myblackeagle
07-24-2005, 11:18 AM
When my balance shaft bearing spun and helped my rod bearing along with some shavings, i decided to do a 6 bolt block only swap on my car.
After doing some research, and finding a local experienced swap pro who would do it for me due to having an agreement with the landlord not to do MAJOR repairs on the open carport i began looking for a short block. I determined that SBR were the only ones who would ship to a different address, and had read some good reviews and heard good things from a few friends.
Called up asked a few questions and was told that it would only take about 3 weeks to get my order (basically everything from the head down). THat night I got on the net and placed my order thru their website. (BTW the hold music was some unedited vulgar music with a bunch of background noise, as if someone held an open phone next to a cd player with a cursing rap record playing for hold music)
I called and confirmed my order and I followed up a couple of days later as I had not gotten a call back (you figure you spend near 4 grand in one pop you'd get a call back or at least an email acknowledgement). NO one would answer and i did not get a call back in 24 hours despite my message. I left a pointed message that if I did not get some paper work or an answer in the next 24 hours I was going to cancel my order and dispute the charges with the credit card company. I got a call back in about 3 hours and I was told that it would only take 3 weeks for the engine and order to ship and i should have an actual invoice emailed.
A couple of weeks pass and i call about the order, every thing is on schedule... I ask to have the 1g tstat housing and 1 g water neck removed... turns out you don't need em with the 2g head. "Sure thing" I am told. I also add a part and am billed for it right away and it is added to my order. Another couple of weeks go by, it should be here! No revised order slip, no shipment notice... I call up... it will be another couple of weeks, something is on back order (OEM front case if I remember). I ask the guy if the water neck and tstat were removed from my order, since the charge for them has not been returned. No I am informed. Ok I have asked once already, nothing has shipped, I ask again... "Well it is still listed here as being ordered so I can't give a credit back yet" is what I am told.
Fine, I email back with my order number and the exact part number and description that i want removed before shipping. NO response.
THis went on a couple of times, i asked at least 2 times on the phone for them to be removed (when I could get someone on the phone and a call back in less than 48 -72 hours) and sent 3 emails asking for the same.
End story, after a little more than 2 months the engine is supposed to be shipping, supposedly it is shipping the next day after I call and is going thru QC in the next hours or next day. I get a call 2 days later. turns out it failed QC and I have to wait again for one to be assembled.
After about 3.5 months of them holding quite a bit of money from my credit card (on an order that was supposed to be delivered and then shipped in less than 3 weeks) I was not suprised to find a truck guy on my door step attempting to deliver the engine to my HOUSE instead of the shop address that was listed on MY invoice. i also was not suprised to find that the water neck and tstat housing were still in the order. I decided to just eat the parts as it was not worth the effort to try and get a refund when I had cancelled that part of the order at least 3 times, and was getting the feeling that they did not want to reduce the order but were happy to add to it...
THat reschedule cost me another half a week before the engine and order finally arrived, by this point I had lost my well paying job over a month earlier due to not having a car.
During the entire torture, I never got a call or response unless I was doggedly persistant and kept calling at random times and or Insisted that they go GET the person I wanted to talk to and not leave messages that would not get returned (particularly the shipping department).
I tried like hell to stay on top of things but not be an annoyance to them, I had things to get done too (at least I did until my boss got tired of me getting to work late everytie the bus had problems, or just was running late and also b/c there was no telling when my car would be done). however the absolute lack of follow thru, the inablility to correct my order by removing 2 small items but correcting it by adding was no problem, the fact that promises both on voicemail and in person to call me back were broken on numerous occasions... the fact that the engine (a very basic not a custom Short block, a stage 2? stock with forged Ross pistons?) was a not in stock to begin with and then took 2.5 months to get assembled when they were supposedly waiting only on on the timing cover.
Well lets say that despite how nicely assembled the 6 bolt short block was (of course it was only 4 pistons, rings, a crank and rods in a block), it was NOT worth dealing with all the headaches, and it SURE was not worth waiting 3.5 month on an order that at first was supposed to be at worst 4 weeks?
I honestly wish I had gone with a different vendor, as i had dealings with a couple of other vendors during this time to get things that I did not want to wait on SBR for.
Now I think I have been polite in pointing out the difficulties I PERSONALLY experienced, and I don't have any ill will towards them, but at this point I do not wish to have a business relationship with them.
OH and I am sure that they will all laugh about me later on, I did the same thing when someone got on my nerves and I was in customer service.
After doing some research, and finding a local experienced swap pro who would do it for me due to having an agreement with the landlord not to do MAJOR repairs on the open carport i began looking for a short block. I determined that SBR were the only ones who would ship to a different address, and had read some good reviews and heard good things from a few friends.
Called up asked a few questions and was told that it would only take about 3 weeks to get my order (basically everything from the head down). THat night I got on the net and placed my order thru their website. (BTW the hold music was some unedited vulgar music with a bunch of background noise, as if someone held an open phone next to a cd player with a cursing rap record playing for hold music)
I called and confirmed my order and I followed up a couple of days later as I had not gotten a call back (you figure you spend near 4 grand in one pop you'd get a call back or at least an email acknowledgement). NO one would answer and i did not get a call back in 24 hours despite my message. I left a pointed message that if I did not get some paper work or an answer in the next 24 hours I was going to cancel my order and dispute the charges with the credit card company. I got a call back in about 3 hours and I was told that it would only take 3 weeks for the engine and order to ship and i should have an actual invoice emailed.
A couple of weeks pass and i call about the order, every thing is on schedule... I ask to have the 1g tstat housing and 1 g water neck removed... turns out you don't need em with the 2g head. "Sure thing" I am told. I also add a part and am billed for it right away and it is added to my order. Another couple of weeks go by, it should be here! No revised order slip, no shipment notice... I call up... it will be another couple of weeks, something is on back order (OEM front case if I remember). I ask the guy if the water neck and tstat were removed from my order, since the charge for them has not been returned. No I am informed. Ok I have asked once already, nothing has shipped, I ask again... "Well it is still listed here as being ordered so I can't give a credit back yet" is what I am told.
Fine, I email back with my order number and the exact part number and description that i want removed before shipping. NO response.
THis went on a couple of times, i asked at least 2 times on the phone for them to be removed (when I could get someone on the phone and a call back in less than 48 -72 hours) and sent 3 emails asking for the same.
End story, after a little more than 2 months the engine is supposed to be shipping, supposedly it is shipping the next day after I call and is going thru QC in the next hours or next day. I get a call 2 days later. turns out it failed QC and I have to wait again for one to be assembled.
After about 3.5 months of them holding quite a bit of money from my credit card (on an order that was supposed to be delivered and then shipped in less than 3 weeks) I was not suprised to find a truck guy on my door step attempting to deliver the engine to my HOUSE instead of the shop address that was listed on MY invoice. i also was not suprised to find that the water neck and tstat housing were still in the order. I decided to just eat the parts as it was not worth the effort to try and get a refund when I had cancelled that part of the order at least 3 times, and was getting the feeling that they did not want to reduce the order but were happy to add to it...
THat reschedule cost me another half a week before the engine and order finally arrived, by this point I had lost my well paying job over a month earlier due to not having a car.
During the entire torture, I never got a call or response unless I was doggedly persistant and kept calling at random times and or Insisted that they go GET the person I wanted to talk to and not leave messages that would not get returned (particularly the shipping department).
I tried like hell to stay on top of things but not be an annoyance to them, I had things to get done too (at least I did until my boss got tired of me getting to work late everytie the bus had problems, or just was running late and also b/c there was no telling when my car would be done). however the absolute lack of follow thru, the inablility to correct my order by removing 2 small items but correcting it by adding was no problem, the fact that promises both on voicemail and in person to call me back were broken on numerous occasions... the fact that the engine (a very basic not a custom Short block, a stage 2? stock with forged Ross pistons?) was a not in stock to begin with and then took 2.5 months to get assembled when they were supposedly waiting only on on the timing cover.
Well lets say that despite how nicely assembled the 6 bolt short block was (of course it was only 4 pistons, rings, a crank and rods in a block), it was NOT worth dealing with all the headaches, and it SURE was not worth waiting 3.5 month on an order that at first was supposed to be at worst 4 weeks?
I honestly wish I had gone with a different vendor, as i had dealings with a couple of other vendors during this time to get things that I did not want to wait on SBR for.
Now I think I have been polite in pointing out the difficulties I PERSONALLY experienced, and I don't have any ill will towards them, but at this point I do not wish to have a business relationship with them.
OH and I am sure that they will all laugh about me later on, I did the same thing when someone got on my nerves and I was in customer service.