The key works, what's the problem?
___________________________________________
Chuck Pedretti
Senior Consultant, MCSD, MCSE+I, MCDBA
Magenic Technologies
http://www.magenic.com - Magenic Technologies website
http://www.oldjeep.com - Personal website
___________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: StuCohen@aol.com [mailto:StuCohen@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 5:09 PM
To: autojumble@autox.team.net; british-cars@autox.team.net;
spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Beware of Pete Groh's British car keys
I've recently had some real problems dealing with Pete Groh, the guy in
Maryland who sells and cuts old British car keys, and I'm wondering if
anybody else has run into a similar problem.
I bought a British Leyland key blank for my Spitfire from him at British Car
Day in Bowie, MD last month. I took it to several locksmiths who refused to
cut it because it was a steel key. Pete e-mailed me that his local hardware
store would cut a steel blank, or he could cut it by code if I had the
numbers available. I e-mailed him the numbers from my production record
trace, and he said those would work. I was thrilled at the prospect of
having an original British Leyland key cut to original spec, since the only
key that came with the Spitfire when I bought it was an old copy...how many
generations down I have no idea.
So I mailed him the steel blank, along with a copy of my copy to make sure
that the hand cut matched what I already had (just in case someone had
replaced the ignition somewhere in the car's history), and a note (as well
as an e-mail) saying not use my copy for duplication, since it was already
several generations down, and asking him to contact me if there was a
problem. If for some reason the codes didn't match, I would send him my
better original copy for copying at the hardware store.
A few days later the keys came back in the mail, and the key he cut fit
fine. So I e-mailed him again asking him to cut me one more. He e-mailed
me back
asking me to send that copy I sent the previous time so he could take it
down to the hardware store again and have another copy made. I was puzzled,
since he advertises cutting keys by code and I specifically said in the note
and e-mail not to use that copy I sent for making another copy at the
hardware store, so I asked him what happened. He e-mailed me saying that
the British Leyland blanks don't fit his key cutter so he had to take it to
the hardware store for copying.
There were nearly two dozen e-mails between us. Pete uses this bizarre
e-mail short-hand in which he writes in incomplete sentences, partial words,
wrong conjugations, bad mispellings and references back to things that he
never said in the first place. So it took me several e-mails before I could
get an intelligible answer to my questions about what type of key I had
bought, and whether he could cut it. But after all of these e-mails it was
clear to him I had a British Leyland key and he wanted my code numbers to
cut
it. So I don't know why he didn't tell me he couldn't cut the key by hand
using the numbers in the first place, and why he says he cuts keys by code
if
he knows full well that the British Leyland keys (and who knows how many
other types he sells) don't fit in his cutter.
Now he won't return any of my e-mails asking why he didn't tell me that he
couldn't cut that key by hand early on and why he didn't pay any attention
to my note and e-mail saying not to use that old copy for making a copy down
at the hardware store.
I feel like I've been scammed. He clearly advertises on his webite and his
paper literature that he CUTS KEYS BY CODE, and makes no mention of
exceptions. Has anyone else had a similar experience, i.e. having trouble
communicating with him in standard written English, and finding him
misleading, evasive or just plain negligent in his business practices. If
you have a key from him, are you sure you have what you paid for? And if
you're planning on doing business with him, be forewarned about these
problems.
I'd appreciate any help with this.
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