Had a really bad experience recently with a machine shop and am wondering what you guys would do. Paid almost $600 to get the coolant cross over cut off of a Vic EFI and the bolt holes converted for LT1 heads and you can see from the pictures the quality of work that I received. When I emailed the machine shop saying that I want a new manifold (the one I sent was brand new sent from summit racing) I was told that I can pay shipping both ways and he will repair the cracks (not the holes that were machined almost too thin to use) or that I can go pound salt. My intake was sent to this shop from the one that was porting my new intake and specing my cam. When I emailed and asked for a phone number to call and figure something out (im on 12 hour shifts 6 days a week and with a 7 hour time difference in Iraq) I was told that I was not his customer (even though he got my money) and that if I want to talk on the phone I can pay $1 a min for his time. Since then Ive realized that I do not want to waste my time or my builders time sending it out to have shotty work done then send it to get fixed AGAIN (the holes that are too thin), I would rather just pay a little to have it repaired the right way by someone who values their reputation. What would you guys do at this point?

 

Pictures

 

I would tell that rude ********** to eat **** and die and I would NEVER let him touch any of my **** again.

In fact when you get home from Iraq I would probably go to his shop, walk up to him, and belt him in the face. All without saying a damn word, then just leave.


**** rude *** people like that **** me off, especially when you're over there in the sand hole serving our country.

that being said, I completely agree with you. Send it to another shop that hopefully cares about what they do and will work with you to fix it.

 

yes i would not have a problem taking him a knuckle sandwhich for lunch

 

I wish I would have known you guys are paying that much to have it converted. Im doing my own except sticking to a carb and cutting the water ports off my self and also redrilling my own holes. Im doing it to a victor jr, and I wouldnt have EVER charged more than a couple hundred to do this. That is BS and I would try to take it to small claims court, you dont want to go hitting anyone in the face though Dont ask me how I know this, almost lost my job from state since Im a senior network admin for Ohio schools. Picture me asking my boss if Im allowed to use vaction days to sit in jail for a week lol... Thank goodness I have worked there over 10 years....... I swear after seeing this Im going to build a jig this weekend and tackle my victor and If I have to I will buy a couple more used ones to test puppet them out.

 

well punching him in the face isnt really an option lol. and im not sure what i would get out of small claims court since he did the work just did a shitty job at it. ill be posting the emails once i get to work. i just want a few unbiased opinions.

Gregrob, ill shoot you a PM back when i get to work also

 

If any part of this went via the Post Office, you've the makings of a mail fraud case. I'd talk to one of your base attorneys about it.

 

Absolute bullshit... For the pure fact that this scumsucking weasel told a US servicemen CURRENTLY DEPLOYED OVERSEAS to "Pound sand" after a reasonable question was asked makes me livid. I can't wait to see where this goes and I sincerely hope the shop in question loses a large amount of business due to this incident.

 

And what and where is the name of said shop so we can inform other potential customers of his work and wrong doing? This is just sick, and how can someone still be in business for doing faulty work, and then tell a guy to pund salt, and charge him $1 a minute to talk about it..... time to make this dick head be known, and hopefully an epic thread or a resolution can come out of this.

I say don't give up, it's just begun sir. :salute:

 

Stay tuned...

 

Well first let me start out by saying that i feel that Lloyd Elliott did just about everything that he could (within reason) to make this right. The intake manifold was sent to Lloyd straight from Summit racing to be port matched to my LE2 heads. Lloyd, trying to save me some money, told me that he would rather send the intake to a machine shop to get coverted rather than having to make a jig himself. This would save me both time and money. Lloyd ported the intake and sent it off to Airflow Development to get converted. Dennis from Airflow development, who is slammed with work, sent the intake to Bret Bauer from Bauer Racing Engines. Because this was done to get my intake back to me faster, Lloyd covered the shipping to Bret.
When my intake got back to the shop i was immediately sent an email with the pictures supplied. i called Dennis right away (still at this point thinking that he is the one who converted it) and was told that it was damaged when he got it (it was brand new). This is when i found out that it was sent to Bauer Racing Engines to get done because Dennis was overwhelmed with work. I called Lloyd right away who assured me that the manifold wasnt cracked when he sent it out and that the box wasnt damaged so it couldnt have been damaged in shipping. At this point i felt like i was getting the run around and started getting frustrated. Lloyd offered to pay up to $100 out of his pocket to have the intake repaired just so that i was happy. My problem with that was that i would still have to cover shipping, and at this point there was no telling whether or not that would cover the actual cost of the repair.

Email #1 from me:

Lloyd, I've been thinking about it and the conclusion that I've come to is that i do not want the intake manifold fixed. i paid for a new intake and i don't feel that i should receive a repaired one for the amount of money that i have into it. i understand that the damage was not your fault but you are the only consistent contact that i have and the only email contact that i have. i don't want to play pass the buck anymore, i understand how valuable every-ones reputation is and I'm looking for someone to make good on this. I'm not asking you to report the intake, as a matter of fact i don't even want you to port it. i want this to be completely out of your hands if possible. i want a new intake manifold converted (including the 4 center bolt holes) and the coolant area machined off or i want a refund for the entire intake and it will be returned. i don't think that this is an unreasonable request due to the frustration and added stress that this has given me. Lloyd i am not by any means asking for you to foot the bill but you are the only email contact that i have and Dennis claims that you knew about the damage before he worked on it so you are (unfortunately) involved as well. so whether LE Port-works, Airflow Development, or Bauer Racing engines makes good on this or a portion comes from each it doesn't matter to me. i just want this to be made right. please pass the word onto Dennis, Bret is CC ed.

Email back from Lloyd:

no problem with passing the info along and my offer is still good on sending $100 to get the intake repaired even though I should not even be doing that.

If someone wants to buy a new intake for you and do the work, that is fine with me but I can not be responsible for buying a new intake and converting it for you.

$100 towards repairing the intake is a gesture of me being a nice guy but there is a difference in being nice and being stupid.

Dennis did not do the work. He opened the box and sent the intake to Bret when realizing what all needed to be done (remove water neck, etc) and that he could not fit the time line. He did not do any work or make any $$$ from the conversion at all. He did not farm the work out and make a cut. He just referred the work to Bret. I paid for the extra shipping getting everything to Bret at no expense to you as well as thee shipping on intake from me to you. No hard feelings, I just want you to know that I have already lost $$$ and bent over backwards working with you.

I did not make any $$$ from the conversion and just shipped the heads and intake to Dennis for the conversion. I was under the impression that you had been in contact with Dennis and had the time schedule and payment all set up with him so I did not contact Dennis about the intake until it was shipped to him. I told you I had no problem relaying the $$$ to him, I just did not realize that you needed me to.

FWIW, if the cracked bolt hole is the problem, it can be welded and re machined and be JUST as strong as it would have been when new. If there are any other problems with the intake conversion, Bret would have to answer the questions on that but there would be no problem with welding the bolt hole and it would look like it never happened.

Let me know if the $100 will help you out any. . . . .

______________________________________

As i said, Lloyd has been bending over backwards trying to make this right and keep me happy.

1st Email back from Bret Bauer:

Josh,

The crack in the bolt hole is my deal.... here are your options:

1. Send the manifold back here and I'll fix the crack in the spot face by the bolt hole, YOU pay for shipping back. That's the only thing that is my deal. Anything else you want me to fix is $50 a hour.

2. Go pound salt.

********** should have the address where to send it back. If you want to waste more of Lloyd's, Dennis' or my time complaining and demanding things that aren't going to happen then my timeframe for getting this fix done for you looks like it's getting longer and longer. I don't think ***** wants to sit on your car any longer than they are.

E-mail me back ONLY which option you would like to choose and we will go from there.

Bret

________________________________

Email back to Bret:

Bret,
why would i be paying for shipping when you are the one that damaged the
intake? i don't think that what i want is unreasonable considering the
fact that the intake manifold has never even been in my hands. the only
thing that I'm demanding is what i paid for. i paid to be able to bolt a
Vic EFI intake to LT1 heads (not using 8 bolts, but using all 12 of
them) and i didn't pay to have a cracked manifold. i want a fully
functional manifold that ************ feels is acceptable.
you would be just as aggravated if you spent $800 on a manifold only to
get it back in the condition that it was received in.

Please explain how anything that i want is wrong in any way.
_________________________

Email back from Bret Bauer:

Well someone will pay shipping if you want it back.... I'm not.

You give me a extra $100 and I will put two more bolt holes in the
intake PER SIDE, just have fun getting the bolts into the head and
tightening them down. I realize this is the first rodeo for you guys
down there doing this because if you don't realize that those bolts do
not work then you have never done this before. Again give me $100 and it
will put those holes in there for you, it's $100 because your wasting my
time and I'm going to be PAID for doing work that is pointless.... but I
will be HAPPY to do it if you want to pay me. If you guys don't believe
me about this lay a LT1 gasket on the flange and then look where the
inner bolt holes go thru... how are you going to get a bolt under the
runner to even get in the bolt hole?

8 bolts is what OEM SBC Vortec motors have.... look at this picture
http://www.jegs.com/images/photos/80...9-12496821.jpg or look at
the OEM gaskets... no bolt holes in the middle.
http://images.marketplaceadvisor.cha.../68238/3000019.
jpg

THE ONE BIG THING I DON'T GET IS DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND MY TWO OPTIONS
FROM BEFORE??????? Pick one and send the intake or don't but don't bug
anyone anymore with this BS. Your wasting OUR time.... and i'm going to
send the thing back COD for my time if I have to answer another e-mail
about this.

Clock is now running....... $1 per minute

___________________________________

there were 2 more emails but they were just about the center bolt holes and pricing before i decided not to put my intake or any other property of mine in his hands again.

 

**** him I would wait for that mother ****** one night and knee cap him. No ******* excuse for a buisness owner to talk to a PAYING customer that way. As for the intake use a couple of big grade 8 washers and forget it.

 

^^ That will resolve the issue no doubt!

On a serious note, I now know who I will not ever do business with, thanks.

 

Small claims court, go for Judge Judy lmao.

I just sent a nice email to your buddy Brett.

Josh, I know Lloyd has been cool with you but he decided to outsource the job to Brett am I correct? IMO Lloyd should step up and make things right too. It's no different than a body shop subletting a wheel alignment to a mechanical shop and having them screw it up....in the customer's eyes it's still the body shop's issue, they own it.

 

lol we could all flood his *** with emails through made up yahoo accounts for the next week and he will go insain.

 

Yea a little childish of me but I am in a similar vote right now with monster transmissions so I fell his burn. eatmyshift.com. 2nd trans that has blowed up on me in 2 years from them. 1800 spent and now I have to do it again right as I am tring to buy another house. So put monster on that list. Only 2000 miles on it. The first only had 500 miles on it. They suck ***.

 

Small claims court is hard to do from Iraq lol

i paid the other shops through him but this was at my request. he referred me to Airflow development and airflow development sent my intake to Bret without me knowing. like i said though, even though this wasnt Lloyds fault he was willing to lose money to make me happy. i dont fault him one bit for the problems with this intake.

 

I think Lloyd has done his share of customer service on this incident. He offered up to $100 to fix the manifold that he had no part in damaging, and I think that $100 would probably cover all the damage.

 

i agree, Lloyd did everything within reason to try and correct the issue

 

Better Business Bureau complaint registered