So here's my rambling rant. I took a sprocket blank to a machine shop to have it drilled/machined to fit my bike project. The shop's in an area in Benicia close to the Camel Barns. Wear Ever MFG is the place, on Camel Rd. I'd been there approx 3 years earlier, and he was a prick then too. I figured maybe he was having a bad day, and gave him another shot. He is the only game in town that I could find.
On Tuesday I brought in the original sprocket that he could use as template. Very straight forward job for a machinist - enlarge the center hole and drill 3 mounting holes. He told me "no problem, leave it and give me a call on Friday." I showed up today and found my new sprocket sitting there with 5 holes. 3 bunched together, and the other 2 where they should be. He looked at me and said "I gave you 2 extra holes - no charge." When he saw I wasn't laughing at his joke, he took me out in the shop area and said is that going to work for you? I said I don't know... I didn't say anything more. I could tell he was gearing up for a fight. Tried to school me on machine shop work, ..."do you know what we do here?!!..." That I didn't know what all was involved in the process. (apparently he set up his machine to cut 13 holes - not 3, and caught it after the first 3 holes were drilled). I told him what I do know is my original sprocket has 3 holes, and what you did was drill 5... Then he flew off the deep end, and got in my face. Told me to take my F@#$ing business elsewhere, and to get the hell out of his shop. He never did say sorry, or that he screwed up. I stupidly paid him, and got the hell out of there. But I really had no other options. He had my sprocket that I special ordered from an outfit on the east coast, and I needed it. It will probably work, but clearly looks like someone screwed up. Now I'm feeling passive-aggressive, so here I am.
If your a DIYer or just have a little machine work that needs to be done, take your business elsewhere! read more