and “I’m looking for paint shops and getting quotes” or things like “the polishing is getting done” and “parts are on order”. I didn’t mind since I was like 8 months out till I got home. A few more weeks go by and I email Don Walker for pictures of car parts that I want to sell. He agrees to take pictures for me and even help out on the shipping of the boxes by packaging them up for me. After emailing him over 4 times it takes him about 3.5-4.5 weeks to get me the pictures on his online account, remember I’m in Iraq so it’s easy to blow me off. I sell some parts; some are mailed on time, some take up to 2 weeks to get to the person who bought them making me look like a bad seller. I email Don Walker and he assures me he mails these things out on a daily basis, but that isn’t obviously the case. I pay for the bills that show polishing, the transmission rebuild, and a valve cleaning job, oh and now he wants me to pay for a $200 towing fee for the pickup to take my car to Denver from Colorado Springs NOT talked about until the car is there at his shop, nice huh……but I pay it anyway. So he is getting paid before I even see any of my work because I’m supposed to trust him right?
We are now on the date of May 6th 2009, which is 7-8 months later and I email him about the paint because I’m upset the car is not painted yet. I get a response a few days later. “Currently the car is ready to go to blast-tec and be stripped, I have spoken to two more good painters regarding the job and I believe I can stay within your budget for paint, just waiting on them to give me solid quotes before making a decision.” Don Walker knew what I wanted to spend before I left and knew the time frame I wanted to have the car done in but he insists he “tries” to stay in my budget of $4000 that we talked about for the paint. Don then emails me with information stating my car is “micro-cracking” and in order for my car to have the windshields taken out for a proper paint job they would have to be “broken” out of the car because there is no way to get them out otherwise. So I do research on micro-cracking to find out there is no such thing. He replies with this “ I still call it micro-cracking, but I really should have said micro-checking, which is apparent to a good painter without a microscope- it appears as a dulling effect but when you look at it closely under good light and/or with a magnifying glass you will see a lot of very small cracks. My car never had “cracks” in the paint, not have I ever heard of such a thing on a car with only 10 years of paint on it. Don tells me he is going to have a professional look at the glass after I argued with him telling him there is no way he needs to crack the glass to get it out. Now he knows I want the glass removed and I want a “show car paint job” as we talked about but he still emails me this “I guess the bottom line is what level of paint job do you want?” I thought I already told him 4-5 times that I wanted a show car paint job but he throws me a curve. He goes on to tell me he only hires pros and the job will be done right because there reputation is on the line but I argue I want the car painted at my place of choice. He continues to assure me that the car will be done right even after I spend numerous calls for Iraq talking to him. He won’t budge; he wants his pros to do it. He tells me he has found 2 shops he deciding between, and now a buddy he knows at 3R that can paint because I told him “I don’t want you to paint it”. We now fall into month 10
Month 10 and still no paint. I’m supposed to arrive home in 2 months and the car has not even been to a shop. I ask why is the paint not done, He emails me back with this “That’s because I have NO CLEAR ANSWER from you as to what YOU want to do with your car. I told you what the price is and you have as yet not said to go ahead with the job. You clearly indicated to me that the job was not within your budget and so I have held off until we have clarification. Funny, we go from a word of mouth $2500, to my budget of $4000, to a quote of $6000? I don’t see how this makes sense. Then he goes on to tell me he just does not know what the heck is going on with my paint because I still have not told him what I wanted? After a good argument with him he decides to let me know again how his shop is ran. “Things have changed a bit here Ryan, I am still doing the work here by myself but bring in specific people who do a high standard of work as needed and they are held to that high standard.” So basically he has no one in his shop that is a qualified mechanic. He states he just “brings people in” when he needs certain jobs done but as I see it you should not need to outsource.
