Community Feedback Requested Re: EuroConnex / Epoustouflant

[usdmej]

What are qualifications I need to meet to be a fellow BMW M enthusiast?

this appears to be the only question you've asked me?

when did i say you weren't an enthusiast?

[Epoustouflant]

let me know when you're done editing your posts and i'll give it a shot

My last edit was 90 minutes before you posted.

We’re all eyes and ears.

[usdmej]

let me know when you're done editing your posts and i'll give it a shot

[Epoustouflant]

i've been saying this guy flip flops on his identity at his convenience and this is a prime example.
can you imagine Turner or any other reputable business scouring members posts and engaging in petty back and forths with them?
would this forum tolerate vendors PMing members when they didn't like what they had to say about them?


imo it's pretty binary at this point, Epoustouflant/Euroconnex is either a member or a vendor, and needs to start conducting himself as such

We’re both human beings. My status doesn’t enable your insults. The answer lies in your premise. I don’t see myself as a vendor.

I curate products for the community and do not handle payments. I do not consider myself anywhere near Turner Motorsports, and that’s another example of your false equivalencies and fallacious arguments.

Are you able to answers the questions I asked you?

[usdmej]

the extensive clarifications I've provided in the post above.

i've been saying this guy flip flops on his identity at his convenience and this is a prime example.
can you imagine Turner or any other reputable business scouring members posts and engaging in petty back and forths with them?
would this forum tolerate vendors PMing members when they didn't like what they had to say about them?


imo it's pretty binary at this point, Epoustouflant/Euroconnex is either a member or a vendor, and needs to start conducting himself as such

[Epoustouflant]

lol why are you singling me out?! plenty of other people on this forum dislike you even more than i do!

Statistically, 5% of your posts on this forum across any thread have been dedicated to negative criticism of what I do, singling out issues without their context in what I view as an attempt to rile up people against what I do - and it's been successful, as evident by the members who seem to echo your sentiments with no actual experience in dealing with EuroConnex.

It's fair to point it out for others to question your intentions in light of the lack of any rebuttal to the extensive clarifications I've provided in the post above.

For context, per your perspective, I am petty, and deceiving.

i'm not arguing against entrepreneurship on this forum. for example, watching t3ddftw expand our knowledge base while developing his BlueBus product is a great example of what forums can offer that social media can't. my main rub is the shadow games and wheeling and dealing that epoustouflant does under the guise that he's a fellow enthusiast

i wasn't saying that he actually had multiple accounts, but he does refer to himself and EuroConnex as different entities depending on how it suits him which i find petty as a forum member and deceiving as a vendor

FYI I registered on NAM3 before Euroconnex existed for the Slon bulkhead GB. I also owned 2x E92 M3 for 6 years before EuroConnex ever was.

What are qualifications I need to meet to be a fellow BMW M enthusiast?

[usdmej]

Lots of good input in this thread - and mud slinging from the usual suspect usdmej .

lol why are you singling me out?! plenty of other people on this forum dislike you even more than i do!

[Epoustouflant]

Alright - here goes!

I picked out the critical feedback and the one that needs corrections. Thanks to everyone else who contributed positively to the thread. As I say everywhere, I value constructive feedback and it's been helping to improve the Connex, as you'll see below.

No harm done IMO. I was in on the first batch of diffusers for the GB Matt did from Rene at CarboProject and I received a defective one. I did eventually get a refund, months later (today as a matter of fact), from Rene but it took a little too much prodding on my end to get things moving along. With exchange rates I lost $27 but is what it is.

I'll make a suggestion for anyone who reads this thread and goes the damage claim route.

1. UPS picked up the package did their evaluation and denied the claim (the diffuser was packaged poorly IMO).
2. UPS reps said a letter was sent to Rene telling him about the situation and that he should contact them.
3. Rene at CarboProject said no letter was received (I don't really trust UPS so certainly possible).
4. UPS will discard the sellers merchandise or simply leave it at your local warehouse until the seller contacts UPS.
5. It is imperative that you the buyer push Matt or the Seller to make contact with UPS concerning the damage claim otherwise nothing will happen.

Agreed. The CSL diffuser was really the first GB I ran that had packaging issues. The 1st batch was a complete mess, and your case in particular was mind puzzling in dealing with René.

It has spurred many changes in the way I assist members in RMAs in the short term, notably in the Terms & Conditions & RMA procedures I ask of every one of them to be crystal clear in hope of avoiding future surprises.

There's a complete lack of transparency from most companies in the industry about their failure rates, product defects and shipping damages. I am working to develop a new app from scratch for RMAs, Dispute Resolution and Reviews all into one. I'm looking to make this information public for all members to see - and use as a quality gauge, on both the product and the customer service of each brand that is on EuroConnex.

You would see the # of RMAs, types, review from vendor to member, and member to vendor, and time to resolution, amongst other KPIs.

I would assume the data collection is to keep both parties honest plus it has to be way easier to track peoples payments, orders, etc. via the website.

Also, he's said multiple time it's due to MAP pricing regulations. The FTC does not regulate the pricing that can be shown in secure/encrypted websites. If he were to publicly show pricing it would be considered advertising and is subject to MAP.

That is correct.

I've been able to secure offers precisely because of the members-only nature of EuroConnex. I have it in actual writing from VPs of Marketing at brands everyone one of us would love to have on their car, point that they are open to doing something with the Connex because of this.

It's otherwise a deal breaker.

Data is definitely valuable, and the data points I gather helps me further deals and new offers for the community. What I intend to do with this data isn't really a secret, it's posted right on the website for everyone to see, and most newsletter I send out.

Here's a link.

personally, I've seen too many issues with these GBs, and too much wink-wink-nod-nod stuff going on to have faith that I'm not going to throw money into some account and my product will never show up. It doesn't seem like the savings are great enough to justify the risk to me. I'll pay the extra $100 from a reputable vendor.

As long as it's all kept in its own section of the forum it doesn't really bother me though.

The average group buy saving is wholesale discount, ranging from 15 to 30% depending on the product line. I do not handle payments, that "some account" is the reputable vendors account you discuss. As an example, the Supersprint GB payments were fully handled directly with Turner & ECS.

Can you point to anything out of the norm for a group buy?

as far as i can tell, it's literally one guy, Connex is his company and he picks which one he refers to himself by based on how it benefits him

he started the supersprint group buy fear mongering the community about emissions laws changing and how this could be their last chance to get supersprint products.

after getting buy in, he quietly cleaned up all that rhetoric from his posts

he doesn't take criticism of his business model well and has pursued people via PMs to argue with them

i personally have no interest in doing business with him. but overall the community does benefit from the discounts he gets. i just think he needs to be treated like a vendor

*sigh*

Feedback is what helps me build the Connex. Personal attacks and fallacious arguments don't help - other than help me identify who I don't want to deal with. It might come as a shock, but I don't have to deal with you, and neither do you.

The Supersprint GB wasn't started as fear mongering. It is explicitly true that many retailers have started receiving extremely large fines from the EPA for selling emissions defeating products. RallySportDirect has been hit with a 3MM$ US fine.

You can read more here.

The initial post was edited as the Group Buy has closed. I have been receiving dozens of private messages from members finding this thread and asking for pricing.

To default to shady intent to my every move is your prerogative as is evident in this thread. Is that me chasing you in PM? It's for every one to see, I dislike you and your negativity.

It would make me feel better if he didn't lie or make false promises, avoid questions, and negotiate in his and the manufacturer's best interests (selling headers only IF you also buy catted sect 1 & vice versa) instead of ours.

I had a lot of convincing to do with Turner to allow the Supersprint group buy, and the requirement to pair headers with catted section 1 was the compromise.

I'd say there are certain things that this forum is craving i.e. CSL trunk, bumper, intake. There's no real visibility to when those parts might be coming down the pipeline. I feel that the spirit of a the GB is lost when there's products that weren't necessarily asked for i.e. the carbon fiber intake. I will commend EC in championing this for our platforms especially when its getting harder and harder to get products.

The BMW M world has fragmented from forums to various platforms these days. The carbon front air intake was actually heavily requested on the E46 M3 Owners FB group, receiving over 50 comments of interest if memory serves me right. There is no one else in the E46 M3 aftermarket that offers this part to my knowledge, outside of local carbon shop that will overlay an OEM plastic part.

I do often initially post here to gather interest, but the latest desire to push threads into a low visibility area of the forum has limited the quantity feedback I need to negotiate pricing with brands.

I'm bias as I ran the VB group buy, but I feel that I have more confidence in the item being offered if the host of the group buy is participating and purchasing the item as well. That way, we don't have a vendor or Leighton (forum member turned sudo vendor then ghost) situation where they will introduce any product not knowing or caring if it is good or bad, such as the Streamline and Cat Cams GB. If you are going to run a GB, don't go putting the competitors parts on your car and have forum members struggle with the parts from the GB. Plus if a vendor is not hosting, all the savings go to the participants/forum members. I prefer the standard forum member GBs where the host is participating as well. Rarely seems to be an issue with those.

The Connex has evolved extremely rapidly. When I first started this, I wasn't known to most brands and I operated without a website, running GBs the old school way using forum lists and then Google Docs. It made requesting a free part prior to a GB impossible as I lacked credibility.

One of the reason I built a website was to provide a reputable, credible face to what were usually the underground affairs of group buy organizing. Since then, I've been able to negotiate with brands the partial or complete sponsorship of parts for community members. I've most recently organize this for Karbonius' new E90 carbon roof panel, free of charge for both the member and the brand.

Many brands and distributors now outreach to me directly and the negotiation dynamics are in the community's favour. I have rejected many that I don't meet my personal's quality and credibility threshold. My skin in the game is arguably far greater than that of another member running a GB for a free part. If I mess up my brand, everybody loses. If Joe Acme gets his free part and everybody else's is a mess up - he's gone for the hills.

To further the member experience, I am also currently working on a Connex guarantee that would offer a no hassle return & refund guarantee that I would plan for.

Also absolutely agree with this. It should be us members reaching out, and having some skin in the game, other wise the vendor might as well sponsor the forum. It’s your guys ship, as I’m rarely active now days, but feels like GB’s are just money grabs from vendors.

I’ve never seen anything offered lately on a normal site to be purchased. It’s all this mysterious euro vendor with a blanket identity selling on the board

I don't have a blanket identity. I post cross social media using my actual name, not a username. The backstory to the Connex is fully displayed on the website and my history in the automotive industry is documented.

See above for my views on having skin in the game.

The difference is knowing whether there's a conflict of interest. Is the organizer marketing and generating interest in a product because it's something genuinely good or novel? Or are they bringing something lackluster to the table because they make a quick buck?

Same concept beyond why I have to disclose any drug rep dinners I go to and the such. No argument that the consequences are very different, but it rubs me the wrong way when people pretend to be enthusiasts trying to better the community when they just don't care that much

I'm a long time BMW M owner and own 2x BMW M cars; an E92 M3 and an E60 M5.

I seek out what the community wants. This is why you see feeler and interest threads posted on this forum, and I consistently request insights on what people need for the builds across newsletters and other groups.

It's not fair to compare him to Ted who is probably the best example of a forum member who has turned his idea into something that has truly benefitted the community and his responsiveness/service is unparalleled. It's a situation where people are happy to give him their money for his entrepreneurship because of this, no hesitation on my part. There is absolutely zero secrecy or shadiness with him.

I have crowdfunded and brought multiple products to the BMW M market that are must have items, notably the 1:1 replica of M Performance E9X M3 replacement carbon fiber mirrors, the 1:1 replica of M Performance E90 trunk spoiler and now working on the E46 M3 carbon driveshaft and final drive gears & pinions.

I am currently working on a new mold for the E60 M5 carbon fiber roof, a custom upholstered BMW M floor mat option that is now NLA, custom upholstered Recaros that don't break the bank from overseas and have just recently been able to launch a 30x unit deal on the genuine CSL trunk.

That's just some of the many new, unique products I'm looking to source and crowdfund for BMW M owners.

People out here acting like their own line of work doesn't involve upselling a product or service and their time for profit of some sort.

If you are upset that the guy is making money, why don't you go ahead and cut out the middle man, call up Supersprint and ask them to give you a discount, and report back.

Funnily enough, that is exactly how it started because I dealt with Supersprint and Federico directly back in 2012.

Another potentially negative think I see from running GB like this. Imagine more commercially oriented person reaches out to a company and sees that a product in question would not bring desirable profit. So they will either not report back in it at all or say it is no go and this company would not to a GB. Where an enthusiast would bring all this information and we may still decide to go with less attractive GB and still get at least some discount.

I have not come across this use case yet.

I have come across the opposite quite frequently, notably with a very well known German brand that is dealing with another very well known US distributor that wants absolutely nothing to do with the Connex for a highly sought after E46 M3 product. I'm hurting his margins and he wants to keep making 50% discounts. I operate on 10x less. They vehemently dislike what I do and will cut their noses to spit their face to make their point.

Ultimately, I care very little about distributors as EuroConnex is a direct-to-consumer business model operating as a curated, self managed marketplace.

EuroConnex is able to do things with more efficiencies across the board than traditional distributors in this space as my cost structure is much, much lower, and my transaction efficiencies are much higher. We always want more, and we always want it for less. I help make this happen without cutting corners.

That model has been proven to win out in the end over distributors (see Amazon).

It's just a matter of time.

have you heard of massdrop? their business model is essentially what Epoustouflant/Euroconnex is trying to copy minus the sleaziness and ego.
Massdrop started out as a business that would organize group buys with vendors and jump on different forums to try and gather enough interest for better discounts. they were briefly on M3F to organize a recaro pole position group buy.

prices were publicly advertised

they specialized in a lot of diferent genres from automotive parts to home audio. Eventually they got enough buying power to "curate" collaboration products with vendors. Their most popular product was a Massdrop version of the Sennheiser HD600 headphones that came in at a significant discount to the original.

eventually they got big enough to not have to seek out buyers from forums. These days they're known as www.drop.com and mostly cater to the audiophile/custom keyboard crowd with a combination of their own products and group buys. it looks like their website also has a built in forum where group buy interest is constantly gauged. I'd imagine this is Epoustouflant/Euroconnex's end game.

i've purchased from them in the past and have had no issues, which is probably why i have no interest in dealing with Epoustouflant/Euroconnex.

That is not my end game. I have been approached to expand the Connex to many other automotive markets - and that isn't what I'm doing.

BMW M is what I know, BMW M is what I do.

What is surprising is the inner BMW M social warfare, highlighted by members like Jetdogg who believe I'm an imposter for thinking E92 M3 evaluations may eventually eclipse the E46 M3 and that I'm useless.

Ultimately car communities are extremely emotionally driven and that may end up driving away valuable things - like a guy sourcing rare or unavailable products for an aging platform. I like to stay focused on what's positive, but like anything these days, the negative seems to have a much louder megaphone.

Have not done any GB business with the person, but totally agree with two previous posts. From what I see there is no GB spirit and it looks like a vendor store with some discount on the products they stock if you register with them.

Funnily enough, I started EuroConnex after doing what you'd consider "spirited" GBs. Doing forum lists that ended up being messes.

I'm in this to build technology that will help communities create value for themselves by finding and developing products that they need, obtain discounts as a group on any products that are beyond the scope of the community's ability to source - and to do so in an efficient and sustainable way.

[Epoustouflant]

Lots of good input in this thread - and mud slinging from the usual suspect usdmej .


I'm running through all of the issues that were raised and I'll answer point by point.

[Will ZCPM3]

I would assume the data collection is to keep both parties honest plus it has to be way easier to track peoples payments, orders, etc. via the website.

Also, he's said multiple time it's due to MAP pricing regulations. The FTC does not regulate the pricing that can be shown in secure/encrypted websites. If he were to publicly show pricing it would be considered advertising and is subject to MAP.

[Lip]

It’s a fair point, I personally don’t feel comfortable with the data collection that’s occurring with these group buys. Who knows how secure our information is? Data is extremely valuable these days and who knows if it’s being sold or not. If the pricing is so secretive, that it needs to be hidden behind an account creation, what stops another supplier, manufacturer or whoever the price is being hidden from, from creating an account revealing the price?

To be honest, your data has already been leaked and sold on the dark web already. Facebook, Yahoo, Linkedin, Equifax, MySpace and more have been hacked.

Bad actors and even companies buy this data.

Source: I work in big tech

[Good]

In all his forum threads and Facebook posts the main question is about the price and why he can't post it and people complaining lol

It’s a fair point, I personally don’t feel comfortable with the data collection that’s occurring with these group buys. Who knows how secure our information is? Data is extremely valuable these days and who knows if it’s being sold or not. If the pricing is so secretive, that it needs to be hidden behind an account creation, what stops another supplier, manufacturer or whoever the price is being hidden from, from creating an account revealing the price?

[VisorM3]

I don’t think having a policy that group pricing must be posted is useful— as it would limit which products there could be group buys on, as some companies wouldn’t go along with it.

We could add a rule that the organizer has to provide pricing if you PM them, so you don’t have to create additional accounts anywhere. 🤔

In all his forum threads and Facebook posts the main question is about the price and why he can't post it and people complaining lol

[Obioban]

I don’t think having a policy that group pricing must be posted is useful— as it would limit which products there could be group buys on, as some companies wouldn’t go along with it.

We could add a rule that the organizer has to provide pricing if you PM them, so you don’t have to create additional accounts anywhere. 🤔

[WOLFN8TR]

Having to log into a website to see the "Group Buy" pricing is frustrating. I created an account to join the Group Buy for the CF Trim which I still cannot get into to this day. Forgot password etc NO luck.

Back when I ran a Group Buy for the Morimoto XB LED fog lights the price was listed at $250 on TRS's website. TRS offered three levels of discounts and Free Shipping if enough interest was met. We had approx 80 members interested and reached the max discount of 25% OFF and Free Shipping. Easy Peasy...

0-25: 15% OFF
25-50: 20% OFF
50-75: 25% OFF