What's the deal with K-Gap?

It would make sense for Doug to buy out K Gap and consolidate all the products. I will not use K Gap after once again hearing of their intractability. Such a shame.

I wish they'd either 'git in or git out'. I'm out. I ordered a couple of clutch pads at least 2 yrs ago, paid via pay pal and never heard 'boo'.
The Metro part is listed at 'Rockauto' for 3.97 each. (Under 54 manual tranny.) I paid a lot more than that. Rockauto lists a lot of Hudson parts and they have them in your mailbox the 2nd day. Gotta check the latest year that will fit your car as their catalog is still under construction. Restoration Specialties in Wimber PA has a lot of our stuff also. Online catalog.

Hello,

I checked the Better Business Bureau link posted above, and saw this most recent complaint:

"Complaint: 11/28/2012: I have been trying since March to get a hold of KGap to see where the rest of my parts are. I have faxed them letters; I have phoned them and left them messages; I have tried just calling them to see if they would answer and they haven't responded to anything. They have been paid in full ,yet I haven't received my full order. I have talked to other people who have dealt with them and some people have been waiting almost 2 years to get their parts. KGap seems to take your money and then takes their time to get you your parts. I missed a whole summer of possibly driving my 1949 Hudson because of not having the parts to finish it.

Business response: After reviewing the consumer’s account, we do owe him 4 items. These items have been on back order which he has been well aware of. He placed a $1038.00 order and out of that dollar amount we do owe him $284.00 for the items on back order and his 3 returned items. Not once has he asked for a refund, he has always said get them to him as soon as we can. When we reopen after the holidays we will send the consumer his refund for $284.00 and close his account and will not be selling to him again. This refund will include the 3 items he returned, he also returned a part that is not even ours and we will send that item back to him as well. The consumer was also aware of the issues we were having due to a prolong illness of a parent that has taken up our time for the last 5 years. She passed away this July 2012, and it has taken time to sort out her affairs and get our own company back on track."

This is very similar to my experience. I have been waiting for fully paid for parts since October 2009. I made phone calls and sent e-mails, and received similar promises and excuses. The only part I returned was a part they sent duplicates of in different shipments (and I sent it back on my dime). At first I was willing to wait for the parts, but after it got into the second year, I decided enough was enough, especially after reading on the Forum how others were ordering and receiving parts from K-GAP. When I started to not get phone messages returned, or was unable to leave a phone message because the voicemail was full, I went strictly to e-mail correspondence. That way I would at least have a record of my attempts to resolve the issue. I asked for a refund several times in e-mails, but didn't even get a reply.

I thanks for posting the links above. I will make use of them this weekend.

Take care,

Steve Bryson

IMHO if I were in K-Gaps position, ie a family emergency making it difficult to run a business like this I think I would have sold out as soon as it became apparent I couldn't keep the business going. There are several extenuating circumstances here - family illness, working, trying to keep a sinking ship afloat. I certainly, myself, would not let things go on like this for this long.
I agree with stbryson - it is time to put this issue to bed. The word is out - K-gap should bite the bullet and find a buyer. Their business reputation is ruined and useless now.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

If these repeated bad news customer experiences are true which surely they are, I am surprised that the relevant government authority has not closed them down by now or at least warned them.

K-Gap seems a bit spiteful against those who call them out and that is a bad sign I would say. To me that means they believe they are in the right, and/or are in denial. Of course we all have choices and the way they are operating is their chosen modus operandi. My choice is not to use them, as I daren't trust them.