That is what you may hear now. I am sorry but for the first time I have told a person that I would not help them.
There is a particular web site, that everyone has heard of, that continues to tell their customer to call us for tech help on engines. I have received a good dozen or more calls from people who already have purchased the parts and want my advice.
Today was the kicker, a parts store calls me and want help to select the correct part for a 351M/400, I gave them a quick part number and then they want their engine builder to call me and talk over the details. At that point I said "No" He hung up angry.
I don't want to be a jerk, but I also sell parts and when I have to stop running a machine to go help a person who purchase a part from someone else or off of Ebay, it really kills my productivity. If I had a million dollars, I would be glad to sit on the phone and help people. I like talking and working with people, but I don't being taken advantage of.

So bottom line is I am sorry that I am not a tech service.

Or am I a JERK????

 

Thanks for posting this. Parts yes, free advice no. Fair enough.

 

No Tim, you're not a jerk....they're the jerks for trying to get something for free that really isn't a free sort of thing. It's somewhat the equivalent of calling a neurosurgeon for step by step procedures on brain surgery, but only paying a first aid station for a band-aid. That surgeon has a product to sell, his knowledge and expertise, which is the product that they're asking you to give away for free.

Yes, you sell auto parts, but you also sell your knowledge and services, otherwise why have any business in the service industry? People always want something for free, but sometimes they're expecting the unreasonable. I'm not about to go to Home-Depot and buy a bunch of really nice lumber, then call a fine furniture builder for step-by-step procedures on how to build a really nice cabinet, and expect it for free...so why should they expect you to teach their trained monkey to build an engine for them when you get no benefit from it? If they want an engine built to your standards, perhaps they should just have you build it. I know! What a novel idea!

If I wanted to be a cheap ***, I could have gone to a machine shop here in Spokane to have the machine work done on my engine if you were willing to give the knowledge of how to build a 400 stroker properly away. There is truth in the adage "you get what you pay for", as if you pay the person with the knowledge you're going to get a better outcome. I wanted the plant for Buford to be built correctly, and I knew that you had the answers on how to get the bugs out, and build my plant properly the first time. I was willing to pay for that expertise as it's a reasonable expectation.

The real stickler to your situation is that even if you were willing to just give the information away for free every time, you'd eventually get phone calls complaining that you gave bad information because their trained monkey couldn't follow your instructions worth beans, and they'd expect YOU to do something about it. Why deal with that sort of potential headache if you get no benefit from it? If you can't tell, i have little faith in human nature anymore, and I know how cheap asses like that operate.

So, the short of it? No, you're not a jerk. You're a business man that has parts, knowledge, and services to sell, and they're being unreasonable to expect you to give away your products for free.

 

"If I had a million dollars, I would be glad to sit on the phone and help people. I like talking and working with people."
actually thats not a bad idea!!! use the same concept as dialing 1-900-hot-love!
maybe 1-900-hot-tech?

 

you could offer consultation services billed as a minimum charge and by the hour thereafter...

that is a lazy POS stunt, tell me what i need to know so i can go buy parts from someone else! i'm sure it happens all day long. then there's the actual or past customer that PITA's you for the rest of his life...

i've visited a few shops that lost my business because of the abuse that comes to a business phone from salesmen and idiots, and how the shop handled it. i don't want my machinists' head 3000 miles away and distracted 17 times in 10 minutes(no exageration) while he's working on my stuff! one local 'race engine builder' answered the phone as fast as he could hang it up like a crack addict waiting for the call, came to find out later that was probably the case, and that there were a LOT of problems with the work. last time i drove by they weren't there any more.

i'm just sayin, ya gotta look out for your own business first. customers and potential customers pick up on things they're not comfortable with that may have become 'normal', like constant phone distractions, and employees answering their personal cell phones while 'working'

if that's a jerk, be a jerk and do good work. you can't please all the people all the time, i'd say the paying customers rank slightly higher than the non-paying

 

i dont htink your a jerk. i want your help please. i need to convert my 351M to a 400!!! i will be calling you. you beter answer!!!! i want your parts !!!!!

 

You are not a jerk, not in the least bit. If you spent all day on the phone and went out of business, how would we be all better off? You help people when you can, you provide excellent information on your web site, and you sell quality products. I know that I plan to have more of your stuff in my truck in the future.

 

Thank you guys, There are times like this when one perosn can make you doubt yourself.
I called the web site company and talked with the manager and explained to him my situation. I asked him I hope that he understands, but he said" I just figure that it is part of the industry, We have tech people that offer the service"

And you know if a business is large enough that you can pay a person just to give help, that would be great.

Maybe some day

 

you cant be serious? there are about a bazillion 400s built between 1970 and 1982 and i guarantee there is one near you waiting right now for you to come and rescue it... heck, the owner will probably pay you to remove that 1975 rusting hulk of a LTD from his yard.

 

Wow, I dont even own a business, or sell parts... but i will sit and talk to someone for hours to try to get their engine running to its full potential, even if it means being late for things i have to do, or putting off work on my own vehicles.

I wouldnt say that you are a JERK for telling them NO, just maybe not an enthusiast. Coming from a business point of view, it does suck to have a list of things you HAVE to get done, and sit and talk to someone who has no intention of paying you a dime... But in that case just give them the web-address to a site, or the phone number to someone who is willing to help them out. 90% of the time if you refeer someone to a person who WILL help them, you will be helping them.

By the way, would you be interested in sponsoring parts, or machine work on an engine i want to build for my 73 f-100 that I am building for drag racing next season at Bandimere Speedway, in Morrison Co? If this interests you at all, please send me a PM so we can talk about how we can both benefit from it, and for why i think i would be a good driver / rep. for your business.

 

hi tim, paul & nick, hey boss, its time for you to find the TIME to write a book. its traditional in the go fast industry that at some point you are entitled to stop giving away your hard earned life long exp work for free. your babys need shoes just like everybody else. i say anyone who has ever been around a REAL shop knows the phone KILLS production period. the internet thing i/e e-bay. every co in the world is still trying to sort it out. it is NOT right in my view to get your answer and then chisel you down on ebay thats just plain wrong period. hey mr ebay doesnt send you a check for the electric does he. cnc,s are not cheap to run. i could go on and on but i think you get our view. keep gettin up tim, dont worry about. your real people fully understand. later us md

 

Tim,

I don't think you did anything wrong.... why should you be somone elses tech support?

I have previously contacted you via email regarding an engine kit, and you sent me back a great spreadsheet to work with. Since I'm still a couple of months away from my build, I felt this was very acceptable and handy for budgeting, and a great solution to having to answer a million questions from a milliion people.

One thing that I have found as I have been gathering quotes from machine shops is they often are turned off by the fact I will be getting my parts from another company (TMI). I would love to have you do all of my machine work as well, but living in Arizona would probably make shipping charges outrageous to send the block, rods and crank to you?

I appreciate all the tech advice you do give here on the board, which is why Im willing to purchase my components from you, instead of the local guy who doesn't know my motor as well as you do, and isn't willing to give me the time of day because its a mild build and not a $25k stroker.

My motor is coming out this week.....

 

Let the machine answer it.

 

Sounds like the vote is in... Tim is not a jerk! My own experience with Tim was a couple of years ago, and very brief. I was in the process of saving and planning for my project, and after I had already bought some of my parts, I read about TMI on this site. I had never heard of Tim before this. I called (Yes, on the telephone) his shop one day and explained to him what I would like to accomplish, and told him that I had already bought alot of my bolt on parts from a big box supplier, but wanted at least to buy a set of pistons, and possibly a set of heads from him in the near future, as I was still in the process of saving some cash. To make a long story even longer, I ran into some major life changing issues, which deleted anything that I had saved, and a whole lot more. I guess my point is that Tim treated me very kindly on the phone, and was very professional.I took away the feeling that Tim is most definitely an enthusiast, and knows his craft well.He knew that I could be a potential CUSTOMER, and possibly make himself a profit, instead of just somebody who wanted to waste HIS time. The way things have turned out, I have not been able to spend the first dime at TMI yet, and my rusty old truck still sits in my driveway waiting for the day to come. Things should improve in time and you can bet that I will be a customer of TMI.

 

Go to sleep resting easy, Tim. It's alright. BTW, there's plenty of us here that can answer such "questions"...and maybe even one of them answers will be right, lol.