If you have had a bad experience with Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas please contact me, Steve Haines at 817-776-4320 as we are putting together a list of current and former unsatisifed customers of Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas. With the help of my attorney I was able to get my 69 Chevelle SS out of the possession of Smoky Hill Restoration in December 2007. What I went through during the almost two years the car was at Smoky Hill Restoration was one of the very worst business experiences of my life, and having been in business for myself for over 30 years I have seen a lot. We are now in the process of filing several law suits within the next few days to try and recover the original parts that Smoky Hill Restoration refused to return to me when we picked up the car in December. Unfortunately, it appears that Smoky Hill Restoration sold or did something with most of my original parts needed to complete the restoration during the time the car was there.  

Wow.  Mr. Haines has been spreading this story around to every media outlet possilbe, that doesn't require any sort of proof.

I welcome anyone and everyone to come by our shop, or give us a call and ask us about Mr. Haines.  We would be more than happy to show anyone the countless SIGNED invoices and contracts from Mr. Haines, as well as a complete breakdown with pictures of the work we did to his car.

We currently have over 20 projects in our shop, and we work on a rotating schedule (meaning that "x" amount of time is allotted to each vehicle per week.  This was described, in detail, to Mr. Haines, and his signature verifies that this was discussed. We will also be putting the ENTIRE set of progress pictures back on our website shortly. We NEVER removed them due to his "legal actions." We are having the site re-designed, and it simply takes time to switch everything over.

We will happily give you the details on his so-called "legal action," and how well that didn't work for him.

I also encourage you to call up Mr. Haines and ask him about his car's progress now.  He pulled his car from our shop because we just weren't working fast enough to suit him (we wouldn't drop everything for him.) Yet, his car still remains uncompleted at his new shop of choice.

It is also interesting that he states that he is "putting together a list of unsatisfied customers," when he is the ONLY unsatisfied customer to EVER leave our shop.  

We will be getting the pictures of his car, as well as scanned copies of ALL of his "law suits" which was dropped, by the way.  

If you enjoy being harassed for advance payments without associated work progress. If you like being ostracized and ignored for asking questions about work to be performed. If you like unaccountability and fraudulant bids that are meaningless. If you enjoy being given cost amounts then having those numbers change every other week after the vendor thinks you are in to far to back out. Then, you will really enjoy doing business with Bill and Wanda Hart and Smoky Hill Restoration. Visit their shop, and take a long hard look. Give me a call before you decide to do anything, I will provide the facts about my experience and additional names of former customers with similar, if not worse experiences.

Steve Haines
817-776-4320
steve@sales-r-up.com
Granbury, Texas  

Whatever happened to the maxim "the customer is always right?"

It would seem that a shop which allegedly loses or misplaces or (worse yet) sells valuable original parts and takes in so much work that it cannot complete a fairly simple restoration in two long years (A mass-produced '69 Chevelle SS is hardly as difficult to restore as a classic Duesenburg or a Gullwing Mercedes), isn't keeping the customers happy and apparently has too much business.

On the other hand, almost everybody who has dealt with the general public has encountered unreasonable people who can never be satisfied.

Now we're wondering if Smoky Hill is another bunch of incompetent and unethical sleaze like the infamous Unique Performance or if Mr. Haines is just an unreasonably disgruntled former customer defaming a hard-working business.  

We're all awaiting the facts on this one to develop. We encourage the parties to post their proof so that inquiring minds can decide.  

Thanks for the post and for your thoughts on this matter. Not sure how much space I can take to submit the proof you request but I will certainly try. Your comparison to Unique is good and illistrates the same treatment I have received from Smoky Hill Restoration. The only difference is that I brought the original car to them and did not buy it from them as a part of a package like Unique. My problems started a few months after I brought the car to them when they started requesting sizeable advances be made for work that was agreed too in several proposals covering the work to be performed. These advances created expecations for performance that were never met without substantial amounts of frustration, aggrevation and demands that I was forced to make in person, on the phone, using e-mail and in letters in order for them to meet the committments that were established in the proposals. Not once in almost two years did they make any deadline for a task to be completed. And, when questioned they immediately went on the defense and would not return calls, or any other form of communications I would use. Ultimately this constant upheaval destroyed the project for me and caused me to finally take the actions that I  did, removing the car from their shop. I can also elborate on many other workmanship problems associated to the fabrication work they did, how they handled parts that I purchased, and sadly, how they tried on more than one occassion to increase their pricing on written bids. Hope these comments address your request.

Steve Haines
Granbury, Texas
817-776-4320
steve@sales-r-up.com