Our eBay user id is: skipwhite, and our eBay store name is whiteperformance1. You may have noticed other sellers using a similar name offering similar products. These other sellers have capitalized on our name as we see it, and many customers searching for us will inadvertently find them, thinking we are one in the same company. There is only one “Skip White.” We are the original premier eBay seller under this name since approximately 2003. We have no other eBay names, nor are we associated with any other company regardless of the similarity in the name or location. Our official company name is Skip White Performance. Please see the article below for a more detailed explanation.
The real story…Skip White Performance vs. White Performance & Machine
I’m sure many of you have noticed there are 2 high performance engine builders in Kingsport, TN with similar names, and this has led to a great amount of confusion.
We are Skip White Performance, NOT White Performance and Machine.
Due to the name similarity many customers looking for us online inadvertently find them, thinking we are the same company. Definitely not…there is no connection between the two companies. We don’t have a problem with free enterprise (competition). However, when the competition builds their foundation on such things as a name similarity and their supposedly long history of being in business, then we think it’s about time we set the record straight.
We have owned White Performance since 2003, with the exception of the machine shop, which was owned by Fred White at the time. He continued to operate the machine shop and build engines for us while we continued selling online under the eBay user ID of skipwhite and the eBay store name of whiteperformance1.
Due to their limited production capability and many disagreements about the engine building process and workmanship, we opted to open a full scale machine shop of our own a few years later. Fred White began competing against us even though our contract had a non-compete clause in it.
As our business grew, we opened a second, much larger warehouse and machine shop around 2011, located on Brookside Ln. in Kingsport TN. By putting heart and soul in this company, we have become the number one street rod engine builder in the nation.
Fred sold his shop to an investor in 2016 and the new owners continue to reap the benefits from this confusion between the two shops. This investor lacks any knowledge of this industry. They continue to use the White Performance & Machine name. Contrary to what is posted on their website, Fred White is no longer associated with the company in any way. Their main spiel in advertising is, “In business since 1979,” when in fact, we purchased the White Performance company in 2003, with the exception of the machine shop.
All in all, we have been in this business 16+ years. Skip White’s passion has been owning and building street rods for 47 years on a personal level. The knowledge he has gained over time has allowed him to venture into this business and succeed to a very high level.
The great pretenders continue capitalizing on our success due to the name similarity, but have been degrading our reputation. Recently, we have been getting calls nearly on a daily basis from people that now realize there are two shops in this town with very similar names. They complain of serious problems in getting their engines in a timely manner from them. They think they purchased their engine from us. Due to the confusion, there is an increasing amount of negative talk that is starting to reflect on our reputation within the street rod community, when in fact we have a near perfect reputation in this industry. We have an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and we have maintained the A+ rating for many years.
FAST FORWARD TO 2019…We have become the largest street rod engine builder in the nation. Our engines, rotating assemblies, and cylinder heads are built to very high standards and shipped to our customers in a timely manner. We are a premier seller on eBay with a positive feedback score of well over 206,000 and growing, as compared to our competitor’s score of approximately 24,000.
Our engines are custom-built to our customers’ specifications and are shipped in approx. 2-4 weeks, perhaps sooner, depending on the season. Our rotating assemblies usually ship out in about one week or less, and our heads ship in about a week or less.
Now you know the real story, and we hope this helps with the confusion.
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