Comments on: The sordid story behind the 65E.

By: chuck goolsbee

chuck goolsbee — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:38:38 +0000

Thanks George… of course while you were writing this I fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: CHECK YOUR DAMN HEADERS BEFORE YOU HIT “SEND”! Yep, I posted a private reply to the LIST. On this very subject… D’oh!

I am SUCH an idiot.

Oh well. Sorry George.

By: gwcohn

gwcohn — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:54:02 +0000

Chuck, thanks for doing this and thank you for respecting the J-L rules. As you so clearly stated, we are a small volunteer organization supported by donations from our members and rather meager sales of regalia in the cafepress shop. One libel or slander lawsuit could mean that we would be history and the great J-L community could be gone forever.

I must take absolute umbrage at the comment by the poster above and I quote:

“Chuck, I am glad that in this site we can say it like it is, without the stupid “rules” of those conceited sites like Jag Lovers, protecting unscrupulous Vendors because they advertise in their sites! Jag lovers and All Others can K.M.A., and their so-called “moderators” can too.”

As you know, I am the only “moderator” for e-type and we don’t even moderate the lists. The messages go out live as posted. I just try to keep folks out of trouble after the fact.

I’ve had this non-paid position since November 1996 when J-L changed to their current multi-list format from a “one-size-fits-all” mailing list. The servers are in Norway and J-L is maintained throughout the world by volunteers from many countries.

I’m not sure where all of these paid advertisements are and who is getting paid but the principles of the organization would not have to “beg for dollars” if we were in the pockets of some faceless, nameless advertisers.

There are good vendors and bad vendors and many in between. I have personally seen good shops go bad when their principle founder “made it” and decided to turn the day to day operations over to other managers. I have seen nearly bankrupt shops rescued and rebuild their reputations.

That said, I have had dealings with CJ as well as XKU, SNG, Terry’s, and a host of other Jag parts vendors.

Some I’ve had problems with in regard to shoddy reproductions. One of the lines I’ve heard most often is, “You are the first customer to tell us that XXX doesn’t fit/work/fell apart out of the box.” Right.

I wish it were a perfect world and we could say publicly, don’t buy from WXYZ because their merchandise is crap and their service is worse, but unfortunately in this litigious society, anyone and everyone is fair game for a lawsuit over the most innocuous and frivolous comment.

BTW, the blow-up on the list with Terry Handley, Australian racer and mechanic actually happened twice. Early on, Terry joined the list and immediately antagonized everyone by asserting that only professional mechanics should work on our cars and it was dangerous for a bunch of amateurs to do such work. This created such an uproar that I had to ban him.

Dan Mooney then called me and begged me to reinstate him as he was going to bring him to Texas and hire him based on his reputation. I relented and did so.

Apparently two weeks into his employment at CJ, he was so abrasive in person that he was driving paying customers away so Dan told me he sacked him and sent him packing.

He went back to Australia and created the biggest flame war on e-type all directed at Dan Mooney and Americans in general. This got him permanently banned the second time.

George Cohn
‘70 OTS

By: gordon

gordon — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:07:23 +0000

I have been looking forward to starting a long postponed rebuild on my 67 roadster. I am disappointed to have to remove from my list what on the surface appeared to be a good resource. I’m greatfull for the information, I prefer not to deal with this type of personality. As someone in the service industry, I recognize it well. Thankyou Chuck, happy motoring.

By: cg

cg — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:06:59 +0000

Hello “2-Jags-4-1″

Thanks for your comments.
As for Jag-Lovers, I actually have a lot of respect for their “speak no ill of vendors” rule. It keeps the discussions from getting too inflamed, and if you are subtle all the bad guys are revealed anyway, so no worries as far as I’m concerned. Additionally I’m willing to admit that there are some people who have gotten and will get fine and excellent service from Classic Jaguar. In our case, we did NOT. If they provided everyone with bad service, they’d be out of business. My father’s mistake in dealing with Dan was to trust Dan implicitly. A vendor is a vendor and customers should NEVER put themselves in a position where they transfer the power in the relationship opposite to the money flow.

By: 2-Jags-4-1

2-Jags-4-1 — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 22:38:37 +0000

what a sad situation. As a two Jaguar owner, I can relate, and I am sure that Chuck and his father are not lying about it. However, Dan Mooney may be correct in that he was not given the first shot at the damaged engine, so how could he ascertain that the bodging was caused by their out-of-state sub-contractor? Difficult situation for both parties involved. I don’t want to be judgemental towards Dan or Chuck’s father, but Dan’s refusal to talk to Chuck’s father until he got an apology was childish and shows an inmature, unprofessional handling of business matters. Unfortunately for Dan, I am now skeptical of the work at CJ’s, so I am discarding any idea of getting my car’s systems rebuilt there in the future. I suppose that this is a victory for Chuck and his father. So be it. Besides, $65 thousand US Dollars to correct the damages done by water, that was total, absolute highway robbery in my opinion. Estimating repairs sight-unseen is a bad business practice at the very least. I refurbish Jaguar myself and it simply does not cost that much to do a complete car, that is, unless you are pocketing a hefty bonus just because you’re the CEO of the company! But hey, let’s face it, CJ is VERY expensive, if not THE MOST expensive Jaguar outfit in the USA. Trouble is, when you pair that with an owner who has a short fuse, who screams at his customers and then REFUSES to talk to them, then you’d best stay away from such a company, PERIOD.

Chuck, I am glad that in this site we can say it like it is, without the stupid “rules” of those conceited sites like Jag Lovers, protecting unscrupulous Vendors because they advertise in their sites! Jag lovers and All Others can K.M.A., and their so-called “moderators” can too. Fact is: It would be great to have a website where Jaguar Owners can express their GOOD and BAD experiences with Jaguar Parts and Service vendors. And by the way, next time, hire a lawyer.