Alan said that he has put in a capital investment "approaching $5000 dollars". That's a pittance when it comes to setting up a business. So obviously they don't have a lot of reserves that they can fall back on while John fixes his, uh, boo-boos.
So how can he keep the lights on, while at the same time avoid pissing off John's earlier customers in this forum? Well, basically, he can't. He's tried to avoid rubbing people's nose in it by not taking orders for new Tesla and Lotus parts. It probably wasn't the original plan, but he's had to start selling stuff elsewhere. No big surprise. I'm sure the mess was bigger than he expected.
I guess all you can do is give him some time. If he fails he'll end up just as burned as anyone on this forum.
I don't think it's reasonable to assume that Alan has no assets available beyond $5,000 and that he is on the edge financially. In fact, if you go back to Alan's earlier posts you will see that he has indicated that this project does not financially strap him. That said, as he has said, he doesn't want to go deeply into the red on this with startup costs. So G3 is simply selling parts in the other forums that he listed in his first posting (e.g., Mustang and Corvette). Again, he's not hiding, he told us about this all up front.
"Frankly, I'm not in a position where I need to sell a single part in order to purchase the materials necessary to manufacture another.
"
"So, while we work through the back log for you guys, we're also working on building a profitable business. (And making a living, while we're at it.) Fortunately, I don't have to rely on selling carbon parts to pay a bill, but I'm not doing this for free any more than you guys should expect to not get your parts.
While this isn't vital to my existence, I also don't have an unlimited supply of funding available to take on John's mess. I can clean it up slowly and methodically, but I simply can't afford to front the entirety of his back log without selling more product."
From his first posting:
"I understand that I have no financial ties to anything Carbon One has done prior to today, but in an effort to put a little goodwill into the universe, I've discussed with John his existing backlog and my absolute expectation for us to satisfy any and all transactions for which he's taken money, yet failed to deliver product. I can not and will not go into business with someone unwilling to fix his/her mistakes."
As others have written, and I agree, it would not have been a good move if one wanted to do work in the Tesla/Lotus community, and perhaps in the aftermarket carbon parts market generally, to hook up with John and try to avoid John's old obligations. That said, I have seen many, many situations in which people have done exactly that. Our bankruptcy laws are designed to address exactly these kinds of situations.
Also, to clarify, I'm not an attorney, though I am a forensic accountant and I analyze financial and accounting issues in the context of disputes/litigation, including testifying to damages, and particularly in intellectual property disputes (hence the ipdamages screen name). As such, I have worked on several matters in which people have attempted to capture valuable assets without bearing the cost of the associated liabilities. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but as people have surmised, seeking to get something from Alan and/or John in this situation by suing them would almost certainly be a bad investment of time, energy, and money (though I have also seen people who could afford cars like Roadsters engage in these fights over matters of principle, sinking vast monies into trying to prove a point and inflict pain on others who people thought had done them wrong). Happily, here that question seems to be irrelevant as Alan is not trying to avoid Carbon One's obligations.
Going back to the tempest in this teapot, is it reasonable that G3 is selling Corvette or Mustang carbon parts before the Tesla and Lotus orders are cleaned up? Well it seems to me that given that there appear to be no back orders to be fulfilled in those groups, it is reasonable that they move into making and selling parts to those groups. Should they just sit idly by and not commercialize that market, waiting for others to step in, and instead be solely focused on the market of the 1500 Roadsters and the finite group of Elises and Exiges, and now Evoras? I hope not, because if they did the prices to us would be higher as we wouldn't have the volume to make the business model work.
Again, I think we all would like to see the backlog get worked off as quickly as possible, and obviously that is slowed by efforts on other projects like Corvette door sills. I also agree that the whole story was not clearly laid out up front, and Alan has taken responsibility for that. But to me that is excusable and the data here show that there was no hiding or any clandestine mission by Alan to dupe people.
Some, like Smorgasbord, take the position that...
"Unfortunately for Alan, by associating himself with John Perez, we who have been tortured and/or burned can't help that what Alan characterizes as a honest omission is, to us, another promise not lived up to."
Well speak for yourself rather than the royal "us." If all of this isn't excusable to you or others, fine. You have recourse. Don't order from him. And for those with old Carbon One orders (e.g., Smorgasbord, as he had a defective sill), the good news is that it looks like progress is being made at a more rapid pace than in the Carbon One era. I'd like to think that this will all soon be in the rear view mirror.
Oh, and one other thing. I bought the Al & Ed's door sills (available on eBay) and they are in my opinion excellent at $1,099. For me the Tesla CF sills were a non-option as they have an aluminum insert in the exact place where I want to have the more resilient CF, and are hence likely to scuff. Al & Ed's is also about to do my 2.25 front and rear conversion and install some CF door pulls. I'll post about that in the appropriate thread/forum section.
