My name is Marc Tamraz and I am the owner of Tamraz’s Parts Discount Warehouse. I wish to tell you a little about myself. In 1976 having loved Pontiac’s my whole life and especially Firebirds I went down to my local Pontiac dealer and purchased a new Firebird Formula. With 500 miles on my new beautiful Firebird the car was not fast enough for me. I proceeded to yank out the motor and dropped in a 30 over 455 with a 428 crank, giving me a displacement of 440 cubic inches. Bolted on Ram Air IV heads with a specially ground cam from Comp Cams and made many other mods to the motor. A full manual reverse valve body Turbo 400 and a Dana 60 from Strange Engineering with 4.56 gears in the back, with many other mods to this car too numerous to list. The car suddenly went from a 17 second snail, to running 11.0 with street tires and closed exhaust. Other Pontiac enthusiasts in Chicago saw the performance of my car and starting asking me to work on their cars. Along with my best friend, we formed a small company called Ram Air Research. Over the next few years, we worked on approximately 500 Firebirds, GTO’s and Can Am’s in the Chicago area, turning each one into a rocket ship. My car continued to evolve also. Best run on my car was 8.59 at 162 miles per hour. I still have this car today and hope to break into the 7's when this car re-appears in a few years.
It was a natural transition for me to go from wrenching cars to selling parts. Since 1984, I have dedicated my life to helping fellow enthusiasts restore their vehicles by supplying them with the highest quality parts available on the market at the most reasonable prices. My love of Pontiacs continue today and a Pontiac is what I drive. I am saying all this so that everyone in your club understands that I love Pontiacs, especially Firebirds. This is why I am responding to all of the negative comments that have been posted on this board.
As of today’s date, I have never responded ever on any other board, including the Buick board where, as noted on this board, there also has been some negative publicity about my company. My fear in responding on this board is that, although the majority of the members on this board will be fair and understanding, I know that there will be some members, that no matter what I say, will take my words and twist them. I am always the first one in the building and generally the last to leave, working an average of 12 hours per day. We are a good size company, with a number of employees and we have hundreds of thousands of customers in our data base. It is difficult for me to know what goes on with every customer with every order, but I do try my best to be involved with as many orders as I can to make sure that they proceed smoothly. Ultimately, I am responsible for everything that happens with my company, good or bad, and I accept that responsibility.
In regards to the situation being brought up now on the Buick board, since this is an ongoing police investigation I cannot go deeply into details at this time what is going on except to say that the person who is entering the posts out there is very upset, and he blames my company. This all started over a gas cap for a Camaro that we normally stock and was on national backorder. We gave a full refund to the penny on the cap. Since the customer paid by Paypal, we refunded him by Paypal. When we did this eBay, (not us) marked his account as unpaid and eBay, (not us) sent him a friendly reminder to pay us. This was a computer software glitch in eBay’s system which has now been fixed. This was the catalyst for how things began. This individual had more than one screen name he was using on eBay and he apparently was violating eBay rules and policies long before he ever dealt with my company. As of today, his accounts continue to be suspended from eBay. This is not because I have the power, control, or authority to suspend a user from eBay. It is because of his repeated violations of eBay rules and policies. Ebay will not suspend a user for their first violation, they will send you an email, explaining what you did and their rules and policies. Generally, they will do the same for the second or third violation and this is per our account representative at eBay. In other words, you have to be a repeat violator of eBay rules and policies in most instances to be suspended. This individual has sent my company many threatening emails. We have chosen to ignore every one and do nothing with them. On May 15, 2006, he sent us a very threatening email saying what he wanted to do to me, and the sexually explicit things that he wished to do to my daughters. This email crossed the line. I am sure that everyone out there reading this will have to agree that an email of this sort directed to my minor daughters and what he wanted to do to them, was completely inappropriate. We filed a police report and we were going to pursue action against him, but when the emails and threat stopped from him, we felt that he was finally going away. Even though I was fuming over the emails he had sent, I just wanted this to end. A few months passed, we heard nothing and then he started again. It is at this point I decided action needed to be taken. This is now an ongoing police investigation. The FBI has been called and a few other government agencies have been brought into this as well. It should be noted that this person has a picture of a young girl approximately 4 years of age, who is naked from the waist up, on the internet. Also, this individual has told the police detective investigating this case, that he will be at the Sema show this year in Las Vegas, with the Baldwin Motion people. Yesterday, I spoke to the people who run Baldwin Motion, and they never heard of him. Also, as of yesterday, Sema has never heard of him and he is not registered to attend. Most of what this person has said are lies.
It has been said that if you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it. I am taking a risk in writing this letter and doing so against the advise of my attorneys and actually against my better judgement as well, but I really care more about what the members of this board feel about my company, more than any other board. We are not perfect, I know we make mistakes, but we have a dedicated crew over here that all love cars, and we try to give that personal service and get to know our customers, something that you will not get from many other part companies.
I may not always be available to take a personal phone call, as I am pulled a hundred different directions, but I can assure you that if someone truly has a problem, if it is put in an email, that email will almost always be put on my desk. If I don’t personally reply, I will give that email to my office staff who will reply for me. Undoubtedly, someone on this board will misconstrue my intention for writing this letter. Hopefully you will take this in the spirit in which it is written, heartfelt and genuine. My family has been threatened, their safety has been threatened, I am sure everyone can appreciate the situation I find myself in. I am asking for the help of this board and its members in letting this die down. This member does not need the encouragement, the banter, the accolades and the vicarious thrill he is receiving from all this attention. The best that can happen is that the authorities be allowed to handle this in a private matter. The majority of you are parents out there and I’m sure you can appreciate my need to protect my family, my company and my employee’s safety.
Respectfully, Marc Tamraz Owner, Tamraz’s Parts Discount Warehouse
