Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/26/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A week before contacted ***** to rebuild my engine, said he could, I supplied over half the parts (over $2000). On 3/18 took it in, explained how I wanted it done, machining done, cylinders done, etc, painted hemi orange. I checked and saw that I had ordered wrong camshaft, asked if I could pick it up & return for correct one. ***** said no problem since he had account with them he would send it back, maybe faster; but he sent wrong one back to vendor. They sent it back to him. When they received the one I had ordered incorrectly, there was damage to it so no refund and I had to buy another ($526.74). ***** was always busy with family, second job trimming trees, lots of different excuses and time delays. On 5/26 he called, I picked it up and engine was blue - not orange; I said to at least repaint it black. On 5/29 I was ready to start my install but saw the engine was put back together wrong: left & right banks were swapped; missing seals and bolts; paint on gaskets surfaces, oil pan only had 4 bolts to attach it, globs of paint inside cylinder walls, needs new gaskets, seals, and new head bolts again now; it needs to be totally torn down again and put together properly. Since he was going to be away, I had waited long enough, I was going to have to do this all myself. With his permission and some texted answers to questions, I did some work on it, I needed my truck. When trying to settle this issue, now he says he can invalidate the warranty since I had worked on it. (with his permission and it had been over 3.5 months of delay). I have the know how to do it all but not the time. I know what is right and what is wrong in this situation. That is why I paid him $3717.50 to complete the job correctly - but it did not happen. The work was subpar and it was clear he was not prepared or capable to do this job that I paid him for. I am asking for a full refund of cam $526.74 plus the fee I paid him $3717.50 = $4244.24. I want the warranty I paid for as well. see email

  Business Response

  Date: 07/18/2023

  Customer has made several untrue allegations in this claim. First, the camshaft provided by the customer was never opened at our business and was shipped to the facility in which he had purchased in the original packaging. Any and all disputes pertaining to that matter are between the company in which the camshaft was purchased and the buyer. 
  Next, the complaint of craftsmanship in which led to disruptions in the installation process and how that matter was to be handled are as follows:
    *Customer had disassembled engine entirely prior to it arriving in the machine shop. No indications were made as to there being a difference in the left and right head placement. 
    *Customer after picking up the engine, contacted the business and informed them that the heads did not align properly to match the exhaust manifolds that were on the vehicle. Customer was advised due to the owner being out of town, he could either bring the engine back to the shop and the heads would be swapped for proper placement, or the shop was willing to pay an hourly rate of $30 an hour for a time of 8 hours as specified in ALLDATA that was required to perform the swap. Customer was told he would also be reimbursed a price of $200 for a new head gasket set which would need to be installed as well. This would total a cost of $440. Customer was unhappy with the attempt to resolve the matter and is now requesting a full refund, plus the cost of parts that were not ordered nor damaged by the business itself.
     *Using widely accepted automotive data specifications such as ALLDATA and MITCHELL is how the total cost of labor was calculated for a reimbursement to be made.
     *Customer had since contacted the owner after the head swap was made to let him know the engine was running fine as it should, and he had advised that he had since taken the vehicle to a high-performance shop in which he was having further modifications. Per industry standard, there is a NO WARRANTY policy on any and all high-performance products. This includes any and all parts classified high performance, to further include complete engine assemblies. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/24/2023

  [If you do not say why you are rejecting the company's response, BBB must close your complaint.] 
  
  Complaint: 20239687
  
  I am rejecting this response because: Yes I did bring the engine in pieces to 56 cylinder head. When I originally talked to ***** on the phone about doing the job I explained to him that the engine was already torn apart and I would be bringing him the complete engine if he was interested doing all the work and installing the parts I already have. He agreed to it and he gave me a price on what it would cost me to do it. He assured me that he had 30 years experience doing this type of work and that it would be put together complete and the right way. I didn't know I had to tell him there was a left head and a right head. So as far as the disruptions it was not because the engine was in pieces. There was multiple excuses of why the job wasn't done yet. I even drove down there to his shop and called him because he was closed and he said he was dealing with his tree company that he runs and the machine his guys were operating had thrown the tracks off so he wasn't going to be able to meet me at his shop. Another time I called him to check on the progress he was up on Lake Erie in the middle of the week. There were multiple excuses.

   

   When I contacted him about the engine not being put together properly it was through phone calls and after that there were text messages between us. There was no talk about me bringing the engine back to ***** for him to tear it apart and put it together right. I actually have screenshots of text messages of us discussing what had to be done. He simply stated over the phone let me know how much time you have in it and we will come up with something fair. There were no talks about $30 an hour per Mitchell or any other labor programs he uses until after our phone conversation the day I had to tear the engine back apart to put it back together the right way and clean up all the stuff he did not do. There is also text messages of him saying he had to come up with a number that he thought was fair to compensate me for having to tear apart the engine myself well after I had to tear it apart and reassemble it. Like I said in my earlier post I had to redo almost everything that I paid him for. Including cleaning the paint off of everything that should not have had paint. There was photos uploaded of the poor craftsmanship. The head gasket surfaces were not cleaned or machines like it was supposed to be. He painted the engine blew because he thought that's what I brought him when I did not bring him any paint so instead of masking off the engine he just sprayed over it with black. There is still blue paint on the outside of the engine where it's supposed to be black. So my engine is black and blue. The cylinder heads were not properly cleaned like he told me they would be. There was still carving build up from when I brought him the cylinder heads. He stated to me once they come out of the hot tank and our machine they will look like brand new cylinder heads. There was some plastic Clips I could not get out of the external part of the cylinder heads and he stated that when it goes to the hot things those will come out. They were still on the heads fully intact. There were multiple missing gaskets for the spark plug tubes on the valve covers on both sides. They were still in a package Inside the Box of parts I got back from him. The oil pan was missing all the bolts except for four. I also found those in a package in the box of parts I got back from him. I paid him to do all the Machining and cleaning that needed to be done and I was expecting to pick up a completed ready to drop in running engine. I did not get that at all.

   

     I've also got multiple quotes from other shops of the repairs that had to be done in case I had to take it somewhere else so the $440 is way off. 

  
  

    As far as the high performance shop thing goes my truck was never taken to a high performance shop it was taken to a tuner so they could tune the computer because the truck had what they call a MDS delete kit installed. It had stock 5.7 Hemi Hellcat lifters put in it in place of the MDS lifters that originally came with the motor. It also had what they call a variable valve timing lock installed in it also so that's the reason the truck had to go to a tuner . Was not a high performance shop there was nothing high performance done to it. It is not a race truck . ***** was aware of all the parts that I got before I even took him the engine. He said he has done these installs in these engines in the past so he knew exactly how to do it. There is no high performance parts inside this engine. I have the original invoices to prove that. He knew exactly what was being installed. He even knew it was going to the tuner after it got installed because we talked about me bringing the truck down to him after it was installed so he can hear and see how it was running. In his response on here he stated there was absolutely no warranty for industry standard. I have it in text messages that there is a warranty on his part. I will be uploading those screenshots also.
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** *******