DeMello Off-Road trying to improve

This is not a bash on other vendor thread, this is simply a chance for us to hear from you how we can make things better.

We understand in a perfect world, everything would be on the shelf ready to go when you hit the buy button and it would get to you with out damage and install fairies riding unicorns would shoot out of the package ready to install your products.

But fairies are expensive and unicorns aren't real

So this is a chance to let us know what you'd like to see. It's maybe a chance for us to address some of the common issues all vendors have with fulfilling orders and customer service, I won't speak for other vendors but I will try to help bridge the gap from expectations to reality and maybe improve some of our processes along the way.

You can skip this part and go right to your opinion if you want or you can read a little bit and maybe get a little more understanding of the vendor life.

First of all, none of us are rich, none of us got into the off-road aftermarket to be millionaires.

I would suspect that most of us got into it for the same reason, we all loved off roading and saw from many angry post on forums like this that there was a need for someone to do it better. With in a few years any honest vendor will admit they were wrong and this is way harder than it looks.
I always can tell a seasoned vendor from a new vendor. A older vendor will read a negative post about a competing vendor and think two things, "Damn I'm glad it's not me this time and man I feel sorry for them". A newbie vendor will read it and think "ha ha how can I add to the hate wagon"

Despite what may be posted, or said around a camp fire. We really do work hard to make sure every order goes as smooth as possible. But we are human, with real human problems, our kids get sick, family members die, unexpected cost hit us, we forget, we get lied to, we give lead times based off what were told.

We never look at an order and think, how can we really piss this guy off. We can't.

Imagine your own job what ever it maybe, now imagine over your lifetime how many mistakes you make in that job. Now imagine all those mistakes being posted online for all to read and then you will have an understanding of how a vendor feels when something negative is posted.
I've accepted for years we make mistakes and have a common saying around here. "it's not about making a mistake, we are guaranteed to do that, it's how we handle it that matters" But with that, we have been taken advantage of on multiple occasions.

It's gotten worse since Amazon has become the norm, not only do people want it faster but when something isn't perfect they expect the world.

But that said, we have weekly meetings once a week and one of the things we talk about it's "screw ups" and we do work to fix and reduce those. Because of our weekly meetings we've accepted that despite being "told" that we will have something to us on a certain date and making the due date twice that dates lead time isn't enough. We often will make it 3 times the expected date because we would much rather get it to you before a "expected due date" then get it to you late. Because of this new policy we have lost some sales, because there is always that vendor who will tell you 2-4 weeks when in reality it's 4-6. We had to swallow that pill but the result has been better for us. We spend far less time explaining why our powdercoaters oven broke down for the 4th time this week and it's "still at powder coating".

Again not a thread to bash us or any other vendors. Simply things that would make your buying experience better and maybe even make our end easier and better as well.

Thank you for your time.

 

Excellent customer service is my biggest issue. It's a deal breaker for me to buy from a vendor again or not at all. I'm willing to pay a tad bit more if communication is excellent between the vendor and customer. It's a loss art I swear in this industry. Having it in stock would be awesome but I understand this is a custom part so I tend to give the vendors a lot of slack on that. I would like to be told a good ballpark for the lead time and stick to it or at least let us know ahead of time if things changes.

@HeadStrong Off-Road is a perfect example of excellent customer service. Their prices are not always the lowest but their customer service is superb

 

I was tagged in your thread which is what brought me here. I feel like your post is very earnest so I wanted to take some time and respond. For us we are a small Mom and Pop company. We don’t have hundreds of employees, a staffed call center, huge warehouses, or anything like Amazon, Jet, or the like. We are just two people dedicated to the industry. Two people who each put in close to 60-80 hour work weeks. We have earned a reputation on here for our customer service and we have done everything within our power to preserve it. We are in no way perfect and do not claim to be, but we try our very best to do what we can for our customers. Here is the thing for me. You can go above and beyond to lower costs, reduce lead times, to employ knowledgeable staff and none of this means anything if the consumer doesn’t appreciate it. I know that we, as hard as we try, still loose sales to the huge conglomerates like Amazon because they may be a dollar or two cheaper. Or the customer has Prime and can have their products in one or two days when our shipping times could be 4-7. I personally shop on Amazon but I buy things that I can’t get locally. I also buy things that cannot be defective or something I would have to worry about a warranty on. Basically I buy books and the occasional odd-and-end. But not everyone feels like that. They figure it is all on the internet anyways so what does it matter. This hurts all of us. It hurts you, it hurts me, it hurts every small business in America. Now I applaud you for coming on here and asking what you can do to help make your company the best it can be. It is commendable. However I can see how consumers also need to change. To understand that the products we sell are not like the tampons and diapers that you can also buy on Amazon and Jet. These are products, which until recent times, could have been considered special order and take 10-12 weeks to produce. That these are products go on a vehicle that is driven down the street carrying the most precious of cargo. Do you want it to come from a company that will help you every step of the way should something go wrong or do you want 2 day shipping. Now we have a ton of customers who feel like I do. They appreciate the product knowledge and the time spent with them and they will buy regardless. These things are of more value to them than a few dollars or expedited shipping. It really is everyone working together to make each other successful and happy in their endeavors and in my honest opinion Amazon is killing that relationship in every industry across the country.

 

Would have to agree with @Lord Helmet. Customer service is key in this industry and especially having a positive presence in this group as well as others. I think for the majority of us on here know these are custom parts and are willing to wait weeks for special orders especially when we are spending hundreds to thousands of dollars. In the world where Amazon seems to be king it’s the personal touch and support of your products and to customers that makes a great company. But biggest thing is being able to work with customers and give them and up front and honest explanation when or if issues arise. Mainly just standing by your product and having a presence on here. Word of mouth spreads pretty fast out on the old interwebs. Good example is All-Pro not sure what the hell happened to them but they always seemed to have a presence on here and in the off-road community, but I can tell you now that I won’t spend a dollar with them. Now they could come back but would need to prove that over time. However in the matter of a couple months they lost their reputation, a lot of customers, and got themselves banned from TW.

 

Us first gens would like your bumpers if you decide to produce them again, our bumper market has become stagnant everyone is running one of three options now.

 

Thank you for your post and feedback!

In relation to this "It is commendable. However I can see how consumers also need to change. To understand that the products we sell are not like the tampons and diapers that you can also buy on Amazon and Jet."

This is an educational thing that will take time. We too are small but have been doing this long enough to realize and understand that this industry has changed. When we first started the standard for quality was much lower, the turn around expected time was much lower between amazon and the influx of customers who come from other area's aside from the off road world expectations have gone up as well as. I have done post before and stop my self short on responding on competitors post where someone was complaining about them. I feel like if all the vendors stood together on this issue it would resolve it self. Like I said, I can tell an older vendor from a newer one. I have, more than once listen to someone complain about someone else they ordered from and reminded them that we are human too and we make mistakes too. I always say, it's not about the mistake it's about how we fix it. That being said, we have had over the top things asked of us and we struggle daily with "making it right". In the end us business owners often eat a lot of mistakes that were our fault as well as others.

Just had to eat a 2000.00 suspension that UPS destroyed. Their truck caught on fire and they agreed to payback 100.00 out of the 2000.00

 

Thank you for bringing this up. I'm sure many would love to produce a 1st gen bumper. We have one, we literally would need to do a little more R&D and release it. But the demand simply isn't there to push it ahead of all the other stuff on our plate. This combined with people demanding it to be cheaper than what's already out there. It makes for a tough market. We tend to over build, over engineer products, that takes importance over cost. Some of the newer stuff we can afford to loose a little money to be competitive because we will make it up in the long run. The older stuff is difficult to gamble like that with. That said, I'm not saying we won't release it, we just need to finish up what we already have on order.

 

That sucks! Damn.....

 

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. If I might say something, a lot of us in the 1st gen section are past the "truck is for looks" phase that many of the newest gen folks are still riding the fence of. Our trucks are old, those of us buying bumpers are searching for quality, beef, and to some extent a design that flows with the body a bit. Price is a factor for sure. But because a lot of us have been through a bumper or two (like myself) and we have truly wheeled long enough to find out what works for us and what doesn't in a lot of cases we'd be ready to spend more for a better option. The new guys just looking for something other than stock isn't a market that was really gonna be easy for you guys or anyone other than say "TrailGear" to catch and in all likelihood wouldn't be worth it either without a huge production facility and storage options. But for the first gen market if you have a solid design and produce one or two of those a month I bet you'd constantly be sold out on it without being upside down on it. Just food for thought, love that bumper that was featured in 4WOR a while ago and would love to see it produced again.

Might I add that people are still working on getting 1st gen parts produced by fab shops and getting folks signed up to start a run of any given products. Might be an option as well.

 

If you guys need a 1st gen truck to test the bumper out on for R&D, I'd be happy to set up a day or two where you could use mine. I've been looking at getting a front bumper soon. Corona isn't too far from me

 

To be a positive contributor, the single item that stands out to me is the quality of the product. Now to broaden this a little, the product is the company. When I look at products, first it has to be appealing to my eye. Not everyone else. Good honest service is about being honest. When things are busy, say so. I've had people go elsewhere when I tell them I'm booked up, but they almost always reach out in the future because of honesty. Second, you guys are fabricators, is the weld quality. If it comes down to two equally great products, who's details look better. It is not about the few dollars difference. I was talking to a friend earlier and that was actually a topic of discussion. I picked brand B or A because of welds or another small detail that was better over the other guys.

Thanks for being proactive and wanting to hear from your people.

 

Thank you for the input. We recently had a thread on this forum, so we know there is some interest. Even though we have one nearly ready for production it still takes time. Unfortunately for us we have at least 5 or 6 bumpers like this that are 90% done. We decided recently to start with the easiest and work our way to the hardest. We just released our aluminum versions of the 2010-2018 4runner and 2016-2018 version of the tacoma. If these go well it's easy to see that we will move forward with the rest at a much faster pace. Next on our long list is the Tundra 2014-2018 it's one we've had for a while we just need to finish it. It's actually about 75% done. But the market for that may be a bit more. It's a tough game for us to balance out what makes the most sense. If money was no object they would all be done asap. Thank you again for your input, I hope I have more of a for sure answer next time but it is in our minds!

 

Unfortunately we would need a 1995.5-1997 a 1998-2000 and a 2001-2004 to make a one size fits all. We would need them to be repetitively stock or at least not hammered and have their factory skid with out any dents.

Thank you though.

 

welding and building products the best we can has been job one since almost day one. We hold shop competitions almost weekly for the best welder here. I often post up pictures of our welds on our Instagram feed for others to judge. It's huge to us, sadly from what we've seen else where it is not. The other issue for us is hiring people that can weld that good. We honestly go through about 20-30 candidates for weld test when we hire a welder. Out of 20-30 we "sometimes" find 1! just one! maybe 2 that can weld to our standards. Often we dont and end up hiring someone we can train into being a better welder but start them off as a cutter or tacker.

 

Well, since you asked for feedback:

Customer service: D
Quality of Product: A

I ordered my Demello Rock Crushers for my 1st Gen and the customer service was way below average frankly.
1. Lead time: Lead time was pushed by 4-5 weeks, no follow up calls notifying me.
I had to chase the date constantly for these things as they were being shipped to my installer. Couldn't ever get a good date.
Timeframe was approx. Oct 2016.

2. Responsiveness: Never got a call proactively for these sliders. That's the frustrating part for me. I don't care if its 3 months late, just tell me so I can tell my installer.
Would leave vms, wouldn't get a callback. Send an email, might get a response. I could only get answers if I happen to hit while a human was at a desk.
I believe your g/f or wife answered the phone each time and she couldn't be nicer, however, would be good to start calling your customers proactively if the lead times slip. Don't tell me next day, or next week 5 times in a row.
To say the customer service aspect of this transaction was unprofessional would be an understatement. I was calm and she was apologetic but it shouldn't be me chasing information. I bet a real dick on the phone is a fun one to deal with when all this happens and I'm sure the shops have some stories here. But that's not me...just trying to get my sliders.

3. Incorrect product/Shipping address: After many calls asking for an update, someone realized they made the wrong sliders. I ordered weld on, these were bolt on. Holy shit.
My installer said ship them, we can weld them on and your rep said that is true.
Shipping was also screwed up, you had the wrong street address on the package but your rep caught while I was on the phone to confirm shipping address. Wow.
After all this, I honestly didnt know what I was going to get from Demello w.r.t. product quality/fit and finish.

4. Quality: Out-fucking-standing. Could not be happier. Welds were perfect and beefy, fit was exact, coating I ordered was applied flawlessly. They look fantastic.
My installer loved them but stated it was a bit tight on the driver side but besides that, great product.
Kids use them to get up in my truck, I get tons of compliments on them at gas stations and they served more than one purpose during Hurricane Harvey. Had people standing on them as we took people out from the flood waters to rally zones in some neighborhoods, used them to climb laterally into my truck bed from the side vs that back if needed, etc. No time for pics had too much going on as you can imagine.


Bottomline: Communication. I get the Amazon phenomenon of "instant shipping and instant gratification" vs "Ma and Pop" off-road shops being small endeavors at best, but I didnt have unrealistic expectations either. I order, you make and this takes time. I get it. We are paying for your expertise in a certain custom product. But if you don't couple your quality of work with quality communications (internal comms with proper product creation/options and external comms for the customer), you could lose business from word of mouth and that is golden to these small shops. I never got that once from Demello. Here's a tip: call the customer a week after expected shipment arrival and just ask "hey, how is everything"? Particularly after a screw up like this. Make a point to call your customers or email them. This TW board would light up with glowing reviews as customer service is dead in the US. Problem is, these shops are so small that they are always busy and a few (many?) frustrated customers may not materially affect their backlog and these shops may not know it or care about it.

Thanks for taking the time to ask for feedback; that ask alone is progressive and hope you see my experience as constructive input as I intended.

Unfortunate your 1st Gen bumper concept isn't coming to light. I for one would have liked to have seen the quality you could have infused into that design.

 

Thank you for the feed back. Since your order in 2016 we have made changes that help reduce stories like this, unfortunately it still happens. We know it's an issue and it's something we are working towards. Tiffany is not a girl friend or wife, more like a sister. She does her best to be a buffer between customers and inflated lead times as well as screw ups. But you are right, we are all small shops and we all try really hard to keep up with customers and calling them back. It's something that happens every Friday here but often gets set aside for more pressing issues. BUT it's through feed back like this that we are going to have to work harder. Thank you again for your feedback.

 

Probably 4 or 5 years ago I got a set of sliders only thing I wish was different is that they didn't bend and get a hole in them but better the slider then my cab. No matter what it is rocks don't like metal. Took them off but going to be welding them back on. bent right at the weld

 

I just ordered the new overlander series aluminum front bumper so I will be updating once I get em and see the quality.

PRICE: A
COMMUNICATION: A-

Price- I gave an A due to the pre-order deal y’all are/were giving out for the first run/batch. It was exactly what I was looking for and the price is on par with most bumpers. Heard good quality products comes out of yalls shop so I can’t wait to see it and test them out.

Communication/customer service- Great customer service with Tiffany. Reason for mark down was cause I got the vibe that it is unsure whether the Baja loop lo-pro would work with the sensor in the grille on the 2018s. However, I was assured at the end that it would work by Tiffany, but I’m still worried it might not since there seemed to be a bit confusion at first. It is a new product and understand there may not be any feedback on them.

I am excited to be part of the first ones that gets to order the new bumpers with the amazing deal y’all provided!
As many have mentioned, it would be nice to get updates once a week or every other week on the progress of the order. My installer is a local shop that builds off-road buggies and their main focus is overseas build and national events like the recent KoH so I need to always keep them informed to make time for me since they are just doing me a favor by working on my truck, charging me a lot less than normal shops and half their employees are sometimes gone for racing/off-roading events or overseas for customer service.

 

ok what's the story behind these? I've never seen a set of sliders do this?

 

I had a decent experience with Demello.

Customer Service was good, updates aren't as great or as I would like them but it does happen.


I wish though that install instructions could be found online etc. I know most of it is straight forward but looking at some black and white photos on a printed out sheet kinda sucks. Also for products that are recommended (Baja Squadron ) that some quick install or additional hardware tips be available. I bought them direct from BD because of a sale only to find that they don't mount direct out of the box and I had to make a run to Home Depot to find some hardware that would work.

Hell even some install videos would be nice, care tips, recommendations, videos of the product in action.


Lastly, I know that other vendors are slowly trying to come out with Powder Coat touch up kits. Be nice to have something like that as well. Thankfully another member recommended using the Professional Bed Liner (Rustoelum) and it worked out nicely. I know there are a bunch of disclaimers with PC but still would be nice, and yes I know there is never an easy way to touch that up.


All in all great products and great company to deal with.