I saw an ad on eBay for inner fairing/cap painting with Corso Cycles in Woburn, MA. He also offers matching Tweeterpods from Hogtunes. So I bought thru eBay and he invoiced me for the painting ($299.99) Tweeterpod (219.99) shipping and 3% for using a CC thru PayPal (against eBay's policy, but he negotiated the shipping to actual cost versus his inflated calculation, so I didn't want to bitch). All-in-all $581.95.


I bought a inner fairing and cap here on the forum and had them ship it to Corso in Woburn (which was recieved per FedEx tracking). Well, that was a month ago. I haven't received it, he (Joe Corso, the owner) has a message on his cell phone saying he is closed because of a family emergency and the voice mail box is full. I've emailed several times to no avail. I see on eBay he is no longer a registered user, so it appears I'm not the only one experiencing issues.


I contacted my CC company and they reversed the charges while they conduct the investigation (thank God I paid with a credit card through PayPal). I'm in the process of filing complaints through both eBay and PayPal. Don't know if I'll ever see the Inner fairing and cap that was shipped there by FedEx, so I may be out the $125 I paid for them.


I wish I knew someone in MA that could find out exactly WTF is going on at his shop, as I am in San Diego. Up to this point his feedback was xlnt, so I guess I have incredibly bad timing/luck with this guy. If he is indeed having a family emergency, that's a shame, but he has to understand that those of us who have paid him hundreds of dollars and have him be totally non-responsive is extremely challenging. It certainly appears at this time that he has gone BK and closed up shop...

 

Bro, I live an hour away from Woburn! I'm always willing to help another HDF member! If there's anything I can do to help shoot me a PM.

 

Thanks, JD! At this point, I'm fairly confident that I will be made whole by my CC company, unless he comes up with some BS way to kink the system...we'll see. In the meantime, it would be really nice if someone could get my unpainted inner fairing and cap from him that I shipped to have painted. It's all boxed up, so it just needs to be shipped back to me. I'll provide my FedEx account number or whatever it takes to pay for the shipping.

I'm also curious as to what is going on with the day-to-day operations at this shop. He certainly looked like a legitimate custome bike builder with skills. He has a Facebook page with a substantial following; kind of a mini Orange County Choppers. Like I said earlier, if he is indeed experiencing a family crisis, that's a shame and I feel for him, but to just disappear with a lot of my money (and understand that eBay, PayPal and credit card companies give you a limted time-frame after your transaction to have any recourse) is irresponsible.

One of the great things about ridng a Harley is the brotherhood that you enjoy with fellow riders. From roadside assistance to exchanging ideas to just helping each other out with no expectation, its unlike anything I personally have experienced. For a fellow biker, especially an allegedly legitimate dealer to abuse that makes my blood boil, as it should everyone that respects our community.

 

Thanks, JD! At this point, I'm fairly confident that I will be made whole by my CC company, unless he comes up with some BS way to kink the system...we'll see. In the meantime, it would be really nice if someone could get my unpainted inner fairing and cap from him that I shipped to have painted. It's all boxed up, so it just needs to be shipped back to me. I'll provide my FedEx account number or whatever it takes to pay for the shipping.

I'm also curious as to what is going on with the day-to-day operations at this shop. He certainly looked like a legitimate custome bike builder with skills. He has a Facebook page with a substantial following; kind of a mini Orange County Choppers. Like I said earlier, if he is indeed experiencing a family crisis, that's a shame and I feel for him, but to just disappear with a lot of my money (and understand that eBay, PayPal and credit card companies give you a limted time-frame after your transaction to have any recourse) is irresponsible.

One of the great things about ridng a Harley is the brotherhood that you enjoy with fellow riders. From roadside assistance to exchanging ideas to just helping each other out with no expectation, its unlike anything I personally have experienced. For a fellow biker, especially an allegedly legitimate dealer to abuse that makes my blood boil, as it should everyone that respects our community.

 

true that....
keep us posted on how this works out.

 

Hi forum... this sucks to have to post, but here it is... this will be posted on my website and facebook page shortly. Bob and I are in communication to resolve his purchase, and I will be doing all I can for all of my past customers. I hope to return to the industry bigger and better some day, but my goal today is to fix...

_______________________________
Thank you to all of you who have supported Corso Cycles, cheered us on and allowed us the privilege of partnering with you on some amazing, award-winning bikes! It is with a very heavy heart that I must announce we are closing the shop in Woburn, MA, hopefully only temporarily.

As some of you may know, my (now former) partner - in reality tv fashion - opened a competing shop while still working with me. It is the reason we weren't able to make it down to Daytona, or to some of the local bike shows over the past few weeks.

I am disappointed in his betrayal, and doing all I can to keep any part of the shop afloat. I am exploring all options: finding an investor, obtaining a loan, or filing for bankruptcy. If any of you know of anyone who might like to partner on or invest in a custom bike shop, please let me know.

Again - I just can't thank everyone enough for all of your support of the shop - and the support you've provided since this news broke. Hopefully this will be a temporary bump in the road, and we can get back to doing what we love - pushing the creative limits in designing customized motorcycles.

For the time being, please contact me by email at Joe@corsocycles.com. Please, feel free to follow my progress on Facebook. I am a believer that ultimatly, the truth and honesty will always set us free...

Thank you,
Joe Corso

 

Thanks for coming on here and giving us an update on the situation. Good luck on getting back in business.

 

Thanks for manning up in here bro , say's something about your character I've know many who wouldn't in this business .

 

Thanks to all that have posted/PM'd me regarding my situation with Corso Cycles. When something like this happens, I've found that reaching out to the community and rallying together usually produces positive results, and this case is not an exception to that rule (although another forum that will remain nameless deleted it, apparently not believeing that informing their members of a cut and dried factual account of an occurance of a shop that was taking money but not providing parts/service or a refund to be relevant...hmmm).

I have been in touch with Joe and he says he will not fight the dispute I've filed with my credit card company, so it remains to be seen if the charge reversal stays intact; probably depends on their ability to get their money back, so we'll see. It takes 60 days to get out of the woods...would certainly have much preferred a refund of my payment through PayPal to be done with this once and for all and to be able to report that he's made good... I gave him my FedEx number to have him ship my unpainted parts to another painter (Todd Spencer in CO), which he said he'd ship today (so far no record in my FedEx account @ about 3PM EST...).

I'll keep you all posted and gladly report once I'm made whole. Like I told Joe, I don't want a pound of flesh; just want my money and parts back...

Bob

 

I have dealt with two chargebacks, both as a buyer and a seller, and it always favors the buyer, so you are in good shape.
As a buyer, I bought a gauge that came to me missing some parts. My credit card company did a chargeback and even fined him over $100 additional.
As a seller, I have only had one chargeback. I sold a set of cams to an Ebay scammer, who said that they were not for the correct year. Regardless of the fact that I personally took the cams out of one of my personal cars and boxed them marking the box, still, I decided to go that extra mile to take care of my customer. I had another set (one year newer, same cams though) from a customer car that I took out, and boxed them up to ship to him. I sent these insured, signature required. Before I sent the second set of cams however, I took them to Ford, had my dealership verify that they were indeed the cams for a 2004 GT, and had them print out a piece of paper with the cam description which had a part number, same number that is engraved on each cam (which I photographed). I also had the USPS open the box and verify that the cams in the box were the ones with the confirmed part number, then they taped the box and sent the cams out. When the second set arrived, he said these too were the wrong ones. He then changed his story after I contacted him from "both cams were out of an earlier pre-1999 model Mustang" to "One cam was from a 5.4L truck, the other from a 1990 4.6L (ironic, the 4.6L did not come out until 1992). Now at this point, I had a TON of evidence and thought it was an open and shut case. I gave Ebay as well as Paypal all the proof, and they still issued a full refund to the con! At this point, I had lost a lot of money, not just the cost of the two sets of cams (which were free, but still) but I am also out the cost of $35 to ship the cams the first time and $41 to ship and insure the second set. The guy paid $21 shipping initially (my fault, as I underestimated it) and $49.99 for the cams, all refunded. Now he has the two cams and a full refund, and I am out $76 for the shipping, plus my time and fuel to personally drop the cams off to be shipped. Last I saw (four months later) I found BOTH sets of cams being sold by him on Ebay as 2003 Saleen Mustang cams!
Sorry for the rant, but the long and the short of it is you are much better protected by Ebay and PayPal than the seller.