Just Found Out About Advantage Lifts

[NUTTSGT]

Excerpts. . .


Shanghai is a Chinese manufacturing company. (Doc. 1, ¶¶ 3, 8.) Defendants Lucy Imports, LLC ("Lucy") and Lefevre (collectively, "Defendants") are both based in Pennsylvania. (Id. ¶¶ 4-5.) According to Shanghai's complaint, Stacey Mack and Lori Mack are members of both Lucy and Lefevre. (Id. ¶¶ 4-5.)

In March 2015, Shanghai partnered with Advantage Lifts, LLC ("Advantage"). (Id. ¶ 13.) Advantage was based in the United States and made automotive lifts. (Id. ¶¶ 13-14.) Advantage agreed to order certain products for its lifts from Shanghai, and Shanghai agreed to manufacture and deliver those products to Advantage.

In March 2015, Shanghai partnered with Advantage Lifts, LLC ("Advantage"). (Id. ¶ 13.) Advantage was based in the United States and made automotive lifts. (Id. ¶¶ 13-14.) Advantage agreed to order certain products for its lifts from Shanghai, and Shanghai agreed to manufacture and deliver those products to Advantage.

After the parties signed the Agreement, Advantage told Shanghai that it had sold its assets to Lefevre and planned to assign the Agreement to Lefevre. (Doc. 1, ¶ 19.) Shanghai acknowledged the assignment and began working with Lefevre pursuant to the Agreement

In September 2020, Lefevre asked Shanghai to ship its products and issue its invoices to Lucy instead of Lefevre. (Id. ¶ 22.) Shanghai complied"pursuant to the parties' exclusive Agreement and course of dealing." (Id. ¶ 23- 24.) Lucy ordered and received products from Shanghai from September 2020 to April 2025. (Id. ¶ 25.) Lucy usually paid for the products, but one time, on or about January 29, 2021, Lefevre paid Shanghai $973,411.00 for "delivered Products." (Id.)

The parties' business relationship began to break down in November 2024. (Id. ¶ 28.) That month, Defendants ordered, received, and accepted products from Shanghai, but they did not pay. (Id.) Shanghai kept filling Defendants' orders until April 2025, at which point "Defendants simply owed too much for Shanghai .

. . to operate feasibly." (Id. ¶ 29.) At that point, Defendants owed Shanghai a total of $2,272,571.49 on 67 separate invoices. (Id. ¶ 30.)

Eventually, Shanghai asked Defendants to terminate the Agreement so it could sell its products to other North American customers. (Id. ¶ 32.) Defendants' "principal manager" told Shanghai that "he had no intention of terminating the Agreement or making any immediate payments on the outstanding invoices." (Id. ¶ 33.) The manager also told Shanghai "f you need to leave our agreement, the cost is 2,272,571.49 USD or you can wait for us." (Id. ¶ 34.) Defendants have not paid any of the 67 outstanding invoices. (Id. ¶ 37.) Shanghai sued Defendants on November 13, 2025. (Doc. 1.) Its complaint raises breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment claims against Defendants. (Id. ¶¶ 38-57.) Lucy filed an answer to the complaint and admits therein that it has not paid the outstanding invoices from Shanghai. (Doc. 15, ¶ 30.) Lefevre moved to dismiss Shanghai's complaint on January 27, 2026, Doc. 21, and filed a brief in support on February 10, 2026. (Doc. 22.) Shanghai filed a brief in opposition on February 24, 2026, Doc. 23, and Lefevre filed a reply
on March 10, 2026. (Doc. 25.) Accordingly, Lefevre's motion to dismiss is ripe for disposition.




Just part of the story . . it appears that Mack maybe tried to set up a shell company with Lucy to make them fully responsible for the debt instead the original LeFevre that Shanghai had signed with. What I see biting them in the *** is the one time payment $973K by LeFevre.


It looks like this has been an issue for a while and they have been stringing many people and business on for not just a couple of weeks or months.

 

[racecougar]

Henry Ford went bankrupt five times, or something like that.

Who is making the case that he was a good guy? Regardless, by your measure it's apples and oranges, as I don't recall the courts sending him to prison.

 

[finn]

Who is making the case that he was a good guy? Regardless, by your measure it's apples and oranges, as I don't recall the courts sending him to prison.

The difference is timely disclosure. He was moving money around when the business was insolvent, when he should have declared it insolvent and declared bankruptcy up front.

In the case of the Chevy dealer, I know several of the long term mechanics and body guys who worked for him. To a man they said he was the best boss they ever had .

He got caught up trying to keep his thirty (or whatever) employees gainfully employed.

Was he wrong? Yes, but I see how it can happen.

Does that one act make him bad?
Not in my book. He was definitely wrong and paid the penalty, but that didn’t help the people who worked for him much. It was an unfortunate and inevitable outcome, though.

People are still hurt anytime a bankruptcy is entered into, though, a fact usually overlooked.

 

[racecougar]

The difference is timely disclosure. He was moving money around when the business was insolvent, when he should have declared it insolvent and declared bankruptcy up front.

I'm not familiar enough with Ford's case to agree/disagree with that point. Which bankruptcy was this? I'll have to read up on it.

From the evidence presented thus far, Stacey Mack definitely was doing this though, and that burned a lot of innocent people. Whether or not the courts catch up to him in time, that makes him a bad person in my book.

In the case of the Chevy dealer, I know several of the long term mechanics and body guys who worked for him. To a man they said he was the best boss they ever had .

He got caught up trying to keep his thirty (or whatever) employees gainfully employed.

Was he wrong? Yes, but I see how it can happen.

Does that one act make him bad?
Not in my book. He was definitely wrong and paid the penalty, but that didn’t help the people who worked for him much. It was an unfortunate and inevitable outcome, though.

People are still hurt anytime a bankruptcy is entered into, though, a fact usually overlooked.

I thought we were relying on the courts to judge good/bad? Are we back to judging based upon our own morals and pretexts now? I'd venture a bet that steve392, 717owner, durangochad, B229218, darkshade9, and countless others would readily agree that Stacey Mack is a bad guy here.

 

[Restomod68]

Not to be obtuse, but why aren't you guys looking at Direct and Forward lifts? At least Dover isn't going anywhere, unlike the fly-by-night marketing front ends like Advantage and the rest.

Mark

Those are also great lifts, for me I wanted the boxed column designs and at the time only two companies that offered in 2023.

 

[Restomod68]

Of similar boxed column design :
Wildfire and Guardian

Halo offers it now as well.

Advantage's biggest mistake was not getting the designed patented. That is what has prompted the copycat lifts of Wildfire/Guardian/Halo which I'm sure are all great lifts despite not being ALI certified.

 

[717owner]

You inadvertently hit on the level of scamming from the big Mack’s: Lucy imports. Normally that would not be of interest except that in 2020, the Mack’s got a dog and named her Lucy. She has her own insta account under Lucymack_advantage lifts. This dude created a company in his dog’s name and I’d bet anything named “her” as the executive of Lucy imports/ lefevre7 llc. This type of grift was common in the financial crisis of people filling out fraudulent mortgage applications. It also happened during the gold rush of the COVID money in 2020/21. This dude is a bad dude. Doesn’t take a genius to see he is scum.

 

[717owner]

Not my church.

I’m not defending Mack. Just saying that people get caught up trying desperately to keep their businesses afloat every day, and i don’t think that turns out well In most cases.

That’s why we have courts.

I don’t think that my (my parent’s anyway) experience is unusual, though. Businessmen from all walks of life get caught up. Look at all the contractor fraud cases that make the news. How much starts out as fraud and how much is just being bad businessmen and not shutting the doors when things start to go south. Or is there even a difference? How many businesses go insolvent or are under court ordered reorganization plans?

Sears, GE, GM, and tens of thousands of other businesses have gone bankrupt. Prominent politicians and public figures as well as common citizens have gone bankrupt multiple times. In each case, there were creditors that weren’t paid and were hurt financially.

This isnt a case of bankruptcy. This is a Ponzi scheme and complete fraud. He willingly defrauded the Chinese and created a sub llc under his dog’s name. Then claimed it was a new company. The lawsuit shows years of fraud and criminal activity. This wasn’t a man who lost revenue. This was a man who made his dog an executive of an llc and then continued to attend shows and take millions in deposits while knowing fully that nothing would ever be delivered. The noose would be too merciful for him and his dog should be grilled in front of him but hey he will probably be dead long before the court action is complete. He looks to be late 60s so he is on borrowed time anyway. In the end, only the courts can sentence but anyone is free to judge

 

[steve392]

Just have a quick update....I got the official notice from Costco/Citi card that my claim has been resolved, and I got my deposit refunded. Although I was able to get my money back, I still feel bad for those buyers that used other payment means or got denied because of credit card company "statute of limitations" and won't see a dime.

I talked to both Wildfire and Guardian lift companies this morning and got a lot more "insider" information regarding Advantage, most of which was already discussed here. Both salesmen were very helpful, and it was difficult to decide who to buy from. I could buy from either one and be completely satisfied, but in the end I ordered a standard size lift from Wildfire today. Their length of time in business and track record was probably as much a deciding factor as features, shipping, price, etc.

Since they were both extremely helpful, I'm going to do a little advertisement here: If you're in the same situation as I was, give either Scott at Wildfire Lifts (763-373-3455) or Mike at Guardian Lifts (612-464-7558) a call. I don't think you could go wrong with either one.

Steve

 

[717owner]

If you ever call a lift company and Tim Dixon answers : HANG the F UP ! LOL

 

[Peter K.]

Njim took a $4000 deposit from us on March 11, 2026 on a business debit card. Then strung along monthly like everyone else. Last contact with him was July 14, 2026 where he said delivery 2nd week of Sept.

Earlier today I contacted Bank of America for the dispute. Now the wait game. They said up to 3 months because they really take a deep dive in these types of disputes

BUT very important. While we know of the 90 or 120 day limit on disputes, apparently there is over 500 or 550 days dispute if it involved a delivery. Which it seems this would be why the 500+ day was formed.
I don't have time right now but if someone wants to Chat or google it.

Oh well, back into to the shop for me for a bummer of the rest of the day.

 

[Restomod68]

Man, I feel for you guys having to go through this BS. I had a pretty painless experience in 2023, I called them up, it was in stock by the end of the week, paid and they shipped it out.

 

[notacarguy]

So, I used to work for these folks. Stacey Mack is a joke and a coward. His wife too. Their main office is on Wilson Ave in Hanover, PA. Do with that what you will. They are absolutely horrible humans. I feel terrible for all of you.

 

[notacarguy]

Njim took a $4000 deposit from us on March 11, 2026 on a business debit card. Then strung along monthly like everyone else. Last contact with him was July 14, 2026 where he said delivery 2nd week of Sept.

Earlier today I contacted Bank of America for the dispute. Now the wait game. They said up to 3 months because they really take a deep dive in these types of disputes

BUT very important. While we know of the 90 or 120 day limit on disputes, apparently there is over 500 or 550 days dispute if it involved a delivery. Which it seems this would be why the 500+ day was formed.
I don't have time right now but if someone wants to Chat or google it.

Oh well, back into to the shop for me for a bummer of the rest of the day.

Nijim is a master manipulator, and will lie and lie. Not a word he says can be trusted. As a former co-worker of his, keep your hand over your wallet.

 

[65A990]

I have a simular story to many on this thread but I have acording to the last salesman standing from the company Nijm Thomas the distinction of having the oldest unfulfilled invoice in Real Garage Lifes system.

I purchased one Advantage DX 11000 WD and two DX 9000 XLT 4 post lifts from RealGarage Life/Advantage Lifts/Backyard Buddy/Warren Steel Specialties/Automotive Lift Service whatever name this dirtbag is hiding behind from sales representative Mark Bartholow on March 1st 2025 at the Detroit Automama. At the time of the purchase, I was told 12 weeks until delivery, which would have been the end of May early June of 2025. We were encouraged to pay in full asap to lock in the price before any of the proposed tariff's took effect. On March 3rd, the following Monday received a bill from Cathy Horn @ Advantage indicating a total balance of $20,071 that would be due prior to the scheduleing of shipping. In good faith my wife sent a cashiers check certified mail for that full amount the next day, that someone at Advantage signed for as received on March 7th 2025 @11:03 am and deposited the same day. I also received an email back that same day from Cathy Horn indicating the shipping dept would email us with updated shipping information.

From that 1st week in March 2025 until the end of May 2025 I heard nothing. After several attempts over the next couple of weeks trying to get ahold of my sales rep, I called the main corporate number and was told Mike Bartholow no longer worked for the company.

In early June of 2025, I talked to another company rep named Zac. I asked who was now handling my order only to be told the government tariffs were causing all lift production to be suspended and brought to the USA and they wouldn't be up and running until August of 2025. I understood and accepted this answer without question or complaint. In retrospect that was my first mistake.

July of 2025 I was told the DX 11000 WD was in stock, now waiting on the DX 9000 XLT's as they wanted to deliver and install all three in one trip to Michigan

August of 2025 started talking to the next conman Tim Dixon, I have no idea what happened to Zac he says he will be my contact going forward.

October 20th 2025 received email from Tim Dixon that the DX 9000 XLT's will now be in production around the beginning of November 2025 and he expected his service team ready to deliver and install the lifts around the middle of November. At this point winter is coming, and I am getting extremely bent out of shape.

November 15th 2025 to mid February 2026 spoke to Tim Dixon several times on the phone and never once did he mention that a run of these DX 9000 XLT lifts were produced in Nov of 25 by now I am livid and demanded to talk to the owner for a reason why other people who ordered after me received their product.

3/2/2026 I am now at the Detroit Autorama a year later and I approached the sales rep they had selling lifts at the show again named Nijm Thomas. I explained my whole story to him. When he heard my order number was #28270 he was dumbfounded as he said that was a very old order number to still be active.

3/24/2026 Received my long requested separate invoices for the sale and installation so I would not be required to pays sales tax on the installation per Michigan law. The next day I called again to Tim Dixon about finally receiving the separate invoices. It was during this conversation that he said he had the DX 11000 WD in stock again and the installers would be out the week of April 6th 2026 to bring it and put it up. I tried to pin him down on an exact day and told him it would have to be before April 9th as we would be out of town from 4/9/26 until 4/12/26

4/8/2026 after not hearing anything, I called Tim Dixon again asking why no one contacted me for installation. He told me that because I couldn't support the installers on 4/8/26 which was not true as I never said that, he replied his installers were backed up and I wouldn't be able to get this one lift installed until mid May of 2026. At that point I went ballistic and said I should be at the top of the delivery and installation schedule at this juncture and I knew all about a production run of DX-9000 XLT'S that were produced and delivered in November of 2025 to customers who ordered way after I did and pressed him to find out how many. Again and again I requested to talk to the owner and CEO Stacey Mack, his wife the CFO or anyone else in charge to explain to me why after over a year, I was still dealing with this.

4/14/2026 Talked to Tim Dixon again and he put me on hold for almost 40 minutes. He came back on and said he did some checking and said he can have the DX 11000 WD delivered on 4/20/2026 and is working on getting someone from management to call me back and tighten up the schedule for delivering the remaining 2 DX 9000 XLT'S.

4/20/2026 the installers Jeff and Bennett drive all the way from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border to my house in Michigan without the lift because someone in the company told them I already have it and they just came to install it. I call the company back ready to explode and Tim says he will get on it. Jeff and Bennett left to do another job here in Michigan

4/21/2026 Shop forman Pete Horvath leaves the factory with the lift at 2 am to have it here by morning and Jeff and Bennett return to install the one lift.

5/8/2026 Talked to Tim Dixon again and now he says production won't have the other two lifts available until the end of May 2026

6/1/2026 I call Tim Dixon again and now he tells me production won't have the DX-9000 XLT'S ready until the end of June 2026

7/6/2026 I called the main company number again and got ahold of a woman named Stephanie who worked at the actual manufacturing facility in Warren Ohio. I asked to talk to Tim and she told me Tim Dixon no longer worked for the company either. I explained my whole story yet again to her and how none of the owners would call me back after months and months of requests to talk to them. She told me that wasn't right and that I should receive some kind of extea compensation for all our troubles and would get back to me with some answers. I never heard from her again after several attempts to call her on what she told me was her personal line.

7/17/2026 left Stephanie another voice mail on the number she provided. Did the same thing again on 7/22/26 no reply

7/22/2026 after a half a dozen attempts to get anyone at the main corporate number, I found Nijm Thomas's buisness card and called his cell phone. I reminded him of our conversation at the 2026 Detroit Automama back in March. I went through this whole story again, and he again asked for my order number. When I told him #28270 he said he doesn't understand what happened as, it is the oldest active order in the system, and they had already fulfilled orders in the mid 31000 range and had the lifts in stock last November. He said he would now be my contact with the company and that Stephanie was swamped. Mr Thomas said he would place my order at the top of his pile. He also told me the owner Stacy Mack, was selling the company to one of the companies senior production managers and all production was now halted until the completion of the sale and that he would contact me by phone on a weekly basis to keep me updated.

8/3/2026 after not hearing from Nijm Thomas the whole following week I called him back on his cell number and he told me the sale of the company fell though, the company is now out of buisness, and everyone was let go.

I Immediately sent Stacy Mack an email with this exact chronological sequence of events the same day. Much to my surprise I actually got a response an hour later after 7-8 months of trying to talk to this man. His reply to me was as follows

On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 3:49 PM, Stacey Mack
<[email protected]> wrote:

Edward,

I don't know why this was strung out so long. I am sorry.

At this time the factory has shut down, Real Garage Life is insolvent, and the senior secured creditors are selling the remaining assets.Your deposit unfortunately has been lost in the insolvency.

I am sorry there is nothing we can do at this point.

Stacey Wayne Mack

President & CEO

Automotive Lift Service

777 Cherry Tree Court, Hanover PA 17331

I have since appealed to friends and associates telling my story on social media, and more than a few have been getting in contact with me with the exact same situation with this individual. In fact between our loss of $14k and 4 others I know for sure of, the collective loss was over $85k. There have been at least a dozen other mentions with some saying this is turning into a $20+ million dollar criminal ponzi scheme.

Several people have also shared with me that the address that Stacey Mack shares at the bottom of his and employees responses, his former web site that is down, and the sales brochures 777 Cherry Tree Court Hanover PA 17331is not accurate. His overall companies do business out of Hanover PA at 33 Amy Way also in Hanover at the same zip code

After reading everyone else's stories on this thread, I now have a clearer picture of how this all went down. I and many others believe he is shielding his core business from the losses at the lift company. He’s done this in the past according to people who personally know him and his explanation is BS. As unsecured creditors I am starting to accept the fact there will be no crumbs left for us when the smoke clears. After filing a complaint with the Pennsylvania and Ohio AG's office and the FTC on the federal level I feel we are all ******* into the wind. I contacted the bankruptcy court a week ago and there was no case number filed at that time. Once I get a case number I am going to file an Official Form B 410, or the Proof of Claim, the legal document used in United States bankruptcy courts. Creditors use this form to state the exact amount of money a debtor owes them on the date the bankruptcy case was filed. Every attorney I have talked to says the legal expenses of filing a lawsuit more than likely will quickly surpass the money that has been lost with little chance of recovering anything. As a recently retired person I can't afford an attorney anyway right now so I am going to do whatever I can on my own. I am also going to start a Facebook group for all the victims of Stacey Mack to share there stories and litigation advances. This wasn't just another company that fell on hard times, it was clearly a sophisticated criminal ponzi scheme. I will not sleep at night until this crook is either in prison or smeared to the point he is incapable of securing the financial backing to ever do this to anyone ever again. Look me up on Facebook I have a pinned thread on this whole debacle and would like to hear from anywhere has been victimized.

Ed Salas.

 

[717owner]

What is his core business ? I mean it’s a myriad of LLCs to hide **** but what is his actual business other than manufacturing?