" Sydneykid " Pros And Cons

[Cubes]

Bl4ck32 and I had ours built up in 3weeks, upon picking it up it was as simple as grabbing the forklift and throwing it in the the trailer. It had been strapped down to a wooden crate then wrapped in gladwrap. Very impressed.

In that time they waited 1 week for us to supply a clutch for the balancing.

There were however extremely organized. Things happened when they said they would and the quote didn't go 1 dollar over, I was very impressed with the organization of the place.

Most likely a rarity, but none the less a motor should not take 6 months even if it were a low priority build up.

The problem is now my standards are high, I would expect nothing less of the next build up.

[felixy69]

well then he must be ignoring ours cuz he's not replied anyone of our emails or pms.

hey cubes

what's the story with yours ? was it build by harris engine serives ? or are you one of us that got the rb30 deal from gary ? but u just got ur's 8 months before us ?

[d0p3y]

If he's tied up, whatever, fair enough, THIS DOES NOT EXCUSE the fact that he is ignoring his customers and making them feel like they are being left out of the process.

Paying customers deserve answers REGARDLESS of how tied up you are. If you cannot handle having to answer to PAYING customers then you should not be going business in the first place.

SydneyKid - Great bloke: Sure, Helpful: Always ----- So why can't he just give these guys a contact number of give them some answers as to what's happening with their engines that they PAID for?!

Advice on internet forums and running a business are two entirely separate things!

[GTR1993]

I bought bilsteins off him, was quite good service. I payed for bushes about 3-4 weeks ago havent heared anything about them being shipped yet, i just think he is busy as i havent recived a PM back about them yet.

[Sydneykid]

Sorry for not noticing this thread earlier, but it's not a group that I visit often. As most people know I spend my time in Suspension and Forced Induction, that and answering 30-40 PM's a day.

I am not going anywhere, I most certainly haven't racked off with anyone's money. In fact more than they have paid me has been spent on parts for their RB30's. So there is no money to rack of with (Rio was looking good for while though).

In this build there were 7 x RB30's and 2 have been delivered in the last 2 weeks, the other 5 are being progressed as I write this. Along the way all 7 guys have been given updates with copious quantities of pictures. Sure we are a couple of months behind schedule, but that was caused by parts availability problems. This caused us to miss our window on RB30 building, and we had to complete other contracted work. Plus the machine shop guys nedeed some time off over Xmas, since September they have been working 6 days a week for 10-12 hours every day. The sort of work and the quality requires 100% concentration and you can't do that if you are exhausted.

All I can do is apologise and assure everyone that I am on the case, every single day. My offer still stands, anyone that wants to pull out will get a 100% refund.

cheers

[d0p3y]

Well there ya go. It's perhaps a good idea to give people that hand over money your phone number so that they can contact you by other means than the internet.

If you don't like giving your personal mobile out for business transactions perhaps it is advisable to purchase a cheapo pre-paid phone for $50 or something so that you can be contacted at some point by your customers.

It will save these situations arising in future and keep everybody happy because your customers can contact you and you don't have to worry about typing up pm's to answer a simple 30 second question to a customer.

[Sydneykid]

Well there ya go. It's perhaps a good idea to give people that hand over money your phone number so that they can contact you by other means than the internet.

If you don't like giving your personal mobile out for business transactions perhaps it is advisable to purchase a cheapo pre-paid phone for $50 or something so that you can be contacted at some point by your customers.

It will save these situations arising in future and keep everybody happy because your customers can contact you and you don't have to worry about typing up pm's to answer a simple 30 second question to a customer.

The problem is whenever I give my phone number out to people from Canada or the UK, they ring me at all hours of the night. I have made that mistake before, never again. Some people simply don't understand that I might be sleeping in Australia while they are at work in the UK.

I should also point out that this isn't my job, I am not getting paid to sell engines (or suspension for that matter). They didn't pay me a cent. I get paid to do engineering work, not sell stuff. I am just helping out here, the people who want good RB30s' and the guys who I did the engineering work for.

Even if they had my phone number it wouldn't have helped in this instance, I deliberately didn't take my mobile phone away with me on holidays.

cheers

[Sydneykid]

I think all those who are not involved should stop offering their opinions.

Dont stand up for anyone, and dont offer your 2c. You cant comment on the situation u are not involved in, as u dont know how you would react to it if u were in the same spot as these guys are.

Mods should have closed this thread to stop the shit slinging, and SK should have made it black and white what was going on, REGARDLESS if u have holidays a bit of notice wouldnt have hurt.

Holidays were notified.

cheers

[car32]

gary ive not had a reply to my pm about a refund? if my engine is not ready i would like one.reply on here or by pm not bothered but a reply would be nice.

[ahapartridge]

I too would appreciate people not commenting unless they know the facts of the situation.

I was not informed of any additional holidays, I am still waiting for my full update which I was told I would get on the 3rd of January, just like the numerous other 'full updates' which I have been promised but never had.

I am still waiting for a reply to my email and PM from 4th January.

I totally understand you guys sticking up for Gary as overall he is a helpful guy to many in this community but that does not mean you should be flaming people who are having a hard time with him.

I could go on and relay every bit of correspondance that I have had with Gary but that is not my style, I am just trying to level the field a bit here as somebody in the same position as Felix and the others still waiting.

It is a real shame that this venture has had to take a turn for the worse but it was all very easily avoided if proper communiction had been used.

[Beer Baron]

no more posts please saying: gary is great. or gary is not great. or name calling each other etc. If you don't have something to add that is relevant to this situation then don't post. simple.

[felixy69]

YAY

Gary you have finally replied to this thread

i really hope the picture update you just stated will apear in my email account, and not like most of the other times when it was just talks but no such emails.

i saw a picture of matt's friends RB26 from harris engine shop, the crate looks good from pictures, and i hope ours will be comming our way soon

thanks

[leg46y]

I only recently had a RB30 Built by Harris engines, through a local workshop who were doing my work.

Harris boys quoted roughly 6-8weeks, and i took me 4 months to get my bottom end from them. And that was with me visiting them every week.

the part i hate most is that i could have went to their workshop and turned the place upside-down and done some real damage got my stuff and left, but i knew the about the quality work they do, and that i would be worth it. I also didnt want to piss them off and recieve a shit bottom end in return.

Its a shit position to be in, and i feel for you guys not being able to do nothing about it.

I THINK the motor in SKs pictures is the same one thats been at the machinists sitting in the same spot since my engine went there, that was in sept 06'

Edited January 25, 2007 by leg46y

[leg46y]

i should add that my comment had nothing to do with the service that Sk is providing,

im not in any position to comment on what hes done as ive never dealt with him.

[car32]

gary you posted on here anyone who want a refund can have one,ive asked twice now and pm you my bank details,and ive asked nicely for a reply but still not got one.

[ahapartridge]

I had a couple of PM's with Gary last night (02:30 my time ) and the end result was that Gary is going to Harris Engines this Saturday to find out if the engines are crated up.

Harris Engines have had no extra holidays apart from the statutary ones as far as Gary is concerned so there should be no reason why they are not good to go considering the last estimate given on the 20th of Dec was for them to be crated by 8th Jan at the latest.

So I await Garys feedback on Sunday and hope that things are looking more posistive.

[car32]

If you don't want the engine, I will take it.

yours if you want it, just send me the amount that gary would refund and sort it out with him

pm me

Edited January 25, 2007 by car32

[Sydneykid]

I have reponded to all PM's that I have received, if you haven't got a response, please resend the PM. Please note that if I don't repond to a PM immediately it might be because I get 30-40 per day, I repond to them in the order I receive them and I do sleep at night time.

I feel like I need to keep defending my position, but I believe it won't achieve anything. So I will simply leave it at 43 x RB30's ordered over the last 5 years and only one cancellation. Harris are not the only supplier, in this instance the delay IS NOT 100% their fault, other suppliers (2 in fact) started the chain.

Please take all further correspondence to PM's or emails.

cheers

PS; the RB30 in the pictures below is MINE, it was started in the previous run. I have told the guys not to touch it until this batch of RB30's is finished. So please don't think that I am not suffering just as much as you. Or my own stuff is getting done first, because it isn't.

[felixy69]

Hi Gary, thanks for posting here again. we apreaciate your responds.

i hope you are actually going to the shop this sat,

i hope you are actually going to take pictures,

i hope you will send me pics of my engine,

and please tell me my engine is ready to be crated.

i hope you can grant all my wishes.

thanks

[Sydneykid]

Hi Gary, thanks for posting here again. we apreaciate your responds.

i hope you are actually going to the shop this sat,

i hope you are actually going to take pictures,

i hope you will send me pics of my engine,

and please tell me my engine is ready to be crated.

i hope you can grant all my wishes.

thanks

Just so that no one is under any disillusions here. I have sent Felix 25 pictures of his RB30 bottom end at every stage of the build process. That includes pictures of every part used and all machining work done. I have also written 41 emails and sent countless PM's. I have even sent him a picture of the crate that his engine will be packed into. As far as I am aware I only owe him one picture and that's the one of his engine in the crate ready for shipping, obviously I can't send him that picture until it is actually ready.

In those emails and PM's I have answered over 100 questions, supplied more than 15 pages of technical and engineering suggestions to his questions and problems. Not just on engines but on every aspect of an R32GTR. If I had been charging my usual engineering rates by the hour, he would owe me enough to build 5 engines.

Due to the delay I haven’t asked for any progress payments. I have covered the costs myself, personally, because I felt that it wasn’t fair to ask him for the payments even though they were entitled under the terms of the supply contract.

cheers

PS; Felix, please, email and PM is better than an open forum. I does neither of us any good.