94brick

Just a heads up for those in the Phx area. I took my vett to Bromelys Performance Corvette shop, on Chandler BLVD and the 101 several months ago to get some exhaust work. The other day, while getting some new mods I found out that he never did the work he said he did! When I confronted him with it he gave me lots of excuses of and basically acted like it was no big deal. The guy shouldn't be trusted.

0opticZ06

ICULUKN-C5

That sucks. He is always up at the pavillions showing of his c3's.. Sucks that he wont do what he said he would do.

karelin

I always find it interesting that in this faceless, undocumented, part of society,[internet forums] someone can say something negative about an individual and or their business, and others immediately respond with that sucks, or shameful icons. This person gave his opinion, without any indication as to what was discussed before the work was done, how it was to be done, time frame etc. We just have to take his word. He just states that it wasn't done. Undocumented it means absolutely nothing, it is his opinion. Maybe it wasn't done to his expectations, we do not know any info. I have personally had over $30.000.00 of work done by this facility. I'll give you my opinion of having work done by Doug. Not only has it been done correctly, but even more work was done without a fee because it needed to have a small adjustment or a small aspect added. On several ocassions the car was even cleaned and detailed when I picked it up. I was in his facility yesterday, as I am quite often and was watching him work on a car that was there for some specific reason, but while he was waiting for something to dry to apply, Doug checked out many other parts of this vehicle. [by the way found several small problems and repaired them and did not enter this on his repair bill other than to state that it was inspected and repaired N/C]my work was always done in a timely manner to a high standard. {mine, I am as frugel and **** about anything that belongs to me as anyone you will ever know} I had an employee of mine who had just moved here from Boston and he needed service items done right away. I took him into Doug and he not only did the service work correctly as he said he would, but found an exhaust leak and repaired it at no charge as he was unable to reach us to get approval. He went well beyond what was asked. Oh my documentation, my cancelled checks and receipts for cash payment that you are all welcome to see. Also you can ask my wife when I am at the pavillions. As we all know wives are not always the most understanding when we spend money on our cars and she knows exactly what things cost me. I would expect to see thumbs up logos and thats great to hear, as my visits have been numerous and all my experiences with Doug at Bromley's Performance have exceeded my expectations. If you wish to see my face and have me verify in person you are welcome to as I am at the pavillions as often as I am in town. I have 2 vettes. Wish to call me to verify I am real, 480-225-7223 There is always good and bad to everyone. You should deal personally with the individual, because as you have heard from me that I believe Doug is reputable and forthright. I am sure that each of us could have someone post something negative in their dealings with us. Noone does everything perfect. I am not saying that my opinion counts anymore than the negative but before responses are made to any comments you should be responsible enough to check it out for yourself. It is easy to say things when you don't have to look anyone in the eye. As I stated before you can look me in the eye at the pavillions if you wish, or call me.

GTrain

This goes both ways, on the positive or the negative. Face or not, there really isn't a way to verify the good or the bad on this story. Unless of course the person (Doug) himself trys to explain it. You need both parties to sort it out. It happens all the time on forums, and in some cases it gets worked out.

I am at the Pavillions as well, and there are so many tuners in Phoenix that hang a sign, do good work for a while, then take on too much business and it falls apart. I haven't heard anything bad about this shop, but on my Corvette or other cars, I have a pile of business cards where someone recomends a shop in Phoenix who "does great work" only to find 2 more people with horror stories...in some cases its the same person 6 months later !

So until people hear from Doug to clear it up, its all conjecture. Bad news travels 5 times faster than good, so until it clears up, at least to me having seen the work (and horror) of many of the Phoenix shops, the bad will overide the good....

94brick

Karelin .... sorry to pull the plug on your favorite mechanic.He pulled one on me and didnt expect to be caught red handed like he was. We could argue this back and forth over the internet all day, as it wont change anything, maybe I could call you I posted this for others to be aware of. Take it with a grain of salt. I doubt he does things like this often, maybe this incidence was the first time...but he got caught and thats all there is to say.

SJTrance

It would greatly help others if you would state exactly what he promised to do with your exhaust and did not do.

94brick

Maybe I should....Months back I took him my vett to do a custom exhaust, x pipe, flowmaster mufflers, AND removing the cats to gut them and then place back in the stock location (future mods would have me replace these anyway so it was a temporary thing). When the vett was ready to be picked up I looked at the work and it was really nice. Fired it up and it sounded better than stock but I had thought that a car with gutted cats should be ALOT louder. Doug assured me that they were gutted. I took his word and was pleased with the new exhaust. Last week I went to Exotic Muscle to have my LT headers installed. When I picked up the car I asked to see the old cats they took off, curious to see if my hunch was right all along. They had them aside and I picked one up, it weighed a TON! I asked the guys at EM if these looked like it had been gutted and they said no way! They were completely in tact. When I returned them to Dougs shop, All he could do was give me excuses. He never said sorry, he never denied it. Guess he never thought I'd take those cats off.

karelin

Yes, we could argue back and forth about this. It won't really make anyones day either way. I have enough on my mind without adding anything else as I am sure it is with you. Just 1 point , shouldn't you tell everyone that he also reimbursed you $50.00 to make it right. There is also a little more to the story as to why he couldn't gut them, but you are correct it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Each to his own.

94brick

Your right he paid me $50 after I practically begged him and It was me who had to ask him to make it right. As to there being a little more to the story as to why he didnt gut them...Yeah when I confronted him he told me about O2 sensors and this and that, GREAT!!! Why didnt he tell me when he installed the system in the first place? Maybe a phone call with " hey Mike its Doug and I cant gut the cats because of whatever...." He SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT. Instead he lied and said he did it anyway, Thats my whole issuse here. He said he did a certain job I paid him for and HE DID NOT. I think your missing the point completely or he is telling you bogus information.

SJTrance

I understand both points. Watching this thing from a third party prespective, I'm left being angry with the shop. I've been lied to before by shops and it's one of the few things that gets me into a rage. $50 after being caught in a lie is a little too late. If it was an honest mistake, then fine. What was his excuse? Is it possible that they might have just overlooked that part? Maybe it's one of those, "I thought you did it; no I thought you did" situations. Who knows, but at this piont in the game, I'm tired of giving people the benefit of the doubt. I also know that if one customer spent $30,000 on at a shop, they'd be given extra special care. I've gone into a certain big shop here in Houston for some minor mods (intake) and I saw how they treated me vs. another guy who spent tons of money at the same place. But that's business, and more so, that's life.

Lichen

94Brick, may I suggest that you keep going to Exotic Muscle. They do all my work and are honest wonderful people to deal with (all 2 of them).

Busa196

So what. Had he not taken the cats off the car and looked at them, he never would have known. He paid the man for a job, he was told it was done and billed accordingly. It was only after "the customer" noticed it and pointed it out to Doug that he got $50 back. Waaahhh hooooo. Let's party, he made everything kosher

The guy lied and knowingly tried to deceive him. If it were me, I'd tell him to take his $50 and shove it.

Good service and a trusting shop are priceless- that's why they're few and far between.

Busa196

94brick

Yes Lichen, I was very impressed by EM's service. However from this this experience I will be skeptic of all until I see the work for myself, live and learn right.

Desertdawg

Trying to stay impartial here....

Did Bromelys tell you that it is illegal for any repair facility in the Phoenix area to remove or tamper with emissions equipment????

The fines are substantial, and here you are posting it for the world to see.

sxeC7

It's not just the Phoenix area. Any Repair facility removing emission equipment is violating Federal Law. It's like speeding, you can get away doing it for awhile, but one day.........

Corvette_fetish

I saw the thread on the Arizona Forum, and Phil gave me the link to this one. I didn't respond sooner because I was traveling earlier in the week, so I've had little time for Internet.

This thread has the detail I feel was omitted from the AZ thread. All I can say is that I have not personally heard Doug's side of all this, so I owe him the benefit of the doubt. Chances are you will not see Doug respond here, not out of guilt, but because I know he is not a member of this or any forum due the the fact I don't think he has a computer, nor does he care for them. Both karelin and I are good customers of Bromley's performance. As I posted in the AZ forum: Did Doug rip Mike off? Well, I don't know. But based on what I know about Doug Bromley I can say in my honest opinion it seems out of character. He may not be a warm and fuzzy guy, but that does not make someone shady.

Let me tell you my story about Doug Bromley. It starts when I purchased my '79 Vette in July of '03, I intended to race it at Firebird. I met a guy named Joe Reno at the Pavilions. He has a shop called "Reno Racing", that specializes in Corvettes, and is associated with Howard of "Howard's Corvette" of Mesa. I brought my car to Joe for a tune up and some minor miscellaneous work to get it ready for the track. I was given as estimate of $800. for the work I requested. I felt that was a little high, but I figured the guy specialized in Corvette racing, so I figured I was paying a premium for the experience in that specialized area. Well, in the end, he and an associate he brought in on the job racked up 13.5 hours of labor in 8 actual hours, and my bill ended up being $1,137.40. This included no mods, just "optimizing" what I had. It didn't even include an oil change, and it tuns out I ended up paying his associate $69. per hours to rub some duct tape residue off the license plate area of my rear bumper, which fell under the miscellaneous work. Yea, the car ran great, but I left there feeling taken advantage of. It was my opinion that the cost I paid in that case did not equal the value, so I never returned, nor have I ever recommended Joe to another Vette owner.

Soon after I met Doug at the Pavilions. I told him of my experience, and after an afternoon of shooting the s***, I decided to give him a try. His prices were more than fair. He fixed everything I requested, gave me the old parts, and all the problems I brought in were solved, so he obviously did the work. Okay, that's what's expected of a mechanic. So let me tell you a bit about how Doug has gone above and beyond for me. Along with the problems I brought to him, and he repaired, Doug often came across a lot of little issues which he went ahead and fixed on his own. He listed them on the invoice with "NO CHARGE" next to the line item. There were a whole lot of minor "no charge" repairs and parts on my bills over the past few years. I never told others about this because I didn't want people coming to him expecting all kinds of "freebies". He's installed parts I purchased elsewhere that he didn't profit from, but he didn't increase his usual low labor rate to compensate. He's loaned me performance parts, and spent time installing and tuning them for nothing, and asked for nothing. He spent time to perform oil changes on both my cars with really almost no profit. He's addressed my problems many times at odd hours, late at night, on weekends, etc and put other work very profitable work aside to help me with piddley stuff. If I'd drop my car off, he's drive me home. If I was waiting around the shop for a repair to be completed, he bought the pizza and drinks. I brought in a '68 Vert I was considering buying, and he did the pre purchase inspection on it for me for free. He told me how many thousands of dollars worth of work it needed just to start, and recommended that I pass on it. Well, that friendly advice cost him $5 - $7K in money he didn't make from me off of that car that he could have had he urged me to buy it, and I did. He put a custom X-pipe exhaust on my Vette, which was suppose to take a few hours on a Sat. morning to install. Instead, to make it fit properly he ended up putting in something like twelve to fifteen hours over two days to make sure it was right, and didn't raise the price to adjust for the time it took to make it work on my Vette. On top of that he suggested I try a side exit exhaust, and I was reluctant. After all that work he told me if I didn't like it after spending some time with it, he'd change the whole thing to a rear exit for free. I'm sure if I think about it, more would come to mind. I went to Doug because I felt ripped off by another mechanic. Remembering that feeling well, I can tell you that Doug has never made me feel that way.

Again, Mike, I now see in detail your side of this situation which you did not present in the AZ thread. I'm not going to call you a liar or Doug a crook because I still have not heard all sides of this. All I can do is come here and tell of my very good experiences dealing with the guy and his shop, and again, I have to give Doug the benefit of the doubt because he has treated me well. And for the record, I'm not a $30K+ customer like karelin, but I've been treated like one there.

Mike, just like karelin's offer, if you want to call me and discuss it, I'm open to it. PM me for my number. I plan to continue using Bromley's performance in the future. Doug has done no wrong to me.

NOS_Z06

Dude - I can't believe you're even complaining about this. What you asked Doug to do is both a federal violation and a state violation. Doug could have potentially been charged with a felony for your request - and so could you. (Unless your car is unregistered and used strictly off-road for racing.)

You even admit that the job was done well otherwise. The fact that you didn't mention the $50 refund makes you an even BIGGER whiner in my book.

After 30 years of building muscle cars and race cars, as well as campaigning a race car in the PSCA, I can tell when a mechanic really knows what he's talking about. My conversations with Doug at the Pavilions have shown that he DOES know what he's talking about. Good luck with those $85/hour shops. They'll do the work - but you'll bend over for it.

By the way, I challenge you to find any shop in the Valley that will cut your cats off, punch them out, and then weld them back on. Altering and the emission device and concealing the mods is what will get you a felony. It's bad enough to just cut the cats off and use a "bypass" pipe - at least there is a loophole in the law for this as a "temporary" solution amidst repairs. Punching out the cats is WAY ILLEGAL. When I want this kind of thing done I do it myself.

94brick

You guys kill me. HE offered a service and DID NOT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is that so hard to explain. Does he know corvettes, hell yeah, I think he is one of the most knowledgable guys I have ever talked to on the subject, but thats not the point at all. To his benefit his stellar reputation amongst the locals will continue to provide him business, fine with me. I only posted this to voice my happenings with him. Believe what you will. As far as guys wanting me to contact them I am not sure why. Maybe those who feel that he is the greatest thing since sliced bread should call me and I will be happy to tell you my experience. After all you have allready talked with Doug about it. PM me for my number.

Kens06

SO, where does this thread go now????

Fact#1: A contract was drawn to perform exhaust system modifications!
Fact#2: All modifications were made except one!
Fact#3: Customer was billed and paid for a service that 'WAS NOT DONE'

The local, state or federal statutes against the procedure have nothing to do with the fact that the money was accepted!!

If I don't have O2 sims or OBD I edit capability to nix the rear sensors out FINE!! All he had to do was say, "Hey Dude, legally I can't do that or have the ability to do it and have it run right"!!

I say that this a good heads-up that even good shops will 'drop the ball' at times!! It is good to let people know about no-nos, but don't try to kill a business because you may be unhappy!!
**don't even ask me about $$ I've spent just like you**


Hope to hear the new exhaust at Hooters tomorrow!!
Ken