GA Tacoma Owners BS Thread

I'd normally just say he's always been bad about communication and that just give him way more time than you think he needs, and he will definitely get it to you eventually; BUT, its common knowledge he's selling/has possibly already sold the business, so I'd definitely go the route of refund if you have any doubts. I still have some SOS items on my truck, but I'm not necessarily proud to represent him. I guess at the end of the day, metal is metal and I bought it for a job, not a rolling marketing statement lol.

 

On the ridgid tools deals; Looks like the best buys I've seen are the "build your own kit" option. Two 4.0 batteries, charger, bag, and tool of choice for $150-250. If I just needed some more batteries, I'd definitely snag one of those deals with a jigsaw, circular saw, or reciprocating saw.

 

What bugs me is I wanted custom piece, which was just the center section of a 12-15 bumper. Communication was great and they worked with me on it which saved some money. IT was next day replies up until the paypal invoice was placed. Last email I got was a 5 week ETA and now nothing.

 

From the sounds of it, he's running the entire business by himself, and he was never a good businessman (in my own personal opinion; its okay for anyone to disagree with me). I think he lost all of the help he had for reasons that will probably never make it to TW, but thats pure speculation of course. It just really sounds like he's trying to sell himself out of a really deep hole he dug himself into. I'm with Alan though, if someones hanging onto my hard earned money, I expect crystal clear communication and expectations. The fact that he's unwilling to just simply send out a mass email with a stupidly brief, very few details email that simply says something along the lines of "I apologize for any delays; due to ___, lead times have been extended X-amount of weeks". Thats not a hard task at all, and someone whos willing to run their business into the ground at the expense of paying customers, just so they can bail out last minute with some change, thats shady to me.

 

its the $99 deal that I jumped on yesterday. I couldn't pass it up being the batteries I have are 5-6 years old and don't seem to hold juice very long anymore.

 

I love my ridgid tools. My only regret is a battery powered belt sander. Wish I would've gone corded. It eats batteries like crazy!

 

With SOS on the way out is there any legit fab shops left on the east coast? I believe MOB town folded up ( I hope Im wrong on mobtown and should probably google this to find out). SSO is out of Louisiana and does good work from what I have seen.

 

Mobtown closed a while back; theres a thread somewhere. I'll link it when I find it. I'm also curious what else is closeby and reliable.

Edit: here's Mobtown closure thread;
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mobtown-offroad-closure.735599/

 

I usually grab most of my batteries from direct tools, they have a store up in Calhoun. They ran a sale a while back and walked out with a 9ah for $100.

This is what I was referring to as to Ridgid getting rid of the good batteries.

https://youtu.be/jaZo1e4OvWk

 

10-4. I ordered. Thanks guys!

 

I will be in Columbia the weekend of Aug 9th for a Whiskey Myers concert if someone needs me to transports something back to Atlanta for them.

 

Bashfab makes some pretty good stuff, I'm looking on getting his rear bumper for my truck sometime. Probably the only one left on east coast.

I will say the only company that has shitty communication that I 100% trust is Bruteforce Fab. Billy has horrible communication but he is basically a one man shop, once you get him on the phone tho you'll see why I trust him. Radio silence for 85% of the time but you'll get your bumpers and what not for cheaper and probably better quality

 

Thanks for that.

I am (used to be) familiar with the 20R/22R engines, and now the 4.0L. I was a Ford guy in between...

Before you hacks rag on me, I swapped a 300 HP 5.0L fuel injected engine into my '93 Ranger - damn thing looked factory! Sounded sweet as well - headers and dual Flowmasters. Ah, the memories......

 

Whisky Myers? Should be an awesome show!

 

He can be hit or miss depending on how drunk he is before/during the show haha but always a good time.

 

Yep.

I bought some skids from them. I had read all the reviews of skids not fitting, but was assured by someone on TW (a brand advocate) that the person making the incorrect skids had been fired and the template had been updated. They are close enough that I could avoid shipping and I have a friend who runs a fab shop, so I know first hand some of the difficulties of running a fab shop. So I decided to support a local-ish small business.

The skids were ready on time and I picked them up at the shop. I was hoping to install them there, but I had my son with me and we were running late to the monster truck show in Lavonia. So I got the skids, put them in the bed of the truck and figured I'd install when I got home. Except they didn't fit, so I couldn't install the IFS. The mid skid doesn't work without the IFS, so I had 2 of 3 skids that I couldn't install. The xfer case skid requires drilling the frame (which was not in the description, but perhaps I should have known) and I wasn't going to drill the frame to install only to have to slide it back and drill another hole when I got the xfer case skid installed. <-- If that doesn't make sense, they utilize the bolts that stick through the middle cross member. When the transmission skid is installed, it is essentially a spacer between the cross member and the xfer case skid.

Up to that point, everything was going good. I contacted Eddie and he asked questions and had me send them pictures. After a week of silence, he told me that I could come pick up a new skid. After some back and forth, he agreed to ship me a new one with a return label for the bad one. It took a while, but it did show up. There was no return label and the replacement didn't fit any better than the first one. So I reached back out several times by email and phone....both asking about the return label and fitment issues. I never heard from them again.

I did submit a dispute through PayPal, as that was pretty much my only recourse. I generally don't share that part of my story, but figured it might be worth it if someone is truly being screwed. If you are in the same boat of being ghosted both by phone and email, you can dispute it through PayPal (assuming they still have you pay through them) or whoever is your bank or card issuer.

I am not saying anything good or bad about them. I am merely stating my experience. They seem like good people when you meet them, but I continue to hear and read about poor quality of work and non-existent communications. I hope that they will figure out how to right the wrongs...whether that be communication and order tracking, product fitment, or other. It's great to have some off-road product representation in the southeast.

 

this is a fair assessment from my exprience with Billy. But if I had to buy again from him I would and would recommend him to others as well.

 

If you registered them, they will send you free replacements.

Don't forget Bud Built! They are in NC and top tier from what I understand.

 

I tried to get my shop into the offroad market when we have been slow, but since covid hit we found a niche market doing industrial repair work/re-manufacture ones and twos and cannot keep up at all. Were half and half machine and fab. Its a crazy world with steel prices not going down anytime soon. Just looked at a old order, a 1" 4 x 8 plate in 2015 was $415, and one I ordered last week was $1372