Ebay Buyers Beware!!!! - Page 2

wingless · May 10, 2005, 09:43 AM

Big fan of AMS products. This however is the unfortunate reality of designing and manufacturing your own products today.

China, as a country or people is not the problem, unscrupulous individuals expoiting the difference in labor cost and stealing your intellectual property is/are the problem, consequently flooding the market with cheap knock-offs.

I interpreted this from your post and did not see it any other way, but I feel should still be clarified in case someone wants to bust your nuts on PCness.

I work for a company in which this is a big problem and international pattens are a complete joke. In fact if you went after any of these "companies" they would simply dissolve to pop again somwhere else.

If you stay in a niche you are at the mercy of your customers to choose quality and reputation over cheap knock-offs... I don't think you have much to worry about here, as we all know and love your parts.

If you want to own the market you simply have to play the game. I mean install AMS quality controlled manufacturing in China, train, pay and care for your employees as you would your domestic operation. Other large scale investment type of stuff would be automation in your domestic facility. Either way the highly paid American "craftsman" will feel some hurt, its a tough reality, but it is a trend that is sadly not going away in business. Constant innovation is the only defense.

In regards to an earlier AMS post of this nature regarding internet parts companies, you guys are a tuner/fabricator primarily. You sell knowledge, parts and services. It's good to see you in public events like onelap, leverage this angle that no online parts reseller can touch and parts sales will follow.

I need to get back to work so I can buy some more sweet parts for my evo. Sorry for the long post but I'm interested and passionate about stuff like this. Good luck!!!!

Mark@AMS · May 10, 2005, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upstateEVO

you guys should watermark all your images with your trademark. It would make it more difficult to steal the images.... just a thought

Already one step ahead of you. I have started doing that on new products and working on old ones as we speak.

Wrench · May 10, 2005, 10:14 AM

ss will end up loosing money on this stuff because there aren't enough evos to go around. Just not the economy of scale to make money.

What are there, 10,000 evos in the US, 25 percent mod, of those 20 percent modify the IC, thats 500 IC's in the ENTIRE market. lets say they have a gross profit of $50 per IC that's $25,000. Small ball.

one bad knock to the IC performance and they're sitting on top of unused inventory. Bad business model.

Eric, buy one - you'll need it for your litigation, test it, put the results up. That will kill them for sure.

what a bunch of dumb****s.

BTW, I'm buying one of yours as soon as my parts come in. I buy on reputation, and performance. To me, within a resonable magnatude, price is not a huge issue.

DCSilvrEvo · May 10, 2005, 10:38 AM

DUDE THAT SUCKS! I hope everything gets cleared up SOON. I was going to buy one and I had it in my watch list but never hit that BIN Button. Thanks for the info.

warpedminds · May 10, 2005, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wingless

Big fan of AMS products. This however is the unfortunate reality of designing and manufacturing your own products today.

China, as a country or people is not the problem, unscrupulous individuals expoiting the difference in labor cost and stealing your intellectual property is/are the problem, consequently flooding the market with cheap knock-offs.

I interpreted this from your post and did not see it any other way, but I feel should still be clarified in case someone wants to bust your nuts on PCness.

I work for a company in which this is a big problem and international pattens are a complete joke. In fact if you went after any of these "companies" they would simply dissolve to pop again somwhere else.

If you stay in a niche you are at the mercy of your customers to choose quality and reputation over cheap knock-offs... I don't think you have much to worry about here, as we all know and love your parts.

If you want to own the market you simply have to play the game. I mean install AMS quality controlled manufacturing in China, train, pay and care for your employees as you would your domestic operation. Other large scale investment type of stuff would be automation in your domestic facility. Either way the highly paid American "craftsman" will feel some hurt, its a tough reality, but it is a trend that is sadly not going away in business. Constant innovation is the only defense.

In regards to an earlier AMS post of this nature regarding internet parts companies, you guys are a tuner/fabricator primarily. You sell knowledge, parts and services. It's good to see you in public events like onelap, leverage this angle that no online parts reseller can touch and parts sales will follow.

I need to get back to work so I can buy some more sweet parts for my evo. Sorry for the long post but I'm interested and passionate about stuff like this. Good luck!!!!

Exactly what he said. Theres a saying in my industry thats been going around for a long time "Automate or die" It looks like this is starting to apply to you. If we're not careful China and others like it (India) will snuff out the small American aftermarket part manufacturers were all of the innovation comes from. So please buy American its worth the extra money to keep things in house. Plus it will insure that we continue to have an aftermarket here that is full of new and great products featuring American quality and not Chinese cheapness.

EVO8HKS · May 10, 2005, 11:06 AM

thanks for the heads up and good luck in your fight. i hate all the crap on ebay. they should have crap blocker on there.

evojim · May 10, 2005, 12:59 PM

From what I found is that XS/ssautochrome is a US company based in NC. Maybe the product is made in China, but the idea behind cloning of of your product came from within US. Therefore your claim of China is trying to ruin your industry is totally baseless.

If you have issues with your competitor(s), then deal with the issue at the hand, but don't try to slander other countries that you have no clue about.

AutoMotoSports · May 10, 2005, 01:14 PM

XS power is the maker of the intercooler and XS power products are made in china. Its stamped on everything they make. Look at there turbos its clear as day. ssautochroms and XS power are not making these guys in house they are sourcing them out to china. we are in no way shape or form condeming a whole country just these cases of fraudulent activity. This isnt something new. these cloned and "knock off" product cases have been around for YEARS! we simply want to inform our customers and make sure they are away this is NOT the same intercooler we sell.

Eric

evo_08 · May 10, 2005, 01:20 PM

this is so true i make it a point to buy made in the usa

jamevo8 · May 10, 2005, 01:25 PM

Its kind of like all the Loui Vutton purses that were going around, I know cause my G/F wanted one until she unzipped her friends and it litterally fell apart.

Just beacause it looks the same doesnt mean it is the same!

expatevo · May 10, 2005, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo_08

this is so true i make it a point to buy made in the usa

So why do you own a Japanese Evo8?

Ludikraut · May 10, 2005, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by expatevo

So why do you own a Japanese Evo8?

Because they don't make them in the US ... duh.

l8r)

expatevo · May 10, 2005, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ludikraut

Because they don't make them in the US ... duh.

l8r)

duh, i realize that, but why indicate a trend to buy US products and then go out and purchase a Japanese built vehicle.

If Ford had there wits about them, they would have hurried up and brought out the Cosworth Focus, but like all decent cars it will be available in Europe first if ever here in the US and will be built in Europe as well.

ddubb · May 21, 2005, 06:08 PM

sorry to hear about your issue. I don't think there is any way for companies to protect agains knock offs b/c there will always be people who would compromise for inferior parts for cheap price. Don't worry,if you keep providing true quality work, no matter what knock offs are out there, people will keep coming. Keep up the good work.

wprettyboy · Aug 29, 2005, 03:18 PM

this is an old post but i just want to see AMS intercooler compared to the XS POWER. If its junk then the ams should perform better!!!! I dont like it when people say that something is junk because its cheaper. I'm not bashing AMS at all, i have some of there products. I just want to see the difference!!