VM Diesel Specialists

greiswig · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:11 pm

flman wrote:

Well it looks like some loser, some where on the planet messed it up, they will no longer take credit cards or paypal for more then 250 pounds, so I had to make a transfer via Western Union. I guess they got burnt?

If you're trying to imply that I am that person, I'm not. All my bills are paid in full, and I can prove it. PayPal should cover both parties in any case in the event of a dispute. But they also didn't send out anything before it was paid for!

The only outstanding issue with my purchase is that I need to ship the "hours old" rocker assemblies back to them on my bill, at which point they have promised to refund my purchase price for them.

They are an...interesting company to work with. I think we started to lose confidence in one another when I sent them a picture of one of the rockers they had sent me as "hours old," but it showed a lot of wear. "That's not one of the ones we sent you" was the reply. Okay...now what? In the end, I had already spent too much time trying to negotiate with them, and decided to cut my losses. Hopefully they WILL refund my money. But I wouldn't be too surprised if they decided that dealing with Yanks wasn't worth the trouble. Too bad for both of us: they have a much larger market here, I bet, than in the UK.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:50 pm

Not so much - These engines are used in the black cabs (London taxis) as well as in at least a few styles of minivan and other vehicles.

Then there is the industrial uses, marine uses, generators, forklifts, etc... This is a popular engine everywhere OTHER than here.

greiswig · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:03 pm

Bummer, then. Well, FWIW I kept things cordial and professional and I have the emails to prove it. And like I said, they won't ship anything until they are paid anyway, so I can't see how they would have been ripped off by someone here. Maybe they didn't realize they had to pay PayPal fees?

flman · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:04 pm

greiswig wrote:

flman wrote:

Well it looks like some loser, some where on the planet messed it up, they will no longer take credit cards or paypal for more then 250 pounds, so I had to make a transfer via Western Union. I guess they got burnt?

If you're trying to imply that I am that person, I'm not. All my bills are paid in full, and I can prove it. PayPal should cover both parties in any case in the event of a dispute. But they also didn't send out anything before it was paid for!

Kind of harsh to think I was implying any thing, I did not say some loser on lost, I said on the planet, assuming they ship any where on the globe.

BTW, I agree the seller needs protection as well.

greiswig · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:38 pm

No worries then, flman. Since it appeared in a thread I started and in which I outlined some issues, it didn't feel like a stretch to me. Apologies.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:01 pm

When I dealt with them, I just got up at OMG-o'clock and talked to them directly on the phone. Lovely lady answered and then I also spoke to George, they didn't have a problem with credit card processing. (other than Visa being jerks and cancelling that transaction for 'fraud protection' which is a laugh I will detail later)

I wouldn't have ordered the rockers from them anyway anymore (That was what I ordered back then) because now IDparts sells them and they are confirmed new and boxed, for less than George charges. I hope if I need a head, that they will do it with Visa again, b/c I don't have or use Western Union for anything. Way too easy for a scammer to use that, it is what the Nigerians prefer.

The Visa automatic fraud protection is a complete farce though. When the Ipad 2 came out, I bought one on day 1 of the availability in Best Buy. Nice new shiny for me... Ooh, lunchtime and I'm hungry for Five Guys burgers. Transaction denied! The idiots had closed the card automatically for 'fraud protection' and prevented me from buying a fraudulent hamburger. :roll:

A few years prior to that, I was planning a trip to London and other places. Tickets purchased from a US website. And I get a phone call the next day with a man apologizing that they would not be able to accommodate my tickets because their Thames Dinner Cruise can only seat 10 people, not the 15 tickets (at $100 EACH!) that had been bought.

This was the MERCHANT calling from London, letting me know about a very fraudulent transaction that Visa had completely missed. When I called Visa about it, they also had no flags on that transaction. But they stopped me from buying fraudulent hamburgers.

flman · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:08 pm

My Visa was declined when I used it to pay VMS with the Western Union online site. So I guess it is pretty standard and in our favor. I had a few credit cards used in fraudulent way, and it was always an overseas transaction. I would not have to get out of bed too early, VMS and George were shooting me emails between 6 and 7AM EST, so no night call for me.

omaharacer · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:17 am

I'll share my experience w/ VM Specialist since they recently contacted me through eBay to have my negative feedback removed after over 2 years.
I ordered a set of rockers/lifters from them via an international eBay listing they had at the time. They gave a few excuses for a couple weeks about shipping, then stopped responding completely. I had to file a claim through PayPal to get my money back. I ordered a set of rockers/lifters from someone else, shipped from Ukraine to Omaha (in 3 days) for less money.
The recent contact from them via eBay messaging were claiming (in September), that they wanted the negative feedback removed because they claim the person running the eBay account "did not relay the information about my complaint to the manager".
From past experience with them, they were pulling apart VM Motori engines, and selling the engine parts as "lightly used" when they should have been thrown away. I would stay far away from them.

greiswig · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:56 am

I really did get the impression that they were trying to help, and I hope to have a positive report when I get my money back. The cylinder head they sent was in great shape. If they don't refund my money for the rockers, I will report back.

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:31 pm

They DO pull engines apart and part them out, that is true. I would expect nothing less when buying a cylinder head, but I would also expect to be notified of such facts when placing the order.

The rockers that I ordered from them (the only thing I ever purchased, and it was before IDparts started stocking them) came in individual white factory boxes, obviously only lightly coated in factory machine oil, and marked as made in Poland on the boxes. If you got something different, I would be highly unhappy too, especially if you weren't notified prior to the sale.

greiswig · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:49 pm

geordi wrote:

They DO pull engines apart and part them out, that is true. I would expect nothing less when buying a cylinder head, but I would also expect to be notified of such facts when placing the order.

The rockers that I ordered from them (the only thing I ever purchased, and it was before IDparts started stocking them) came in individual white factory boxes, obviously only lightly coated in factory machine oil, and marked as made in Poland on the boxes. If you got something different, I would be highly unhappy too, especially if you weren't notified prior to the sale.

I, at least, was clearly ordering and paying for a "lightly used" set of rockers and HLA's. So it wasn't a price dispute for me. The issue that I had is covered elsewhere in this forum ("Rocker arm wear" it the thread title), and has to do with the sheer amount of wear on most of the rockers they sent me. All but two of them were in at least as bad shape as my 140k rockers, and I at least knew the history on those, whereas the ones I got in a plastic bag all piled in together and in different conditions and different styles...no idea.

Then the response when I sent them a photo of one of their own rockers alongside one of mine and asked them to guess which was which... "We haven't sent any rockers that resemble these photos here." That was pretty offputting.

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:01 pm

Sorry to say this, as it probably sounds harsh... But I wouldn't have ever ordered "lightly used" rockers from anywhere. They are a wear item, and certainly are the designed failure point.

How much cheaper could they have been than the fresh ones from IDparts?

greiswig · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:19 pm

geordi wrote:

How much cheaper could they have been than the fresh ones from IDparts?

A lot. And if they really did have only a few hours on them, I wouldn't have a problem with putting them in as near-new. Two of the 16 were like that.

flman · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2014 6:53 pm

So I got the head today, I could almost say it looks like new if it did not have the grooves where the old head gasket was hitting the sleeves, or does the sleeve hit the head? I forgot.

geordi · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:58 am

Sleeve hits the head - Maybe it had the wrong gasket installed?

Are they actual grooves pushed into the aluminum, or is it just in the soot? I can't imagine the compressive force that would have impressed into the head and NOT crushed the rest of the thing. Wow.

greiswig · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:59 am

The gasket embossments leave grooves in the aluminum. Easy to mistake those for where the sleeve hits. :oops:

Compare,the diameter of the markings on the head with your old gasket, and I bet you find the gasket made them.

flman · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:26 pm

Not really groves, but an obvious circle, it I did not see it I would mistake it for a brand new head.

Mike92104 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:35 pm

geordi wrote:

Sleeve hits the head - Maybe it had the wrong gasket installed?

Are they actual grooves pushed into the aluminum, or is it just in the soot? I can't imagine the compressive force that would have impressed into the head and NOT crushed the rest of the thing. Wow.

The sleeves DO NOT hit the head. I'm not sure why you keep insisting that they do.

greiswig · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:16 pm

Mike92104 wrote:

The sleeves DO NOT hit the head. I'm not sure why you keep insisting that they do.

Yeah, I think if they did, you'd have another problem. And I think you'd end up bowing the head as you torqued it down.

I'm betting that the thinnest version of the head gasket (1.32mm) is supposed to be thicker than the highest point above the block that any of the sleeves should ever be. Otherwise you are making for a one-use head if you are lucky enough for it to last that long.

geordi · **Posted:** Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:04 am

Mike92104 wrote:

geordi wrote:

Sleeve hits the head - Maybe it had the wrong gasket installed?

Are they actual grooves pushed into the aluminum, or is it just in the soot? I can't imagine the compressive force that would have impressed into the head and NOT crushed the rest of the thing. Wow.

The sleeves DO NOT hit the head. I'm not sure why you keep insisting that they do.

Chill out - If you read the post immediately above mine, you will see that I was quoting what FLman posted. I'm not "insisting" anything about these, other than they leak with factory bolts.

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