ADV Production Modular Hardtop!

[Snowdogyyz]

Lite Brite had an APG bronco built not too long ago and also had a hardtop put on. Probably a top that was supposed to go to a customer on the forum.

Yeah- that’s a pretty sketchy situation there!

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[FreddieLee]

So, John turned over the money, the manufacturing, and production to George at APG without filing a patent?

George tweaked the design, be it aesthetic, structural, or final-assembly, filed a patent, barring John from attempting to manufacture the top?

The letter reads as if John knew he was being duped for quite some time, yet continued advertising and accepting pre-orders. Patent filed, no money to be made, so now no refunds are available.

Waiting for the second side of this story from George...

 

[broncos_and_such]

If, like me, you believe ADV was knowingly misrepresenting its ability to deliver these tops (you might say fraud), I'd encourage you to report them to Shopify, their credit card merchant.

https://www.shopify.com/legal/tools/report-an-issue/fraud

 

[garyobx]

In your case, your purchase is well within the window to dispute the charge. I'm not sure about those that made the charge 2 years ago. Credit card companies aren't obligated to reimburse customers for fraudulent charges forever.

Now, you aren't a new member here on B6G. I would advise that you follow along more frequently. This scam was sniffed out long ago, yet you still made the purchase a month ago.

i did before i bought and only read the first couple of pages. need to read more

 

[APG]

APG's statement and reply

 

[AZshot]

No it's not. Scamming requires illegally obtain money from (someone) by deception. This is not the same thing as missing deadlines. Not only that, ADV never "promised" delivery dates it was merely estimates and clearly stated there could be delays. Come on man! You are from Texas, not California.

You can now begin using the scammed language.

NEVER finance a small company's expensive new product with a full down payment. I put $100 down for my bronco in 2021, so didn't mind the delays. Full price down to "wait and see" is a fools errand.

 

[ScLeCo]

APG's statement and reply

 

[userdude]

APG's statement and reply

Interesting. So ADV was really just a distributor that took a lot of liberties? Like taking pre-orders and apparently making out that the top APG was working on was really white label? I guess if the agreements are as stated in the rebuttal, the lawsuit should get thrown out.

It does beg the question, why didn't APG attempt to dissuade ADV from doing these things, and by the deleted comments in other threads, until recently didn't seem to be bothered by what ADV was doing/saying about their product in development.

 

[mannyjag]

The Cervini stalker hood is pretty badass. That’s what I’ll be getting now that it will be easy to put black on the scoop portion

And it’s way cheaper, even the shipping is cheaper🫨 and the color match!!!!

 

[FreddieLee]

APG's statement and reply

And there it is...

 

[AZshot]

Doesn't matter which part of a company causes failure to produce: their suppliers, their sales and marketing, their plant burning down.

You NEVER pay full price up front for an expensive product that is from a small company. Being a "crowdfund" or "venture capitalist" is a different matter than being a Consumer just wanting to buy something they SAY the will make. I've ordered 2-3 big ticket items in my life that I had to wait years for (expected). But know what? I had to put $100 down for a $1500 Shiloh rifle, and $100 down for a $38,000 Ford Bronco. I would never give some small company thousands of dollars to produce something that they don't have 6 months of proven high-capacity production history of making.

Lesson to the generation. And to new startups - people are not going to fund your risk anymore. YOU need to go out and get business loans to build your business like in the past, and take ALL the risk. NOT make your clients take YOUR risk. SHAME on ADV.

 

[BAUS67]

.............................
It does beg the question, why didn't APG attempt to dissuade ADV from doing these things,

.............................

To coin a classic phrase, You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Also, many posters here try to tell people it was a scam and they would not receive a top, but they still went ahead and put a full deposit down, even as recent as just a few months ago. The writing was on the wall and they still proceeded.


Not APG job to tell ADV how to do business. If ADV would have been "up front" with it's customers from the start I believe things would have played out differently.


Lastly, another phrase to remember in all of this debacle................. caveat emptor.

 

[Sunday Money]

APG's statement and reply

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/apg-bronco-prorunner.49574/post-1515077

 

[newsman9]

You can now begin using the scammed language.

NEVER finance a small company's expensive new product with a full down payment. I put $100 down for my bronco in 2021, so didn't mind the delays. Full price down to "wait and see" is a fools errand.

I've got a $10,000 foundation repair happening next month (it's Houston - we live on gumbo clay soil). The deposit? $250.

My quibble with the APG note is that, while they expressed surprise at the 1,250 orders, ADV was very actively promoting the hardtop sales and and actively taking orders through last month (APG is obviously aware of this thread). There are 250+ pages of conversation about this - it's not a new issue.

Then again a formal warning would have set off a run-for-the-exits panic, and there probably would still be customers left holding the bag anyway.

 

[American Sender]

Without a doubt, ADV held onto a large portion of the hardtop revenue, maybe to fund a wedding, or other investments... I'll let folks do the research but you'll see what I mean.

ZoomInfo has ADV's revenue at $15.4M, and that isn't from fiberglass fenders.

Party boy.

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