I have long awaited the opportunity to address the forum members openly and honestly about what has happened, how it happened, why and what to expect from us in the future without risking any legal ramifications and the time has now come that I can do so. Until about 30 minutes ago, I have been forced to sit quietly and read personal attacks on my husband, our reputation and my staff. But today I can and will speak out and let all of you in on the BADP story.
We ran our performance parts business, Bay Area Diesel Performance, based in our hometown, for almost 8 years. We started it ourselves with shallow pockets, a dream, and an extensive interest and knowledge of diesel truck performance upgrade capability. With that we built a solid and reliable reputation with our customers over the years. We sustained a livable income for ourselves at first and later our employees simply by knowing the products on the market and offering them at competitive prices. We were able to pride ourselves on customer service, knowledge and helpfulness. Our customer base was strong and loyal locally and we sustained through the years without much online exposure. It was not until we got in to the “code free” delete market that all of that changed and our existence came into jeopardy and then later in serious disrepair, due to overzealous hopes, rainbow chasing partners, some bad business decisions, as well as several things that were simply out of our control.
We had been producing the gen1 fixed signal style set up since the first dpf truck we were able to get our hands on. Because we did not forum surf or advertise we did not realize the huge demand for dpf delete kits. Our production of these systems caught the attention of a couple of computer guys and not unlike other advantageous entrepreneurs has done; we made a decision to expand and to trust others outside of our original business and expertise. We entered into a 3 way partnership to form BADP Trucks Manufacturing, Inc, with hardware and software gurus who felt the market on delete products could be cornered early with their programming capabilities and our diesel truck knowledge and experience. The mission: to develop the CODE FREE Dpf Delete Kit and eventually the Code Free EGR Delete. Hence, the BADP Eliminator was born. Gen 2 in spite of the excessive time delays on its final release, ended up being a virtually flawless system (more so than any other product on the market for these trucks).The install was a little extensive for the average user, which caused issues due to human error, but the system itself works when installed properly. Code Free EGR Delete (Gen3) however was not the product that we were promised. After many production meetings where customer concerns were aired freely and Shane questioned the programming and design over and over, only to get reassured that the product worked like it was marketed to do so, we really had NO IDEA initially that Gen 3 was defective. Shane stood behind what he was being told, and not without good reason – our test truck with the Gen 3, that Shane drove as a daily driver to stay on top of the product performance- REALLY did work code free. We invested our entire life savings and our Bay Area Diesel Performance reputation into the creation of BADP Trucks Manufacturing, INC. . That is a choice we made in good faith with the partners (bringing only computer intelligence to the table) who formed the company. Obviously, things went awry quickly with the Gen 2 release delays tarnishing our reputation affecting many then but nothing like the Gen 3 catastrophe. The partners promised too much, and in the end delivered too little on the Gen 3 project and we were left to answer for it all.
Where we stand now after a gut wrenching legal standoff with “no compete” litigation, asset / liability assessments and incessant mudslinging against our personal character from unhappy forum members, that we could not defend openly and honestly (because of the potential legal ramification we could not disclose what was going on behind the scenes) - we have been able to cut our losses as extensive as they are for my family, and FINALLY, we are no longer affiliated with the company at all. What is done with it from here forward does not involve me or my husband in any way. That is the choice of the remaining partners of how they want to move forward in the industry of manufacturing. We have retained what was ours legally and personally and have had to take our substantial losses and what is left and move on. I realize there are many forum members who still have issues with BADP, and understandably so. All I can offer is the truth. We have lost everything and are left trying to rebuild our reputation and salvage what we can for our families sake and the sake of the employees we retained and their families. No one has been affected more than ourselves.
Our options after the divorce from BADP are few. We cannot revive the original Bay Area Diesel Performance and go back to “business as usual” pre-BADP. The original company in reputation and name was consumed by the BADP monster. However, I do still have a building, some loyal and knowledgeable employees and moral character that I feel is worthy of redemption. Thankfully we still have loyalty from those locally who know us personally and know our work ethic, and diesel truck knowledge. With these things alone left to our credit, we are launching a new company and will reinstate the original standard that our reputation was first founded on.
The new company is privately owned by me and completely separate from BADP and in no way affiliated with the aforementioned partners. However, in an effort to reestablish our reputation and prove our moral position to the online community as the locals know it, we have put a system in place to attempt to assist any BADP customers that may have unresolved issues or may have issues in the future. We no longer have any monetary association with the BADP finances but can and will make every effort to assist with tech support with the knowledge that we posses about the product function or monetary claims against the BADP product.
The following are the ways we can be contacted:
You may contact me via PM on this forum
You may send an email to [email protected]
The direct phone number is 832-984-9404. For a very short time, the BADP phone numbers will continue to ring in at the store (I kept the building as I stated previously) , and we will answer those so we can try to help anyone who has an issue but maybe isn’t aware of the dissolve. At some point the BADP phone numbers will be terminated or transferred I am sure, so if you need to reach us after that point, you will have to use the Maximum Performance main number.
The BADP website URLs were owned by me personally – I just never transferred them in to the corporate name. Therefore, in an effort to maintain customer traffic, the BADP website will redirect to Maximum but with a disclaimer notifying all who enter that Maximum Performance is not affiliated in any way with BADP Trucks Manufacturing Inc. On the Maximum website you will find a link to the badp issue email as another point of contact.
We will monitor all of these things as closely as possible and do everything reasonable within our power to get a solution, financial or otherwise to those who have legitimate remaining Gen 3 issues and continued Gen 2 support as possible. Please keep in mind our BADP product resources are limited so we are not promising a fix for all but we will make every effort possible.
I am not attempting for this letter to serve as any kind of advertisement for our new company. I do not expect business from the forum members who have had issues (minor or major) with BADP Trucks. I certainly am not so naive as to think that the last year of frustration can or will be explained away with my post. I am simply letting you all know where it all stands now to put to rest all of the questions and speculation as to “where BADP is” and to not be accused by the haters of trying to hide behind a reorganization tactic as some companies do. It is not that simple and we are not walking away unharmed at some of you think. Our willingness to assist BADP customers is a courtesy birthed out of respect for you all as people, and to show our (mine and Shane’s )character, not as potential customers. We will continue to provide this support as long as we possibly can. I will be monitoring customer support and service closely and make every effort to insure that the customer service standard is what it should be.
I have not sent in a sponsor form yet to the forum for Maximum, though I will. I believe the BADP subscription is not over until August so I expect some retaliation posted from those guys in the BADP vendor section after this is posted but myself or my people, we will not be in there posting. I will attempt to get our own thing going quick enough to be able to respond openly with you guys without breaking forum rules.
Sincerely to all,
Lori Cates
Moderator,
I did not know where to post this so if I am out of line please move it.
We ran our performance parts business, Bay Area Diesel Performance, based in our hometown, for almost 8 years. We started it ourselves with shallow pockets, a dream, and an extensive interest and knowledge of diesel truck performance upgrade capability. With that we built a solid and reliable reputation with our customers over the years. We sustained a livable income for ourselves at first and later our employees simply by knowing the products on the market and offering them at competitive prices. We were able to pride ourselves on customer service, knowledge and helpfulness. Our customer base was strong and loyal locally and we sustained through the years without much online exposure. It was not until we got in to the “code free” delete market that all of that changed and our existence came into jeopardy and then later in serious disrepair, due to overzealous hopes, rainbow chasing partners, some bad business decisions, as well as several things that were simply out of our control.
We had been producing the gen1 fixed signal style set up since the first dpf truck we were able to get our hands on. Because we did not forum surf or advertise we did not realize the huge demand for dpf delete kits. Our production of these systems caught the attention of a couple of computer guys and not unlike other advantageous entrepreneurs has done; we made a decision to expand and to trust others outside of our original business and expertise. We entered into a 3 way partnership to form BADP Trucks Manufacturing, Inc, with hardware and software gurus who felt the market on delete products could be cornered early with their programming capabilities and our diesel truck knowledge and experience. The mission: to develop the CODE FREE Dpf Delete Kit and eventually the Code Free EGR Delete. Hence, the BADP Eliminator was born. Gen 2 in spite of the excessive time delays on its final release, ended up being a virtually flawless system (more so than any other product on the market for these trucks).The install was a little extensive for the average user, which caused issues due to human error, but the system itself works when installed properly. Code Free EGR Delete (Gen3) however was not the product that we were promised. After many production meetings where customer concerns were aired freely and Shane questioned the programming and design over and over, only to get reassured that the product worked like it was marketed to do so, we really had NO IDEA initially that Gen 3 was defective. Shane stood behind what he was being told, and not without good reason – our test truck with the Gen 3, that Shane drove as a daily driver to stay on top of the product performance- REALLY did work code free. We invested our entire life savings and our Bay Area Diesel Performance reputation into the creation of BADP Trucks Manufacturing, INC. . That is a choice we made in good faith with the partners (bringing only computer intelligence to the table) who formed the company. Obviously, things went awry quickly with the Gen 2 release delays tarnishing our reputation affecting many then but nothing like the Gen 3 catastrophe. The partners promised too much, and in the end delivered too little on the Gen 3 project and we were left to answer for it all.
Where we stand now after a gut wrenching legal standoff with “no compete” litigation, asset / liability assessments and incessant mudslinging against our personal character from unhappy forum members, that we could not defend openly and honestly (because of the potential legal ramification we could not disclose what was going on behind the scenes) - we have been able to cut our losses as extensive as they are for my family, and FINALLY, we are no longer affiliated with the company at all. What is done with it from here forward does not involve me or my husband in any way. That is the choice of the remaining partners of how they want to move forward in the industry of manufacturing. We have retained what was ours legally and personally and have had to take our substantial losses and what is left and move on. I realize there are many forum members who still have issues with BADP, and understandably so. All I can offer is the truth. We have lost everything and are left trying to rebuild our reputation and salvage what we can for our families sake and the sake of the employees we retained and their families. No one has been affected more than ourselves.
Our options after the divorce from BADP are few. We cannot revive the original Bay Area Diesel Performance and go back to “business as usual” pre-BADP. The original company in reputation and name was consumed by the BADP monster. However, I do still have a building, some loyal and knowledgeable employees and moral character that I feel is worthy of redemption. Thankfully we still have loyalty from those locally who know us personally and know our work ethic, and diesel truck knowledge. With these things alone left to our credit, we are launching a new company and will reinstate the original standard that our reputation was first founded on.
The new company is privately owned by me and completely separate from BADP and in no way affiliated with the aforementioned partners. However, in an effort to reestablish our reputation and prove our moral position to the online community as the locals know it, we have put a system in place to attempt to assist any BADP customers that may have unresolved issues or may have issues in the future. We no longer have any monetary association with the BADP finances but can and will make every effort to assist with tech support with the knowledge that we posses about the product function or monetary claims against the BADP product.
The following are the ways we can be contacted:
You may contact me via PM on this forum
You may send an email to [email protected]
The direct phone number is 832-984-9404. For a very short time, the BADP phone numbers will continue to ring in at the store (I kept the building as I stated previously) , and we will answer those so we can try to help anyone who has an issue but maybe isn’t aware of the dissolve. At some point the BADP phone numbers will be terminated or transferred I am sure, so if you need to reach us after that point, you will have to use the Maximum Performance main number.
The BADP website URLs were owned by me personally – I just never transferred them in to the corporate name. Therefore, in an effort to maintain customer traffic, the BADP website will redirect to Maximum but with a disclaimer notifying all who enter that Maximum Performance is not affiliated in any way with BADP Trucks Manufacturing Inc. On the Maximum website you will find a link to the badp issue email as another point of contact.
We will monitor all of these things as closely as possible and do everything reasonable within our power to get a solution, financial or otherwise to those who have legitimate remaining Gen 3 issues and continued Gen 2 support as possible. Please keep in mind our BADP product resources are limited so we are not promising a fix for all but we will make every effort possible.
I am not attempting for this letter to serve as any kind of advertisement for our new company. I do not expect business from the forum members who have had issues (minor or major) with BADP Trucks. I certainly am not so naive as to think that the last year of frustration can or will be explained away with my post. I am simply letting you all know where it all stands now to put to rest all of the questions and speculation as to “where BADP is” and to not be accused by the haters of trying to hide behind a reorganization tactic as some companies do. It is not that simple and we are not walking away unharmed at some of you think. Our willingness to assist BADP customers is a courtesy birthed out of respect for you all as people, and to show our (mine and Shane’s )character, not as potential customers. We will continue to provide this support as long as we possibly can. I will be monitoring customer support and service closely and make every effort to insure that the customer service standard is what it should be.
I have not sent in a sponsor form yet to the forum for Maximum, though I will. I believe the BADP subscription is not over until August so I expect some retaliation posted from those guys in the BADP vendor section after this is posted but myself or my people, we will not be in there posting. I will attempt to get our own thing going quick enough to be able to respond openly with you guys without breaking forum rules.
Sincerely to all,
Lori Cates
Moderator,
I did not know where to post this so if I am out of line please move it.
