The transport company is saying the same thing only in reverse.... it is a he said-she-said thing. There is no documentation from the driver of the transport company with mileage when picked up. The only recourse would be if Tim had the transport driver sign HIS paperwork showing the miles once it left his shop, then we could document the mileage difference from when it was delivered. Otherwise, in court they simply point fingers at each other, and a judge is not got going to accept this as proof.

And for the record..... You told me 300 total on the transcooler, I would never have agreed to 300 for the cooler and 300-400 for the install, that to me is WAY high.

I used this transport company because you recommended it to me.... which lead me to believe you trusted them and had used them before. How was I to know any different? And quite convenient that you wanted me to arrange the pickup, when I told you I'd pay for the cooler and install ....if you'd just send the car back.

Ya know, I am already old with this. Tim, you are willing to help? Tell me here on the site how you are willing to help and we'll go from there. Offering testimony does me no good, as neither you nor I have sufficient documentation to have any case against the transport company, and I simply do not have the money to waste with attorneys trying to recoup something.

Looks like I am simply just out. In my opinion, I sent you a car in good running order and I recieved it back blown up. End of my story. I have never said you personally are at fault.... I am not sure who is, but I do feel that the car is your responsibility until the keys get in my hands... and well, you all know the rest.

If you are washing your hands of this, so be it. But I don't think I am asking too much here.... I am not asking for a new motor installed on your dime.... but I would like some help in the form of parts. If that is just not an option, fine just say so and I'll leave this thread alone. I run a small business and have no time to deal with this type of stuff.

For you to simply say..... SFR takes care of it's customers and even though this isn't our fault, we are gonna help you out because we take care of our customers. That is what will stick in future customers minds. Going the other way will do the same... wash your hands of this and other future customers are gonna think twice about sending thier cars or their money cause this could happen to them as well. Again, it goes back to how the situation is handled that makes the difference.

Tim, I personally like you and think you are a decent guy... so don't take this as a personal attack. But this whole deal sucks for everyone.

I only need to know one thing.... are you gonna help me out with parts needed to fix this thing? I am not looking for freebies. I'll pay labor and you do parts? If not just say so, cause I have work to do and don't have time to be arguing on the net.

 

Ernie,


What do you want me to say? We have used this transport service before but what we cannot control is that they hired independant drivers to transport their vehicles. Almost all the companies do it which is why they can have such a fast response time for pick-ups, typically.

The only thing we fricken touched on your car was the transmission,the exhuast (to remove it to get to the transmission) and the turbos and piping.That is it!!!!!!!! Nothing else.

When I test drove it,I ran it as it came in with the same tune,engine,etc...and it drove great,I even called oyu telling you how fast it was and that is was ready to go back to you.If I blew it up.I would have told you that and even so,it WOULD STILL NOT BE MY RESPONSIBILITY cause all we did was test drive the car.This is my point for EVERYONE here! We just test drove the car!!!!!!!!! to make sure the transmission worked properly.Now all of a sudden it has turned in to what are you going to do to help Ernie! Standing by the transmission is not good enough now,now we shoudl buy him new parts for his engine?????? THIS IS WHAT IS CONSIDERED RIGHT ON OUR END? Well I hate to tell you people I have already gotten ims from shops who are on my side, not Ernies. These shops know we are in the right. They realize that I cant accept responsbility of someone elses work or parts when I go on a test drive.

And if the engine was blown up or leaking oil,wouldnt the driver have said to us, hey man, this thing is leaking oil all over my truck and other peoples cars!!!!!!!!Cause he had oyur car on top of other cars on his truck. Did you notice when the truck came that there was oil on anyone elses cars? Just asking.

I think you are a good guy in a bad situation Ernie, I really do.I really feel for you cause honestly,you are the one getting f*cked any way it gets boiled down.15 years ago,I was the customer getting screwed which is why I started this shop.I got tired of it. But for the 350Z mob to come after ME over THIS,makes me sick to my stomach!!!!!!Especially when there is not one shred of evidence of any incompetency on our part.Not one little sliver,inkling,anything to even support the idea of us being incompetent.The only thing that has been said is we suggested a transport company.And this makes us liable?????LOL Ha ha ha

I mean if some guy comes in here with a pile of crap that he says runs good(not saying this is the case here) and I test drive it and it blows to smitherenes,you think we are going to pay for it??? Hell no!!!!

But you know what Ernie,we are doing really good so I am willing to buy you a new set of pistons,just because you have spent alot of money with us.And for the record,I did not blow up your engine or hurt it in any way, shape or form!!!!!! Period, exclamation point! So that is it.Take it or leave it.Let me know.

 

As stated before, Ernie shouldn't have been expected to arrange and pay for shipping (as you told him to do) to fix a newly built SFR trans that was not performing properly. How convenient for you that you got Ernie to agree to what you wanted. Most other customers would have insisted that you cover the shipping. Another "nice guy" in the VQ community gets screwed by a shop.

 

regardless of the facts tim getting on here and arguing with a customer is bullsh1t. Guess im never going to do business with that shop. thanks for the letting me know u got bad customer service and dont stand behind the quality/work done in your shop or outsourced. prior to you responses i had a good opinion of the shop, you and the quality of work.

ive been dicked by alot of shops but wont drag there names thru the mud since they tried to be resonable (mistakes happen, its life) and it didnt result in engine failure. i dont think ive ever had something go 100% smoothly, its the nature of the game but ive never been blasted or said i lied by someone who i pay a considerable amount of money to

 

I was going to ask that question..... The miles on the car when it left your shop and ended up with Ernie is the key to this thing. What was the miles on it when it left your shop??? What did Ernie say it had when it was delivered to him???

If the miles are way off....Tim, you can help him with the transporter company...You can be Ernie's witness when confronting the transporter company!!

But its still hard for me to understand why or how a little joy ride could damage a built car in this way.....I am honestly lost on this one.


The fact is ...Ernie is still your customer....we need to figure out how to solve this....this is now out in the open....I wish this could have been fixed in PM/private.....but its too late now...now everyone knows..... Tim...I know you are saying that the other shops are agreeing with you.....but its your name that is out there now not theirs..... Wrong or right.....its your name Tim.. I know you and Ernie can solve this like men.

I still want to hear a full report from Jtran....

 

Continue with the lynch mod guys!!!!!!! Keep it coming. I didnt attack Ernie,I responded to accusations and allegations with facts and proof. I EVEN SAID I WOULD BUY HIM SOME PISTONS FOR GODS SAKE TO HELP THE GUY OUT CAUSE WE ARE DOING REALLY GOOD AND HE IS IN A BAD POSiTION!!! Yet you guys want to continue to blast on me!!!!! This board is great!!!!!! I love it. Makes me proud to be an American!!!!!


SO TERP, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW SHOULD I HAVE HANDLE THE SITUATION? I CALLED ERNIE EARLIER TODAY,HE DOENST PICK UP OR CALL ME BACK.LAST TIME I LET SOMETHING GO ON G35 DRIVER,THERE WERE 10 PAGES OF HOW WE SUCKED AND WERENT RESPONDING CAUSE WE WERE GUILTY.WELL THAT ISNT GOING TO HAPPEN EVER AGAIN.Hence me taking a defensive stand on this! But if you have some better ideas,I would love to hear them.


There is nothing that has been said or shown that points the finger at us over ernies engine.HE EVEN SAID SO!!!!!!!And even if we did hurt it in a test drive,is that our fault that we were dealing with some unknown????? If you think any shop wil be liable for an engine getting hurt during an initial test drive on parts they never sold or installed,well then you are fricken crazy and should not continue to modify your car.

As far as the shipping goes Eric,we were going to cover it and Ernie and I came to an agreement cause he needed a real tranny cooler and there are not very many places to mount one as large as the one we used.So I thought it was a fair deal.Ofcourse, we could have just ziptied it behind his front bumper but we did it the right way,which took time/money.We also finished welding up his custom exhaust he built cause there were areas with massive exhaust leaks.We fixed alot of little things at no charge to Ernie and when everyhting was said and done,Ernie was ok with the deal we had made.The fact is,it was not even our responsibility to handle the removel and install of the tranny but we did it anyways! Sure there was a problem with a torque convertor but we dont have to cover labor.Just think if you get your twin GT35 turbo kit from so and so and God forbid the turbo fails,you think it is Garretts responsibility to cover your labor costs.Hell no!!!!!!!Same thing here guys.

 

Ernie and I had determined that there were about 50 miles unaccounted for from the time it left here and the time he got it.The driver did not list mileage when it was picked up from us or when it was dropped off with Ernie.I am willing to testify in court over this.Whatever Ernie needs,I will do it when it comes to legal matters or processes.

How could this engine have a problem with a little joy ride, beats the crap out of me? That also leads me to say, how could we hurt this engine on a testdrive!!!!! I would think that a newbie driver that might have taken this car off his transport with severly steep angle, might have broken said oil pump in the process and then went out driving one night and blasted the crap out of it when it was cold, could have caused alot more damage then us....... properly warming up the engine,familiar with VQ35's and our turbo system and tranny and knowing who tuned the car and what they have accomplished. But hey,I am wrong,everyone else is right,Its our fualt,we are to blame.End of story!!!

I think this whole thing is BS.If we had more of a role in this build then I could see people taking stabs at us and trying to blame us but we did the tranny and sold Ernie a turbo kit,thats it!!!!!!

 

so to be clear, the car was leaking oil and inop when it was delivered to Ernie? or did it blow up after he had received it?

If the car was received with a problem from the transporter it should have been signed for and stated on the bill of laiding the damage to the car. Then a claim should have been made from day 1. If the car was signed for and no damage was noted on the bill of laiding I foresee major problems getting the transporters insurance to cover the damages. The bill of laiding is basically chain of posession. Once you sign off you release responsibility of the car to the next person regardless of who arranged the transport.

Ive sold over 500+ cars on ebay and shipped them all acros the U.S and ran into problems like this. Some cases I got calls back 2-3 days after the customer got the car saying there were scratches dents etc. on the car but they were not signed for. Who is to say they didnt get those scratches in the local publix parking lot. I have also had customers call me when the truck arrives stating the damage on the car, we simply compare bill of laidings and determine who had the car when the damage was done. This is why the bill of laiding exists, so it is CLEAR who has the car when it was damaged. If chain of posession is compromised then good luck trying to place blame bc the transport co. certainly isnt going to accept it. (Even if they did damage it)

 

I hope you are wrong

 

Well I guess lesson learned here is you've got check the car over 300% (outside, inside, and underside!) before signing off on the paperwork from a transport company.

I hope the definitive cause of the motor failure is found. Was the car low on oil? It's the first thing I would check before starting it, especially with an evident oil leak.

 

wow dude. your all over the place. I'm not a english comp proffessor but your responses have no continuity at all. you bounce from one thing to the next without ever finnishing a complete thought in most cases. it gives me a headache just trying to read most of this stuff.

it also doesn't exactly say "see how proffesional our shop is" especially when your attacking the forum and the z community, let alone the country? I'm not close to you guys but from these responses alone I wouldn't even conscider taking my car to you guys.

look I'm have no place in all this, but I'm just saying "this is how I'm seeing this all play out and this is probably the perspective many other potential customers are seeing it from as well".

I just call em how I see'em

you might want to invest in a PR rep in the future because right now your making yourself look bad.

 

subscribing

 

I feel sorry for both parties, but as I see it, Tim has a right to defend himself, especially when the other party is asking him to cover parts for a rebuild to make it "right" when it hasn't even been proven his fault yet. I would be frustrated and my grammar might be off a bit too. He has never once disrespected Ernie, even if he has had some words with "rude_G", who then again shouldn't be attacking Tim so openly either when he spent none of this said money and was not involved. I hope all is worked out in some sort of positive fashion.

 

my .02,and ill try to keep it brief

to Ernie:
Man hate to hear about all of your troubles. In you case all I can do is give you advice for the future. Pick one place and stick with them. It sounds like you had to many irons in the fire. One guy building a block, different guy tuning, used trans, ect. My advice would be pick a shop that can handle your needs, get everything in writing/terms upfront, pay everything with a paper trail, dont ever let things go over 6 months no mater what. If you have this kind of relationship with a business everything will go smooth as butter. Sorry again for your troubles but stick with it you should be almost done. Oh yeah, always use the closest possible shop and buy everything through them no matter what because it will save you the headaches!

To Tim:
I think you have done all you can do in this situation. Delete this thread from your mind and never look back. I believe after you rebuilt the tranny, you thought the problem would be easier to determine if you had the car. As with any product that is bought out of state, the customer has to return it to you for warranty. It is usually up to the seller to pick up shipping for returns both ways, not just the standard. Good sellers will usually do this, or just pay one way but not both. I have paid for return shipping both ways for a product before. You went above and beyond by doing the R and R as long as the customer paid the freight. He would have had just as much money in it if he paid to have it R and R and you picked up the freight back for the trans i'm sure. Plus if the problem would have been tune related, or install related you could not have found the problem and possibly led to more expense for your customer. Good job in my book. Send Ernie some pistons out UPS and sleep good tomorrow knowing you have done all you can. Oh yeah, next time some one asks you for a recommendation for anything, tell them Google!!!

 

tim, frankly im not saying you or anyone you worked with have any part in this issue, im just saying if i paid a several thousands to a shop i would hope they would not publicly post aligations against me( i have had numerous issues with shops and have never said which shops are at fault) you make a living based on your rep, and its not my place to say if your reputable or not, but if you blantently accuse your customers IN PUBLIC thats another thing. hammer out the details in private. like someone else said no one will remember the issue 6 months down the road, but they will remember how you resolved it.

prior to this i has alot of respect for you and your operation, but the way you conducted yourself seems wrong from a business stand point. im not saying you wont handle this situation correctly and do what is correct considering the situation but it seems like alot of the blame is on 3rd parties/op. no company should take blame for what wasnt thier fault. BUT blasting a customer is wrong. the OP never said "turbotim screwed me and this is how"-atleast from the orginal post. he has been completely objective(almost to the point where he seems overly considerate). look up any of my post where i blast a shop directly....you wont find it(acutally i said your kit was of amazing quality and would run it personally BTW). as a shop i would hope the same goes. regardless i hope you work this issue out. Their are many shops that offer the SAME EXACT SERVICE, trusting the shop and having good customer service is what makes or breaks a shop. if your completely free of blame then fine defend your shop but it seems your had your hands very deeply in a build that had failure after less than 25miles(150 on motor)

BTW this is the first time ive heard of any issue with your kit and dont believe that the pump choice contributed to failure(possibly a DOA pump) although it may have not been the ideal setup(from another shops belief). the fact that it was checked by you, had tanny work and tuned by you places some of the blame in your hands esp. considering the "questionable mileage" with your recommended transport company and if failing less than 25 miles after delievery

 

4 pages of replies and still no pics from the accused or the accuser?



Dude sorry for your motor man.. I would be getting a lawyer for sure.. just take them to court if they dont want to fix things.... You signed over responsibility as soon as you shipped it.... there is no difference between you getting your car back with a blown motor or you getting your car back totalled.... either way you had no responsibility for the damage and the shop is liable. You sent the car in for 1 repair and you got it back all jacked needing other repairs.


Thats all I have.........

 

+1. Seems like these things happen more often when there are three or more shops involved in a build.

 

And this is why most of us are against doing things this way...... It just gives the shops an easy way out when things go wrong...I am not saying they are wrong...its just hard to prove who is at fault in most cases....


I can understand if you are just doing some bolt-ons.....but doing a build....no why should you have more than one shop involved.

 

Ernies car was not built or tuned by us.We didnt touch his engine or engine management system ever!!!!! I felt like we went way beyond the call of duty in this situation and in return, we have been put on blast. The last call I got form Ernie was asking me to send out some fittings for his oil pump since he had just replaced the housing and had epoxied the fittings on the pump and could not reuse them,we overnighted them free of charge.Then this thread was started.

I never once attacked Ernie. I might have disagreed with his opinions and expressed opinions of my own but then I went as far as offering a free set of pistons to him as a friendly gesture.And it seems as though he might not need pistons so we can work something out on bearings, gaskets, etc......If Ernies wants.I dont feel as though I have any oblogation to do this but I feel bad for the guy so am willing to help.

I seen Ernies first post and know he is considerate and not pointing fingers.Rude G was the one who was pointing fingers and making accusations which cannot be substantiated by him in any way shape or form. But he did make these accustations based on what the customer had relayed to him which he has clearly stated numerous times. And basically, our only fault that I see is we had to deal with a faulty torque convertor!

This will be my last post in this thread and I am sorry if I have dettered potential customers from using our shop or services.I dont feel that is substantiated but hey what the hell do I know anyways.I know some of my grammar might have not been well written and sure there were numerous typos but I am passionate about what we do and about our company. So I might get a little overzealous at times. If I feel something is unwarranted, then I will not hold back and defend our company to 110% of my ability. So in summary this is how we see it from our side.BTW, the actual vehicle mileage was recored when it was dropped off here and whe it left bu tI have not disclosed that on the public forum.


A.Customer had a problem with a torque convertor that we sold him(the tranny has always been fine since it was done initially by us so everyone just get that thought out of your head)
B.Our problem,lets take care of it for you.
C.Ideally customer pulls the tranny and torque convertor and we cover the freight for this,there and back. $250 our cost, tops!
D.Instead we agreed to have the customer send the car so not only will we cover parts but we will cover labor.
E.Customer has to pay for freight of said vehicle to us.
F.We pull tranny,find problem with torque convertor,reinstall
E.We fix little things here and there,free of charge(some of it had nothing to do with anything we ever sold him guys).
F.Inform customer heed needs better tranny cooler.
G.Test drive vehicle.
H.Let customer know vehicle is ready to be shipped back.

That was our part in this whole ldeal. Nothing less, nothing more. I dont know how we could have handled this situation in a more professional manner.I dont see how we are supposed to cover anything oher then the tranny we built or the the parts in our turbo system for the one year warranty period? I dont see how we should be responsible for a transport companies business or business ethics when we have no affiliation or ties to them in any way? I dont see how we should be expected to cover an engine we never built or tuned when all we did was test drive the car with the customers consent and permission and it left here driving great with no leaks,drips,smoke,etc.....100% in my opinion!

Some pics about an hour before the car was picked up by the transport.

 

wow.....just wow!

if i may interject:

why was a whole car shipped for a trans problem?just sounds screwy.

if your oil pump is being scrutinized,why plum it to the pan at all?take the turbo's out of the equation concerning motor oil issues with a seperate sump.

and sadly op....if you signed for the delivery your more than likely boned.




oh yeah slow down tim your sounding like julian in crazy defensive/attack mode.(i'm sure you remember what that looked like on your screen as the reader)