Just saw the news: https://www.eeuroparts.com/blog/13352/eeuroparts-announcement/
According to the Notice of Bankruptcy filing we got in the mail today, eEuroparts filed for bankruptcy protection on August 30th; they've shuttered their race team as well. One interesting tidbit from their Chapter 7 filing: There are no assets available to pay creditors. That makes us sad, since we are among them–the company owed GRM a not-insignificant sum, and the notice we got makes it clear we shouldn't even file a claim, as there is no property to satisfy creditors.
I'd be lying if it says it didn't sting a little bit.
How's everybody else taking it? So far not so good, if this Saab Reddit thread is to be believed. We have no idea if those claims are accurate, but it's generally not great PR if your customers are posting that sort of thing on the internet:
Very interesting. A few months ago, I was talking to Adam in customer service about posting content for their motorsports program, and then it all went silent after I sent them one article. It definitely falls in line with them having money issues.
I never had an issue with their parts, prices or customer service.
I have a tab open on my laptop because I was going to order parts this afternoon. Damn.
Cooter
UltraDork
9/9/19 2:43 p.m.
That's messed up. Sorry about the loss.
I got this notice from them five days ago:
To our valued customers and friends,
Late last week, eEuroparts.com was facing permanent closure due to financial reasons and asked the great team Newparts, Inc. for some help to keep the brand and website alive. Newparts, Inc. was able to step in and take over at the last second!
We are committed to maintain and improve all the reasons that made eEuroparts.com great over the years.
Newparts, Inc. has deep European car knowledge founded in the garage ranging through Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes, Mini, Porsche, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Saab.
• Loyalty program is here to stay
• Warranty on all orders will be honored
• Sharp prices are our focus
• Attention to detail
• Live Chat and email support
• Customer accounts will remain intact
• Phones will be back up as soon as the number is ported
• 90-day return policy
On top of that, we will bring several new brands of product, we’ve already brought back free shipping over $50 on most orders and will increase the offering to newer cars.
We are hard at work catching up on tickets and open orders and hope to be back to full capacity by Friday, September 6th.
Please accept our apology for this delay as we get up to speed. The business operations were down for a few days over the holiday weekend.
Our new home will be in Nashville, TN where we will consolidate and ship all orders as well as accept returns and process warranty claims.
Customer Service Manager, Dean Bergeron, will remain at his position to ensure the heart and soul of eEuroparts.com remains intact.
For the time being, we are unable to ship internationally but will look to solve that issue as well.
Our goal going forward is to incorporate the best features of both companies and provide the best possible service to our customers.
Sincerely,
Your eEuroparts.com team
I also had a cart ready to go. I placed the order and it went through. I did get a notice today that a few items were mistakenly listed as in stock and had been removed from the order, but they do seem to be up and running.
First I'm hearing about the bankruptcy filing and behind-the-scenes shenanigans, however.
Wow, that sucks.
So if they have no assets. Then what are the race cars unless they're basically loaned by Audi somehow
I understand if they do not own their facilities. But wow. No assets..
Sorry to hear thats going to hurt the magazine financially.
eEuroparts Racing is a separate business, completely unrelated to eEuroparts the way I understand it.
Yeah, my mind immediately jumped to "I guess we get a TCR car out of the deal?" But nope, that's not the way things were structured.
And by the way, if we ever go bankrupt (definitely not happening in the foreseeable future) and if we ever have creditors (also not happening in the forseeable future) we'll make sure each one gets at least a crappy Miata as payment. We've got enough of them laying around.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
You may want to speak with an attorney familiar with bankruptcies. Siphoning off assets to preserve them before a bankruptcy generally ends in Federal prison time and some creditors do get renumeration.
Or send an angry mob from the forum to break kneecaps, either way.
How long until ECS buys them up, too?
I'd consider filing if the information in the Saab/Reddit form is accurate. They claim that the company's owner sold his $300,000 house to his wife for a couple of dollars a few months ago.
It's been about seven and a half years since my own business bankruptcy closed, so my memory isn't as fresh as it could be. I do recall however that a bankruptcy judge would not be amused at having assets shuffled around like that.
cue to Jordan for a reminder to "Buy our awesome new t-shirt design" in
3... 2... 1...
I guess I’ll be scratching them off my order from list for Saab parts. I always look at FCP Euro first, but their inventory is a little more limited than Eeuroparts.
Besides, I’m not keen on supporting a company that aims to stiff my favorite magazine and community.
Thank you–we appreciate that, and yeah, FCP Euro has been nothing but awesome to deal with.
The now previous owner of the company sold his house 2-3 months ago to his wife for a couple dollars in preparation for the bankruptcy to protect his personal assets (the address is in the court documents for the $300,000 lawsuit from Hoffman BMW as well as the $40,000 Eviction lawsuit. Find a realtor friend and have them look it up). Everything was calculated, everyone got screwed but him. The people who suffered the most were the employees, the life blood of that company, and the only connection the company had to the Saab community at large.
Yikes.
I used to order Saab stuff from these guys a lot back in the day. Surprised ECS isn't the one picking at the bones but the new owner arguably sounds worse. Bad stuff all around.
Meh. Karma is real, and these things happen in business sometimes. Best to just move on.
I did notice that their President/CEO just updated his Facebook page to say that he'd left his job at eEuroparts.com, though. That made me giggle a little bit. Facebook needs a "dumpster fire" option when you change your employment status.
Floating Doc said:
I'd consider filing if the information in the Saab/Reddit form is accurate. They claim that the company's owner sold his $300,000 house to his wife for a couple of dollars a few months ago.
That seems weird to me. I'm not an accountant/lawyer/etc, but I thought the whole point to incorporating was to limit the liability of the owner/investors to the money that they invested and prevent creditors from being able to go after personal assets if the company fails. So why would he need to do this?
I have no idea what the situation is here, but in certain cases (such as one person owning all of an LLC) that firewall is easily broken.
paranoid_android said:
I guess I’ll be scratching them off my order from list for Saab parts. I always look at FCP Euro first, but their inventory is a little more limited than Eeuroparts.
Besides, I’m not keen on supporting a company that aims to stiff my favorite magazine and community.
Yeah, I wish FCP carried more old Saab stuff - I always go to them when they have what I need, but for a C900 that's not often. They're great for my BMW needs.
codrus said: That seems weird to me. I'm not an accountant/lawyer/etc, but I thought the whole point to incorporating was to limit the liability of the owner/investors to the money that they invested and prevent creditors from being able to go after personal assets if the company fails. So why would he need to do this?
Because major creditors, knowing the power of the corporate shield, require a personal guarantee before they will extend credit.
I thought something was off a few weeks ago when a friend of mine who was a crew member for their TCR cars announced he found a new job elsewhere. He loves his Audi/VWs and loved that job.
I'm new to the Euro game; but, it seems really unfortunate a lot of these parts suppliers are failing or getting scooped up by ECS. At least Bimmerworld still seems to be owned/operated by "The James Clay."
Marjorie Suddard said:
codrus said: That seems weird to me. I'm not an accountant/lawyer/etc, but I thought the whole point to incorporating was to limit the liability of the owner/investors to the money that they invested and prevent creditors from being able to go after personal assets if the company fails. So why would he need to do this?
Because major creditors, knowing the power of the corporate shield, require a personal guarantee before they will extend credit.
That's why I have three more years to go on a bankruptcy from 2012. Personal bankruptcy, 7 years. When it's linked to your corporate bankruptcy, 10 years.
Thanks, Wells Fargo.
