[jluetjen]

I appreciate your respect for the machinist. But since I work in the sales/customer service world in my day job, let's walk through the scenarios...

1) You take the appropriate parts off the engine apart and conclusively determine that there is a valve spring which is broken/missing/not set correctly. Since the heads were delivered assembled, the situation is that the "respected" machinist comes off as being something less then respectable. You've spent a bunch of time tracking down that he didn't do something that he should and now you're pi$$ed off and start telling your friends. The end result is that you're frustrated, out the dollars for the special tool and the well known machinist's reputation is damaged.

2) He takes the initiative to help you track down and fix the problem. Now he's part of the solution rather then the problem. He can help you quickly get the car back on the road and has the opportunity to make things right with you. You get your car back on the road and happily tell everyone how great the machinist was in helping to solve the problem, which may not have even been his problem. Now his reputation moves up a notch.

Admittedly, people don't always appreciate the opportunities for strategic customer service which are in front of them. Sometimes, as customers it's up to us to gently point these people in the right direction and help them to "do the right thing" before they inadvertently make things worse.

BTW - Is this machinist within driving distance of you?