Reply to "MME ENGINE FAILURE UPDATE"

Mark - First let's clear up the credit card thing.

This was related to the charges for a custom set of valve covers as you should recall. We had very specific discussions about what I wanted and you assured me through the process you could deliver. Remember that you originally quoted me a cost of $350 for a custom set of valve covers?

The valve covers were supposed to be delivered as a set of anodized or powder coated blue valve covers with contrasting silver lettering engraved through the powder coating or anodizing. They were supposed to have breathers and a filler.

When they were delivered they did not have breathers or a filler and the powder coating covered the engraving making it impossible to see the lettering (Lettering that clearly advertised it was an MME product.)

When I offered a compromise to have a plain set of valve covers and have you take those back you refused what was a very fair solution to the problem.

They were returned to you and you were in possesion of them when I asked my credit card company to reverse the charges based on the fact that A) I had sent them back and was no longer in possesion of them. B) They were not what I had contracted for based on the fact that they were both functionally not correct and cosmetically not we had agreed on.

At this point I had paid you about $900.00 for valve covers I did not have, so of course I was within my rights to try and have the charges reversed.

You got the credit company to agree with you because you told them it was a custom part. Since all the discussions about the cosmetics were verbal, unfortunately I had nothing to send the credit card company proving I had ordered what I had ordered, the credit card company sided with you. Ok my loss, I eat $900 for a set of valve covers you still have to this day.

And then months later, to add insult to injury, after you finally put some hardware in the covers and etched it out with an electric pencil you tried to charge me another, what was it $450-$500? $1400 for a set of valve covers?

Mark, make sure you tell the truth when you respond. There are many reputable people on this board who were witnesses to these facts. In particular Mel Goldenberg.

AS for the cost of the engine being $21K. Your bill to me was for about $15,800.00 in round numbers. Ad to that the cost of the intake and heads, $3500.00, an Aviaid oil pan $500, an MSD distributor and ignition box another $600 and that gets you up to around $21k in round numbers. That was the total cost of the engine.

Now given that per your website you charge $15,999 for this package with the CHI heads I would think that you had plenty of profit margin in the build. I don't have any problem with the fact that you charged me almost what you charge somebody who did not provide about $4600 to their build. So you made $4600 plus whatever you you would make on the $15,999 engine package on your website.

Let me make it clear to the board memebers an Mark Mckeown, I don't begrudge Mark one dime of a fair and reasonable profit OR what he made on my engine build. He told me what it was going to be, I as an adult agreed to it.

But Mark let me ask you this. Clearly there was a reasonable level of profit in my build for you, so why did you charge me for phone calls to parts suppliers? Was that necessary? Did you really need to extract another, what was it $105, for one call to Dennis Quella to make sure I had the right flywheel, pressure plate and clutch?

Did you need to charge me for the two phone calls to Pat Mical so he could fab up the headers, that I recall you saying you wanted to copy, that would fit my car the first time without any hassle? (To be clear I was charged about $105 for all three calls)

Also wasn't it you that said you could not provide a detailed list of parts with their associated numbers because you thought I would give it to some engine builder who would turn out dozens of copies of your work? Yet you were very quick to step up and say you were interested in copying Pat's header design since they made 26 more HP on the dyno than a set of headers you tried.

I can only hope that you are man enough to respond truthfully here. As for me I would swear on any stack of bibles, appear in public court and be willing to testify as to THESE FACTS.

Mark in closing you should really think about a couple of things. If you had been a little more flexible and come to a compromise we would not be in this situation. You would not have a pissed off customer. If you had agreed to swap the valve covers for a plain set you could have gladly kept my $900 and I would have been a happy camper. If you had not sent me another bill when you took months to finally finish them I would still be ok with that also.

If you only knew how many car shows the car has been to and how many people have said they love the car you would be kicking yourself for all the lost promotional opportunities. I would have gladly have been the greatest MME promoter if you had just gone the extra couple steps.

It truly makes me sad.

CHRIS LEWIS