Beware of Vigilantemotors aka Lukas Adkins
 

Hey guys, I wanted to give you a heads up on Vigilantemotors aka Lukas Adkins as he is now screwing some of you over for parts and money. Myself, Dusten, Tman and PettitWC have decided to make his history known to everyone. To make a long story short he really made things difficult for me and a few other bimmerforums members 3 years ago when he first started parting out this black clubsport. Yes, 3 years ago. He blew the motor and wanted to do an M swap so he sold parts, collected money but only shipped/refunded after things got UGLY. In the end he refunded $$ and shipped parts to me. Up till now I have lurked on his 318ti.org thread to see if he does ok. I let him know I was watching and seems a few people got parts alright so I did not intervene. Now I see he has not changed. I know this is potentially too late so also accept my apologies for not getting invloved sooner. Here is some of the story:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...archid=2405169

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ghlight=adkins

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ghlight=adkins

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ghlight=adkins

He seems to be a decent kid who just lies or over promises. Kind of messed up and immature. Again, I apologize for giving him a second chance. If it's any consolation, the last go around the stakes were higher- $500 for me, $800 for another and $1000's for his engine. To know the whole crazy story, click some of these links. In the end, he did OK by me and made full refund and shipped parts. He even later shipped some parts at his expense then I sent them back cuz I did not want them. Make up your own mind but you deserve to know.

BTW he also sells on ebay as mpowercompact and uses someone elses paypal account, so he told me.

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmpowercompact

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. If anyone wants to come to his defense please do. Maybe I'm seeing only one side...

All I can say in his defense is that I went to his house about a month ago, and picked up his new M-tech rear bumper. The bumper is brand new, and I paid $275.00 for it.

I've already posted pics of the bumper previously.

Yes L8, you were one of the positive outcomes I noted before notifying him on wednesday that he had 2 days to refund or ship. When he failed to follow thru with his promise to refund, the guys gave me the go ahead to spill the beans. I think they are opting to file grievances with paypal. His friend who supplied the paypal account should love that. :eek:

Who knows what goes through his mind...

He refunded my money plus an additional $20 for the inconvience. I'm glad we were able to resolve this problem. Thank you.

Good news! Let's hope there's more....

Luke- you lurking?

Lucky you Dusten!! I havent heard SH!T, At least have the courtesy to email or something.

Luke, if your reading, refund please!!!! If not im forced to file grievance w/paypal

I got my money back plus 10 bones. good luck with yours

Ok Lukas, just one more and we'll leave you alone....

I had a godd experience with this guy. He pm me frequesntly for my concerns

It was shipped postal, so I don’t have the tracking #, I promise to have this resolved by Friday.




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From: TNSanJuan@mar.med.navy.mil [mailto:TNSanJuan@mar.med.navy.mil]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 2:12 PM
To: Lucas Adkins
Subject: RE: Whats up



Did you send it to the right address, maybe got mixed up with all your other orders?? Give me a tracking number and shipper so I can maybe start searching too??

-----Original Message-----
From: Lucas Adkins [mailto:ladkins@tribecalending.com]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 2:06 PM
To: SanJuan, Terence N
Subject: RE: Whats up

I would gladly refund you, but it was shipped. I am trying to find out what happened to the shipment. If I don't have an answer for you by Friday, I will refund you.




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From: TNSanJuan@mar.med.navy.mil [mailto:TNSanJuan@mar.med.navy.mil]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 2:02 PM
To: Lucas Adkins
Cc: tman100z@yahoo.com
Subject: Whats up



Whats up with the hatch cover??? Just refund me if you cant get it to me and ill just leave it at that!!!

Glad to hear you had a positive experience. What did you buy and was it shipped as promised? Like I said at first, it seemed like he was shipping some parts as promised but this is exactly what happened years ago too. My real fear was someone would buy $1000 of parts and be stuck. :frown:

If you look at his ebay sales he has mostly positive feedback for quite a bit of computer equipment he has sold in the last couple months too. The negative feedback is all "did not ship/shipped tool late/charged for next day but arrived 2 weeks later".

I'm glad I decided to just drive to him and get the M-tech rear bumper. Shipping that could have been a problem.

Yeah I sent him some money for the heater control unit and I haven't heard from him for a week. I sent him a pm but still no cigar.

Add one more to the list. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Well its Saturday and still no reply!!!!!

Still no answer or refund!! Just sent him another Email!! Anybody hear from this guy????

This is a complete 180 from my situation dealing with him. Then again, I'm being screwed by Ko Performance. I'm not sure what Lucas is up to, but he needs to keep his commitments.

Since he didn't have to box and ship the m-tech rear fender I bought, that might have been an incentive for him to complete that transaction.

You can see when he last logged on http://www.318ti.org/forum/member.php?u=1419

I sent a pm asking for a refund and I have got no reply. It looks like he has been on in the past couple days so he should have got my messages. I haven't gone to Paypal yet, but if he keeps this up with members on here I will.

Does anyone live near this guy? I have have his home address and phone number. I also have his work address and number. Let me know if you want it, this guy needs a good old fashion beat down!

Post up all known info here.

Call his work, call home, do not waste your time with emails or PMs. His email address was with Tribeca Lending. I did a little googling and found an office about 10 miles from his house. Think it was also part of Franklin something or other. Call frequently but leave messages too with supervisors letting them know what kind of character they have and that he gives out his work email and phone for personal biz. :mad:

messing with a person's livelihood isn't a good idea. didn't L8 live close enough to him to go an pick up parts? perhaps he could try to visit him?

Guys, please handle this sensibly.

The guy lives in lower NJ. I forgot the town, but it was about 20 minutes south of where my son lives in Delran.

he should still live in Mullica Hill.

What I said is based on my experiences from 3 years ago. This forum is generally polite and I like conducting my life that way too. My point is that to now, the polite way is not resolving all the issues. I have $0 invested in this and seems over the top for me to hunt him down. Those who still have issues with him can make their own choices. If it were me I would start calling him every day at work for "updates" on the progress. Just cuz I'm friendly....:rolleyes:

I just filed a grievance w/paypal. Unfortunantly It has come to this!

Sorry people have had such poor experiences. It really makes me feel bad that it happened here.:mad:

I have made many successful transactions on Ebay and other forums, I guess sooner or later, we'll all run into a bad seller. Its like going to a resturant and getting bad service. Live and learn

Still no resolution?

After filing w/paypal, I got an email from him today with a tracking number. According to him, he did some research and the item was held up at on of their distrubution centers because the label fell off. Anyway i tracked the package this AM and it is out for delivery. So my fingers are crossed when I get home later this PM. Ill keep you updated.

he sent me a tracking number and my package just left NJ. i asked for a refund two weeks ago and he sent me a pm yesterday saying it was to late and he already shipped it. i guess we will see if he sent me the right part in 6 days.

Finally
 

Came home today to find my hatch cover from UPS. So problem resolved. Better late than never, its just sad to have to go through all this. But thanks to the board members who helped out (96Cali, DunstenT, PettitWC) just to name a few

So everyone that has paid Lukas has gotten their packages, right? Is anyone else waiting for him?

Hey I had an ebay HORROR story with Lukas. Bought his bilsteins and eibachs from him for about 450 I think it was. I paid and he broke contact. Tried for awhile to get in touch, but nothing. Filed with paypal and ebay dispute resolution. No luck. Finally found his phone # through ebay and got ahold of his FATHER who sent me the struts and shocks. Havent received the springs, but I gave up after that. I feel bad because the guy probably just got into more than he can handle and his dad said he has a history of doing this. I wont deal with him again, but if you do, I recommend ONLY doing so in person and be very careful. It took about 6 months if I can remember correctly, to get my shocks.

Oy, I have not thought of him in long time. Yah, he's a serial liar by all accounts. Glad you got some resolution!

Just stumbled upon this, glad to see how documented my efforts have been to resolve any problems with people I have sold things to. I apologize to anyone who had to wait an extended period of time for parts. If there's anyone out there who believes I still owe them something please contact me whenever you like:

lucasadkins@comcast.net

Well, I know I have no desire to deal with you. It is nice that you have resolved things, but thats what to many F ups for me. People have to wait six months for stuff to arrive.

I have sold things on eBay, and havent had any "issues" I've had to resolve. I get it done right in the first place.