Don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet or not. Send the IRS a 1099 form with the amount you were charged. This will trigger unreported income and thus taxes owed by Trick Marine. If enough people send this who knows. I've done this in the past when contractors I paid did not deliver goods/services. Just a thought. Ken

Don't you need a Social Security # or EIN# to do a 1099?

Great idea Ken!!

I am guessing Freds family will be getting lots of coal in their stockings for Christmas!!!!!

For those of youu who tuned in laie

Bored at work today so I will ramble for a while.

Don’t hold me responsible if all is not accurate because it is quite confusing.

In about 5 years I will go back to School for my MBA and use Trick as the study for my thesis

This story has everything in it.

A supposed stand up guy who pulls a long con by befriending people and giving such good deals and service at the start of his business that any chinks in his business plans are quickly beat down.

He was a board member who left the forum numerous time once in particular when he posted picture of his model daughter and was indignant over some off color remarks but used her in his later advertising for the sex appeal of it.

The board begged Fred to come back which he did. He then left his Burger King franchises as well as a few other fast food endeavors in shambles to help us in the boat parts business.

This business needs a stand up guy he proclaimed their are to many crooks in it.

Yea Fred!!!!!

We all shouted all hail the king of the good deal.

How quickly he conned us all

Rumors of huge amounts of money being lost by CMI and Livorsi begin to surface. Trick quickly drops them when his credit ran out to suck in other vendors. He all the time declares I am just replacing inferior vendors with ones who have better quality and service.

Greed was running rampant as soon as one vendor was dropped another stepped up to fill his place being so happy with the volume of product trick was moving.

End users getting stiffed and left holding the bag for goods bought but not shipped
A board members son worked for Trick and leaves do to unprofessional conduct at the company but tell no one about the problems but when it finallay unravels seems to be in the know about everything but will say nothing . Including allegations of drug use by a step son in the family and how that helped sink a business and may have been a part of the car crash that killed him. A family member (nephew) chimes in to cooberate the stories and a daughter also chimes in who refutes the issues.

Trick stringing along customers long enough so they could not get recourse from credit cards Trick dumping of assets before being forced onto bankruptcy and stringing it out so they will be out side of pre-petition bankruptcy window

Everything is crashing in on Fred he (Trick) is having a fire sale of assets on EBay

But the main players involved CMI/Livorsi/Trick/Gaffrig and other vendors probably do to legal reasons are staying mum about the whole situation.

People who did and did not work there are saying they are in the know but can’t talk do to legal reasons.

Then one morning Gaffrig gets the rights to the Trick web domain and web page code. How could this happen overnite? Was there a sweetheart deal cut for back invoices due Gaffrig? Why do it when you already have distribution?
People say they are talking to Gaffrig and things are not what they seem but no word from Mike. This is generating a fair amount of confusion and bad press for the new Monster Marine.

Gaffrig is not saying a word but just redoing web site to reflect new company name Monster Marine.

Gaffrig has not been without controversy suing to get the rights to its name back from Livorsi who had taken the name Gaffrig and built an industry around it. Most people today probably still think Gaffrig gauges are made by Mike Livorsi’s company.

Now we are to believe Gaffrig has being involved in two of the most emotional bickering threads on this site and It turns out he doesn’t read the most important web site for performance boating.

And all of this playing out in a public forum with only one fact known and that is Fred was a thief a lot of boaters are out a lot of money and many vendors are also left holding the bag.
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Like I said my MBA will be based on this or maybe even a crime novel.

Who needs fiction?

Merry Christmas may we all recognize the next Fred Cecil sooner and listen when someone points him out

Merry Xmas Klaw. Hopefully Fred winds up in jail with Ben Kramer!!

Thanks for taking the time and compiling the "Fred Cecil Cronicles". Something to add was perhaps the first vendor to part company with Fred, or Fred part company with them (I am sure most here would believe the vendors version). That vendor was IMCO. Would be interesting to hear their version of the breakup.

Correct me if I am wrong, but what makes this whole mess a real nightmare for the vendors (with outstanding debt) is that sinister word--------unsecured credit. Perhaps the driving force behind Gaffig's swift move to get to the head of the line.

WOW, Rotax you get my award for being one of the most informed or at least intuitive people on the board.

YES, THE WARNINGS ABOUT FRED/TRICK started with IMCO....search on old posts here and you will find that Fred started bashing IMCO. Shortly thereafter IMCO did not give in to his Gestapo business techniques and DROPPED FRED/TRICK as a dealer/distributor. at which point FRED declared IMCO to be an inferior manufacturer which was far from the truth then or now. The real truth was that IMCO simply refused to sink to FRED's level and ignored him.

Fred was not smart enough to realize then or now that you can't bite the hand that feeds you. There were a number of companies that tried to educate him about this business, but he insisted that "He Knew Better".

Back when Fred was first starting up he showed signs of being a problem. Companies such as IMCO and Hardin dropped him as a dealer/distributor 3 or 4 years ago because he did not stock any product and was doing only drop shipments. In other words he had no investment and demanded that the manufacturer assume the risk of making shipments to his customers and then wait for him to send a check. Well as someone that has worked in the marine business for over 30 years now I can tell you that I've seen Fred's business plan many times before and it has always failed.

Sorry folks but I'm one of the people that "KNEW FRED WAS A CROOK" but every time I tried to tell you I was hammered because my "POST COUNT" was not high enough.

The biggest problem I see is that there are way to many self proclaimed experts on all the different discussion forums, and unfortunately their posts are taken as gospel by a lot of people that just don't know any better. The reality is that while these people may have very good intentions they really don't know what they're talking about, and quite often are passing on bad advice.

Maybe a few of you that have actually followed and understood all the "Fred" threads lately will be able to sort out the BS from the truth in the future.

Merry Xmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you knew he was a douche bag. But If I called him a douche bag back in 2001 or even in 2005 all the Fred defenders would have jumped on my ass, too. I bolded the portion of your statement that I can identify with completely.

PS - though I did not care for Mr. Cecil, my father had purchased items from him in the past and had no problem with him business wise or personality wise. So, the opinion difference about Fred can occur within families too, not just on OSO.

I know what your saying. If a person brings up bad business practices on oso normally the board comes down pretty hard on that person. I think thats why most of us with bad experiances just keep to ourselves.