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So Long and Thanks from TregCentral...

5K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  norsecarnut 
#1 ·
Unfortunately, about 3 months ago, after 6 years in business, VW/Audi came after us for copyright infringement and, while short of filing a lawsuit, threatened us with enough monetary damages to require us to comply and give them our (4) domain names and remove any potentially infringing material from our sites.

At that point and at the advice of our lawyer, we complied, but with all our products being of a drop ship nature, we had no means to replace the images that we had to remove from the site. Since then, business has been dismal.

To prepare for transferring the domain names to VW we consolidated and forwarded the sites to Parts and Accessories for Touareg Jetta Passat Cayenne Q7 : Carmata (currently in operation), which we planned to operate going forward in compliance with VW's demands. The domain transfers for our old stores were finalized yesterday and we are no longer owners of them. Even with Carmata up and running for almost 8 weeks and the old sites forwarding to them, nobody is buying since they can't see the images of what we are selling. Lots of traffic... no sales.

So, on Nov 15th we will take our last order and shut down Carmata, which was formerly TregCentral, JetaCentral and EuroDriveGear.

I know we haven't been an active part of the community for some time, but back in 2003/20044 Heidi and I were very active on VWVortex and also CT when it came into being. We met quite a few of you and sold many of you products at the best prices we could get. Hardly ever the cheapest, but you couldn't beat Heidi's friendly voice on the line.

TC started on a whim... I am a web developer and when we bought a Touareg in August 2003 I got involved in the community online. Since there were no places to get accessories at that time, I opened a store and it became the go to place online for Touareg parts. In fact, other than eBay and Spock's unique offerings, we were the only game in town for a while. Which was part of the plan ;-)

Heidi quit her day job on 2004 to run the store full time, and we got a business phone line and I wrote some extenstions for the shopping cart to help her do her job faster and more efficiently. In 2005 we opened JetaCentral and EuroDriveGear. In 2006 we did almost $500K in sales and I quit my job to run my web agency full time. Things were going really well. TC was always the champ - over 3/4 of our sales every year.

When the economy turned, so did our sales, expectedly. We rolled with it, and my web business has been growing steadily, offsetting the declining sales of TC. With 2 kids now, Heidi is more than happy to let go of the store and spend more time with them, but really, TC was our first baby. We built it from scratch and took pride in providing great service and doing everything we could to be fair to our customers.

So, thanks to the hand that we fed, we are bowing out. Its not worth it at this point, for the income we get from it. We really really REALLY want to thank everyone who purchased from us over the years and helped us grow. It was a great run, and I met some really great people along the way.

We sold the Touareg to my sister in 2007 and she still has it. Heidi drives an Odyssey now and I have an LR3. We're going to concentrate on my web biz as it will go from a sole proprietorship to a Corp on 1/1/10... big things ahead.

For the record, we don't dispute that we were using VW/Audi images and descriptions, and that our domain names were knock offs of their trademarks, so no need to rub it in our faces. They've known about us since at least 2005. For some reason it bugs them now.

So, that's the story... good luck to everyone in the community!

Chad Crowell
Owner
 
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#2 ·
I'm very sorry to hear this. I had a list of parts I was going to order once my Treg got here but that isn't until December.
VW Touareg Euro Headlight Switch (VW-EHS)
VW Touareg Dash Storage Bin & Cover (VW-DSC)
VW Touareg 2 GloveBox Shelf Kit (2008+) (VW-GBS08)

Do you know of any other places to find these?

Best of luck to you.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for all of the great service and parts! My wife loves her deep cupholder!

It's a shame that VW goes after companies like yours. I remember back when i first got into VW's in 1996 there was a company that was years ahead of any other in the watercooled VW Aftermarket scene and they got their butts handed to them much like you did yours. (VW Sport USA) It's unfortunate because VW is ultimately hurting the enthusiasts, the very people that they should be supporting. *sigh*

Best of luck, and thanks again.
 
#4 ·
VWOA has been doing the to the vintage enthusiasts as well. There have been several businesses selling parts for the air cooled cars SO THEY CAN STAY ON THE ROAD, that have been forced out of business!

You'd think VWOA would want to see their cars (even those that long since should have died) still out and about promoting the brand.

Pretty pathetic VWOA. Shame on you :mad:


Nancy
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the heads up, but sorry for the outcome. I do still have a couple items on my wish list, one of which I'll be ordering today. (Your prices still seem to be the best I've found.) Best of luck on your future web venture(s). Regards--Chris
 
#6 ·
Damn. I finally get my Touareg and the chief supplier of aftermarket parts in going down. Shame on VWoA for ruining this for all of us. Good luck to you Chad and Heidi.
 
#7 ·
im new to this community but i have heard of your site before. its always sad to see the good sites die off but it seems like vw loves to hinder their own business any way possible.

regarding other options, TmTuning.com can get any of the items that are(were) available on tregcentral.com / carmata.com. they dont have a whole lof of picktures up of touareg parts but they are available by request. they are located in berlin germany but specialize in us shipping. they speak english and orders are fast. tell them Roman sent you.
 
#8 ·
Chad,

Sorry to hear about this and I wish you and the family well in the future. I bought my Euro Bin and Euro headlight switch from you guys... and to this day they keep working like a charm (three touaregs later :))

You guys always gave great customer service and these days.... you can't put a price on that.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the well wishes everyone. The store will be open until 11/15 - so even though you can't see some of the images for genuine VW/Audi parts, they are the real deal, as they always have been. We buy directly from several dealers in the US. If you have a list of things to buy, please do feel free to order until 11/15. Unfortunately we will only be taking returns through the end of November but until then we sure would still love to have your business.

To anyone else running a shop like ours- be prepared, and we have the name of a great intellectual property lawyer who knows how to get VW to back down if you need one. You can always email me chadcrowell - at - gmail - dot - com if needed.
 
#10 ·
Yeah a big thank you from me too, esp as you were the only real supplier of a huge collection of Touareg accessories in one place.
VAG really cant see that in one way you were supporting people buying a Touareg in the first place by allowing people to personalise there Touareg. sad sad world really its all about the 'big guns'
well i for one wont ever buy an accessory from VW in principle of there actions with TregCentral.
I hope that your other bussiness does you really well and good health and good luck to your family.
 
#12 ·
Does anybody know how I can get a hold of Chad Crowell, the owner of the once existing tregcentral? I PM'd him, in the hopes that it will send him an automated message to his tied in email address, but seeing that his last posted message on this forum was in this thread, a more direct approach of communicating might be the way to go, in the hopes of.(his actual email address?)

I'm desperate to find/source a particular "goodie," that only they used to sell, and nobody else seems to do so today. Desperation of a certain kind =P~ calls for desperate measures, so here is my plea message!

I'm extremely pissed of at myself for having missed that November deadline they had set for their online store at tregcentral.



 
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