Your absolutely right, communication was an issue early on. For the first week most of those emails were written in broken up sentences. He was trying and we were passing emails readily, and then it just all kinda fell apart. If it takes 2-4 weeks, then say 2-4 weeks + shipping, not “please allow 2 weeks for delivery”. Would it be better to post that broad amount of time and have it get to the customer's door step early, or be practically guaranteed to be late? What would you want for your business. And while you may rely on the machine shop as far as product and shipping time goes, does the customer see it from that point of view? Would the proud owner of a successful business waste his time passing blame of slow turn around time on to a supplier, or would they take steps in communicating their honest expectations to the buyer, and work on minimizing or eliminating the lag time.
I'm happy for Jake in that he has work and is keeping busy, and that he wants to offer parts for retail sales. I hate that my flywheel was such a burden on him and his work schedule. What does a busy schedule have to do with the stack of cash that I sent him for his product? Was he doing all this for free, at an unbelievably low low price, or am I asking for some type of favor from him by paying for this flywheel that he has for sale on his site? I may be able to understand taking up his time if one of those 3 things were true, but surely I'm not someone who's bothering him, and wasting his time by doing business with him. Any shop that takes on the duty of sales has to be responsible in making sure they are able to handle the extra demand.
I came to the conclusion that this flywheel must have been modeled just as you said, off a pressure plate that just happened to have a different pattern, and I'm glad it's finally take care of, and that no one who buys one in the future will have issues like I did. It's understandable, and it still doesn't take away from everything I am having to try and do to make this right.
It's great there is a shop there that has been building their own clutches for a while and has a reputation built up. And it's only my personal taste, that I wouldn't choose a shop that is willing to even make clutches with bubblegum, to make a sale, rather than offering just the best race proven stuff. And what's the name of the shop that builds them, surely they have a brand name? The fact that they assemble them in the USA is fantastic, the parts are are coming from somewhere else and all my research, and that of shops I talked to, think that's China. But as I said, people have their own personal preferences on the parts they use based on the experiences they have had in the past.
I'm glad he's finally taking care of my item over 3 weeks after I shipped it out to him, and after you stepped up to help out. I do however find it very disappointing that Jake told me he has another flywheel already done, ready, made, complete, with the correct pattern, ready to ship out as soon as he received my original one as a return. And now, I am hearing that my item is at the machinist, to be re-drilled I assume. Is this another result of bad communication? Perhaps I miss understood his offer?
Hey, no one likes it when this kinda stuff happens, I know I sure don't. I really believe that people would rather see a string of good, strong, reputable shops getting good comments, rather than problems and issues. I waited, and waited, and did what I could to avoid bringing this into the public light, but here it is.
One thing I want to say and put out there, away from this topic, regarding favors to the 1UZ community, the 1UZ family is not a tiny band of people, made up of a few decrepit enthusiasts. This is a new, vigorous and growing market force that isn't weak, and doesn't ask for favors from people who feel sorry for it, nor does it have time for wishy-washy supporters. The 1UZ market is getting big, and it challenges those who want to support it to be honest and dedicated.