Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ron!  I missed saying in the post that
they agreed to pay me *after* they receive the faulty gasket back and agree
that it was 'bled right'.  Yes, their customer service and product quality
does appear above the rest, I just have concerns when this is the first
engine I bought from them, and it has failed already. Add to that the
concern of my customer, who has dropped a lot of $$ into the van to make it
'reliable', only to have it fail a week before his vacation. He is
questioning the whole idea of owning the van at this point.

Karl

----- Original Message -----
From: The Bus Depot <ron@netcarrier.com>
To: <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>; <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 11:31 PM
Subject: RE: AVP and head gasket woes.....

> > They agreed to pay me to replace the leaking gasket,
> > but indicated that "some people don't bleed the cooling
> > systems properly... Sounds to me like they are looking
> > for a way to get out of warranting some of their defects.
> > Your thoughts?
>
>
> I deal with AVP a lot, and always been very satisfied with their quality
and
> even more so with their honesty.  On the very rare occasion that I have
had
> a minor problem, they have always gone out of their way to stand behind
> their product, and generally given the consumer the benefit of any doubt.
It
> took me a while to find an engine rebuilder that I trusted and was
> comfortable with. There's a lot of garbage, and a lot of smoke and
mirrors,
> out there. Dishonest rebuilders who try to weasel out of legitimate
warranty
> claims, shoddy rebuilders whose "rebuilt" engines are little more than
used
> engines, and rebuilders who are reasonably good but much too full of
> themselves.  I've met them all. It's a shame that a company that simply
> stands behind their product and treats customers fairly, like AVP does,
> should be the exception rather than the rule, but unfortunately among the
> rebuilders I've seen that seems to be a rarity.
>
> Since they agreed to pay to replace your leaking gasket, it does not seem
at
> all that AVP is looking for a way to get out of warranting their defects.
> Quite the opposite, in fact.  Anyone other than AVP would have made you
send
> them back the engine for "examination" before agreeing to warranty
anything.
> If AVP doesn't stand behind their product, I'll be extremely surprised.
>
> - Ron Salmon
>   The Bus Depot, Inc.
>   http://www.busdepot.com
>   (215) 234-VWVW
>