Southern Style Off-road blues

The custom fab route, for most mail ordered stuff is indeed pay up front. One vendor who’s policy is different is Gobi. $1500 rack and you place your order. Once they start production they call and ask for your money.

Granted, they are a fairly big and established shop. Just got notice from them that they are FedEx’ing my last backpack from my rack order. It was a long wait too, but I’m happy with the final product.

 

I hesitate to respond, because we have been guilty of having long lead times, poor communication and extended lead times. I can't and wont speak for the guys over at SSO, But as a business that has remained open I can tell you that things have changed.

We rely heavily on other companies (vendors) that supply us with products, everything from material, laser cutting, turn signals, bolts delivery, packing supplies have all been delayed or altered in some ways. We have struggled through the past couple of weeks, taking on a new powder coater, sending things back when they aren't right, missing items from orders.

The frustration a customer has when a dead line is missed, is not lost on us. We are just as frustrated if not more. again can't speak for anyone else but every off road shop I've talked to, suffers the same delays, same issues on a regular basis, this pandemic is just making it worse. Personally, I take it home with me, I feel sick to my stomach when customers are upset that they didn't get it on-time. I've done many post here about improving our process and I meant every word of them.

As far as updates go, we do our best to update everyone. If we aren't updating or answering the phone there is a good chance we are trying to get the product out. It is not uncommon for me to jump into shipping and help get products out because we are short handed or someone called in sick that day. On those days, I may miss an e-mail or not respond right away. There are also days where we go through and update everyone (or at least think we did) and the one person that didn't get that update is the angry one to call on Monday morning. It's not uncommon for me to respond at all hours of the day or night from my phone via FB,instagram or email. It's just what's become normal now.

The industry: We live in a world of instant gratification, this combined with "my brother in-law can make that in his garage for half the price". It's hard for the smaller business like us any many if not all that are talked about on this page to stay competitive. Threads like this encourage the next guy in his garage to pick up a welding gun, or the guy that has a dad with a machine shop start working out of the back of it. They undercut the rest of us, forcing us to keep our prices low, they get super busy, then they realize why the rest of us have prices that are so high. The relative low volume and under cutting makes it difficult for us to all function with the level of customer service we'd all like to have. It also leaves the door open for larger companies who thrive on stolen idea's, cheap labor to fill that hole of "instahappy". In a perfect world either good help would be cheap or our products would be more expensive to cover the cost of good help.

I hope you get your product soon, and I hope the world gets back up and running again soon.

Stay safe guys and breath...

 

Fucking epic quote.

 

Just to let you know that they are not singling you out: I placed an order for the slimline wings. just the wings, already had the bumper. Ordered on the 10th of December 2019 and I still have not received my order.
I am incredibly happy with their products and willing to wait, but it sounds like they may have grown their customer base a little faster than they expected. Hopefully this down time gives them a chance to get caught up and come back a stronger company.
We are in a similar fabrication business, and I know that these things can happen sometimes. Especially when you are a smaller company and you need to keep your overhead low. I wish the people at SSO all the best and look forward to completing my truck, but I will say that 5/6 months of waiting is a little on the long side.

 

Holy shit what a bunch of babies on this site.

 

To be fair to the OP it sounds like his quoted lead time came and went before the Covid struck. If a company can’t deliver within quoted lead times than why should they be able to enforce their refund policies? They have every ability to give a realistic lead time. If they post an inaccurate lead time to not scare away potential customers that want things somewhat fast than they can deal with the consequences.
Communication is the key to business. If a company has poor communication they are a poorly ran business. As simple as that.

I have plenty of armor on my truck that was finished in the quoted timeframe and was not paid in full until the work was done. Do your research as a consumer and don’t buy something from a shop that has policies you don’t agree with.

 

Well there is a subforum for Vendor Reviews. Post it there. Don't come to the 3rd gen subforum, and I'm guessing try to bully them by putting their issue in front of a wider audience. Especially since they created a new account just to do that. Pretty lame. I'm guessing Karen, or whatever OP's real name is, is used to just making a loud enough stink till they get their way. Great. Maybe a couple people now won't order one of the most popular Tacoma bumpers and really stick it to them. Those people aren't customers I'd want anyway.

Just take your refund minus the 20% cause all OP did was make me feel bad for SSO.

 

This is probably nothing but it looks like their Instagram page is no longer there......or they blocked me for asking about my bumper and wings I ordered in January lol.

Edit: they blocked me after responding to their story story asking to post questions and I asked for Lead time updates :|

 

Damn maybe mine won't get here for a long time. Oh well, hope they get caught up when this disaster subsides.

 

I feel your pain man, and why I went the Body Armor route for front and rear bumper on my truck. I just couldnt pay that much up front and hurry up and wait for 5-6 months or longer for a product. Looks like you will have to wait it out or take a 20% cut on refund.

 

Wow that’s really a class act on their part. SSO’s reputation is going from bad to worse.

 

OP, you're not alone. I'm still patiently waiting for my black Friday order. I do believe that they're doing the best they can. However, they should wave the 20% fee for those who choose cancel due to extensive lead time.

 

I keep hearing the word "custom" thrown around. Doesn't that imply one of a kind? Banging bumpers out from a template over and over may not fit the meaning of "custom fabrication" any more than any other aftermarket part.

 

They made their rule so no matter what they make $...dishonest!!!, you shouldn't have to wait forever for that bumper...I would have done the same thing plus I would tell them where they can hang that bumper!

 

I too refuse to do business with a company based on a post from an anonymous person with 2 other posts that recently joined the forum about a lack of product when within the window of expected delivery, a global pandemic happened disrupting the supply chain of materials, shutting down businesses under regulated orders. I double down on my internet fury because when that company clearly states their cancellation policy fees at the time of purchase and the anonymous person with 2 other posts who recently joined the forum still complains about it, I call bullshit because reading the purchase agreement is beneath me. I then make grand proclamations about how I'll be a bad ass and tell them to put their bumper somewhere, likely up their ass, although leaving that vague because it's more fun to leave it up to the readers imagination, even though I fail to reconcile that to have the bumper to put up their ass, they'd have to first take my money, subject to a 20% cancellation fee.

This is the way.

 

I understand long lead times occur with the work at hand and this Coronavirus shut down has made it worse but as someone who is in manufacturing, not being able to inform customers who are spending upwards of 1k-2k on product about when lead time changes is unprofessional.

 

I do want to say that their product is really above and beyond what else is out there. I absolutely love the fit and finish on the front bumper I have received. It is so nice that they have spawned a few copy cat low profile front bumpers.

they seem like a company trying to do the right thing, but they might be overwhelmed by their own success for now. Coronavirus may actually help them out and give them a chance to catch up on orders and maybe expand their operations.

SSO, we have a plasma table and welders. Our operations are a bit slow right now due to Covid. We are located in Houston Texas. Let us know if you need to outsource some of the work. We would love to help you out.

 

along with a majority of other people, yes.

 

This post prompted me to look at OP's 2 other posts... Seems like a real "Karen".

 

Providing customer service 7 days a week on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, e-mail, a million forums, Reddit, via carrier pigeon, and with mind reading is one of the most exhausting parts of online business. Making the damn product is the easy part anymore