Folks that have previously had an engine build done, have any of you experienced a deep lack of communication from your builder?

Initially, I went with him because I got a good vibe and respected his experience with 997.1TTs. He told me he’s a small operation that will focus on my car. He also mentioned the entire build will be documented for my records and visualization. I mentioned I was possibly going to get deployed and wanted to enjoy it and get it done before I left. Being a prior serviceman as well, he said he understood my conundrum and emphasis on expediency, so I put a healthy deposit down and got my car to him asap; literally took a 14hr drive and towed it down from Colorado. After he missed the initial completion timeline he suddenly said he has other projects he’s still working on and can’t prioritize mine. Also has an issue with sticking to what he says he’s going to do. He says he’ll get me quotes on certain things, but never does. At this point I have developed a lack of confidence in him.

Builder has had my car for basically 3 months (past the initial timeline of 6-8 weeks, which somehow magically switched to 8-10 weeks for parts). Keeps on making various excuses on why his communication sucks and can’t send pictures even though he keeps saying he will, or why the timeline keeps getting pushed: 1st it was his Verizon cell account was having issues, then his g-mail was supposedly having issues, family issues, saying he’ll send pictures and status updates (never sent comparison photos like he said he was going to), then he was having parts vendor issues…. Additionally, I’m a visual person that has a tough time just dropping thousands of dollars on replacement parts without justification. So I kept on asking for comparison pictures of parts that he recommended I replace. He said he “doesn’t prioritize” sending pics and was personnally offended that I’m not just trusting his word and experience. I kind of understand that, but like I said, not trying to drop thousands of dollars of parts on a whim. Since he’s too busy and “doesn’t prioritize” pictures or videos or those kinds of things for customer service, even though it’s a huge inconvenience and expense to me, I told him I was going to fly out to Arizona to check on my car to make it easier for both of us. I explained my frustration with being kept in the dark and ultimately my concern that he didn’t even start on my car (it was past two months at this point), so he agreed to FaceTime in a weeks time since he was going on vacation (which I understand because family is important). The FaceTiming was for the visualization aspect and understanding. I was basically begging at this point so I could see my car and its status for peace of mind. The agreement to do so made me feel better at first, but he started giving excuses again of why he can’t FaceTime; coming back from the mountains, not at the shop and helping a buddy out, now it’s 11 days later at this point and he’s flat out ghosting me. I’m sure there will be some other excuse on the ghosting as well. Cell phone? Family emergency? Dog ate my homework?

What are your thoughts on this? What would you do in my situation? Am I being unreasonable? As a customer dropping what I feel is a lot of money on a built block, am I asking too much? There are a lot of other little details I’m not mentioning for brevity because I feel this is already pretty lengthy. It’s not EVO Spec, btw.

 

Report the car stolen to his local police department and tell them he won’t release it

 

There are a lot people out there who are great at fixing stuff (not just cars) who are complete trash at running a business. Which is a shame. Talent alone will only take you so far.

My personal thought is that the next step is to go to the shop in person. It's harder to BS someone when they're right in front of you and you can see what is or isn't being done to the car.

 

If he hasn’t started the work or has done just a little I would take it to someone else. If you think he’s avoiding or ghosting you now, wait until you have a problem with it after he’s done the work and he’s been paid in full. Do you feel confident that he’ll call you back, and more importantly, do a follow up repair. I would not trust anyone who has come up with so many excuses.

 

Most long distance car work doesn't really work out well. They have your car apart in various stages and they have your money too, so what CAN YOU do, nothing but suck it up and wait
I really don't have a good answer here, hopefully things would work out soon.
I would say if he hasn't started the work yet, get your car our sap and then figure it out about the money, which would be the difficult part
Good luck contacting him when the car has issues or he starts asking for more money for unexpected work ?
May be share the name of the buisness so member don't use his services in the future.
Good Luck

 

Sounds like an awful situation and I can somewhat relate as I had a car 'trapped' at a shop for a ridiculous length of time though it was semi-local and showing up there in-person regularly did keep some pressure on and let me inspect progress and removed parts personally.

You may want to try (at first) threatening to report to the local auto repair licensing entity ie BAR, or actually going ahead and doing that, but when the shop has your car and it's potentially in pieces then they do pretty much have you in a pickle. In my case I wrote a letter threatening to get a lawyer involved as well as report negatively to BAR & BBB and magically my car was done and home about 10 days later...

 

Strange that you would drive your car 14hrs away when one of the best, if not the best, engine builder in the nation is in your backyard in Denver, Colorado.

 

Man, sorry you are in this situation. I think your best bet is to get your car back. There is an old saying that goes 'what starts bad, ends bad'. As others have replied - if you are having problems now - just think of how the builder will handle things if you have any issues down the road.

 

@powdrhound Which builder is in Denver? For my future reference...

 

Chris Cervelli. He's built numerous Mezgers for me including a 3.8 and my current 4.0 turbo race engine. He's in the process of building an 8500rpm turbocharged 4.0L 991Cup Mezger for me right now. He's also build numerous GT2 gearboxes for me. Chris is a Motec tuner.

 

What was the outcome of this situation? Is it Jeff?

 

I am also curious who the AZ shop is/was.

 

So am I.