Ouch! and Beware

I thought eveyone on the board should know the outcome of a 18 month feasco. I contracted for a ,71 455 BBB and ,67 S/P 400 trans to be rebuilt. I supplyed the motor and trans. After 18 months I decided that I waited long enough. After several phone conversations with Jim Burek I asked for full refund for the deposit I sent back in 12/04. Jim sent me the deposit but when I asked if I could get the transmission back an I wanted to pay for any cost (parts/ labor) Jim e-mails me and said he had sold my trans. I don't believe the trans. was his to sell?
So I say Beware!

 

I am a bit confused here. You sent a deposit, a motor, and trans. to him 12-04. Waited 18 months for whatever reasons. Asked for your deposit back and got it. Then asked for the tranny ????? Why didnt you ask for the motor also ?? It was yours too !!! Jim and I are friends everyone knows that. And YES, this is disturbing to me, because he is a friend. I wouldn't know why he wouldn't send back your parts. Unless there was work completed on them both. IF........ and I don't know but I am gonna call JB in a few, there was work done on them or if they were finished, in my opinion, thats a whole other issue. If your tranny was rebuilt, there is no way in hell I would send it to you. You would be getting a free tranny rebuild. GREAT deal for you obviously, but thats just taking advantage of PAE. If thats the way it works in the business world I need to start sending out motors and tranny's for rebuilding to every Buick builder out there, waiting till the work on them or rebuild them, then demand them back WITH my deposit in full. Thats a hell of a racket there. And what of the motor ?? Was it completed and then after the fact you just decided you didnt want to pay for it ? You made no mention of it at all. Did JB complete the work, only to be left sitting on a motor he has time and money in now ? Like I said I am really confused with this one. I will give a call to JB and see if he can tell me anything. But my initial gut is telling me he did the work and was trying to recover the loss(labor at the least) you provided him. I DON'T know, but am interested in how this plays out.

 

I would be curious as to how long it was between the time of telling JB that you wanted a refund to the time it was when you told him you wanted the trans? If you told him one day,(as it is around here) if you told me on a friday you were'nt interested in completing our deal after the work was completed, I would also have parts of the deal or the whole package sold by monday myself.

 

Shame on you for airing your dirty laundry here... The tone of your post suggests there is way more to the story. Hopefully Jim will be along soon to fill in the blanks. I don't know either of you but I do know Jim is a respected member of the Buick community and has helped many here when he had no vested interest to do so.

 

Mr McConnel, As I told you long long ago, the transmission was rebuilt, the first thing we did, then the heads were done, way back when. Everything seemed fine with you, I appologized for the long delay in finishing the engine. I said I was sorry for that. Just before The GS nats, I told you that your engine was going on the dyno the end of may . You have known the tranny was rebuilt and ready to go.
Then while in BG you made a post saying you wanted your deposit back. i contacted you after i got back and you said i could either refund your $3500 deposit or ship your engine and transmission and you would send me a check after the fact. I paid top bring the parts down here in the first place, some $480 in shipping.
We emailed back and forth for awhile, you would not talk to me, you finally decided that it would be best if I just returned your $3500 deposit and i could just keep the parts , or cores that you sent down.
What did you want me to do , unbuild the trans and send it back to you? i have all the conversations in writing between us Dan, I feel no reason to post them here. I expect you to post a full apology to me. I fnot I can post all the emails we have sent .
I was more than willing to send you your engine for the balance due.
I consider your comments here to be slanderous and if you continue you will be hearing from my lawyer. Jim Burek

 

That has never been the case in practice on V8. I am sure there have been times when people have been encouraged to sign a post by some other member.

 

Jim has done work for me before and also sold parts to me. All worked out very good.

 

Hogwash

Jim did work for me and so far so good.We talked for hours on the phone.I've never had the pleasure of meeting him in person but i consider him stand up guy.He built an engine for me that rocks.I myself would have no problem doing business with him again,he gets my vote of confidence for sure.Its kind of funny there is always some little bitch in the crowd to spread some type of BS.thats my view. David

 

not taking sides , but....

honestly,18 months to have a motor built by a busy specialty shop doesnt surprise me,was there a written contract with a time frame shorter than 18 mo? sounds like a pay-as-you-go build,not everyone has the $$ up front & thats how we can afford to do it,most shops dont even consider that option.if jim violtated a written contract,maybe he does owe you cores,however YOU owe him the shipping on them.how about his lost time on the deal?would you like jim to send a bill for that?i dont know anymore,or what the state to state laws are,but jim should have a mechanics lean on your stuff untill paid for.if you bailed on the deal...its his to do with as he sees fit,to recoup his losses.you wont get much sympathy from us,by what jim posted to finish the story.you need to appologize or respond in a civil manner to jim to save face,imho :spank:

 

My motor was also built by Jim and I could not be more ecstatic to hear the dyno Numbers. I spoke to Jim many times on the telephone and by email. I think he has never steered me wrong and would not hesitate to use him to build my next motor.

 

:error: On both sides. Next time work out the details going in to the deal.

 

Good for you Jim. You are a stand up guy and have spent plenty of time on the phone with me helping to iron out problems that I ran into with my motor. You have also spent countless hours on this board answering questions and helping people that have run into problems.

I know there are two sides to every story but it gets a little old seeing people air their dirty laundry from the safety of their keyboard. If you are going to slam someone in public you better have all of your facts straight and plenty of proof to back up the story.
This is serious stuff. Jim owns a business that could be damaged from something like this. I'd like to see if mdapperdan has some proof of what he claims.

 

1st - V8Buick.com has a feedback forum; http://www.v8buick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=71
this whole thread needs to be moved as it was mis-placed by the OP to begin with

2nd - Jim sent me the deposit but when I asked if I could get the transmission back an I wanted to pay for any cost (parts/ labor) Jim e-mails me and said he had sold my trans.

if you wanted the ALREADY rebuilt trans then you should have arranged to make payment in full for parts labor and shipping on this piece before demanding funds back.

to tell a vendor that you want out of the deal and demand your deposit back (which is perfectly fine) and then say you want the tranny AFTER you've gotten the deposit in the mail? you should have had that deducted from or had the deposit applied to the cost of the re-built trans in the first place.

by demanding AND receiving your deposit and not making any other arrangements you have quit ALL claims to cores in question. you never had any ownership claims to the rebuilt trans once the deposit was refunded as the parts / labor into a rebuilt tranny far exceed the value of the core.

i would suggest that there is nothing keeping you from arranging to buy a rebuilt tranny from Burek right now as a one off deal (exactly the place you were at once you had received your deposit back) ... but it doesn't sound like the two of you have any further interest in dealing with one another. :spank:

 

I have talked to Jim about this and I will not reply anymore. I have enough information about the situation now. I will watch for the apology Jim requested just like others here. Also, as I said when I talked to you on the phone Jim, kudos to you for the reply you posted here. You could have taken this another way, but handled it with tact and professionalism. Well done.

 

Never had anything but good luck with Jim B. I've purchaced more parts from him than anything. (his 4000/1400 convertor rocks!) There was one part order where he called me back twice trying to get particular details for the pieces i already had. He wanted to make certain I was getting what i wanted/Needed. Jim crosses his t's and dots his i's.