The Powder House Issues

starnsey

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EDIT: They helped mend the situation in whatever ways they could, and if they weren't four states away, I would have taken them up on their offer fully. I just want to make sure that it's stated that they do take care of their customers, if not sometimes a little slow in response time, which I understand can be caused by an infinite number of situations. So I appreciate their drive to try to fix the situation.

Alright, I really didn't want to do this but I feel like I need to share my experience after all that's happened. I understand it's a family-run company and everything and life can get in the way, but I think I need to put this out there so people are aware of what can possibly happen.

In mid September I sent $400+ so that I could receive powder coated valve covers and then send mine in as a core to get refunded $200 for the core. My car had broken a valve spring and I decided this was as good a time as any to get my powder coating done. I had read that Powder House can sometimes take a long time to turn around but produced really good quality (as can be seen on their posts on this forum), so I was prepared to deal with that and knew my car wouldn't be fixed anytime soon so I was fine with that.

I received the powdercoated valve covers the first week of October. Of course, they look wonderful and I put them on my engine that's outside of the car to see how they look. I promptly box up my own valve covers and return them to California as a core. The engine sits in that state until early November as I'm waiting on a couple of other things before moving forward on getting the engine back in the car. As I'm going through my garage getting a game plan set up for the engine re-installation, I notice that the PCV valve connector on my intake does not match what's on the valve covers I've got. Mach 1's apparently have a heated PCV that needs to be bolted down whereas the covers I received didn't have the proper boss to be able to mount this. And then on the passenger side, the spot for the PCV has the two mounting holes. Can see the discrepancies here:

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So, on November 8, I got in touch with Powder House to see if they knew what was up. I had no idea there were so many differences in PCV arrangements on 4V covers. As much time as I spend looking at this stuff, I had never noticed all the differences so I didn't absolve myself of the entirety of the blame. But at the same time, I sorta figured the people that coat these things as one of the major commodities would know that there are small differences. Could I have made the covers work? Yeah, maybe, but when I'm spending this much time and money to get my engine bay to look pristine, I feel like its acceptable for me to want the proper parts in there, not routing hoses an extra two feet or something like that.

Anyway, they were fine with taking the valve covers back and spraying the cores that I sent in and sending them back to me as long as I paid for shipping one direction. So I pulled off the covers from the engine, removed the sheet metal baffles and screws and sent everything back (when I received the coated valve covers, they came with the baffles and screws removed, so that's how I sent them back). I packaged them up and waited for the shipping label. Finally, on December 1st, I received the shipping label. I slapped it on my box and dropped them off at UPS that same day.

At this point in time, I was ready to get my engine back in the car. So the valve covers were the only thing holding me back. A family issue came up with the Powder House at the same moment, so I just more or less left it alone through December and the holidays. I send them a little email just seeing if there was any sort of update December 22, fully expecting them to not have much done with the holidays, etc, but I was curious just in case. Got a response Dec 29 that the valve covers were stripped and would likely be coated and shipped out that week. I just assumed it would take till the following week with New Years and what not.

On January 9th, I send a follow up email seeing if there was any update: no response. Send another follow up email on January 17th. On the 18th I'm told they needed to be resprayed since they didn't turn out perfect and that they would be sprayed and shipped that Tuesday. I pay the additional $30 for shipping back to me and get a tracking number Wednesday. No word beyond that till I email them again saying that the tracking status hadn't changed from "Shipping Label Created" on January 23rd. They drop them off and get them shipped out by the end of that day. Good deal, I'm finally getting my covers back and get to start putting my car back together this weekend!

Wrong: The valve covers showed up today without the sheet metal baffles or screws that hold the baffles on. Also, looking over the valve covers, this is what I see:
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Now, maybe that's not that big of a deal to some and maybe most of it will be hidden...but how am I supposed to feel confident it won't start flaking off? Along with the fact that I didn't receive my baffles back? Obviously, after all this time, I'm kinda ticked off. I just want to get my car back together.

I'm really sorry that I'm essentially dragging their name through the mud, and I'm not looking forward to the confrontation I'm going to receive from posting this as their reputation on this site is really good, but I've been obscenely patient with this whole thing. Even now, I'm not going to blow up or anything, I just want to get my car back together and I'm STILL being held back by all of this. I just felt like I needed to post my experience. Perhaps 99% of the time their product is perfect and perhaps my experience is just a fluke, but this really sucks for me after all this time and money spent. And now I still will not be putting my engine back together this weekend like I was hoping.
 
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pho_phizzat

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Actually this is not the first time that business has been involved in a quarrel with a member of this site.

I hope you get everything resolved. Good luck!


*Edited by moderator, keep it constructive**
 

black92

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Actually this is not the first time that business has been involved in a quarrel with a member of this site.

I hope you get everything resolved. Good luck!

IIRC, that had more to do with the price of doing things as opposed to the quality of work. If there was a different thread, then never mind.

OP - Have you contacted them before posting this thread to see what can be done?

Edit - Tree'd the moderator, so I removed the last part of the quote :)
 
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zporta

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I'm sorry you had an issue with Brian, it seems that things are always hectic being a small family business. Add the holidays and a new child and sh*t gets worse. Im not making excuses for him, but i can imagine the back log of work he has. Probably the reason he let that work slip by. Only other scenario would be a new employee running things while he is tending to his family. Dont give up on him yet, give him a chance to make things right. Im sure they will.
 

Zemedici

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:pop:

Let's just say you're not the first to have a multitude of issues. Nor anywhere near the first.
 

starnsey

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IIRC, that had more to do with the price of doing things as opposed to the quality of work. If there was a different thread, then never mind.

OP - Have you contacted them before posting this thread to see what can be done?

Edit - Tree'd the moderator, so I removed the last part of the quote :)

Yes, I did. You've got to understand, my car has been down for two months solely because of this and there have been the multiple hiccups I've described along the way. Plus the response time is fairly long. And nothing that can be done erases the frustration that has already happened.

I'm sorry you had an issue with Brian, it seems that things are always hectic being a small family business. Add the holidays and a new child and sh*t gets worse. Im not making excuses for him, but i can imagine the back log of work he has. Probably the reason he let that work slip by. Only other scenario would be a new employee running things while he is tending to his family. Dont give up on him yet, give him a chance to make things right. Im sure they will.

As stated in the story, I completely understand the issues with a family run business and I have been unimaginably patient, especially compared to what I've seen people blow up on here over. There is absolutely no way I'm shipping these back to California though, it's been long enough and I can't go through it all another time. I just need my baffles back and then I'll consult with some one onto whether I need to be concerned over the coating flaking off.
 
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mavericks-03svt

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well hopefully you can get your issues resolved. Seems fixable to me. hopefully, he can ship out another set that is coated perfectly and pay for you to ship those back or discount the ones you have to your satisfaction. Either way I bet he will make it right.
 

starnsey

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well hopefully you can get your issues resolved. Seems fixable to me. hopefully, he can ship out another set that is coated perfectly and pay for you to ship those back or discount the ones you have to your satisfaction. Either way I bet he will make it right.

Unfortunately that can possibly go back to the original issue which is that not all 4V valve covers are the same. Plus however long it would take to receive them...it could be another month or two based on the previous timelines.
 

mavericks-03svt

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Unfortunately that can possibly go back to the original issue which is that not all 4V valve covers are the same. Plus however long it would take to receive them...it could be another month or two based on the previous timelines.

The waiting game sucks for sure. In my opinion, given that you have had some issues and posted this thread, he should bump you up to top priority and get you taken care of asap. If you speak with him, ask him to coat you a set of the correct covers asap and overnight ship them to you at no charge. Since its not your fault that the set you currently have from him is not perfect, ask him to send out ups or fed ex to pick up the flawed set you have on his dime. I don't think that is too unreasonable to ask since you have had some issues and it seems like it will help solve your problems.

Only down side is you are out some of the previous shipping charges going back and fourth but that is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Good luck either way. You seem like a reasonable guy and I'm still betting they will make it right.
 
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me32

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I hope it all works out. have you also PM brain about this too?
 

starnsey

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I hope it all works out. have you also PM brain about this too?

I've been in touch with them via email during the whole process. Usually veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slow to respond and a lot of the time phone calls aren't answered. I emailed them as soon as I noticed the sheet metal baffles were missing. I did not notice the coating issues until after I sent the email. But the most recent email I received from them stated that the reason that the shipping got delayed was because they "wanted to make sure the coating was perfect".

I mean I understand they may be understaffed being a two-person team/company, but after this I can't just keep re-trying...I think that's the definition of insanity.
 
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SVTXTC

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Well at least you sent it to the right Brian at the right powder house! I was duped into sending mine to norcal powder house who when you call also has a Brian and claims to be the powder house you are referencing in this post (look at the social media battle between these two shops). They sprayed my TF caps torch red and claimed they were Redfire. I chose to have my local guy redo and color match my car for future work (very $$$) after seeing that the real powder house will only work with out of state customers via email and is impossible to get ahold of on the phone. I couldn't have thrown money at them if I wanted to. But, If Steve at TF trusts these guys for his work, I would be willing to bet Brian will make this right with you. It may have just missed quality control by accident, who knows. Good luck my friend, there is nothing wrong with high standards.
 

blkGT500nCA

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We have reached out to the customer, and are willing to do what is necessary for all parties to be happy. We appreciated our customers business and continued support from our SVT family. He has been a very patient and understanding customer through all of our changes over the holidays so we want nothing more than to continue that relationship as it has always been friendly.

As for the Aviator style valve covers that we received as a core, and did not notice until this sale that there was a difference, they are for sale. Part of why we have decided to no longer do cores and are currently selling our core inventory. Contact us as we have cobra calipers, valve covers, a strut bar, and coil covers.

Also in response to the REAL POWDER HOUSE and BRIAN that is US! We have made contact about this before. We have had people send us coil covers and contact us about sending us other parts that RYAN at NORCAL Powder has screwed up. Customers have told us that he has been asked if he is the Brian from SVT and he says yes! Our email is [email protected] and that might be confusing but we have been doing this for 5 years and selling our stands for 7. Please do not make this mistake. If you want to verify he is the real person or not, ask for Sara, I don't think he has a Sara ;-)

We are the real deal, we do pump out top notch work. Its always the stuff that goes wrong that gets posted about, but we are a fair business and only want our reputation to mirror that along with high quality. We packed moving our home, painting our car, moving our shop, power issues with the move, and a new baby all in to 2014, I think we are done with the major impacts one can have on a life! :rolling: The holidays were very busy but I am back in the shop helping Brian keep up on correspondence while he is a slave to the coating business. We have a helper for sandblasting and are wiggling into a routine. We have been growing, it all started here on SVT, and will always do what we can for the members. We love you guys, thanks for everything!

Sincerely,
Sara Pancoast
 

CobraBob

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Yes, that is great news. I believe Sara when she says that "they are a fair business and only want their reputation to mirror that along with high quality". I have no doubt that Brian and Sara will take care of the OP and make things right.
 

08KR525

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Starnsey, I must be missing something. I thought you had said that the first set of covers you received didn't have the baffles or hardware in them so you sent your cores back to him with those removed. Then when you returned the powder coated set that were wrong you took the baffles you put in them back out. I understand the coating being an issue the second time around but shouldn't you have the baffles to put back in a set or are these different for different model covers?
 
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starnsey

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Starnsey, I must be missing something. I thought you had said that the first set of covers you received didn't have the baffles or hardware in them so you sent your cores back to him with those removed. Then when you returned the powder coated set that were wrong you took the baffles you put in them back out. I understand the coating being an issue the second time around but shouldn't you have the baffles to put back in a set or are these different for different model covers?

Probably didn't explain it well. The first set I received came with baffles disassembled. So I disassembled my own (core) valve covers and sent all the parts back in the box, baffles wrapped up with covers and screws in a ziploc bag. When I sent the incorrect coated valve covers back, I once again shipped the baffles and screws with them since that's how they were sent to me. So no, I do not have any baffles.
 
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5.0Thunder

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Sucks that happened man, hopefully they make it right. I'd probably be asking for some of the wasted shipping costs back. :shrug:
 

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