So, I stopped by JBA to see if Jay had carried through on his promise to replace the 440 six pack air filter base his employee hacked on and destroyed the intrinsic value of (instead of asking me if I wanted to have it left pristine) and spoiler alert; he didn't even try

 Nope. 

Doesn't seem like he's going to make good on the promise to replace it. Replacing it can happen in less time than it takes to blog about it. 

Boom, the power of Google Fu, one click purchase on Ebay, etc 

Said some excuse about looking for a good deal on one. Uh huh. Pull my other leg, see if it's going to result in the expected gullibility test. 

Do, or do not, there is no try - Yoda made that clear. 

Either man up and decide to be responsible, or lose the respect you worked on earning for decades. 

Because omfg, you can't have a conversation with Jay without hearing that old nugget brought out about how he's been in business 35 years. Yeah, I know, I was at the 25th anniversary open house, 10 years ago. 

But it's meaningless, and irrelevant, and frankly immaterial to remind people that you've had the doors open and lights on a long time, and frankly, indicates that you ought to be better at customer service - like CALLING the customer (me) before letting a bonehead that does work unsupervised such as above hack job - and the installation of the too tall battery post that impacted my hood ram air induction fiberglass, without better training or supervision. 

Repeating how long you've been in business just reminds me that with all that experience, none of it was conferred to the new guys doing the work, in the back of the shop, so they don't repeat the mistakes that you've learned from (Chevelle hood, ask Jay, he'll tell you it was a lesson learned long ago) but not passed on to the new guys you've hired with no wisdom or experience (college students simply haven't lived long enough to have wrenched on enough cars to learn that YOU DON'T CLOSE A HOOD UNTIL YOU VERIFY IT WON'T HIT SOMETHING! )

Anyway. 

Enough of you read along when I posted that nothing went right when I left my 1969 Coronet R/T (426 max wedge, 440 six pack induction, 4 speed, Dana 60 Trak Pack 3.70s) in the hands of the company I'd been a fan of for about 14 years. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/12/when-things-go-wrong-as-they-sometimes.html 

Broken drivers side window mechanism, posted about here http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/12/so-i-havent-opened-up-door-in-decades.html probably caused by someone slamming the door, mad that they'd screwed up the battery installation

And here it is 2 months later, and I still haven't had got the rare factory race electronic ignition module (chrome box, not the orange one) back (that thing, that law, that says the parts removed from your car, belong to you, and must be returned to you if requested)  that they removed and replaced with the MSD box with rev limiter they didn't set to something over 5500 rpm, or a single phone call from management (the manager is Bruce Tucker, he replies to the reviews, and complaints, on Yelp) or the assistant manager, or the service writer - who would have prevented all this if he knew he is supposed to call the customer and contact, discuss, commune, confer, consult, inquire, converse, confab, or communicate about choices that were instead made by some idiot with a hack saw and no common sense,  so since the phones weren't used by anyone at JBA to ask me what I preferred - damage to the irreplaceable 50 year old factory fiberglass air duct, and destruction of the 440 six pack air filter base, I've stopped by several times to see if the owner was going to make good for the damage his employees did, but I got today I got a quote "shit happens" 

There you have it. Seems that once you've paid for the worst treatment a shop can do, the parting shot is "shit happens" 

Yeah, well, so does a blog that states the facts and shows the photos of the hack job. 

I just got an email response that met my recently lowered expectations from JBA inc... 

I asked Bruce Tucker, co-owner, general manager if he wanted to discuss this complaint in person, via email, or Yelp...

So... since you reply to Yelp reviews, I offer you the opportunity to reply in person, in email, or failing that, you get the choice of doing a response on Yelp.

For 14 years JBA has had me in your corner with respect, free publicity, free advertising, and coverage of your open house events, and customer appreciation days, even the car club night once. 26 posts and 14 years since I'd had a catalytic converter replaced at JBA on a Ford Probe, the same year I started blogging.

JBA has even been on my "recommended shop" list for over a decade http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/recommended%20shop

But how it handles this mess in the last last minute of the game will be in your control. Air ball or hail mary. Choke, or ticker tape parade.

It's not if we get knocked down that matters, it's if we shake it off and get back up one more time to stand tall and earn back the respect that matters.

 and his response was " I happen to be on vacation this week. However, I'm confident J has already spoken with you about your complaints. If you feel it's necessary to post a review on Yelp, it's certainly your right to do so. -Bruce"

the company manager says, I repeat for effect: I'm confident J has already spoken with you about your complaints.  Seems ignorant and dismissive, all at once, like; I don't know what we did, I don't care what we did, it doesn't matter how long you've been a friend or fan of my company, I simply don't care or have time to be interested. Again, that's the company manager to a customer, a vet, and a blogger. 

So, Jay says "Shit Happens" and Bruce responds with "post a review on Yelp? it's certainly your right to do so" 

I love when people have nothing better to say than to condescendingly tell you 'well, you've got the right to... '

Just so eloquent, and intelligent. It's not quite 'fuck off and die' but it gets the point across to me.