link?

Sorry for the hijack, Mike. I owe you a beer

 

No problem Mike. This is the post that I read:

http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/foru...ad.php?t=94712

And this is Jeff's response on the 3rd page:

>>>>>>>I really don't know where to begin on this, I did offer to make everything right, and my offer was unacceptable to her.

This is the greatest nightmare of everyone involved, the shop owner, the car owner, everyone. My mailbox is full of hate mail, and I understand that. My side of the story is that I tried to make everything right, and Melissa chose to go through her insurance company and take me out of the picture of being a part of the solution. I have not heard from her in weeks, she's not asked for anything, and has given me no status updates.

My offer to Melissa, which was declined, was that she take the approximately $40k settlement for the vehicle from my insurance company, and release the vehicle to me so that I could remove the modifications to the car and those that were salvagable could be reinstalled by us on another car, those that were not I could repair or replace to as new condition. If she had cooperated this could have all had a better ending.

Instead she demanded that she file with her insurance company (I've never heard how much they offered) and that NO parts be reused, and that she choose another shop to do all the work and some of the parts (like the sound system for example) be upgraded at the same time. Carolina Auto Masters would pay for all parts and labor. I'm just not going to pay another shop to do the work on the car, and provide all new parts when the original car had much that was reusable.

When we were in constant contact in December, Melissa assured me that her insurance company had not evaluated the car, while in fact, she had already released the car to them and it had been moved somewhere else. I have not spoken with Melissa since that time. I would have to assume that the car has long since been sold as salvage and the reusable parts gone with it.

If the car is still impounded somewhere, I'd still be more than happy to take the parts off it, transfer those to a car that Melissa provides (from the settlement from her insurance company) that are in reuseable condition, repair or replace those that are not and make everything right. But Melissa chose another route, and that was her choice. I'd hoped her insurance company would settle for enough money for her build the car back just like it was. I assume that didn't happen, but have no way to know. Melissa has not contacted me since saying she would let me know when her insurance company got in touch with her, so I've been given no chances since my last offer to do anything more for her.

From the mail I've recieved she has gotten way more than the value of the vehicle and modifications out of CAM already via lost business. And that total will continue to grow, and her nightmare and my nightmare will continue with neither of us finding a way to wake up and it all just be a bad dream.

I've been sick about what happened, I hate that it happened, and I really hoped that my offer to make everything right had been accepted by Melissa. That tech is no longer employed by CAM, no one drives a car (other than around the shop) but me, and I will log every tenth of a mile the car is operated if requested.

I do wish her the best of luck dealing with her insurance company,
-jeff<<<<<<

 

I feel bad for him. A small (bad) decision got out of hand.

It happens all the time and it is just a bunch of bad press. I have no doubt he would have tried to make it right, but now its gone too far. Hopefully it all blows over.

 

I agree - the lynch mob mentality and that someone wanting more than they are entitled to always results in this. Sucks for the owner of the car, but it also sounds like Jeff did offer to make things right.

 

You really can't blame the owner of the car for not wanting to bring it back there again. When my car caught on fire when they were welding on the sfc's I was damn sure not to let them finish it. And when another shop bent my tunnel brace doing an alignment there was no way in hell that I would ever bring my car back there.

 

Can you find a good low mileage C6 for $40K? If so then Jeff reusing the old useable parts and free labor and parts for everything else to give her something identical back doesn't sound too bad. One thing though is time, maybe she got a really good deal from her insurance company and used that money to buy a nice car instead of buying used and waiting forever for Jeff to transfer all the stuff. I know I wouldn't want to go back to the same people that screwed me over in the first place.

 

I agree if it was faulty workmanship that caused it - it wasn't, it was ****-poor judgement on behalf of Jeff (if he in fact gave the employee permission to drive this car) and the actions of an employee after the install. And yes, you can find low mileage C6's for ~$40k. We don't know her side of the story after Jeff told his, and apparently tried to make it right with her. If she refused his offer and insurance payout, and chose another route, well then that is another story altogether.

 

As far as your new heads, I'm definately looking forward to seeing what kind of results you see at the track/dyno. Your comments about loosing a little on the lowend are interesting, I went straight from stock heads/cam to the crane 227 + LE2 heads so i never really got to experience that cam the way you did. I think it would be cool to see before/after dynos to see if you really did loose that power or if it is just sotp feeling since your torque curve is much peakier now.

Our setups are similar (i think we are some of the few h/c guys here running cats!) and i hit 355 rwhp, so i think you'll have no problem reaching your goal.

 

Holy cow!

I am glad that she didn't take his offer, which included keeping silent about it. People needed to know about this.

 

The car should pull rel hard to 6000-6100 RPM with that cam and have near stock drivability at evry RPM. Good choice in NOT chasing HP #'s with a bigger cam and letting someone get you the cam you need to make the car drive/act like you wnat it to.

As far as CAM goes, man, crummy deal for Jeff. He is a good guy and hopefully did not "allow" that employee (now EX-employee) to take the car.

Lloyd

 

Wow, you are right in that our setups are very similar. What are the chances
of that with the 227 and cats? Even our exhaust is somewhat similar in that
I have dual relocated cats. I'll definitely post up the results of the dyno tuning
session and provide the before and after graphs.

The slight loss of torque down low in 1st gear appears to be a good thing as it
eliminates wheel spin in the 2-3k range. This is however offset by a larger peak
in both HP and TQ in the 4k+ range which results in worse wheel spin than before.
Before I could almost stay on the throttle even though the wheels were spinning
because it was not a total fry them type of spin (in good traction conditions),
and this is where the car accelerated the best. Now I have to stay out of the
throttle on the top end in 1st. It's even shown some wheel spin in the top end
of 2nd now. Hopefully this will not be the case with good traction conditions.

 

that's exactly the angle you play if someone didn't try to make it right, otherwise it can be seen as extortion if the statements are not factual or crucial omissions made when relaying the story.

 

Either way, the car should not have been taken home by the employee under any circumstances, accident or no accident that is completely an extremely irresponsible move. Sounded like they have been doing that with a couple of different customers cars. Sooner or later it was bound to happen. I would never let that stuff fly in my dealership.

Yea his insurance company offered her a settlement but she stated clearly that she just wanted her car or a car back how it was supposed to be when they talked about it. If he was so willing to help her he should have taken whatever money from the insurance and ate the rest getting her car back as top priority without her having to go threw any trouble.

 

Again, we're all speaking with only limited information - you don't know that he didn't offer that. I agree about taking cars home, but again, we don't know that permission on previous circumstances was granted by the owners. I know Jeff personally (and consider him a friend) and know that he'd make it right within his ability, and know that there is more to the story of the (ex) employee taking the car for personal use and the resultant settlement offers. It doesn't matter - the car was in CAM's care, and they are ultimately responsible regardless of circumstance - whether an employee negligently used it or if a meteor hit the shop.

 

Well thats the thing, can't really say much since all we know is what we have read. Its a bad situation for the both of them and will ultimately hurt Jeff the most.