Brad, in fact the reason that Coop has "aired the laundry" is
because he did not get any money back, a reasonable explanation, or an offer of any sort of credit. My understanding is that the fact that he received no explanation, poor service and no refund is the reason why he felt he had no other alternative.
Here is the sad part; TDI work their backsides off to service the racing community; that seems to
always involve "extras" whether that means working late, dropping everything els for a rush shipment, answering calls and resolving problems constantly, and often for customers who don't fully aprpeciate the effort being made for them.
Glenn Cooper has been a safe, spirited and involved competitor in SCCA for a long time. he has always paid his bills, listened to other opinions, makes decisions based on all information he has at hand. He (unlike me) is a pretty cool-headed dude. He is also very reasonable and understands what things can happen. I truly believe, whether perceived or otherwise, he feels he has been cheated and disrespected. I can both understand the circumstances that have put him in this position and I can also fully understand his response.
You are not getting what is really going on here! This is less about what happened with the brake rotors (although the whole reason for the complaint) but the lack of followup or customer support he did not receive.
Somebody said it before in this post; they expect quality work from TDI....they do NOT expect customer service. In this particular instance it would appear to me that Coop got neither.
Again, guys, the answer is simple. John and Coop need to be able talk about the problem and John needs to take the customer side of the desk....his intransigence in dealing with a customer is hurting his business reputation. Even if John were to feel taken advantage of, his business cannot afford "bad press" from a respected guy like Coop.
Here is an example; I just finished repairing an early Series 2 XJ sedan (Jaguar) It took me a YEAR to fix the darn car (not proud of that). But the car came as a basket case, did not run, there was no wiring harness, no diagrammes and parts missing. I ended up giving up on an OEM parts supply challenge and instead BUILT a custom ignition system for the guy. Now, I did this part time because the guy did now want to pay me full-time to learn all there was about this specific one-year model. So I took it slow, using "down time" to do the work. I have about 70 hours on the car; legitimately I should be able to bill him for this; nobody else (he had tried a couple of other shops) could fix the thing, in fact, they made it worse.
So I have $800 in parts and 70 hours of labor. If I billed him for it all, I would be charging more than the car is worth. So I did not wait for the peeing match over a bill. I just "sucked it up: and charged him what I felt he could stomach...and I charged him 20 hours. Not a great way to get rich, but I feel an obligation to provide
value to my customers; typically that involves solving a problem for them.
I have found that, if I truly
solve the customers' problem, rarely does he leave the shop unhappy. That also means I live in a smaller house, don't drive nice, new cars. But I can call most of my customers "happy", I get tons of recommendations, and I sleep well at night.
Sorry for rambling on! I really see that both parties are NOT wrong. I also see a
direct and reasonable solution to the problem.
This thread has degenerated into an argument about whether the shop in question has done good work in the past. That is not the point!
As prospective consumers, it sure would be great to hear from the
experts here. Why doesn't TDI give us an explanation why and how failures like these occur, and educate us on their recommendations as to how to avoid said failures in the future. To hide behind "this is not the forum to discuss this" smacks of "I told the guy to bugger off, now leave me alone".
Richard Pare has given us more information related to brake rotor problems than the guys who do this work for a living. If they are the experts, then perhaps they would be willing to share some of this and educate us as to why the rotors failed so quickly? I, for one, could benefit from the knowledge, and would be more inclined to send work to a shop that can demonstrate their command of this specialized field.
Brad, you share the same sentiment; I know that Coop was willing and able to "get together" with John and resolve their differences. So you are urging John at TDI to contact Coop and sort this out; super idea.
With that said, I still would appreciate any knowledge on braking systems that anyone wants to share. Ya, I've seen a lot, but I haven't seen it all
Like the new radial mounts....they work better because they are a stiffer caliper?
Best, Tom