You're right Sean, when you're brake package works it seems to work great. I was totally set to buy your kit, then a day or two later I saw what happened to Ken's again. At the time I had no idea whether it was an installation problem, faulty part, etc. (I still don't). But I sat back and watched how the situation got handled. I waited over a month before ordering up a brake kit from another vendor just to see what you guys would work out. And BTW, it's a different brake kit than what's on Ken's car. This was all 3 months ago and you haven't offered up a penny yet.
I know you're in a bad situation, maybe for the first time. Ken was asking for a full refund because he was really pissed about travelling to the track for a weekend and coming home scared Saturday morning. Does Ken deserve a full refund? Of course not. Does he deserve to eat the $7K and chalk it up as just a bum kit? Of course not. I think there is a compromise somewhere in the middle. Honestly, telling him that you'll take the kit back and resell it isn't exactly going the extra mile. I don't see why it matters if the parts are inspected and diagnosed before you'll make a decision. Only one of two things will happen. 1) The parts are individually fine, but just don't work well with each other (master/booster issues) or 2) The parts are bad. Either way, it's not his fault.
Even you pointed out that the people who put the kit together know what they're doing, so it's not their fault. Then you try to make it look like the shop is on your side because they don't work on the car anymore. They don't work on the car because Ken has a new brake kit that works great and because he no longer has any money whatsoever and can't even think about racing for a few months minimum.
Remember, you even stated that you had to help him with payments etc (great customer service). Anybody that's been to a ViperDays event and watched him scrounge through the discarded Hoosier section because he's never been able to afford new tires knows he's not in a financial situation to buy multiple brake kits. Is this your fault? Of course not. But you make it look like he's just screwing with you because he bought another system. He did what all of us would do and bought another system because he was scared to death of this system. His brakes locked up at close to 100mph over before Magic Mountain at Buttonwillow. He was on the backside of the hill praying a car wouldn't miss the yellow and crush him. Then his car caught fire. He would've lost a $70K car with no insurance (racetrack). Would you give it this brake kit another go? Certainly not. This is also the car he drove to work. He wouldn't even drive to work with it just in case it locked up on the 101 freeway, he'd be sure to be dead. All of these experts coming up with possible fixes are nice, but this isn't a set of roller rockers going bad, this is this car's and this kid's life at stake.
The only reason why I didn't order your kit was because I thought it was wrong to chastise him for driving too hard and make him pay for all new parts, then tell him that he needs a host of others to keep the brakes cool. THAT was your solution. I think all of the experts agree that the heat causes a massive problem upstream. Nobody is sure what that problem is, but trying to solve the heat issue with more $$$ isn't the fix. Then YOU come on here and launch what can only be seen as a preemptive strike under the guise of an opinion. C'mon, all you wanted was opinions huh? Why go on this board? You can get an opinion anywhere else on the internet--hell write Dear Abbey, she'll tell you what to do. You knew that he was pissed as hell and would give you the Hennessey treatment. Why wouldn't he? He's got NO other recourse at all. You're in Florida; he's in CA, period. You didn't offer up a penny out of your own pocket to fix the problem with your brakes. Even after you came on here and got grilled, you said you'd do the right thing. Well the right thing isn't offering up to sell his used parts for him.
He's out $7K, and you're out nothing. It's your bad kit. Of all of these posts (which of course got deleted by some lovely moderator/admin because somebody upstairs likes you & your name isn't Hennessey), not one person came up with a solution for Ken. You included. Is it really unreasonable to give him a refund on the purchase price of the kit? You lose the money you already made, but get the parts back to sell. He's out $3-4000 in labor, tires, track fees, etc. Nobody is a winner, but at least he doesn't eat 100% of this. You're resting your hat on the fact that he hasn't sent the parts back. Would you? All you've offered is to resell them for him. You never offered any kind of refund whatsoever.
You're in a bad situation. I really do feel sorry for you. Hell, I didn't want to get in the middle of it because I've ordered **** near all of your parts (and they've been flawless). The last thing I need was to make enemies of you. You know that...I've talked to on the phone for at least an hour regarding various things...mostly me wanting to order your kit. But when all of these fools jump on here and their advice is that he's an idiot and that he can't drive, and it's his fault that his car goes into E-brake mode, it's **** near impossible not to respond. When your cronies respond with stupidity (and a moderator of all people deletes the original thread) it makes you look bad and keeps the debate going.
You're a nice guy, always helpful; everybody on this board loves you and can't see anything objectively. I on the other hand think it's outrageous for you to not offer up a single penny for a refund and that's why I no longer choose to be a "satisfied customer". I'm might be the only one, and that's fine. Am I his attorney? Nope, I just play one on the internet. He's not responding because you've ingored the situation up until now. But when your gang (amazingly headed by some moderator/admin) circles around the wagon and somehow manages to place blame on a guy who's out $7K when you're not out anything don't expect me (or others that aren't trying to defend you merely because you're a nice guy) not to respond. So that's my hour-long, overly wordy explanation of why I didn't buy your brake kit.