[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by mhsprecher

Thanks for the back story, but bad news that the business or tooling couldn't be sold. Just the way it goes sometimes, but sorry to hear about it.

This is my theory, ...and only a theory but I was a dealer for them once upon a time, -and he and the lady (-wife??) were very odd/eccentric acting. I would place an order which was generally a thousand dollars or so. That needed to be faxed to them as they would not take a phone order. Then they would contact you back in a few days with a total price for what inventory they had and an exact price for the shipping. We then had to FedEx them a check for the exact amount before they would ship. If you sent a check by general delivery and if they needed the same item in your order to fill another order before our check arrived, they would call with an adjusted amount and want another check sent.


Also, when you called, they never answered by the company name, ...it was always "Hello.". They supposedly had several businesses operating out of the same building and all using the same phone number. Hearsay on the 'street' was he had a selling price that he was expecting to get for the business, and if it did not bring his amount, he had already threatened to scrap it for years. Several that I spoke to along the way just felt the ROI was not there for his sales price and what inventory you received.


Now to my theory, ...I always wondered if in the latter years whether his gears were truly US manufactured. I generally purchased 6-8 complete transmission sets annually, so I kinda knew what they were, ...and I honestly believe they probably were not made in the US, -and were probably manufactured off-shore by a quality ISO900* manufacturer, and he likely kept some old tooling and fixtures at his shop just so if he ever was contested about the US manufacturing, he could show some fixtures and an old hobbing machine as if to try to convince someone. Therefore in reality at the end, it was easier to scrap everything (tooling, jigs, fixtures, etc.) than potentially have to answer and possibly pay fines for years of advertising US manufactured items that were actually off-shore manufactured. This is not to imply his gears were not quality made or had issues, however when others have received quotes from US manufacturers for the same gears, the pricing was not anywhere comparable. Again, just a theory on my parts and you can disagree all you like.