Apologies in advance to Bob, I am not picking on you with the following but using your experience to make a point. Please don't take offense. I am sorry if I am ham handed and come off rude.
A suggestion if I may. Perhaps before running Vicks or Midwest or whomever under the bus, contact them and see how they work to solve the problem. If you can't get them to solve the problem with you then you have cause to run them under the bus and perhaps back the bus up a few times to make it clear they have done wrong. I am sure the folks at Vick (or any other vendor) didn't intend to send you a faulty part and from what he typed, they want to make good on it.
It does sound like in this case they have a part problem which is good for us to know but equally important for the vendor to know.
Yes it sucks that it didn't fit and that your project was delayed and you are deservedly miffed about it.
I think a better story for the first post of this thread would have gone something more like this:
I bought part A and found it didn't fit and I contacted the vendor and they replaced it with a good one. My new part fits great and my car is back together and they sent me a nice mug for me to drink my beer from. Oh and if you buy part A from the vendor watch to see if you have the same problem I did with the fit of whosis to the whatsis as maybe some of the other parts have the same problem.
Just a thought.
I recently bought a few (lots off) parts from a vendor, found that one of the parts flat out was not made right and another was made from an inappropriate material (or I just got the bad one). I emailed the vendor about the issues and the vendor responded right away and offered to replace the parts immediately. I actually only had them replace the one part that broke during install and I modified the other part to make it work which was satisfactory for me. The thing was, my note alerted the vendor to the possibility of more of that one part not being to spec, this allowed them modify they rest of the batch of parts. I went away happy as the vendor sent the part right away (despite my assurances they I was good and had everything back together) and I hope I helped the vendor avoid other unhappy customers. Would it have been nice and better if the parts had been right the first time? Sure. What is ultimately more important is that I treated the vendor with respect and I received great service back and the vendor showed how well they respond, fix problems and deal with their customers.
In my mind it is not as important that there was an error or a mistake but how the error or mistake was resolved and was there anything to learn from the error or mistake. That is what is important in these dealings, how we all come out in the end.
I say this because I make mistakes and errors all the time, it is ok as I am a human being, it is how I deal with and work through those mistakes that demonstrate my responsibility, integrity and consideration for others.
Having said all that I will now say this:
Yes sometimes parts don't fit due to being made wrong. This is actually quite likely on an aftermarket part given that they likely didn't have the original part drawings that the factory created to control the part so they may not be aware of how much tolerance there actually is in the OE part, the camshaft in this case. So they made parts that fit the parts they did have, their parts also have a certain amount of tolerance which can be on the high side or low side, but the items they measured may not have been the full range of what the end of the camshaft may be from the factory(ies) given how many different ones were made.
What is tolerance you ask? Tolerance is the range of sizes that part A has to allow for part B to fit part A and vice versa. Tolerance comes from the fact that you have to allow for the processes in the production of a part as a result of the machines that make the part and the materials the part is made from. Tolerances have a range because the machine doesn't run the same everyday or there may be multiple machines making the parts but each of the machines making the parts have their own range and the skill of the operator in doing the set up of the machine. The parts produced by the machine can be at one end of the tolerance range or the other even if the machine could make a 'perfect' part. Tolerance is generally expressed as a plus or minus value starting from a stated dimension. In my business, which generally doesn't make precision parts, our tolerances are generally X.XXX" +/- .020 which means it is ok to accept a part which is as much as .020 larger or smaller than the stated dimension. All the parts could fall in that .040" range and be expected to work with the other parts it is intended to be mated to without problem 995 percent of the time. Occasionally 1 part will not fit but it is very rare that two parts at the extremes of the tolerance range will come together to create a situation where they won't go together.
All things are built to tolerances and sometimes you don't create a system to hit six sigma or three sigma and the parts just will not fit. Oh and some engineers are better than others, like a lot better.
So cut folks a break, if the parts are bad and they make good on it be happy, them making it right cost them money and effort and if they are a good business they learned something. If the parts are bad and they tell you to pound sand well you know where to throw the sand!
OK I will climb down off my pulpit and you can wander off shaking your heads and muttering about what an ahole I am...
