View Full Version : KO Performance - What's Up With Them? Where did they Go???


JPK
02-09-2006, 01:34 PM
Dear Bimmerforums Members,

I would like to personally thank all of those members that have seen through the smoke and mirrors and have stood up and said something about their experiences with KO Performance over the last nearly 5 years.

Especially those experiences prior to the addition of, and subtraction of Joseph Ghattas to the KO TEAM.

That has meant a lot to me, Jim Nolden our Midwest Sales Manager, and our friends and families.

It has always been, and will always be, extremely important to me, that KO Performance has the highest reputation of any company out there, for honesty and integrity in the aftermarket OEM and Performance parts marketplace. That is one of my personal goals for this company and near and dear to my core values.

Again, I sincerely thank all those that have sent us emails and posted about their experiences as it was discouraging to see someone attempt to destroy our reputation after I treated them so well, taught them so much, and mentored them, in exchange for derogatory statements, and worse. At first, it felt like our 4+ years of awesome service and happy customers could care less... thank you for voicing your experiences with us and seeing through this rough time for KO as just that.

Where are you guys?!!!! That's the question many of you have been asking...

I have spent the last 5-6 weeks doing my best to service our customers that had already paid for products that they had not yet received yet, or that mistakes were made on their orders, and correcting all of the lose ends, unfulfilled orders and customer issues for these customers first and foremost.

As such, we were not taking hardly any inbound phone calls, and at one point our voicemail system was completely filled up!

As our volume of inbound calls, and website traffic is so large, since I am currently the only full time staff member at KO until we decide upon who to hire as our new Miami Sales Manager (see monster jobs.com posting for Miami if you are qualified and looking for a new job), I had to prioritize the business activities in this order:

1. Customers that have already paid
2. Legal concerns concerning former employees and unpaid customers
3. Posting job postings for a new highly qualified Miami Sales Manager to get our service and sales channels back up to date and moving forward
4. Accepting new business orders

I have, now, for the most part, gotten on top of a large portion of the first 3 items... the fourth will be addressed at the end of this email.


---

For the purposes of clarity, Joseph Ghattas, now currently attempting to operate a company called, ironically, Midnight Autowerks, is not currently associated with KO Performance in any way, shape or form.

Before Joe came on board in mid July of last year (2005), KO had virtually zero complaints of any kind, nor complaints, or angry customers of any kind.

As anyone can do a search on the forums to look up KO Performance, you can easily find for yourself that to be the case.

While Joe was on the KO TEAM, we received a record number of complaints, and I personally had to write many apologies to our customers because of lies told to them by Joe, in order to close any which sales he could muster together. The lies, and mistakes made on virtually every order where, I must admit, a lot of extra and unnecessary work to clean up after in order to get our customers the right parts, and account for everything in order fulfillment on our (KO's) side of the picture.

It got so bad, that one of the primary reasons that our Assit. Manager, Gregg Smith, a very dependable employee, known by many of you, left KO of his own accord in early January, citing in his 2 week notice letter to me that

"As the days go on, I keep getting more and more frustrated that I have to come here and deal with something that Joe does or doesn't do. Don't get me wrong, I like Joe, he is a very nice kid, but as you know he f***s everything up and I am left cleaning up his s**t. We had little to no issues in the first five months that I started working here, but since Joe has been aboard, things are getting screwed up every day... This has started affecting my level of customer service because I am now less focused with my customers and my day-to-day duties and am spent dealing with other peoples orders/dirty diapers..."

We are currently working on some very pressing issues with Joe and his current business partner, and hope to resolve the issues soon.

I would urge anyone dealing with him, his partner, or his company to consider the facts and value of your hard earned dollars and your own personal requirements for a base minimum service level before passing over your money.

I have already been contacted by "customers" of his, that he was selling to on the side, while working at KO on full salary as a full time employee, due to confusion he has caused with regards to where he was working and to whom the "customers" were actually paying and thus who was responsible for refunds, service, etc. I felt bad to inform one large $ value "customer" in particular that had contacted us, that unfortunately, his payment had been made to Joe's personal account and not KO Performance, but we would be glad to help him otherwise.

Please be careful. No one likes to get taken or provided with horrible service, or lied to.

---

I am pleased to announce, despite KO Performance's recent hard times and re-organization, that we are nearly up to speed, and are going to begin accepting as much new business as we can handle, increasing such day by day, as we add more qualified staff, and continue to move forward into our 5th solid year of growth and business.

In particular, the quickest, and easiest way to get a hold of us for the time being, will be via emails to: sales@koperformance.com

The customers that indicate that they are ready to order something, and provide us with all of their information will be the first to be serviced as again, we are still working with limited resources.

If you want to order by phone, the quickest route would be to email us with what you want, and your phone number and a good time to call you back, and we will do so ASAP to get your order done and your products in your hands ASAP.

---

Right off the bat, I am going to kick off our fresh intake of new business again by offering:

Active Autowerke E36 Gen 3 exhaust for sale at $595.99 SHIPPED to the first 7 customers that email sales@koperformance.com with their phone numbers ready to place an order.

We have ONLY 7 in stock, in our own offices ready to ship TODAY at that price. First come, first serve.

----

Keep an eye open for responses to your emails, voicemails, and new inquiries over the next few days as we can begin now to get back to you and offer you the highest level of service and prices once again.

Sincerely,
John Paul Komasinski
CEO KO Performance (and janitor ;) )

mrdoenutz
02-09-2006, 02:11 PM
Hey John Paul,

good to hear from you. Ive always had a pleasure dealing with KO either it be with your or Gregg. Sucks to see Gregg go, he helped me with a lot of my part orders.

Keep up the good work!

VPD
02-09-2006, 03:12 PM
John Paul,

Very good of you to come out and set the record straight about what has been going on.

I am in full support of you and your company.

VPD

Jeff@eurobahn.us
02-09-2006, 05:27 PM
John Paul,

We have enjoyed a great business relationship with your company. I know full well how fast things can go down hill when you are undermined from within.

But knowing you the way I do, KO will bounce back twice as strong as before and I think that the customer base will respect the situation and give you an opportunity to make everything right.

As for those responsible for this hardship, may they rot in hell!:devillook


Jeff Zusman
President
Eurobahn Engineering

dugmar
02-10-2006, 10:04 AM
We also have have a great mutual business relationship with KO and we hope for it to continue for a long time.

Good luck guys, this is just a small bump in the road.

jmargo
02-10-2006, 08:07 PM
I just placed an order with KO. Jim was great to work with and I look forward to the arrival of a new toy.

Sammyzuko
02-12-2006, 04:34 AM
I had an excellent experience with KO when I ordered my AA Gen III from them a couple years ago. I'm glad to see them explain what's been going on lately. I look forward to doing business with them in the future as I feel they are a top notch vendor.

MasterM3
02-12-2006, 01:06 PM
I've had great experiences with KO performance. You guys truly set the standard for many others to follow.

s_ribs
02-13-2006, 07:28 PM
I haven't done business with KO yet, but major props to you for posting here to explain what was going on with the company. Thanks for being up front with us! :thumbup:

Jean@ActiveAutowerke
02-15-2006, 11:40 AM
Keep up the good work John Paul. We know that you've been dealing with a lot over there.

Omar@ActiveAutowerke
02-15-2006, 12:17 PM
Hello Board,

I personally deal with KO Performance on almost a daily basis and have never had an issue with them. KO has been an outstanding company throughout the years and I have had the pleasure of dealing with JP,Jim, and Gregg on several occasions( It is a shame to see Gregg go). I understand exactly what KO Performance is going through right now and we sympathize with them. I look forward to doing business with John Paul and Jim in the future. KO performance also has our support throughout this ordeal. I want everyone reading this to realize that each company goes through its rough times but the companies that are able to overcome those rough times are the companies that will be around for the long run.

Off on a tangent: I want everyone here to understand that "Midnight Autowerks" has NO AFFILIATION WHATSOEVER WITH ACTIVE AUTOWERKE NOR WILL THEY BE SELLING OUR PRODUCTS Joe I am also asking you to stop your "group buys" with any of our products. I am asking you to do this immediately!!!. Please understand that if you purchase any Active Autowerke products through Midnight Autowerks you are at your own risk.

Thank You.

jmargo
02-15-2006, 12:26 PM
Off on a tangent: I want everyone here to understand that "Midnight Autowerks" has NO AFFILIATION WHATSOEVER WITH ACTIVE AUTOWERKE NOR WILL THEY BE SELLING OUR PRODUCTS Joe I am also asking you to stop your "group buys" with any of our products. I am asking you to do this immediately!!!. Please understand that if you purchase any Active Autowerke products through Midnight Autowerkes you are at your own risk. I also need you to check your email's Joe in reference to your "company" name.
Thank You.

Ummmm just an observation....If you want to come on here all threatening as a "REP" for AA you might want to get the Supporting Vendor tag added to your name to add validity. Anyone can make up a name and title.
jmargo@AAtuning....SEE

Air your dirty laundry somewhere else.

Omar@ActiveAutowerke
02-15-2006, 12:54 PM
Ummmm just an observation....If you want to come on here all threatening as a "REP" for AA you might want to get the Supporting Vendor tag added to your name to add validity. Anyone can make up a name and title.
jmargo@AAtuning....SEE

Air your dirty laundry somewhere else.

I dont make threats.

s_ribs
02-15-2006, 12:59 PM
I dont make threats.

His point is still valid. For us to take you seriously as an AA rep you need to get a supporting vendor tag. We aren't disregarding what you have to say at all but internet anonymity is too easily accessible.

jmargo
02-15-2006, 04:45 PM
I dont make threats.

And you don't make a good representative either. Maybe its a better if you DON'T represent AA on discussion boards. Mr. Calloway seems to be doing a good job keeping the board undercontrol. But for every step forward he takes you bring him two steps back with a post like that.
IMHO your posting is detrimental to AA's cause. And I am just an unbiased third party who uses AA products.

BGM3
02-21-2006, 04:51 PM
my experience with KO was excellent... got my order on time with no issues.

clex2
02-21-2006, 05:16 PM
KO has been very very good to me! JP, to show my continued support, I just emailed an order for some stuff. I'll understand if it takes you some time to get back to me. It's worth it.