Again, so we are clear, this project started out as a '
I would like you to put a repro body on a donor chassis and paint it in the color I want' project. It was never really intended to be a full restoration when the project was initially discussed. We are a shop that tries to make a customer's desires happen. This one started out no different.
A point that needs to be made. After an initial budget estimate was hashed out between us, it included what parts I felt we would need however at this time, no chassis nor body had been purchased. Contrary to what he claims about us restoring his own car, ...he did not have any car! Therefore all we were working on was a hypothetical best guess situation of what it would cost. Contrary to what he says in that blog, there was never any contractual timelines nor contractural price simply because he/we had nothing to even work with at that time! It was simply a guideline for us to work with. Later, he stated that he wanted to purchase his own parts and pay for them with his own credit card to save money. He ordered many parts from a NY vendor that were in my view junk and we repurchased better ones that fit or were better quality. Therefore he is correct in that some items he purchased, we also purchased and naturally he was billed for them on the invoice. So was that a fair condemnation for us?
There was a delay in the project with the chassis however not for the reason he stated. My customer wanted me to argue with the eBay seller that his newly purchased chassis wasn't "restored" to his standards or expectations. The Seller did say in the auction description that it came from a restored car that he purchased to build a street rod but he also stated he was selling it as-is without any warranty, ....and that is why after 30 days of negotiation back & forth, eBay denied my customers request (thru me) for a refund. Look at the lost amount of time, --and the productivity we lost in just this one situation trying to satisfy my customer. Naturally my customer was not happy with me, and felt compelled to remind me many times throughout the project about this. It did not matter to my customer that he was the one that found the chassis listed on eBay, and he was the one that instructed me to make the purchase.
Actually I never had any issue with him using J&M for the engine rebuild, and this customer actually had them do TWO engines for him simultaneously. One out of the chassis, and a core from me. Yes, I did send a cracked core block however at the time, it was the only engine block I had that I was willing to part with, ...and the J&M guys are crack repair gurus, so after much discussions the cracked engine was not to be an issue. Yes there was a delay, but the confusion was that my customer had put the deal together with J&M and they dispatched a freight carrier to pick up the engines which we had not finished crating. We had no idea they were coming until their truck just pulled in. This made J&M upset with us but we had no idea we were under any deadline for the engines to be picked up.
Another thing that needs to be cleared up, to my knowledge no one at my shop said "...that was the best running smoothest engine we had ever seen." In reality, when the engines were returned from J&M, the customer instructed us to completely disassemble both engines with him there as he was wanting to check the clearances and their machine work. We have photos documenting this with the customer standing in the picture. I know that we commented to my customer that everything looked like top quality work and it appeared they had done a good job.
Something else people reading this needs to understand is we usually have 10-15 Model-A projects going on simultaneously here at the shop. Scheduling is always a nightmare for me, and yes, I do spend long hours working in front of a computer scheduling work for 6 employees, ordering parts for many projects, handling billing, taking photos for documentation, talking on the phone with clients and people just wanting to ask a technical question about their car, and other duties necessary to make a shop run smoothly. Then we have someone such as this demanding client that wants us to teach him how to do the work himself, and felt like me I must be beside him every moment while he is there at the shop just so I can satisfy his requests and answer his questions. He would stay for two weeks at a time too! Hopefully everyone here realizes the delays this causes not only for this customer's project, -but other customer's projects too. Just as in the case with the two engines, we lost two whole days of productivity while we completely disassembled the J&M engines, checked them, and reassembled them with this customer. Did I charge my customer for doing this for him? Absolutely, ...but please understand how requests like this, -or how the repetitious assembly of parts for a customer to learn just slows down the entire scheduling for everybody in the shop. Did this customer's behavior become stressful for me? ABSOLUTELY?? Did I handle this added stress well with him at the end?? Probably not. Again, I'm not perfect and would love to have a 're-do' at some of this but when my employees are complaining to me to make him leave, and my wife is making complaints about his constant presence in our personal life, and my other customers are now complaining about the delays on their project which are directly related to this customer's spontaneous demands, ...then surely 'one can see how relations became strained between myself and this customer. I can tell you unequivocally that during the final stages of his project, that each morning he was there working at the shop I sure did not feel like saying "Good Morning"!!
The mood and morale of employees throughout the entire shop during this time was at an alltime low! Every one of us had our fill of his demands.
I could go on but the real sad part of this deal is there is an engine builder from Iowa that really should not care about a restoration shop in Tennessee ...however due to what could easily be termed as 'jealous motives', he chooses to carefully orchestrates a method on a public forum where he can ask just enough questions to pique interest where he feels like it can inflict damage to someone's credibility and reputation. Herm is not stupid, and he can do just like others in typing that title into Google to find the story. It wasn't about him finding it as it has been out there for over 5 years! It was just a way for him get joy & satisfaction making sure YOU found it.
So does his arguably 'deceitful' actions here now prove he is a better than me because he exposed this blog as a way to belittle/slander a fellow competitor? I believe John 8:7 in the 'good book' gives us all guidance in how we are to conduct ourselves in such scenarios. To others who have voiced their opinion, feel free to do so however might I suggest you be slow to judge until you know all the facts, as many things are different than what they seem when you only have one side of a story.