I was able to bring my car home last saturday,but let me start from the beginning.

I took my car to a pensacola florida shop who pulled the th 400 transmission, but was unable to go any further.

I called Keisler in July of last year, my invoice is dated July 15. That is the date I was put in line for the transmission and motor changeover. Shefi said it would take two weeks maybe three because there were cars ahead of me. I wanted to give him plenty of time so I told him to put me in line, but I wouldn't bring him the car for another three weeks so I could be first in line. I went ahead and shipped motor, radiator, and headers to his shop so we would have everything ready to go. Three weeks later I took him the car in the beginning of August. I met his lead installer/fabricator and was told of an ase certified mechanic he was soon to be hiring, neither would be employed with keisler in the coming months - it was my impression both quit. But that is only heresay.

I worked on the boats at the time so I only came in every two weeks, so I was home for my off time then gone two weeks then I called back to see if my car was ready, they had not started it. I wasn't happy that they had not called but I let it go.

So I was home for a week gone for two weeks, then I called back on my last day on the boat. Jeremy Whitehead(no longer employed by keisler) or Grey ( I can't remember who I called or who called me back) told me my transmission would be shipping soon. I explained that my car was there and that they were supposed to be finished with it. So he said the scheduler would call me back. If I remember correctly it was Jeremy who called me back, he told me to bring my car in sometime in October. I blew a fuse, I told him that my car was already there, and I was supposed to be coming to pick it up. He said he could not verify the condition of my car or if it was even there, but he would call me back. He never did.

I called back, talked to Nikki (who I wasn't able to speak to and I believe is no longer employed by keisler). She said she would call me back never did.

I asked my Dad to go check on the car. He did all was well.

Then Aron Meyer emails me to tell me my work will begin as planned on October 16. I found this insulting because this was not even going as planned, but I was happy never the less.

At somepoint Shefi calls and asks if I would like to trade the 5 and 6 in my tranny from .72/.5 to .8/.62 which we had talked about because that is what I wanted to do, but in the beginning he could not do it. So I agree even though it means I will be going with a used viper tranny

Then I call back and Shefi says that due to his techs quitting he will not be able to do the car, but he wants a knoxville area shop to do it. I call back to check progress and he tells me the deal with that shop has fallen through. He wants to send my car to Atlanta, I don't like the idea, but he will cover shipping so I agree. He says he will call me with the details. I leave for Ireland the next week so I tell him to call my dad and keep him updated.

I am not sure chronologically when, but at some point during this whole thing I call Shefi and he says the holdup is his inability to find new od gears. So I tell one of his workers, I think Aron, to try a Ford dealership, or Fortes parts connection, he tells me that Keisler is a direct tremec dealer and they don't have any parts he doesn't. But he called my a few days later to tell me he had the parts.

I fly to Ireland, spend two weeks there, then fly into Atlanta. I think great time to go check on the cars progress while I am in Atlanta. I call Shefi, he says the car never left Knoxville, he wasn't comfortable with the shops work. I believe the shops in both Atlanta and Knoxville both proved cost prohibitive which is why neither worked on my car, but that is only my opinion. This is December.
He says he has found a shop in Knoxville that can do the work and will be coming to get the car on Monday. This is in January.

Monday I call, the shop has not come to get the car, I tell Keisler I am coming to get the car figure what I owe you. He says he cannot give me the upgraded six speed because he doesn't want the problems to be addressed hours away, so he says the new shop will be working on his corvette and if they do good work he will let them do my car. All goes well with his car so I go ahead and let them do mine.

They pick up the car rebuild the front end put the motor on the stand and have everything ready to go. Bob calls me, Shefi has yet to build my tranny. So everything is being held up while Shefi builds tranny. Shefi can't deliever as promised. Breaks transmission trying to switch gears, unavoidable, but should have happened months before.

Shefi gets Bob the transmission, and Bob has it in the car a week or two later.
This is when I finally drive the car for the first time in going on a year. I like it but the speedo and tach do not work. I decide to go with 4.10 gear ratio change and come home.

Bob rebuilt my rear end, installed the new gears, rebuilt trailing arms and rear brakes, but Shefi still has not come up with the correct black box to make it work. So bye this point everyone is beginning to get tense about the money, but I refuse to pay anymore money ( by this point I had paid 4500 in good faith deposites) until I can bring the car home.

Well the Mechanic had to wait another week to get his money, but Keisler never did get the correct viper speed senser box to work so they instlalled a chevy t56 box.

I called Shefi 5 times the week before trying to get in touch with him, but he didn't have time to call until I was going to get my car in Knoxville. He told me I owed 4700 more for the install. I asked him to meet me at the shop.
When he came to the shop he had brought me both the tko flywheel and clutch for my car, we agreed he would sell them for me on consignment I was trying to foster good relations, he said he would give me 150 for the pair. He also gave me 1050 (which Jeremy Whitehead told me that keisler pays 1400 from tremec) for the gm tko I had purchased from fortes the year before. He said he could not give me anymore because it was last years model, which I pointed out was his fault. I wish I had tried to sell the clutch, flywheel and tko here on the forum, but in the moment I made the wrong decision. When I talked of money he said he wasn't making a profit as it was. He said I was asking for him to give everything to me for free. I thought it was wrong that eventhough he did not do the majority of the work he was still charging me more than the shop charged him and more than the price he had quoted in the beginning over the phone. I didn't like it when he said he was making no prifit off the tranny, but he sells the generic version of the same tranny for over 2000 less. I felt he owed me for the broken promises, but I guess the thing that made me maddest was when he said the transmission in my car was a brand new viper unit not the upgraded unit I believed it was. I couldn't believe he had waited until the day I was to pick up the car to tell me. He said he had records of telling me over the phone, but I called him a liar because I don't forget things like that.

I expected more, more professionalism, and more quality. He crushed the front bumper and the chipped hood and stripped three of the hood support bolts (which I don't know what to do about) during the short amount of time he actually worked on my car at his shop and the speedometer works so poorly I would have expected more out of myself. It doesn't work below 35 mph and bounces pretty badly after it starts to work. I know it is not the head because I had it rebuilt recently by clocks by roger. I feel cheated because I thought I was buying a kit and they used my car to fabricate the speedo, they made two crossmembers so one could be used as a template, and had to make two driveshafts. Keisler said it took 21 hours to pull the motor and half a day to pull the tranny. I didn't understand this because there was no transmission and the exhaust was already removed. I tried to talk sensibly, but my words fell on deaf ears. The only concessions that he made which was a little insulting was that he knew he would not be finished with my car in two weeks, that he was sorry but if a project ran long he was not responsible - that was not his way of doing business, and he would give me 50 for the 200 cell phone calls (I actually called probably twice that many times, but if you think that is excessive let someone lose your car and jerk you around). I was also amazed that not only was there no console plate or ebrake cover in my car he still did not have the six speed shifter plate made. I spent five hours in the shops office discussing this with Shefi himself, but finally after his insulting me and my mother, I paid him his money.

As one final insult he would not let me leave (earlier he told me I could not drive my car until everything was paid in full, but the mechanic let me) until after he had went back to his shop and had finished charging my dad's credit card (the bill from Keisler was twice what I expected and I had not brought enough cash.) He really wanted to show he was boss by refusing to take the entire payment off the credit card, he forced me to pay him what money I had in cash. There is more but this is long enough

I've been sick so I am sorry this is all a week late and I hope it is all clear please post questions. I have documentation to support some of the times and all the money. I will post if any of you wish.

Besides my Corvettes I also own a '67 Dodge Charger and belong to an on-line club for that model Charger. The people there are adamant that Keisler is a crook, and have very loudly said so many times on-line. Only once have I dealt with Keisler, and while I was happy with the quality of the parts I bought, dealing with them was a nightmare and was charged too much, which I was credited the difference after raising hell.

From where I stand, these types of problems with Keisler seem to be the rule instead of the exception. The only positive things I've ever heard abouth them are in a very few magazine reviews of their products. I guess you have to say you're from a national magazine to get good service from them.