CBi Offroad... customer battles for product

UPDATE: CBi has offered to refund the shipping. Still waiting on the refund, but it drops the sliders to a much more reasonable 690$... still a lot, but much better than original. Also, had to delay the arrival of the sliders for the week due to snow, and access to the Island... good news, this is our second "snow-day" this week... so that's something. Coming from Colorado, it's amazing how quickly this island shuts down over 8-12" of snow over a week's time. Even the grocery stores have been raided. Us CO boys are dying! lol

 

Figure it’s because of the attached below ..

You a CT?

 

So this thread is a lot of bad news to me. Ordered October 15th, wanted to get in long before the black friday crowd, and I had a kid due at the end of January(now born and healthy) so I wanted to get my bumper and get it installed before he got here. I was quoted no more than 12 weeks, which would be January 7th. I waited patiently, checked with my vendor a couple times, mainly about ordering different stuff. First week of January rolls around, I check in seeing if my bumper is going to ship, and I get back "mid to late January at the latest". Okay no big deal, the holidays slow everything down. Couple more weeks go by, still no bumper, I check in "oh it's in powdercoat, should be finishing up in a week or so". Great! Again little delays happen. Couple weeks go by and I check in on friday like i had been the last few weeks. "Bumper should be done and shipping today(last friday) or monday(this week)". Great! No updates Monday, no updates today, I hit my vendor up which I really hate to do since I hate being a tough customer, and he tells me he has no idea where my bumper is and he hasnt heard anything from CBI since it went to powdercoat. Now I'm worried I've been fingerfucked along for the last 17 weeks, 5 weeks longer than the latest quoted delivery date, and that my bumper isnt going to get here for another month. Heres the deal, I already sold my SSO bumper to a local guy, so hes waiting on my bumper to get here aswell before I help him install his. If I don't get my bumper I'll have to give him the money he put down back, and find another buyer. I'm also selling my house and moving across country within the next 2 months, my garage is full of shit, and I'll need to move stuff inside my house in order to install the bumper. If the bumper even gets here before I move. If I knew it was going to take 17+ weeks to get my bumper, I would've cancelled and ordered a demello, or c4, or mobtown bumper at the beginning of January and almost had it by now. I'm now stuck with problems I have to figure out how to solve because CBI hasnt made their promised ship times, I pray for y'all who ordered after black friday. I have a feeling I would have my bumper by now if I had more followers on the gram.

 

People making excuses for CBI with the pelfreybilt fallout is starting to sound like obama using bush as a excuse for everything that went wrong after 2008.

 

Congratulations on the becoming a father. It's a roller coaster man.

 

Thank you, actually my second son, I also have a crazy 2.5 year old.

Don't worry, I'm moving back east, and I've already selected you guys for my rear bumper. Not just for the locale, but because you guys make a high cut rear with backup sensors and dual swing arms, and that's the freaking heat!

 

Nope, AO... you know, the whole IYAOYAS thing!

 

Most vendors have always had 4-12 week lead times depending on vendor, and now it’s longer because a top vendor went under.

It also seems to be a communication gap between you, whoever you ordered through, and CBI. I would call CBI directly as your middle man appears to be giving you the business.

 

The A stands for ‘are’ twice, right?

Only AO I had ever met was one of my RDCs. Seemed pretty cool off line, but the right amount of insane to want to be an RDC at Great Lakes.

 

We are certainly a different breed of Sailor, that's for sure.

 

I’m on week 15 waiting for my bumpers and LCA skids.

 

I'm sitting on 12 weeks waiting for my DCLB sliders too. Severely disappointed with the lack of updates and response to emails.

 

That’s about what I waited for my sliders from BAMF, and they’re 4 months out now I think.

Am I missing it or do they not list lead times on their site (or is it just their mobile site)?

 

Called CBI directly and spoke with Kenny, I recommend y'all do the same if you're worried about the status of your order. He was very helpful, went down and personally checked on the bumper. Turns out is a couple down in the production queue, and should be getting welded up on Monday, finished tuesday at the latest, and off to powdercoat. So I have roughly 2 weeks left, so looking at a total of 19-20 weeks from order to delivery if that helps anyone out. Like I said, call Kenny, it's a lot less stressful having concrete information.

The frustrating thing is really that it was NOT in powdercoat, and it was NOT getting ready for shipping when I was told it was. If I was made aware of the wait time I probably would've timed my order for it to arrive after I move, but this was intended to be installed well before then and well before my new baby was to arrive. It is what it is.

 

If you all are buying CBI products from someone not named CBK Offroad (second party vendor) and getting bad lead times / the runaround, post who they are... and call CBI.

 

It seriously is the only way to get information. Call them directly, speak to Kenny if you can, e-mailing is simply a dead-zone. I don't know if they have one person there that casually responds to the 100's of e-mails they get per day, or if it is just really that small of an outfit. But, I would personally think that response to customers who are already paying customers would be a top priority... just my $0.02.

 

So if you guys are waiting 12-15 weeks for sliders...
...How long is it gonna take for me to get a rear bumper with swing out ? 5-6 months ?

 

What do you consider a small operation? It truly is a very small company. And most of the people they have are hard at it working to build the stuff and get it boxed/palletized and out the door to the shipper or running the stuff to and from the powdercoater. I would say 3 people, sometimes 4 are the ones that do all email, phone calls, accounting and social media/IT work. And that is for CBI and Prinsu. On top of that they have the engineer that is working on new products. The reason for the waits is because it is not just one guy that grabs one chunk of steel and makes it from start to finish. That was how it use to be 9 years ago and we were back up for 24 weeks and still had orders being placed every day. The way it has to be done now to meet demands is that the steel has to go through a whole process of getting cut out , then wait at the bender, then wait at tubing if it has tubing, then wait for the welder to hand weld it. Some of the wait times at each station could be up to a week. If equipment doesn't break or need maintenance. Also when doing the more odd items like DCLB sliders they may take even longer as it takes a certain amount of products to be done at a time to change all the settings on the plasma table and such. More poplar items like rear or front bumpers won't always take more time just because they are more popular, but because of that, they might actually be less time. But I can assure you that this is a great product and well worth the wait. Any of the products. And CBI has been around for going on 20 years now, has the capital to pay the employees, and is not a fly by night fab shop. They are an extremely great group of people and I can tell you that in no way are they trying to play with lead times to hide anything from anyone. They really are just a giant operation compared to where they started, but in the same sense, still a small production facility. The original owner/fabricator, Steve, still works there and is the lead fabricator. And the only way to a product is to get in line and wait, it will be worth it. And the wait is the wait, it doesn't matter how many instagram followers you have. If your lead time is 12 weeks and you have heard nothing on the 12th week, then check with them. Don't get nervous and freak out on week 10 that you haven't received a shipper. It is all about communication and timing of the communication on both parties. Yes things happens, I am not trying to downplay that some of the orders have not met deadlines and I am not trying to offend those that have valid questions or scenarios that did not play out perfect. But to those that have any questions about the company, they are all real legit people and employees that are not trying to intentionally screw someone over. But they people and mistakes are made. And yes, I have a passion for the company because I was one of Steve's first customers way back in 2000 and have seen the struggles, trials, tribulations, and efforts that have been put forth to keep the business going and do what it takes to build a product that anyone can stand behind. When Hal stepped in and purchased CBI from Steve, it is exactly what the company needed. It was way to much for a one man show and needed the business sense and capital to take the next step and improve on the building of the products. That is why Steve still works there, it is still something that is his passion and can still stand behind. And Kenny, he was also one of Steve's early customers and now works there as well and he has seen it all and knows what kind of a company he is working for. To put it short, The juice is worth the squeeze or the protection/style/quality is worth the wait.

 

Theres a difference between a 12 week wait time that actually ends up being 12 weeks, and a 12 week wait time that becomes 20 weeks. I have no beef with CBI, they make a good product, that's why it's so popular. I guess the guys at fault really are a variety of vendors that pushed out 12 week wait times to customers to secure orders, and then haven't been getting their story straight when delays happen. They need to be quoting accurate lead times, even if it is 20 weeks, and even if it leads people to choose demello with their 6 week wait time or C4 with their 9. If anything wait times should be a overestimation. I'm happy now that I know my bumper is getting welded up tomorrow or Monday, and I'm not getting told that it's in powdercoat and getting ready to ship like I have been for the last month. So yeah absolutely reach out to CBI directly.