Interesting reply from CHP on quality issue.

[thehueypilot]

CHP = Coast High Performance out of California.
I wrote them an email to bring to their attention to yet another issue I was having with an engine I bought from them but what I got was interesting reply.....The original starts at the bottom so you must read starting at the bottom. Did I warrant this response?

Well Tim, The truth is that that will not happen.

Our policy is that if you have a problem with an assembly you notify us. Then
you return it and we decide the reason for the problem. If we caused it, we fix
it. If you caused it, we fix it you pay for it.
Your problem is that you just don't seem to be interested in anything other
than your little, groundless, potshot. Luckily most people don't listen to
folks who speak like you......
But I am really happy that you weren't disappointed....note that, given your
mature method of handling the problem, it could have happened no other way.

Cheers,

Mark O'Neal

Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:02:26 -0500

>Hello Mark;
> Thanks for responding. I just wanted to see what CHP reaction would be and
you did not disappoint me. I will let as many people know your concern about
quality defects and customer concerns and the "it's not my part so it's not my
problem" mentality. I can see that repeat business is not a concern for you so
I bet your company will slowly lose its customer base and go under eventually.
Too bad............
>
>Tim

>Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 13:05:15 -0800
>
>Well Tim, I'm just not certain what it is that you want to hear.
>
>You bought the motor in 2003 and three years later you send this in to
>complain about the quality.
>
>The camshaft in your engine was made, not by us, but by Crane Cams (P/N
>13890), probably the largest manufacturer of aftermarket cams on the planet.
>Not only that, they provide the billets for virtually all of the other cam
>companies.
>
>But even with that, even they would have to guess at the problem because
>they cannot see the cam.
>
>So I suppose I'll just leave it where it lies.....
>
>Mark O'Neal
>CHP

>Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 21:44:31 -0600
>
>I have on of one of your street fighter 427 short blocks. (Ref. order#
>48332) and I tore it down after the 05 racing season and I have to say I
>have never seen such low quality parts. The cam is coming apart (back half
>only) because it looks like it was not heat treated correctly. This in turn
>took out the back eight hyd. roller lifters because of the cam metal flakes
>and the rollers sinking into the lobes which is what chipped the edges of
>the back eight rollers. The spring seat pressure was 120 lbs and the front
>half of the cam and lifters were in good shape. I don't know if you will/can
>do anything about this but it looks like repeat business is not going to
>happen. I would like to send the cam and lifters back to you for your
>inspection but I don't want to give you any more of my money. I am very
>dissatisfied with the quality of this engine.
Tim

 

[jerry S]

Good grief. Write him back and tell him that they built you an engine with a defective part and that the defect was not apparant to you when you accepted delivery. Now that the defect is apparent, it substantially impairs the value of the engine and you hereby revoke your acceptance of the engine pursuant to UCC 2-608 of the California UCC.

then lawyer up.

 

[302 coupe]

this is why I'd never buy a crate engine, epecially from someone on the opposite coast. CHP may or may not build good engines, but they definately don't have good customer service.

That being said, if its a Crane cam, take it up with them. If its defective, they should send you a new cam, maybe lifters too if they are Crane.

 

[classic boost]

although i'm as anti-chp as they get, i don't think you handled the situation professionaly. instead of explaining the problem and asking for a solution, you start off by bashing them before they could tell you if they would work with you.
you did get 5 racing seasons out of it, and the part that failed was a crane cam. it's not like they used some cheap china cam.
do i think chp makes quality parts and builds good engines? HELL NO! but i think you handled the situation poorly.

 

[thehueypilot]

this is why I'd never buy a crate engine, epecially from someone on the opposite coast. CHP may or may not build good engines, but they definately don't have good customer service.

That being said, if its a Crane cam, take it up with them. If its defective, they should send you a new cam, maybe lifters too if they are Crane.

This was a "short block kit" and it was their brand cam called "Mustang Cams?" I assumed they supply/grind their own cams unless you specify a brand name so Crane will not get involved. If Ford Motor Company took that position you would have to deal with all their 5000+ suppliers on each and every part that was defective in their cars.

 

[thehueypilot]

although i'm as anti-chp as they get, i don't think you handled the situation professionaly. instead of explaining the problem and asking for a solution, you start off by bashing them before they could tell you if they would work with you.
you did get 5 racing seasons out of it, and the part that failed was a crane cam. it's not like they used some cheap china cam.
do i think chp makes quality parts and builds good engines? HELL NO! but i think you handled the situation poorly.

I really only got two seasons out of this engine with gives it a total of about 10,000 miles. (Yes, hard miles) I had a piston land let go at the end of last year which they had given the same response so I was not expecting much, but was hoping they would at least look at it buy paying the UPS charge so I guess I did have a bad attitude going into it.

See past thread called: What caused this carnage?http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=605898

 

[Edbert]

I had a low opinion of CHP before I read this, and I am not suprised that they are willing to take their chances with the community opinion.

I do have two points to make though.

1.) Racing usually voids any warranties, even from companies that make reacing parts.
2.) When you make a complaint to any company always try to leave them "a way out". Meaning give them the feeling that they can escape a bad situation by taking a certain action. You really did not give them much of a choice.

 

[Banditlead]

Having been in the same position as this guy (Though not nearly as cool a business), it really is hard to refuse to send back the defective product, and then demand they do something to fix it. While you may have used the engine exactly as intended, there are still plenty of people who will not, and can/will break it, then want a new one. Specially when using it for a high stress application. You should always ask about them paying shipping for defective parts, most companies will pay for the shipping, and if it turns out to be there mistake, they will re-imburse you for the shipping.

As for third party support? It is VERY difficult to take care of parts that we sell at my store, that we buy seperately. We are not authorized to inspect them, or make repairs. That doesn't mean we can't help, but we have to be more careful about it. Specially since Crane Cams probably sells how many cams a year? There is going to be some defectives.

Sorry, but as a Sales-person, I think what you did was wrong. All you have to do (In most Cases) is treat the Salesperson with respect, and as an equal, to get good results.

 

[302 coupe]

This was a "short block kit" and it was their brand cam called "Mustang Cams?" I assumed they supply/grind their own cams unless you specify a brand name so Crane will not get involved. If Ford Motor Company took that position you would have to deal with all their 5000+ suppliers on each and every part that was defective in their cars.

regardless, if its a crane cam p#13890 (like Mr. CHP said it was) and its defective, crane will likely replace it. If in fact, it is some no name brand you might be own your own. There is no validity in a liablity comparison between CHP and FOMOCO, get real. I can almost understand where CHP is coming from, if they made all repairs and replaced all defective parts at no cost, no questions asked, they'd lose their ass. They can warrant their machining, proprietary parts, and labor, any liability beyond that can be passed by them to the individual parts manufacturer. Still, their service/attitude in this case is poor. In cases like this, you can get pissed at them and get in a big fight, or you can keep calm and cooperate and maybe get some help from them. Cooperation in this case would be shipping the cam and lifters to them for inspection. If they find the cam/lifters to be defective, they should handle all talks with the manufacturer in order to get you a new cam promptly. However, you seem reluctant to cooperate with them. At this point, I don't see them as having any responsibility to help you, after all you can't prove it was their fault you got bad cam, assuming the cam is actually defective. If they do help you out, it would be in hopes of keeping any remnant of a good reputation. At least its just a cam/lifters and not catastrophic engine failure.

 

[CornerCarvin67]

I gotta agree with Edbert. You took a swing even before giving them a chance to help you out. You said you had prior poor service with them and that may contributed to your bad mood... so based on that I have to view your initial email to them as blowing off steam. Don't take it personal however. Just move on and learn. You simply can NOT be in this type of hobby without experiencing a few of these bumps in the road. Maybe you could use this info to your advantage by soliciting a more local company and telling them how CHP sucks. Rival companies love stealing business. Try someone like DSS. Good luck.

 

[Jester67]

I have read the other thread about the piston and I agree that it looks like a bad part yet CHP would not make it right. Then a short time latter they say that because they did not manufacture a part in THEIR kit that it is not there problem well that just sucks. It is my belief that if someone sales a kit then they should be the point of contact and if the part is defective then they should replace it and then they should go after the vendor. This method allows the kit vendor to take care of their customer and also allows them to use their leverage as a bigger customer to get a good response from the third party. Just my .02 cents

 

[180 Out]

There are more and more of these flat tappet cam failures. It's due to the elimination of zinc and phosphorous from motor oil, to prevent the ash choking of catalytic convertors that these minerals can cause. Use Shell Rotella oil or add General Motors Engine Oil Supplement (E.O.S.) to every oil change. Some racing oils include the minerals too.

 

[302 coupe]

he's using a roller cam.

 

[Stangninjak]

While it sucks that they do not want to help you, (did not read the other post btw) you still need to try to approach a problem with a light hand. What does this mean ? Well the internet gives us a wall to hide behind. So do emails. They know you are nowhere near them, so by you comming at this CHP guy the way that you did, it gave him the oppertunity to basically fire back at will. Heck you already stated that you would never buy from them again, so basically CHP is like WHO CARES ??

A lighter hand, or touch may or may not have yeilded some more favorable results. As they say, you can lure a fly with honey before you can with vinegar.

 

[jcode68]

I agree in that you came out of the gate swinging on this one and should have taken a more calm and professional approach. My preference in these matters is to actually speak with people either face to face when possible or on the phone. I'm in the Customer Support business and I can't tell you how many escalated issues get resolved with a simple phone call. Email is not always an effective way to communicate for situations where customer satisfaction is in question. People tend to say things in email that they would not say verbally. I would definately give Crane a CALL and discuss the situation and see what they are willing to do for you. I would also NOT bash CHP to Crane as this will make you come off poorly. I delat with their Customer Service team yesterday and aside form a long hold time, they were excellent in handling my situation. Good luck.

 

[MustangMatt1966]

While it sucks that they do not want to help you, (did not read the other post btw) you still need to try to approach a problem with a light hand. What does this mean ? Well the internet gives us a wall to hide behind. So do emails. They know you are nowhere near them, so by you comming at this CHP guy the way that you did, it gave him the oppertunity to basically fire back at will. Heck you already stated that you would never buy from them again, so basically CHP is like WHO CARES ??

A lighter hand, or touch may or may not have yeilded some more favorable results. As they say, you can lure a fly with honey before you can with vinugure.

i agree with this in whole....taking an blunt approach may seem like a good idea when blowing of steam, but I understand where u are coming from....i have to say that you have to approach them professionally for them to act professionally...flaming them is going to make them less likely to help you with your problem

 

[1320stang]

You attract more flies with honey than vinegar....

 

[70vert]

Thanks for all the feedback here re: CHP

I agree with what's been posted here, you came at them hard but there's no excuse for being unprofessional and bad customer service, I have been in customer service in one way or another for 10 years, bad customer service is a cancer in any organization.

Thanks to all re: the feedback on CHP. I think now I'll go to with Bad-Ass Racing Engines in Sonoma, CA for my stroker. They seem to have a good reputation, a personal touch, and most importantly are an approved vendor for Mass-Flo EFI, so I can get it all in one place. They're local enough so I can go and give 'em hell if they screw up.

 

[lauras70mach1]

I would guess you would have gotten further with them if you had been more willling to help sort out the problem on your end.

 

[latamud]

Sometimes things break.