This is my story of F and H performance and how much they suck. Unbelievable of what they will do to you. It is almost laughable…

MAY of 2010 while working at Titan Motorsports in I decided to do a gen 3 3sgte swap into my mk1 mr2 known as the mk1.5 swap. I asked Jon the head shop guy at the time to do it but they didn’t want to do the swap due to them being short handed for the amount of work in the shop at time. I talked to Sean (one of the sales guys) and he said he had a friend to do the work for me. He calls up his buddy Victor Alvarez at F and H performance in Palm Harbor and explains to him what I wanted then hands me the phone to speak with him. We discuss the swap and the price and exchanged info. A few weeks later I source a rear clip. I purchased from an importer locally. Here it is off the container.




Shortly after I arrange to drop the yellow 94 mr2 turbo clip off at F and H Performance in Palm Harbor. I rent a trailer and drop it on JUNE 5th (Saturday). I pull up to the Pelican plaza and only car shop there is a Mieneke. I was hesitant about leaving my stuff there but since Sean knew him I thought it was cool. Victor advises me to order all the gaskets to freshen up the motor. I also told him that I was going to sell stuff off the car and have payment sent to his paypal and just to subtract it from the total cost of the swap. I would then pay him the difference in cash when completed. He agreed… Now on to ordering the gaskets. I ask Sean to order the Toyota gaskets that will fit from the gen 2 motor and I ordered the rest from the UK because they are not sold here in the US. Toyota USA doesn’t sell imported motor parts. So the parts I order arrive 2 weeks later and the others didn’t. Turns out they were never ordered… Go figure, its Titan… Mean while Victor is wondering where the parts are to get started. I can tell he is getting impatient and quickly order the parts myself. I ship him all the gaskets and a few other parts (water filler neck and thermostat housing and water pump). I call and we arrange for me to drop off my mk1. He says “Ill be ready for it in 1 or 2 weeks. Those missing gaskets held me up and you went to the back of the line.” This is understandable, no sense in waiting around while you could be working on something else. I call back a couple weeks later and ask if he is ready. No go… Call back 1 week later and ask again. No go. As time went on he would become harder and harder to contact and eventually it stopped. I called, emailed, asked Sean what was going on. No answer or a bullshit answer was given.
Mid August I finally get a hold of him and ask what is going on? He explains a death has occurred and it was understandable. I told him no rush and that I would call back in a few days. I call 1 week later and he says “Ill will be ready in 4 weeks to take the car.” I just told him I wanted to come get the stuff. He agreed to meet me on one of the weekends in late September. After he stopped answering my cell phone calls, calls from Titan and a friends phone I gave up. Eventually I told my father to call him and take care of it since they have the truck to pick it up and since he was going to do the swap now. He doesn’t answer his call either.
I find early October from Sean that the Mieneke in Palm Harbor (aka F and H) was shut down. WTF? Still no contact from Victor... I call the Meineke and sure enough the phone was shut off. My mother finally gets a hold of the Victor and tells we are ready to get the motor and we will have an officer meet us out there. Victor called me immediately after the call with my mother and asked about why are we going to have an officer come out and if one shows up he was “Going to put my shit in the street real quick.” I couldn’t help but chuckle because that’s the last thing he wanted to do... She, my father and Victor agreed to meet Saturday Oct 23rd. They drive from Jacksonville, rent a truck in Orlando and drive to Tampa to pick up the motor. When we arrive no one is there. We wait for about 1 hour and then we see someone peeking in from the front. I walk around and front and ask if he works here? He says “yea I did. I came to work on a few Mondays ago it was just closed down.” He proceeds to tell me he has been trying to contact Victor to get his tools and he hasn’t returned his calls for 3-4 weeks. I walk around and ask a few other shops to get an idea of what has been going on. The other businesses tell me they just up and left one day. The Meineke signs were gone and on the plaza directory it was already for lease! I ask the car wash manager at the end of the plaza who is good friends with the land lord of the building. Turns out Victor wasn’t paying the rent and basically just left one day. He gathered up what he could before they changed the locks on him. (I was never informed of this. I found out 5 months after I drop my stuff off.) I walk back down to look at the lock and it looks brand new. We get ahold of Victor again and he says hes not coming and that he never agreed to meet us there. WE RENTED A TRUCK SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS WEEKEND. He goes on to say he has a key and he can get in. Lies, Lies and more Lies. He may have had a key but it didn’t work… The keys on my ring had a higher probability of opening that door… Here are pictures of the store front, office and shop empty with my motor inside.




We call the local police to get some advice and to file a report. They called Victor and surprise surprise no one answers. We call his father who is part owner with him at the Temple Terrace Meineke. He says he had no knowledge and the situation was between Victor and I. If you are the OWNER of both of those shops you should know whats going on… He told the police they were locked out and they couldn’t get the engine for me anyways. They would allow me to get the engine but it isn’t up to them anymore but the landlord and they couldn’t do anything for me. He mentioned I needed to pay the balance I owe before I get it. Balance? That’s the first I heard of that. I was written no quote, no paper work was given to me, nothing. It definitely was shady but again since Sean knew him I thought it was cool. I have no problem paying them if they did the work, that was NEVER an issue.
Since they owe the landlord money he basically owns my clip (3500 bux) and could put a lien on all the stuff left, including my stuff and the other employee’s tools (valued at 10,000) plus whatever else that was left. We get the number for the landlord and drive 5 hours back to Jacksonville empty handed. Over the weekend we line up a lawyer and start to prepare to take Victor (FandH performace ) to civil court. Monday Oct 25 (yesterday) I call the landlord and explain to him the situation. He agrees to send someone out to let me in to get my stuff Tues Oct 26. I schedule a rental truck this morning and I arrive this morning at 11:36am after a 5 hour drive from Jacksonville. I get my motor and things are missing and just literally just thrown in a pile on the ground. I sorted through what I could with the time given to me. I don’t have pictures because in the moment I was fvckin pissed and it slipped my mind. The gaskets I purchased (346 dollar value) were not there along with map sensor, intake manifold gasket, ac compressor, accessory belts turbo cold pipe, ait sensor and a few other things. I wasn’t allowed to look around in the shop just because. I wasn’t given a reason. Mean while Victor has not the slightest care in the world running errands over at Titan, buying parts ect. None of my business but don’t you think he should pay that big rent bill he owes? Just sayin… His dad says he has the gaskets at his shop in Temple Terrace.
Wait a second you took my small box of gaskets (probably some useable on other Toyota cars, at least the o rings and t type seals were/are) but left my motor, tranny, and all the other components at the shop you just up and left at? Doesn’t make any sense to me at all. We get to the Temple Terrace and they are [FONT='Times New Roman','serif']conveniently[/font]out to lunch. I speak to someone up front and and explain Im here to get my gaskets. They he says “You can get your gaskets when you give me 350, cash money.” If all my gaskets were over here at the Temple Terrace shop and my motor was LEFT at the Palm Harbor shop what work was done? Nothing, exactly.
Afterwards we call an officer out and they get both sides of the story and he says they are not giving the gaskets to you.

I provided the officer receipts and tracking numbers via fedex that those were my gaskets. Mean while Victor and his dad shows up. Victor looks at me like he was fvckin Radio. I just asked for my gaskets and nothing more. They didn’t want to give them up, so the officer says Ill have to go to civil court. I contact my lawyer and he starts faxing over paper work to the city of Tampa. I would have to pay the value of the gaskets on the receipt then bring the receipts to court explain my side of the story yada yada yada. I hate to say it but they were dead in the water. They had no signature of mine on any quote or contract, no authorization to take my parts to another mieneke plus I have pictures to back what I was saying. So we start to get directions to the Tampa court house (so I can pay the value of the gaskets and set a court date up) from one of the officers while the other went back in. The officer comes back out with the box of gaskets. I run through the box and match them with the receipts and still some items are missing but at this point Im glad to have some of the hard to get gaskets in hand and be done with it. The business that was constructed here was horrible. I will never let them touch any of my stuff and strongly deter others doing business with them. I advise anyone looking to get work on any of your cars not to bring it to Meineke in Temple Terrace (Aka F and H Performance). F and H isn’t a real business but something made up run out of a store front Meineke. They will lie, drag you through some mud, lie again, duck your calls, and lie to you more until they are blue in the face. Get someone else to do your work period.
Ill post pics of the motor as it sits currently when I get back to Jacksonville to take them.
Lessons learned: don’t trust just anyone with your stuff, always take pictures, save receipts, and have a good lawyer lined up incase things turn sour.

-Matt

 

damn, thats fucked up. i heard a few people say bad stuff about them at local car hangouts but nothing anywhere near this. this is nuts.

 

Dam, this is crazy... I have had my car there. And have had it looked over, they seemed legit...but u cant be sure of anything, ever can u.

 

Good luck with the MK1.5 build. Seems crappy for this to happen.

 

dam!

 

thats fucked up, sorry that u gotta go through all this
gl

 

I know Vic and F&H. I Have done business with him and the Titan group a lot in the past. I have never heard of him doing anything like this before but with that being said I am not saying I don't believe you. I know about the death and stuff and know Vic was unreachable for a few weeks. I'm glad you got your stuff back and hope it works out in the end. I loved my Mr2 and miss it but nothing will ever hold a candle to the Supra... Good luck with the build and keep us updated.

 

Wow thats pretty fucked up. I would get their review on local business review pages such as Angieslist.com and super pages.

 

Thanks. It is unfortunate it had to end this way with me getting the police involved. It could have been handled in a better manner. More posts over on supraforums. People over there are missing the point. I understand there was a death. I didnt try to contact him for 1 week during that time. He just left the engine and parts in a shop he left on bad terms. He gave me ecuse after excuse knowing he had no key to get in. I was never made aware he moved. I would have come and picked my stuff up if I knew. It is lame for him to sit on the sf.com and lie. I had to call the land lord and explain to him the situation. Fortunately he was understanding and allowed me 10 minutes to load everything up. Granted some things are still missing but I have the bulk of it.

I have a review for Titan aswell. You thought this one was bad? What til you see the quality of work on on my celica the same time I was dealing with F and H while I was an employee there.

On a side note that mk1.5 swap with a gen 3 motor in a car weighing under 2000lbs at 15-17psi can keep up with a supra easily.

 

every shop has stories...just sayin...

sucks that you had this happen

i just had an exhaust welded up there, no problems and they were good on the price