Technical Don Hampton blowers build time...

Im curious if anyone has a Hampton blower here and how long did it take to get one from him?

Everytime I google I end at this forum so it seems there some folks that have his blower the main topic is the, 'Im furious with Hampton blowers' always pops up on google.

I commissioned him to build me a 871 complete kit back in April so its been roughly 5 months if not March or late of that month.

At the time he said 3 weeks and I would have it well Its been longer than that obviously and I call him monthly and each month he tells me it will be done at end of month since begin of June.

Should it take this long?

 

I can see why NO ONE buys from him!!!

 

Can't help you with the Hampton stuff, and will admit that this may not help you either ... but is there any possibility to get your funds returned ? ie - credit card dispute ?? If so ... I can give you a huge three thumbs up (have to count the woody) for Gary Dyers and his company, DYER'S BLOWERS. He has been around forever, and I believe his son also works there ... if by chance he has retired.

I used to send him GMC cores whenever I would find enough to fill a pallet. Guy would send me checks AFTER he received my shipped load of goodies. I never had any written agreements with Gary, nor had I ever met him in person. He's in Illinois, and I am in Texas. Looking back, I can't believe I would be so foolish to trust anyone like that .... but he would respond with an honest evaluation, and pay me for what I always expected to be paid. He even split my shipping costs with me. Crazy. That dude is awesome.

In my experience with Dyer's Blowers ... I have referred two big block Ford engined 8-71 and 6-71 guys ... and being in a boat, and a ground pounding local muscle car respectively .... both men have been happy with Gary and his continued feedback with their builds. Believe it or not, Gary will spend many minutes on the phone with you, whether trouble shooting, buying, or shooting the breeze. Again, an awesome dude.

Anyways .... good luck man, as well welcome to this joint. Yeeeeeeeehaaaa !!!

 

Mooneyham Blowers re machined and completely re built, and re polished my 6-71 in under 10 days.

 

Went completely through the conversion of my 4-71, in about 8-hours.

 

been doing business with Dyers also for years , both in the industrial side ( for Detroit diesels ) and for racing , quality stuff ... and even the rebuilt industrial stuff is excellent , we had them build 2 new ( Dyers made ) units for a V-12-92 thats used for a pulling truck and they hold up better than the stock style ones . Gary is retired the son runs the whole deal and from what I understand is the family is staying in control of the deal .

 

I read through that whole last thread on Hampton Blowers, and it is like every other thread when the subject of some company comes up.........some people had terrible experiences and some loved the guy. But as I see it, no company should run hot and cold. If you are going to be in business, good customer service should be the cornerstone of the way you operate. Your reputation is all you have, and good products are only the beginning of how people feel about you.

It sounds like Hampton is a little on the rude side (from the last thread) and, even though they seem to do good work, they take a hell of a long time and kind of put the customer's concerns behind their own. No company should ever make a customer feel as if they are doing them a favor by making them something or selling them something. I too would be getting a little pissy if I ordered something and 5 months later or two years later I didn't have what I paid for, and if I was not getting a straight story when I called.

I don't care how good a company may be at making or selling products, if they don't give me good customer service I will go somewhere else.

Don

 

Hampton does a lot of stuff for racers, gotta wonder if he is bumping other guys back and doing the racer stuff first...Not commenting on the ethics of that one way or the other, just sayin'

 

I bought a setup from him and he built me a custom intake manifold to boot. It took 4 or 5 months, but so what? I got exactly what I wanted and it turned out amazing. Hell of a nice guy too, I might add.

He doesn't ******** around. He's too busy actually doing things to have time to whine to strangers on the internet.

 

He does ******** around if he tells a customer flat out lies, takes their money and doesn't send the product. If not BS, what do you call it? Of course, he's nice -he's got the dude's money and didn't have to do anything for it. And, maybe he is really nice, but it's just bad business. Don's right.

There are quite a few places to buy a blower-or, generally, anything else. So, exactly why should anyone order from a place where there is anything less that almost universal satisfaction? One or two problems, fine, every business has them and you can't please everybody all the time. But a place that continually blows you off and takes two years instead of two months? Got to be a fool.

 

Ya'll do know that he will probably not see any of this right? First post and 68 charger.

 

Thought crossed my mind early on that he may be a friend of the "other guy"...Empty profile, no location, "timely" arrival, one post ect.

 

I'm betting he found the old post on google and was looking for some sympathy. No one posted in his short attention span and then back to google. Damn this is more interesting than the original post. Slow night or what.

 

I gt my 4.71 from dyers and I could not be happier. great customer service and from my phone call to my front door was 10 days.

 

Mike Kuhl did the 8-71 for the funny car and couldn't have been easier to deal with...he said just put a 80% load in it and turn the key.

 

Gary and Bill DYER are just plain GREAT people to deal with! They built my 471 set up and called me when they shipped it. All it took was 2 weeks, and in my hands. TOP NOTCH WORK AND SERVICE. They even gave me a bunch of cool Dyers Blowers SHIRTS.

 

Man, I thought I was a paranoid person. The only reason I saw this post was because it happened to be the featured post when I checked the HAMB at lunchtime.

Guys can knock him, but they haven't made a name for themselves building blowers so it's really a load of ****.

 

I agree 100% with your signature

 

I don't know Mr Hampton and never had any work done by him. So my comments are only about the posts themselves. WTF, new guy brings up 7 year old post to ***** about a company. If you read the old post you know that Mr. Hampton replied and explained his side of the story............. seven years ago. What happened to the days when you took care of business yourself. Talking, suing, strong arm, whatever. I know, I know you are trying to alert the m***es. I don't know who the F you are, the accused could be doing your wife or owes you drug money. I suspect that the worst possible first post on any forum would be a rant. Except maybe on CopingwithPMS.com

 

If there REALLY is a "coping with PMS" forum, I need a link...It would be the PERFECT anniversary gift for my wife...
WHOH! INCOMING!!!

 

That's funny, I didn't think it would show up like that as a link. It would have been great if it actually took you some where. I'm just having fun.....car is running great. "I'm on the top of the world mom"- James Cagney

 

that's great news. I'm looking forward to getting my AFR's on my truck. I have been rolling three intakes over in my head for several months now, either a Victor Jr, Holley 300-25, or a #7530 Team G, think I am going with the Team G, I think the Team G's shallower plenum is the ticket for the relatively small ci and 4500/6500 power band.

 

I see man, im just kinda down and out right now thinking about my blower. YES folks he does have my money, but I sent him a personal check. Firs time we talked he said 3 weeks then next month he said end of month and then next month he said end of month now we are in mid Sept. and I talked to him 2 weeks ago he said he has all parts needed back from polisher and rotors anodized and will start ***embling it.....I have a hard time believing it personally since in***ally he said 3 weeks. I just don't know what to do and I talked to Dyers who even posts on Hampton blowers facebook happy birthday said this is not like him to do this and talked to the blower shop people and they told me they can have one built within 10 days the manifold takes time, but they do have a 871 blower in stock right now for my 383 engine.

 

Beatiful blower I picked Don because he is the BEST, but the best should it take 7 months? Or 2 months? yeah Im *****y, but who wouldn't when someone has their money and not deliver as expected? not paranoid now I kinda want my money back....

Oh, well what can you do.....im sure don will tell me over the phone kiss my *** and im taking your money and not giving it back.....though we talk monthly he has been pleasant in general, but keeps telling me end of the month.....

 

Geez! You are a cynical *******. The OP stated that Googling kept linking him to the HAMB so why would he not ask a question here. He has a valid point in that Hampton keeps changing the delivery date. If he was told that it would be six months he could have accepted that or looked elsewhere. Sure Don explained his side of the story 7 years ago but that has no bearing on this case. The OP's final question was "should it be taking this long?" I don't see anything wrong with that as he did not call Hampton a shyster or rip off artist. He simply wanted some feedback from the forum which Google directed him to.

Roo

 

Seems too often here on the HAMB that the quality of the work done is inversely proportional to the supplier's ability to communicate fairly and accurately how long the work will take. A very sad situation as it leaves a very bad taste.

 

That's always been the case to some degree. The guys that do the best work do the best because they take their time, do things to their own standards rather than the industries or average customers standards and wont delegate it to an underling. Because of that, they usually have more business than they can handle. Great craftsmen are generally not great businessmen, the personality traits that make for great craftsmen are polar opposites to those that make great businessmen.
I agree with rooman, you need to just be straight with people up front about delivery time, then they can make a clear choice.

 

From the cynical *******, I hope the OP gets his stuff back. Yes its too long of a wait etc. My rant was more about taking care of business your self not surfing the web and looking for disgruntled customers. That should have been done before any business was conducted. Has this become a place to bust balls? I hope not. Warning people about shady vendors is one thing but this is just some one looking for sympathy in my opinion. Are you going to walk in a room full of people you have never met and start yelling about the guy that ripped you off on home repairs? That would be my definition of Cynical *******. Now excuse me I have to go scream at the kids on my lawn.

 

I hope you get it worked out. Don't write it off yet. You have some options available, more one on one conversations, a visit, bbb.org and lastly a lawyer. Good Luck and by the way, my name is Phil but my new tag line is Cynical *******...kind of has a nice ring to it.

 

Cynical ******* should be my Hamb name...