SW Transmissions website

SW Transmissions, which also uses the name Southwest Transmissions, appears to be tied to a company in Cudahy, Wis., called Engine Shopper or Engine and Transmission World.  The Wisconsin location appears to be the hub of a group of companies claiming to operate in Missouri, Michigan, Kansas and Oklahoma. In addition to the Wisconsin and Missouri businesses, related companies include Quality Used Transmission or Quality Used Transmissions of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Quality Used Engines of Leawood, Kan.; and Southwest Engines or SW Engines of Tulsa, Okla.

Consumers report similar complaints against all of the businesses, alleging they shipped wrong or broken engines or transmissions, delayed or refused to give refunds, failed to honor warranties and seemed intentionally to frustrate and confuse customers who called with problems.

"I am done with those people," said a woman from Nashville, Tenn., who said she gave up trying to recover $1,600 she spent buying and installing a broken transmission from SW Transmissions. "I don't have the time or the money to deal with them."

Engine Shopper and its related businesses have an "F" grade with BBB, the lowest possible. Customers have filed nearly 400 complaints against the companies.

Michelle Corey, BBB president and CEO, said the businesses don't deserve the trust of consumers. "People are telling us they are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for what turns out, in many cases, to be junk," Corey said. "These are consumers who depend on their cars to get them to work, school, the supermarket or doctor's office. They deserve better."

BBB has been unable to determine the owners or top managers of the company, but several consumers report dealing with a man identified as Dale Jones.  BBB believes that name is likely a pseudonym.

The company was registered with the Missouri secretary of state as Southwest Transmissions on June 4, 2012. The only organizer listed for the company was Robert J. deJong, an attorney in Milwaukee. In February 2014, Alfred Talyansky was on record as the company official changing the company name to SW Transmissions.

The names of deJong and Talyansky also are on registration paperwork for several of the related companies. DeJong is listed as an organizer with Quality Used Engines in Kansas, Southwest Engines in Wisconsin and Quality Used Transmissions in Michigan.
Talyansky's name is on registration paperwork for Quality Used Engines in Kansas, Engine Shopper in Wisconsin and Quality Used Transmissions in Michigan.

In addition to the similarities in state registration information, much of the information on the companies' websites is strikingly similar.  All of the websites list virtually identical warranty information and very similar information on the sites' Frequently Asked Questions page. Most of the sites include an identical contact email and phone number.

Wisconsin BBB issued an alert on Engine and Transmission World in 2011. At that time, BBB had received complaints from 40 states.

Wisconsin BBB's business review on the company said the company "has failed to correct the underlying reason for complaints."

Consumers say their dealings with the companies have left them angry and frustrated.

"They sent me a bad engine and no one will answer the phone," a Carrollton, Texas, consumer said in a complaint against Southwest Engines.

"They have taken $1,840 from me stating this was a complete and running engine which it is definitely not," a consumer from Pembroke, N.C., said of Engine Shopper.

A man from Annandale, Va., said he paid Quality Used Engines more than $3,400 for a 2006 Dodge Magnum engine, but instead received a damaged engine for a Dodge 1500 Ram truck.

A couple from St. Clair, Mo., paid $2,000 to Engine and Transmission World for what was advertised as a working engine. They said the company instead shipped an engine that was inoperable. The wife said company representatives ridiculed them when they phoned the business for help. "Everything was a big joke," she said.  They ultimately were able to recover most of their money, but only after contacting BBB, the Wisconsin attorney general's office, the local police department in Cudahy and filing a lawsuit in federal court.

A woman from Ashland, Mo., was not as lucky. She said she canceled her order shortly after paying $1,700 in January for a motor from Engine and Transmission World, but the motor was shipped anyway. She said she has been unable to recover any money.

Despite numerous recent attempts to obtain answers to questions from the business, BBB has been unable to obtain a response.

Two weeks ago, BBB contacted the business asking it to answer several questions about its operations. The business referred the questions to Douglas Rose, a Milwaukee attorney. Rose said he emailed responses to BBB, but BBB never received the emails.

BBB offers the following tips when buying merchandise online: