At 04:52 PM 5/9/01 -0400, Melvin Mudgett-Price wrote:
I have been quoted a price by Bob
Donalds from Boston engine for a rebuilt engine. As everyone has been
obsessed these last 2 days with giving their opinions on other vendors,
has anyone got anything to say about Bob? It's a lot of money to send to
someone I know nothing about so some positive feedback via pmail would
certainly help.
Bob, you are barred from sending an opinion.
Melvin Mudgett-Price
So your're unsure about whether to send your hard earned cash to
Boston?
FWIW, I have heard nothing but good about Beantown Bob. (Bear with
me please, in this post) The man seems to know what he's doing, and seems
to be driven toward doing it right. Plus, there are reliable
reports of good results of his handiwork. So, you got all that
going for you. What more could you want in the way of a
recommendation? We are the community that counts on recommendations
like these. Fear not, comrade!
Now Boston Bob is quite unlike Todd Hill, who espoused all sorts of
wisdom and didn't know squat in practice. A friend of mine was
taken for a ride and had to chase that bozo literally all over the
country, from Washington to Arizona, and Ohio. Ole Todd got
around. : ) He got around, but he had a particular aversion
to honoring requests to give these things back once in his
possession. He was a master at giving grandiose and varied excuses,
however, which may be a trait of these types of individuals. What
happened in that case? Persistence paid off. He was tracked
down. The transmission and the funds were recovered. In the
final hours, law enforcement had to be involved.
Note: Todd Hill claimed to have rebuilt the tranny, but photo
evidence clearly showed it to be a botched job. Whether it was out
of simple ignorance or fraud, we may never know the real truth of lurked
inside this man's head.
Interesting development: I know Boston Bob is watching this thread,
and fully aware of the tendency of list members to libel, slander, and
decapitate in ruthless fashion. Yet, this has indeed produced a
"common good" from the ashes of those burned at the stake.
Why? People are watching and taking notes, that's why. Having
made your request for advice about BB, I genuinely believe that both YOU
and BOB will benefit from a mutual agreement for him to do the motor
job. Why, specifically, you say? Because his reputation is at
stake to a far greater degree than perhaps with the local customer who
just calls from the yellow pages. He is on the stage now. He
has a motivation to build you the best Waterboxer he can. He knows
the "good" word will spread, and he will prosper -- as he
should. Excellent work should be paid an excellent price.
Likewise, he is under tremendous pressure not to deliver a product that
may fail. (Sorry Bob -- I don't know you, don't have any financial
ties to you, and certainly didn't mean to put you in the pressure cooker
for this job if it is to happen; I am really just trying to help all of
us VW followers with whatever small contribution I can try to make)
Not to say mistakes can't happen, or unforeseeable circumstances won't
intervene their ugly heads -- they are inevitable and unavoidable.
But the hallmark of a man or woman of character is the ability to take
responsibility.
Horace Kimbrell Sawyer