.....

 

It seems to me that both parties are at fault. The shop for the apparent quality of work and the customer for being unwilling to either work with the shop for the repairs, or for what appears to be gouging on the subsequent repairs.

Having been in the business as long as I had, I know that things go wrong, sh*t happens. At the bottom of my receipts it stated that all warranty work was to be performed by the shop. That is not to say that if the customer was a distant away, such as this case, that something can't be done to accommodate the customer.

By this, I mean that warranty repairs were to be called and approved by the shop prior to any repairs being done, whenever possible. It's done all the time and can be handled by fax and a credit card.

The shop offered to pick up the vehicle and make the repairs at no charge to the customer. The customer refused and then submitted a bill. The work was done at less than shop rates and the parts were sold at less the MSRP, I would address the repairs at cost as this shop appears to be trying to do.

 

Forgot about the wheel lugs, that is just plain dangerous!

 

Stand-up response!

 

"You don't get a second chance to do that one over again. Not in my book." AORoads

I see; let me make sure I understand you.

So, you're trying to compare yourself to the many Chevrolet dealers who, after almost 10 years of supposedly knowing how to lift a C5 or C6 Corvette, CAN'T get it right? And therefore, I shouldn't, or wouldn't go back for warranty work to one of these dealers, had they screwed up the work in the first place, and cracked my rockers incidental to their "professionalism"?

That's who you want to compare your professional, high performance shop to?

OK, the comparison is made, and you did it, not me. I've noted that in my "things to remember".

 

i would worry about the other bolts involved in a h&c swap

 

Mike enough with the you guys said you would only pay for parts, then when pushed you said you would pay for parts and one tow. That's all you have said. You also have the towing bills. Do you guys answer the phone on holiday weekends? So I was supposed to sit on the side of the road waiting till Tuesday for your approved tow.

The bottom line here is you guys were paid for one thing and delivered another. This whole job had to be rechecked due to the fact of so many things being loose. I have spent $1,330 so far and said I would settle for $1,200. Now the tune needs to be rechecked that’s another $400.

Again for the 100th time. I'm not here to debate to what level you stand behind your work. You have made that very clear. I am here saying that if you want a job done right with no loose parts do not call on you guys. I don't think I could say that any clearer. As for what you do or do not owe me, we will let the credit card companies, lawyers and Better Business decide.

You guys have had the paper work for over a week and who called who yesterday? Again I'm not here to debate that.

 

What paper work? We didnt have any paper work, nor have we recieved any except two tow bills. That was sent last night as well. There still has been no invoice to show anything done nor any parts bought, sounds like we're missing over 50% of the paper work still. You sent us a receipt for parts not bought by you as well, nor any where close to the $600 you asked for...

Two tow bills is all we've recieved. If that's what you're asking $1300 for, that some mark up.

Nick did tell you that he will pay for the parts & tow as well on the phone with you. He also asked you for an invoice for the labor as well. Am I wrong?

 

Believe me I am..........................

 

Heads are LPE Stainless steel one piece 2.055” diameter intake valves, 1.57” stainless steel exhaust valves Hand paper sand roll chambers and runners to remove CNC tool tracks High lift valve spring kit to upgrade for GT11 camshafts up to .645” lift. Kit includes titanium spring retainers, 10 degree locks Heads milled to 11.1 comp. Cam is GT-11 215/231 .631/.644 118 CL GM High volume oil pump. Comp Cams pushrods.

 

They have a much better QC, QC then more QC where we have our aircraft serviced. In more than 10 years with the same shop never had anything like this.

Come to think of it I have been doing business with the same Chevy dealer for 10 years and I have never had my wheels loose. They did scratch my Tahoe once.

Had I known the level of workmanship at Straightline I would have had the dealer do the work and just had Straightline do the tune.

 

I had work done by Mike and his shop when my car had 300 miles on it and 6 months and 11K+ later, I haven't had a single issue.

If I was in oneblackvette's shoes I would be pissed as well but I would have given them a chance to make it right. If they refused, then it's a different situation. Show me a shop that hasn't screwed up at least once and I'll show you a shop that doesn't really do any work, as others have stated, we all make mistakes no matter how hard we try not to.

Airing this out in public is only fanning the flames and helping to make a bad situation worse, it's time for your guys to take this to PM and settle it reasonably in private or take it off the forum and let your attorneys do the talking for you.

 

I still can not agree that if someone does poor work that the next time they won't. We are not talking about some complicated electrical problem or some hard tune. We are talking about marking sure thing are tight, like wheels, crank bolts and exhaust. I will post the pic of the new bolt sitting next to the one the dealer pulled that was supposedly a week old and you tell me if my lack of trust is unfounded.

 

I have to disgree. The purpose of this forum is to share information. Sweeping vendor problems under the carpet is dishonest and makes the forum worthless. If a tuner is sending cars away with serious issues, then they need to fix their QC process. Pretending problems don't exist just allows those problems to get worse. Of course, all sides to the story must be heard and fairness must exist. That goes both ways.

 

If I were you guys I would talk on the phone, get this settled, and end this thread. This topic has gone in many different directions. If the talk on the phone does not work, that is why there is small claims court. Good luck to both of you.

 

We had been in contact with the customer prior to his posting. We were in fact here over labor day weekend, as we are every weekend, but since I am the only one there on the weekends, it is difficult to answer every phone call while running the dyno. We had offered to pay for incurred expenses, but do need invoices in order to do so. The last conversation between the customer and us, we had brought up that at the time the total amount for the costs incurred totaled $358.xx, and that's what we offered. The customer then said that if we didn't agree to the $1200 that he was asking for, that he would "poke us in the eye" and post everything on the internet. We tried to keep this private, and would have loved to have kept this off the internet.

Point being, we have not denied or tried to cover anything up. We have made several offers for retribution to solve this matter. Due to the fact that the customer has not produced reciepts/invoices totaling the amount that he has asked for, he decided to take it public.

I sincerely appologize for taking up so many people's time with this thread. It should have been settled privately. Any body that has worked with us knows that we are very easy to work with. We have been put on the defensive with this, which is a place nobody likes to be, and yet we were still willing to work things out. At this point, if the customer is threatening legal actions, then this topic and thread should be closed, because there is nothing left to discuss.

 

Mike, I think you have been stand up about trying to make this right with a ticked-off and somewhat unreasonable customer.

Others have stated that "sh*t happens" and it does. What I have been waiting for, and what this thread offers you, is a chance to reassure other potential customers about your reassessment of shop's QC.

In my experience, blunders like the loose lug nuts usually follow loss of focus (phone interuption, taking a crap, good-looking babe etc.).

The crank bolt issue is a little different. I think it's reasonable to expect you to not only know everything about GM's fix, but also better solutions like pinning the snout/pulley. That should be discussed as an option with future customers.

Exhaust clearance problems are not uncommon at all. I expect you knew OP lived a ways away and it wouldn't be convenient for him to drop by for adjustment... Look for and mention it on the check ride, at the least.

You have been put on the defensive here, and I think you've kind of got caught up in making it right, which you have to do. In addition to putting out the fire, you have an opportunity to tell us how your going to avoid starting the fire going forward... $1100 really isn't an awful lot of money for all the work involved here, so maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe you need to hire one of those dog and pony service writers guys, or maybe just someone knowledgeable to answer the phone for starters.

What say you?

 

Finally someone gets it. I'm not here to bash them on how they stand up.
I wanted to warn people how they do the work in the first place. And yes they have lots of room for improvement.

I'm confused why they keep bring up the money issue. The tread is about the quality of there work not how they plan to make things right.

I'm not warning memebers that they will get short changed after a problem. I'm letting them know that they will have a problem right up front. I again only wish someone would have warned me.

Mike the Tuner does great work.
Mike the mechanic likes to leave things loose.

Two different guys at Straightline

As for who can be trusted over there that's anyone guess at this point.
I gave them three weeks to make things right. I never got a call. Then when I call they say they never got anything. Why didn't they call if they for some reason never got it? Nope they wait for me to keep asking them what they are going to do.

I still call this a fair VENDOR WARNING.

 

I could not agree more. Instead of coming on here and acting like I did something wrong, you should tell the members how you plan for it not to happen the next time. QUALITY CONTROL.Then you would not be in this in the first place. Nor would I.

 

Oneblackvette...did you tell them that if they didn't pay you $1200 that you would post this on the internet?