Is 4 months too long?

If I was you i would try to get them back from him in no matter what shape they are in. NEVER PAY IN ADVANCE. Pay only when they are ready to ship. ANYONE who wants more than 20% in advance is on the shady side. I would also report him to the sight moderator to see if you can get his add pulled. This kind of vendor service is hurting the web-sight. I think that the Texas Attorney Generals office might be interested also. It's time for George Lesho to "Put up or Shut up"

FROM THE VENDOR’S WEBSITE:

“The amount of time we spend on any set varies depending on the type of assembly and problems encountered. Average work time for all sets would be ABOUT one workday.

IF YOUR ORDER IS NOT IN THE QUEUE BELOW, (the queue lists 20 customers) IT HAS NOT REACHED THE OLDEST ORDERS. PLEASE DO NOT ASK US HOW MANY SETS ARE IN FRONT OF YOUR ORDER OR WHEN YOU WILL MAKE IT ONTO QUEUE. THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN SAY UNTIL YOU MAKE THE LIST AND IT TAKES MUCH TIME TO RESPOND TO THESE REQUESTS FOR UPDATES. IF YOU MAKE THIS TYPE REQUEST, WE WILL NOT REPEAT NOT BE ABLE TO RESPOND. DO NOT ASK US TO UPDATE THE QUEUE. WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO KEEP IT UPDATED.

I KNOW you want your carburetors back as quickly as possible but we just won't hurry or rush our work as quality will suffer.

If you decide that you don't want your carburetors rebuilt while waiting for the work to begin, or you purchase a set of carburetors and then decide you do not want the carburetors we do not offer refunds. Sorry. Once you pay for your order, this is a contract for work.“

OK, let’s do some math. If it takes on average 1 workday to rebuild a set of carbs, at least 20 sets should be completed per month. If you have waited 4 months already (4 X 20 = 80) and you are not yet on the list of top 20, there were at the very least 100 (80 + 20 = 100) sets ahead of you when you sent the carbs in for repair. That 100 sets will take approximated 5 months before yours is started. BUT, the question not answered is how far away from the top 20 list are you after 4 months? There may have been 300 sets ahead of you, and it may take 15 months for you to get your carbs back. You have no way of knowing!

Three issues come to my mind.

1. Clearly there was a queue of at least 100 carbs when you sent yours in. Knowing that there was a 5+ month backlog, why would the vendor continue to solicit and accept more work? I would think that even a 2 month backlog of work would ensure steady income. A couple (I’m sure there are others) risks arise from having too much backlog - customers get angry at long turnaround time especially if illness or other interruptions to workflow slow turnaround even further; a fire or other problem might destroy hundreds instead of dozens of carb sets – are they covered by insurance.

2. It seems to me that the vendor must track the carb sets received and would therefore know the number of sets backlogged. I would think that since the vendor knows the total number of sets in the queue and knows it takes an average of 1 workday per set it would take minimal effort to give an estimate on the website that could be updated once a week or so. In other words, if I know I have 200 sets of carbs waiting to be rebuilt I know the turnaround time is approximately 200 workdays for the next set received. It should take but a minute to post this estimate on the website. The website in question states the vendor had some helpers that subsequently left therefore increasing turnaround time. Even this situation doesn’t make the math complicated. It may change the average time per carb set and the overall turnaround time, but the formula itself (number of carbs/average # of days per carb) doesn’t change so the average turnaround time could still be posted even though it may change from week to week as more or less staff is involved.

3. Not giving a turnaround estimate, requiring payment up front, and not giving a refund if a customer can no longer wait for service is a really lousy policy combination. It can only lead to frustration on the part of the customer. This is further exacerbated by the fact that the customer is instructed not to even contact the vendor for a status if they are not on the top 20 list. I can’t say I would be willing to use the service given these conditions.

depends on the situation

George has helped me with some simple idle circuit cleaning instructions here on kzrider that i needed to get riding...and he also has answered questions for many others including other posts i had about air screw turns ect...
He has been there to answer questions back when he logged on often,and before folks tore into him about stuff related to this threads issues(right or wrong)
So i feel indebted to him for his help very early on as i joined and was asking questions i bet he has answered too often ,over and over,

do i think folks have legit complaints...yes and no...

as i said before ...ask a lot of questions when mailing or paying in advance...when able

trianglelaguna wrote:

George has helped me with some simple idle circuit cleaning instructions here on kzrider that i needed to get riding...and he also has answered questions for many others including other posts i had about air screw turns ect...
He has been there to answer questions back when he logged on often,and before folks tore into him about stuff related to this threads issues(right or wrong)
So i feel indebted to him for his help very early on as i joined and was asking questions i bet he has answered too often ,over and over,

do i think folks have legit complaints...yes and no...

as i said before ...ask a lot of questions when mailing or paying in advance...when able

In the past WG contributed tons of free, great advice/instructions to folks through this site. He stopped when he and his business were repeatedly slammed by some folks on this site. That was a loss to the members of this site and it's a shame it happened. I have never sent carbs to him (or anyone, I do my own work) so I only know what I read from others PLUS his own policies clearly outlined on his website. Having read his policies, I sincerely believe he could improve his businesses's reputation by addressing the 3 issues I outlined above. Ed

I should start rebuilding carburettors. Heck, $400 for a coupla hours work sounds good to me. I'll throw in the jet kits for free! lol

I wish it only took 2 hours to strip, clean and assemble a set of carbs... I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to my carbs. The last set of Z1 VM28's I did took me over 8 hours - I don't rush, but I doubt I could do a set in under 6-7 hours and be happy I thoroughly cleaned them.

I sent him my BS34 and they work great now. It's like no one has any faith or patients any more. Haven't been on his site lately and don't intend to.

4 months is a long time. But really, you knew before hand you were waiting in line, right?

Shame everyone is so quick to bash him.

Yes that is a long time to wait, maybee he should hire some help? Expand the buisness, buy some new software to keep tabs of what is where and when? And lastly for giving up your Grande Latte for four months you could of had the Mikuni RS 34mm flatslide Smoothies.....

speechless

to me cleaning a set of carbs is not cosmetic ,its physically making sure the passages and jets will flow air and fuel properly thus being able to tune the engine properly. which is the most important thing as far as i'm concerened

to me cleaning a set of carbs is not cosmetic ,its physically making sure the passages and jets will flow air and fuel properly thus being able to tune the engine properly. which is the most important thing as far as I'm concerned

absolutely!!!!!!!there is not one thing a person should skimp on when cleaning these carbs,,, you can't,, it i will always bite you in the rear