Western Coast Customs (abbreviated by the company as WCC ) is a car workshop focusing on vehicle customization. It was started by co-founders Ryan Friedlinghaus and Quinton Dodson in 1994. According to Friedlinghaus, he started the business with a $ 5,000 loan from his grandfather, but other sources claimed that he collected seed money for business while working in his father's drink shop. Due to the protection of celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, and Sean Combs, along with appearances in actual television programs Pimp My Ride and Street Customs, the company has gained notoriety which is high and has become a multimillion dollar business.
In addition to celebrities, West Coast Customs has also created vehicles for global brands such as Virgin, Nintendo, and Microsoft. It's often marked as one of the best custom car stores in the United States. However, the company has also been accused of losing deadlines, using aggressive sales tactics, and producing low-quality and potentially unsafe vehicles. Some previous observers and employees also criticized the company's employment practices.
It has had some franchise success outside the United States with an open franchise in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Shanghai, China (as China: ??????? ). However, other franchises, such as those in Berlin, Germany, closed immediately after opening for being bankrupt. After a long history of locations in the state of California, USA, today's largest and largest 60,000 square foot facility (5,600 m 2 ) is headquartered in Burbank, California.
Video West Coast Customs
Histori
Tahun-tahun awal; Pimp My Ride (1990-2007)
According to two contradictory statements at the Los Angeles Times, West Coast Customs was founded in 1994 or 1998 by car enthusiast Ryan Friedlinghaus. In a 2008 article, USA Today put the base year as 1997. The West Coast Customs International, LLC, incorporated in California on October 20, 2000. A young Friedlinghaus has gained his caste vehicle featured on the cover car magazine at the age of 14, but he became frustrated with his boredom in dealing with some specialty stores, which led to a longer time to build the vehicle. According to the Entrepreneur , this frustration, coupled with his love for a special car, is what led to the opening of his own shop.
The company moved many times in the early years, but at the Inglewood site, the WCC began to gain quality reputation, which caused celebrities to modify their cars there. According to Friedlinghaus, one of his first customers was Shaquille O'Neal, who wanted a customized Chevrolet Suburban, and this relationship helped him get in contact with other celebrities looking for a special car. Because of this, Music Television (MTV) offers Friedlinghaus a chance to have a reality television show filmed in its business with co-founder Quinton "Q" Dodson as star and rapper Xzibit as host; his acceptance of the deal led to the 2004 TV show Pimp My Ride .
Pimp My Ride was very successful, spawned an international spin-off, and its success increased the West Coast Customs profile substantially. The format of the show is that producers on MTV will find typical Americans with garbage cars, they will be given short interviews with Xzibit, Friedlinghaus and WCC crew to determine their interests and hobbies, and then the WCC staff will repair their garbage cars as well turning it into a custom car that embodies the interest and personality of the owner. In 2004, CBS News reported that the show consistently ranked first in demographics 12 to 34 years for a time slot at 21:30.
According to former company employees at Pimp My Ride filmed, most of the actual work done on the vehicle is done behind the scenes. Cars and hopes for the final product will arrive on Monday, and employees must be through the next Friday to complete the project, sometimes requiring twelve hours of work every day. According to this employee, most of the off-screen work was done by illegal immigrants from Mexico, about eleven in total. Since the employees are WCC and not MTV, MTV does not seem to care about the possible consequences of this for them.
Due to the popularity of Pimp My Ride , West Coast Customs is prominently featured in the 2005 street racing video game L.A. Rush as a car upgrading mechanism. According to Chicago Tribune , Midway, the developer of this game, is paid "very expensive" to be able to use the brand.
In June 2005, Friedlinghaus took over the role of the host from Dodson for the fourth season.
In early 2005, during the second season of Pimp My Ride , rumors circulated that the location of the show will change and Friedlinghaus will split with MTV to host events on different networks. These rumors were confirmed with simultaneous announcements by MTV and Friedlinghaus in 2007, after the fourth and final season with the WCC as stores.
In a 2007 interview at Los Angeles Times given by Friedlinghaus after the relocation of Pimp My Ride from the West Coast Customs to Galpin Auto Sports, Friedlinghaus praised Pimp My Ride i> by helping her build her brand, but saying that she feels that her focus on building a car for a television show damages her relationship with other customers.
Street Customs and (Inside) West Coast Customs (2007-2018)
Nevertheless, after leaving Pimp My Ride, Friedlinghaus will soon begin a new television program aired simultaneously on Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, Street Customs, produced by Pilgrim Films & amp. ; Television. Instead of building a car for people chosen by MTV, the new show follows ongoing customizations made to approve customers of the West Coast Customs. Friedlinghaus described the difference between the two shows as follows: "I want to build a car on TV, not for TV." While parting is portrayed as friendly, others in the WCC are not so quiet: Sean Mahaney, a WCC employee, reportedly said "Most of the MTV people are not real people... They pay us to build cars, so we do what they want even if it sucks. "
Street Customs will rename twice and network four times, but the format remains constant. While cars will still be built for individuals, more and more episodes are devoted to the brand during the event. Since MTV is no longer billing, all episodes of the new series are about cars made for people who can afford a high adjustment fee. Some famous individuals built for Street Customs are Carroll Shelby, Cadillac for Shaquille O'Neal (according to Friedlinghaus, O'Neal already has 30 cars built for him by the WCC in July 2007), a modified Range Rover for an unnamed member of the royal family of Dubai, and Cadillac CTS-V for Justin Bieber. Brands are built to include Chronic Tacos and Vans.
According to Friedlinghaus in an interview with The Press-Enterprise, the 2008 global financial crisis greatly affected his business: he had to lay off half of company employees, decreased orders, and customers chose to use repaired cars instead of buying cars new to be customized.
In 2010, West Coast Customs designed three identical Ford F-100 pickup trucks in 1955 which were featured in the movie The Expendables. One of these cars is for Sylvester Stalone, who sold it at auction in 2011 for $ 132,000. In 2015, the WCC created the car by combining Ford Maverick body and internal Ford Ranger for another movie, Mad Max: Fury Road.
After the 2009 season, the event changed its name to Inside West Coast Customs . Along with these changes, it also moved to the Discovery HD Theater, which later became a special automotive related cable channel, Velocity. In June 2013, Fox Sports Network took over the show's production, dropping the word "Inside" from the show's name, and continuing to produce a new season from the show until 2016. In March 2017, the television show moved back to Velocity with the new season; Velocity then updated the event in January 2018.
Maps West Coast Customs
Location change
The company has moved several times in its history, each time into a larger space. According to Friedlinghaus, the first store was in Laguna Niguel, Orange County, California, after which moved to Compton, Los Angeles, in 1998. In 2000, the store moved again to a location on Olive Street in Inglewood. After the first season Pimp My Ride , the company moved to another time to a larger location near Los Angeles International Airport that has a special room for film making. After Pimp My Ride left the company, moved to a location in Corona, California, in preparation for Street Customs television show.
During the filming of Season 5 Episode 12 of "WCC New Zip Part 1" from West Coast Customs , Friedlinghaus began to move the store to its current location, 60,000 square feet (5,600m 2 ) a car store on West Empire Avenue in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California. The grand opening of new facilities occurred in January 2015.
Criticism
Bad treatment of employees
In early 2008, USA Today noted that the Friedlinghaus car shop routinely had 60 hours of work a week and employees had a 'crazy deadline' working for Friedlinghaus, a self-described 'micromanager'. One former employee, Mauricio HernÃÆ'¡ndez, who will continue to establish the Mexican WCC franchise, claimed in an interview with NPR that during his tenure in the California branch (2004- 2009), he worked ten to twelve hours per day, six days a week as an undocumented worker, without Social Security or other benefits, and that by doing so he "yearns... childhood [of his children]."
In some episodes of Inside the West Coast Customs , if Friedlinghaus has approved an overly restrictive deadline, employees will stay in the store late at night, or even stay overnight. In Season 1 Episode 3 "Smoothie Operator", Ismael, an interior designer and furniture upholsterer, will have children with his wife, but Friedlinghaus's only concern is on the project. After the baby was born, Ishmael left the baby with his wife the next day at the request of Friedlinghaus to complete a project.
In an interview with Scoop Entertainment , when asked "What does it take to be an employee at West Coast Customs?" Friedlinghaus replied, "Not saying, 'when am I going home?' People who want to live and work and get the job done... it's hard to find good people... [people who will do] whatever we ask them to do. "
On April 23, 2014, after an investigation by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), the company was found to have violated the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government finds that companies do not pay overtime employees or minimum wages or keep proper records. During the investigation, the government found that all employees were paid weekly salary, regardless of how many hours they worked. Because employees are often forced to work overtime, this results in a $ 6/hour wage for some employees. Furthermore, until 2011, the company seeks to impose minimum wage and legal overtime by classifying long-term exclusive employees at their locations as independent contractors, which are illegal in the United States.
When presented with an opportunity to go to court or pay a penalty assessed by USDOL, Friedlinghaus chose to pay a fine, which amounted to $ 157,592 in return wages for a guilty employee and $ 16,830 in civil penalties. In an interview with The Press-Enterprise after the fines were paid, Daniel Pasquil, director for wages and hours division of the West Covina office from USDOL, noted that "the most important is that the company corrects violations" and emphasizes that the company is now fully compliant.
Suspected quality problem
Jake Glazier's Buick Century During the episode, teams at West Coast Customs were informed that Glazier had just graduated from an undergraduate degree in audio engineering, so they installed a high-fidelity MTX Jackhammer sound system (with decibel gauges and warning lights attached to it, for, in words Xzibit, prevent deafness) and record player inside the dashboard. Other customizations are a dense black paint job (with a red metal paint job on the roof with shells on the sides and a hood to fit), four-inch whitewall tires, exhaust removal and exhaust pipe fitting, and black and white vinyl inland.
In addition to the problems caused by the long period that the vehicle was in store, for about half a year, Glazier claimed that the quality of the vehicle he received was also greatly disrupted. According to Glazier, when the exhaust was removed, three "fake" exhaust pipes were replaced as a substitute: these were used to make engine sounds much stronger for television viewers, but they made the car unnecessarily harsh. He also claims that very little or no mechanical work is done on the car, to the extent that he has trouble bringing him home from the exhibition sets. Due to all the mechanical problems, one month after getting the car from West Coast Customs, he sold it to MTX Audio for $ 18,000. According to Glazier, MTX does not buy cars to drive it, but only to prevent it from falling into the hands of their competitors. Glazier further claimed that when it came time to receive the car, Dana "Big Dane" Florence intimidated her to act more enthusiastically towards the camera, saying "Listen, we do a lot of work for this.We expect you to be a little bit more enthusiastic." Larry Hochberg, an executive producer for MTV at the time, refuted Glazier's statement, saying that in reality it is necessary to provide the participants in the show with cars in good driving conditions, and that MTV even pays free for some further refinement and withdrawal after the camera is rolling.
Despite the problems it faces with the vehicle, and with a warning that it appears on the show with the same format as Pimp My Ride where MTV pays all the work done until the car is shipped (and for some afterwards, hangs on whoever believes), Glazier said he would gladly participate in the program again if given the chance.
Trisha Paytas' Mercedez-Benz G-Wagen
There are several high profile incidents of quality problems outside the context of the MTV program. In 2015, Trisha Paytas, a singer and songwriter and internet personality has a three-week Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen 2014 tailored by the WCC. Among other adjustments, he requested that the car be painted pink, that Swarovski crystals were integrated into the headrests and steering wheels, and that the floormats were replaced with customizable ones. According to Paytas, after bringing his vehicle he was promised to be ready on November 17, but the company lost the deadline and another on December 9. After the second deadline was missed, he uploaded a vlog to YouTube about his experience, and claimed that the WCC threatened him with a lawsuit if he refused to remove it. December 17th became the deadline for the company to retain, but when he came to pick up the vehicle, he found that no electronic components were working, including unused crimes in the United States other than primary security. problems, such as turning signals, headlights, and in some states, windshield wipers. In addition, the dashboard instrument does not work, which can cause the driver to underestimate its speed. For his complaint on this issue, Paytas claims that the company told him to drive home and then to the Mercedez-Benz dealer from where he bought it and requested a repair in the warranty. Paytas uploaded another vlog five days after this incident, after which the WCC uploaded the video itself in the form of a rolling text public relation statement. In the statement, in addition to denying that they had "spoken down" to Paytas, the WCC denied that its adjustment was the reason for the problem with his vehicle, claiming that the vehicle was late because he had changed what he had ordered "several times", denying that they has disregarded Paytas as claimed, and invited Paytas to contact them with further requests or complaints for "immediate settlement," stating that they have committed to fixing the problem (which, even if they write "is not related to their service", they will continue to do so "as part of providing excellent customer service"). The company also recorded his track record, but gave no concrete details. On December 23, 2016, the statement-as-YouTube video, whose comment was disabled, had 261 "likes" and 1,652 "dislikes," or 6.32 dislikes for every 1 likes.
Despite the many problems that have been received by the customization of his car, after the vehicle was accepted by Paytas, he seems to be forgiving the West Coast Customs, reportedly writing on Instagram "It's a bit of a struggle to get it but I do love [my car]] very very much. "
Fire bus for Red 5 Studios
In 2010, China's online game operator The9 Limited announced Firefall , the first person shooter MMO developed by Red 5 Studios as their first game. This game will enter the closed beta in 2011, and open beta in 2013. Mark Kern, a video game designer, is appointed by The9 as the new Red 5 Studios CEO. As CEO, one of Kern's main tasks was to promote the game, and he chose to do this in part with a specially designed tour bus worth US $ 3 million made to look like one of the vehicles in the videogame and converted into game room on wheels. The customization of the bus was shown on Inside the West Coast Customs in Season 3 Episode 4. While in the episode itself was made to appear that the bus was on time, arriving at the Los Angeles 2012 Anime Expo which took place between June 29 and July 2, it arrives much later than anticipated, according to CEO Mark Kern and a report by Tech in Asia . Kern also accused the WCC of not giving what he wanted and over budget, while Tech in Asia noted that the bus was missing missing some of its key features, and it lost all major video games. conferences for 2011 (such as Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, held between 5 June and 7 June). According to their report, now "sitting in a shed somewhere, gathering dust." The Twitter parody of the bus describes itself as "excessive demonstrations of excessive capitalism."
Franchise
West Coast Customs has been trying to brand franchises to other parts of the world with limited success.
Closed franchise
On September 14, 2008, the franchise opened in a converted factory building along the StraÃÆ'Ÿe Revaler in Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany, but the franchise was closed and declared bankrupt less than a year later on August 14 2009. Before closing, professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko and musician "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff were customers. In 2011, after the closure of the business, the building was repainted.Never open a franchise
- A Japanese franchise is mentioned on the WCC's official website, and a website announcing that "coming soon!" became available in 2009, and online until March 13, 2012, but on April 13, 2012 the site hosting server started returning a 403 error, and after 7 November 2012 the server hosting the Japanese franchise website went offline. In the 2013 video released by HP interviewing Friedlinghaus, the Japanese franchise logo is displayed as (Japanese: ?????????????? ) , although in reality there was no such company at the time. An address has never been given, no Japanese media has written about the opening of the franchise, and no further information about it has come from the WCC, so it can be assumed that the Japanese franchise is never opened.
- In 2010, Dana Florence traveled to St. Petersburg. Petersburg, Russia for question and answer session at "Active Outdoor Air Performance Car [sic," according to Village A Russian franchise under the name Russia: ???? ????? Customs is also mentioned by the company, but since January 2017, as in the case of Japanese franchise, there is no sign of its opening.
- A Malaysian franchise is also mentioned in the HP 2013 video as Malay: West Coast Customs . The franchisor claimed that he would bring "official WCC merchandise to Malaysian coasts" by 2013, but has not written yet in December 2016.
Open franchise
Despite this setback, some franchisees have created successful businesses.
- In 2007, Friedlinghaus announced a Dubai franchise to be owned by Al Ghussein Global Investments which continues to operate by December 2016. The Dubai franchise opens at a cost of AED 18 million (US $ 4.9 million) payable to Western Coast Customs to use its trademark.
- On January 14, 2016, Friedlinghaus announced the Shanghai, China franchise via Facebook post. When the franchise opened on August 18, 2016, the event was greeted with substantial positive coverage by Chinese media, with articles appearing in Qilu Evening News, Autohome's auto magazine, and station's website China Phoenix InfoNews Channel television.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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