Posted by NCWayne on July 19, 2011 at 12:47:36 from (98.21.228.208):
After today I gotta vent a little. Long story but I'll try to keep it short as possible.
Pulled an engine out of a D6 CAT back on 4/12 and had back home, torn down, and all parts to the machine shop within a week. Typical turn around time at the machine shop is 2 to 3 weeks unless they are extreemly busy. In nearly 20 years of dealing with these guys I've never had a problem, had to call to rush them, or anything. Fast forward three weeks, I call to check progress and am told the machine they do the block work on is down with electrical issues, but will be fixed and going the next week. Call the next week, still down but will be going the next week. Block is still in line to be done but they are having to do everything with the portable machine so it's taking them longer to go down the line to get everything done. This went on til about three weeks ago when they said it would be done, for sure, by the end of the week. Everything else I took to them, head, crank, etc I had been told was already done. Get a call Friday before last saying the block was done but the head, which was supposed to already have been done, hadn't actually been done and that when they started on it they discovered it was cracked and not repairable. Ten minutes after that I get another call saying they can't find piston and liner kits for it through their supplier so I need to go ahead and order them and the gasket kits also.
So, I've now got a first time customer that had been told everything was done and all we were waiting on was the block that I now have to call and tell that he needs a $2500 head. Got lucky and found the head and picked it up this past Friday, got the gasket kits first of last week, but still haven't seen the piston and liner kits I ordered the same time the gasket kits were ordered.
Also talked to the machine shop Friday and was told the block still wasn't done but that all that was left was to surface it and they'd have the machine they were using to do that opened up and it would be ready to go yesterday (Monday). So when the customer called this morning to check progress I told him that everything was 'supposed to be done' and he could go ahead and call them with the payment. So he calls and is told that the block still isn't done but will 'be done in the morning'.
To make matters worse I get a call this afternoon from the place I had ordered all the other parts asking why I had refused delivery on A piston and liner kit. Turns out they put the address for the trucking company where they sent the head on the shipping lable and sent it UPS to the trucking company. Then to add insult to injury I discovered in our conversation about why the part went back to them that when I said I need piston and liner KITS for this engine (a 6 cylinder) what was heard and shipped was A piston and liner kit (just one). Since I've been ordering parts by getting quotes and letting the customers pay for them I then had to call the customer back and tell him that he needed to call and pay for 5 more piston and liner kits at around $200 each.
I've been working on equipment for most of my life and have been in for myself for over 12 years now and have never had a fiasco like this happen. I understand things like the machine shops machine breaking down but what I can't understand is being lied to about things being done. What really pi$$es me off is that they turned me into a lier every time I told my customer that a part was done and then he got told the same part was no good or told that the part wasn't done yet. That, to me is unexcusable but I'm stuck with the fact that these guys are the only ones around that can do a BIG engine like I some times do so I can't b!tch too much because they really don't care if they lose one guys business or not.
In the end all I can do is pray my customer will continue to be understanding about the whole situation. I know he is already upset about the way things have turned out and I'm in complete agreement with him as I have never run into a mess like this before. It's just not the way I work, it's just not the way I do things, and I'm seriously about to start looking for a brick wall to bang my head against if things don't start going right.......
Hopefully I can pick up the block tomorrow, and my piston and liner kits will be here by the end of the week and I can get back to getting things done and business as usual...if not does anyone know of a good stout brick wall??????.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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