I'm happy to see that the public written support is finally evening up with the private stuff in my in box. It's appreciated ya'll.
After thinking about it a bit more ...
I bill at $25/hour across the board. I have to confess to everybody that I do this work more for the love of the CARS than the money ... so my price is low and the attention to detail is very high. I care a lot about what I do. I want my work to last for another 50 years, so I do everything in my power to preserve these pieces of car **** history. And if someone down the road can enjoy it and love it even half as much as I do when it leaves my hands, then I'm doing my job right.
I suspect at some point in every company's past someone felt about it the exact same way that I feel about my work and my own company. Sadly those days are apparently more behind than in front of us.
I have no doubt there are thousands of these valve covers sitting at swap meets, on shelves in garages, and on motors all over the world.
Rather than become defensive about this problem Rick, why not turn it around and use it for something completely positive and profitable instead???
This can be a golden customer service opportunity for you. Just an idea here ... Send everyone on your mailing list a brief announcement that the problem was recently brought to the company's attention, circulate flyers at all the major shows, take out ads in magazines, whatever Moroso usually does ...... except accompany it with a serious year-long sale on valve cover gaskets.
It will be an indirect form of apology, give everybody an opportunity to learn about the 'hanging chad' and have a chance to investigate economically at their own pace. The company will come out smelling like a rose for your timely attention to customer service, and you'd totally be the Good Guys for bringing it to the customers' attention by mail or some other typical form of advertising announcement.
And I have the feeling an awful lot of people may be needing valve cover gaskets after this. You'd probably sell a $hitload of 'em ... people would stock up just because the price was so amazing.
Anyway, I still stand behind what I see as merely a public service announcement to my friends in the hobby. Whether I was just some Jill Blow off the street (you know, Joe's sister lol) who happened to notice a problem or a business owner / site Vendor myself is immaterial. The post could have come from anybody at any time about any manner of subject, and regular forum members know this. The fact remains that there's a defect in the parts that people need to know about ... and if there's a defect there then it goes to follow that there may be defects elsewhere in parts that are sold to the automotive community without a thorough inspection.
Rick, I was honestly a bit surprised by the part of your reply where you reiterated that I should have alerted you privately first. What would you have done differently? Please remember, whatever you initially planned to do after finding out about the metal shard can still be done now.
I can't tell if your response shows that you were offended altogether, or rather felt that you had to waste your time addressing the post with corrections about your current stock. Taking that logic one more step backward, the way I see things is honestly kind of harsh but abundantly true: If Moroso had done their job right in the first place and performed decent Quality Control at the factory to eliminate the hanging chad, I could've been in my shop working instead of using my time to tell people about it.
We are both in the hotrod business and have been, your company much longer than mine and each with its own sterling reputation. We need to support each other here. As industry professionals, we all need to perform our duty to our customers and to the hobby at large to make sure they go fast, look good doing it, and DO IT SAFELY ALONG THE WAY.
In closing, the main reason I didn't write to you privately through FaceBook and used a tag instead was because I've written to you twice privately before (albeit about different subjects than this). You never responded to either one of them.
The last thing I want to do is create an enemy. I'm just trying to serve my favorite hobby in the best way I know how.
