I'm sorry.... I've read your email three times and I can't make out the
problem...
THE F...ING KEY IS WORKING ISN'T IT?????
Marc
StuCohen@aol.com wrote:
> 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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