[dlotz]

It appeared almost as if they new we wanted the valve stems to be in line and just did the shortest amount of work to get them there, this causing other problems. Here is the last email chain:

From: Me
To: "Keith Craft"
Sent: Monday, March 22
Keith
I am not sure what is going on here, but I am at the point of complete
disappointment with these heads. Where the valve stems did look pretty level we discovered a nightmare when we went to assemble the heads. The exhaust seats were still all out of wack and the adjustment made to get the valve stems at equal lengths was achieved by cutting down the valve margin on the exhaust valves! Some of them to
the point where there is absolutely NO margin left in them at all. I just don’t understand why anyone would cut down the valve margin on a valve. It’s the kind of stuff you would expect from an Autozone or NAPA machine shop, but not a high performance shop that has been building high performance engines.
In addition to the exhaust valves being destroyed and completely useless, every last one of the valve guides were cracked! And not just slightly cracked, some of them were split so bad that the crack propagated past the seat area where it could easily be seen at a distance.
To date I have endured the added cost of sending one head back to you to weld a crack in the exhaust runner ($45 shipping), Another $70 in shipping plus $300 for the second repair for you to fix the valve seats, and now I need to replace all of the exhaust seats, exhaust valves, valve guides and do another complete valve job. I am looking at another $750 just to get these heads in the “Great” condition you advertised them being in the first place.
I believe you know me as a pretty fair and easy going person form our
previous discussions and I am not trying to be a Jerk here, but this is
just unacceptable and has been a very very disappointing and costly expense. I have attached a few pictures to show you what we received and what we had to deal with.
I do not want to ship these back and forth across the country again and delay my build any longer, not to mention, run the risk of them getting damaged or lost in transit. I am going to have the work done here locally by a third party shop and I would appreciate you standing by your reputation that is talked about on all the forums and reimburse me for a majority, if not all, of these added costs that I have had to endure in order to get these heads into the great condition you advertised them to be in. Let me know what you want to do.


From: Keith Craft
Sent: Monday, March 22
Just let me buy the heads back. Everybody has an opinion and I am not going to get into a deal with this guy on the heads. He has his opinion and I have mine. I do not know if you have even seen the heads and I know that the valves have not been cut down beyond being used. I am just as sick as you are about this deal and do not need the hasle. I will buy the heads back for the original price and that is more than most people would do in this business world for sure. I am sure that the guy wants to sell you some heads.
I did those heads myself and know that there is nothing there that will
cause a problem. I have been doing NHRA Super Stock and Stocker heads that have set national records and still have national records. I am tired of this guy you are working with so just send them back. I am tired of him bashing my stuff that he does not know what he is talking about. Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one but that does not make them all right. I think this guy has filled you full of crap.
Thanks, Keith Craft

From: Keith Craft
Sent: Monday, March 22
Looked at the pictures and I see nothing that would have caused a problem. I bronze guide liner is what the guide is riding against and the crack would look the same 20,000 miles down the road. [b]I see nothing wrong with the valves that I can see. I will not pay to have anyone else work on the heads. I will only buy them back at what I sold them to you for. That is the deal so put all of the parts in a box and send them back to me and I will re-fund your money but I will not pay any other shop any money to work on the heads. This is their opinion against mine. If you want your money back just send the heads back.
Thanks, Keith Craft

From: Keith Craft
Sent: Monday, March 22
After thinking about this I think someone is trying to make some money of you. I would have given you a 2 year, 24,000 mile warranty on these heads to work fine and give no problems. Why in the world would someone need to put new seats in the heads, that is just stupid. I just did that on the exhaust side. I do not think they know what they are looking at or just need to make some money of you. Like I said there is no problem with the exhaust valves and this is what they are telling you because you do not know about cylinder heads You just
need to buy some from them and then they will be happy.
Thanks, Keith

To: Keith Craft
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Keith
Yes, I have seen the heads and I do not appreciate you insulting my
intelligence in saying that I do not know what I am talking about. I am not just some guy in the Army that opens his wallet for a turn key car, I do have a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and have been working on cars for quite a few years. Yeah, I don't do head work like you may do with NHRA titles in all, but then again, I'm not running in the NHRA with this car!
It doesn't take a seasoned veteran head shop to see that the valve margin is too shallow on some of those valves and that they would fail shortly after being run. And just to let you know, I went to three different shops (that's what third party means) and they all said the same thing. The first person I asked for a non-biased opinion was my cousin that heads up GM's Performance Group Testing and Engineering Division, so he wasn't looking to make money from me.
It is apparent that this is just going to start a he said she said battle
and won't go anywhere. I'm not going to send the heads back to you to buy back at the original sales price, I am already $400 past the "original price" as it is!
I contacted you professionally as one of your customers and you failed to respond in the same manner. Lets just part our ways, call it over and know that I, nor anyone else I talk to, will be bringing any future business your way.

From: Keith Craft <shellyc@iocc.com>
Date: Monday, March 22, 2010
That sounds good to me.
Good luck, Keith

After that response, I posted the pictures on the forum, just to see if I was indeed expecting too much. After the run on the forums I sent Keith this email:

From: Me
Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Keith
I was just wondering if you had a chance to reconsider your decision? I can see/understand you not willing to pay for another shop's work, but are you even willing to consider at least refunding the $370 for the last repair bill (plus shipping) you charged me and maybe even the replacement costs for the new parts I had to purchase?
There seems to be a lot of buzz throughout the community about this topic and I need to know what your final stance is and weather or not you are willing to negotiate/discuss.
Let me know

From: Keith Craft
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010
There is always a lot of opinions on anything posted on the internet. I
have seen the things that you have posted and you always have the people that know everything chiming in. They all need to go into business since they are all so smart. Personal I felt very good about the heads when they left and even did some extra port work on the bowls for you. I also have talked with people and several have had the same thing happen on the guide deal and ran them just like me with no problem what so ever. When ever you take another shops work somewhere else you normally get these kinds of results.
I see no reason to replace any seats in the heads at all and they will
probably screw them up and make the valve job deeper or leave sharp edges where they install the seats. I would put new exhaust valves in and if I replace those few guides just touch up those seats. You might have .020 difference in the seat heights at the most and you can trim the stem to equalize the length on the top end. We cut the valves all different thicknesses on original heads to equalize the ccs in the chambers because we do not want to sink any of the seats that we do not have to. This is pretty common on factory heads even when the seat are the same height because the chambers will vary in the head. The original 428CJ head always came out with one chamber smaller because the casting had the top of the chamber higher than the rest. We always had to run a thinner valve in this chamber. No matter what you were told the valves would not have caused hot spots on the head.
Here is what I will do to try and make you happy is give you 300.00 and a set of new exhaust valves. You have already been trying to make me look bad on the internet and this will not help that any. Since the damage is done and you say that you will only say bad things about us and tell other people to not do business with us I do not know why I would do anything at this point. It is always ok for me to get screwed over by customers trading me stuff and such but if I get anything out that someone else thinks is bad then I am the bad guy. But I always try to make everyone happy and have for 25 years now. No matter what your other people say and tell you there would have not been any problems with the heads or I would have not sent them out.
Thanks,
Keith Craft

From: Me
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010 7:29 PM
Keith
That will be fine.
You can send me a money order, Paypal to this address, <OMIT ADRESS> or credit back onto my CC if you still have the number. You can send the valves to me or just comp me the value of the valves and not send any valves at all. It's your call.
Dan

From: Keith Craft <shellyc@iocc.com>
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010 0:29
I will do and I am sorry for the problems you have had. If I do any original heads in the future I will make sure that all the bases are covered and I know what the customer expects to see. I hope this will make things right between us and that we can put this behind us.
Thanks,
Keith Craft

So a week went buy without receiving the refund or valves so I sent this email:

From: Me
To: Keith Craft
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 8:52 PM
Keith
Did you send the refund and valves yet? I haven't seen anything on this end
yet.
Let me know

To which I received this reply:
From: Keith Craft
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2010
I will get it handled today. I had not heard from you and wanted to make
sure that was what you wanted to do.
Thanks, Keith

Now I don’t understand the “I did not hear from you” comment because he replied to my email on March 26th that told him were to send the money order and valves to!

It is clear that Keith has decided NOT to refund my money. The heads have been completely rebuilt with the correct valve job and new bronze valve guides made. They are on the engine and running strong, and my peace of mind that they will not fail was worth the extra $700 expense.

So there it all is, in black and white direct emails between Keith and myself with nothing to hide. Hopefully this will help anyone else considering doing business with Keith Craft. I am sure he has done right by other customers, but he did not treat me that well. Maybe it was because I only spent $2000 and not tens of thousands for a car or complete motor.

Again I am sorry for this LONG post, but I hope this helps someone else in the future.