Bad Shop Reviews: Hennessey Performance

[MrClean]

As I do with every forum I am a member on (yes, I have gotten around the block a few times gents) I post up reviews of shops I have taken my cars to. This one, however, is an exception. This is a warning thread coming from the dozens upon dozens of tragic stories I have heard throughout my dabblings in the aftermarket world.

First and foremost, I'll make it really simple for you to understand: Avoid Hennessey at all costs.

Here's why:
excerpts taken from other auto forums

Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued...According to a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City, Utah resident Taig Stewart sent his Viper GTS to Hennessey last May for an engine upgrade to 1100 hp along with several other modifications. For that he wire-transferred $142,500 to Hennessey. The lawsuit states the parties agreed the car would be done by mid-July 2001. As of press time the car was still sitting under a tarp in Hennessey?s shop in Houston. Or most of the car, anyway. Stewart?s suit claims Hennessey sold the car?s engine, transmission, wheels, tires and hood. The suit seeks return of the money, the Viper and ?no less than $1 million? in punitive damages.

Hennessey claims he?s just slow in getting the work done.

Stewart is not the first unsatisfied customer. The longer we dug the more dissatisfaction we found. Here?s a sampling:

On Nov. 14 a New Jersey court entered a final judgement of $133,674 against Hennessey on behalf of Viper owner Gary Dan for a botched conversion.

William Walters said he is out over $22,000 after shipping his Corvette to Hennessey for a head and cam package that was never done; he did have five rods bent and a head gasket damaged on the dyno in Hennessey?s shop during an experiment Hennessey tried with nitrous oxide.

Jerry Johnson said he had to file suit in Placer County Court in California to straighten out registration and engine computer problems on a Viper he bought from Hennessey. n Jon Belinkie said he loves the changes made to his Viper but had to sue in his home state of Maryland, then register the judgement in Texas, to recover overcharges Hennessey made on his American Express card.

Rick Ryan said he had to hound Hennessey for eight months by long distance from Marietta, Georgia, to put the proper wing and stripes on his Viper.

Mark Lublin said he sent his Viper cylinder heads to Hennessey for new valves but when the heads came back he found the ?new? valves were actually used; a cam that was delivered to Lublin in a Hennessey box turned out to be a stock Chrysler cam. Lublin was finally refunded $5,715 from American Express but only after nine months of disputing the charge; and he got no money from Hennessey.

Bruce Iannatuono said he ordered $8,500 worth of Hennessey parts for his mechanic in Baltimore to install but was only able to use two-thirds of what was shipped, and then only after haranguing Hennessey for six months on an order that was originally promised in five weeks.

He's also quick to glaze over/ignore his past scamming. I remember reading an interview where he had some pity story about how his shop was failing and God gave him another chance because he's so damn special. A while back he was on this forum, and his response to every question about his shady practices was 'check out how fast my cars are.' He was actually known for drunk online tirades, mostly on the Viper forums.

Just posted this in the Tech/Performance section of Corvette Forum, which is sponsored by Hennessey Performance. Waiting to see how long it takes to get banned.

well that didn't take long.....Thread was closed due to "Conjecture/Vendor Bashing"

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-t...roblems-2.html

There's dozens more threads out there on various forums with tons of stories about how HPE has screwed over tons of good, hard-working people. I'd rather like to avoid allowing John Hennessey to screw over anyone on our beloved forum.

 

[rooSTer]

Holy smokes that's really bad.

 

[Ghostwhite]

Sounds like he's a POS

 

[SecretSquirlTuned]

That vette looks like a Smore

 

[MKVIIST]

The link to the Corvette forum is broken, but that's really terrible how Hennessey Performance is treating their customers.

 

[MrClean]

The link to the Corvette forum is broken, but that's really terrible how Hennessey Performance is treating their customers.

It might not work because Hennessey sponsors that forum, so John probably threw a drunken fit and had it deleted off the forum.

John Hennessey IS the definition of a scumbag and this is without even getting into how much of d-bag he is in regards to the Venom GT. He is delusional in the highest sense and believes he can get away with shoddy business practices. Unfortunately for us, he remains in business and continues to scam people.


The story with that above corvette is pretty nasty as well. It is a customers c7 obviously, and it was the one you saw featured on youtube running high speeds on the TX highway. Well, after the picture surfaced, suddenly all the employees are silent on all the forums and no one comes forward to mention anything about what may have caused it (That's a huge red flag if a shop does that), until maybe 2 weeks later where the employees start talking on the forums again and say that the car had a "rough life before coming to HPE." Which is a huge cop-out since its a brand-freaking-new c7.

 

[Redlinez]

Several years ago he was involved in some real crap and was sued several times. My local shop showed me one of his "performance" packages on a SRT Jeep and we all couldn't believe what he was able to charge unsuspecting victims. In typical fashion, the automotive "media" continually toots his horn which only leads people to believe he is a trustworthy guy and you can feel good giving him your money..... This was back in 2007-2008, when I was into LS1 Z28'S/TA'S.

 

[Hijinx]

A cursory search revealed this link:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20020405/free/204050704

This article has been slightly misrepresented. By being broken up in to different parts the reader assumes they (the stories) come from different sources. This one article is from 2002. So, I have two questions: What has he done recently? Why falsely represent information?

 

[Redlinez]

Hard to call it false when there's been multiple shady reports of his practices. That Corvette wasn't recent enough?

 

[Hijinx]

Hard to call it false when there's been multiple shady reports of his practices. That Corvette wasn't recent enough?

I didn't say it was false and the Corvette link doesn't work, so I wouldn't know how recent it is.

 

[Fortz]

http://forums.viperclub.org/threads/638576-Has-anyone-had-any-problems-with-Hennessey-Performance

For another source, this is a link to a viperclub forum thread about Hennessey. Everyone seems to agree that Hennessey Performance is to avoid...

 

[the duke]

Obligatory

 

[MrClean]

A cursory search revealed this link:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20020405/free/204050704

This article has been slightly misrepresented. By being broken up in to different parts the reader assumes they (the stories) come from different sources. This one article is from 2002. So, I have two questions: What has he done recently? Why falsely represent information?

So, let's set aside that he has actually scammed people out of their money recently and play devil's advocate here. You're saying you would trust someone with your money if they had a shady past, 10 years ago?

 

[Hijinx]

I'm sorry, maybe I was unclear... Hey, I heard that 12 years ago you sneezed in a bunch of people's food. I'm never letting you near my food. I'm not protecting Hennessey; I'm saying use relative up-to-date information when you're a nobody. And to answer your question: If they haven't had any major, verifiable issues since, I would absolutely trust them. There are major companies you trust everyday that are ripping you off, yet you trust them.

 

[ItMightBePizza]

The link to the Corvette forum is broken, but that's really terrible how Hennessey Performance is treating their customers.

Unfortunately it has been going on for quite some time now, but they are big fish in a very, very small pond.

 

[MrClean]

I'm sorry, maybe I was unclear... Hey, I heard that 12 years ago you sneezed in a bunch of people's food. I'm never letting you near my food. I'm not protecting Hennessey; I'm saying use relative up-to-date information when you're a nobody. And to answer your question: If they haven't had any major, verifiable issues since, I would absolutely trust them. There are major companies you trust everyday that are ripping you off, yet you trust them.

If that's truly the case, then it's no wonder he has managed to stay in business. It's because of suckers like you, he is able to collect a paycheck at the end of each week.

I honestly hope you are trolling. The only companies I give my money to are ones that deliver on their end of the deal. The only exception being monopolized industries like internet service providers, the federal government, petroleum, etc.

 

[Hijinx]

If that's truly the case, then it's no wonder he has managed to stay in business. It's because of suckers like you, he is able to collect a paycheck at the end of each week.

I honestly hope you are trolling. The only companies I give my money to are ones that deliver on their end of the deal. The only exception being monopolized industries like internet service providers, the federal government, petroleum, etc.

Hey now, no need to talk about anyone's mothers. I'm most definitely not trolling. Also, I'm not going to restate my point any longer as my words seem to be right outside the width of your tunnel vision.

 

[Ghostwhite]

Smh

 

[Colin1337]

I too have heads bad things about Hennessey

 

[MrClean]

Hey now, no need to talk about anyone's mothers. I'm most definitely not trolling. Also, I'm not going to restate my point any longer as my words seem to be right outside the width of your tunnel vision.

I am literally sitting here laughing at you. Maybe you should look in the mirror before you go around talking about tunnel vision. Congrats, you're a fool.