Southern Style Offroad new management

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Well said.

 

I think there's plenty of proof here... to stretch the analogy it's more like all the friends know she's cheating but he's not ready to let it go even though he knows he should.

The reason folks are skeptical is threefold:

1. He "bought" a company but didn't inherit any of their cashflow or books. This is at best suspect and at worse untruthful and I'm unconvinced this is actually legal.
2. He's made no attempt to effectively communicate this change aside from responding to people desperately asking for an update, due to lack of communication, when he could transparently update the website, create an account and post here, etc. The lead times still say that you'll get your product in 120 business days. I suspect this is because he doesn't actually have access to the website because he doesn't have the articles of incorporation of the business because his name isn't on them because this sale wasn't ordinary (if there was a sale at all).
3. That he bought a company that wasn't profitable, to the point that it was having trouble staying afloat, and then took an immediate hit by effectively gifting $600,000 of merchandise should be hard for anyone to fathom.

If I'm being totally honest the fact that the person "he picked" to "come post here on his behalf" is a dormant account with 2 posts gives me the heeby jeebies.

 

I think you can both be right. Everyone should be very skeptical of SSO and what their future holds, and CaliRaised’s comments were unnecessary.

 

Personally, I actually really appreciate hearing some skepticism from a business that is intimately familiar with this community and the difficulties in keeping up stock with supply chains. It's one thing for us random folks to be like "this seems very unusual and kind of suspicious? that doesn't seem achievable?" but for someone who does this job on a daily basis to say it, it's sanity reaffirming.

 

They are also not an unbiased source, just something to keep that in mind.

edit: what I mean is their comment about offering 25% off to someone with an outstanding order. It’s just sleazy to me to churn a profit off of the situation, but that’s just my opinion.

 

Sure but as someone with a Pelfreybilt bumper that will never receive any support and an SSO bumper with a defect that will now never be repaired, their bias affirms my bias.

 

At the end of the day, the old and current owner are NOT refunding anyone’s hard earn money. Either the customers are screwed or “ potentially” going to get an item next year.

Like I mentioned, we have seen this not once or twice but several of times with multiple companies through the recent years. At the end of the day this hurts everyone in our Toyota community even us and if we can help by offering a big discount to people who have been screwed over we are going to do it.

Take it how it is but we will not sit on the side line in “hopes” of this happening.

@damonhimself @EatSleepTacos @cowfootball

 

Get your chargebacks goin. With this economy who wants to put their lost cash for some overpriced steel in the hands of some new business owner with hopes and dreams.

 

It’s true, we are not just throwing assumptions out there. Like I mentioned in my main post this is all reality.

“Could an "Investor" come in and fix this situation? Possibly? Although there is SOO much to take into consideration. This is exactly the same scenario, where someone is trying to come in and save the brand, but in reality, it will take months to source material, quote manufacturing, create custom fixtures, shipping the orders, and not to mention tons of capital to "potentially" pull this off. Also not to mention paying off thedebt they are already in.. No vendor is going to extend credit to them... Everything will need to be paid up front. Unfortunately, history does repeat itself as proven with multiple companies I have mentioned above.”

 

In any economy. People, including myself, were willing to wait for a product not because the name on the banner on the website said Southern Style Offroad but because of the reputation of the company that designed and built them. Now it's different people building them with different materials from different locations who don't even have all of the fab jigs. What you're waiting for now isn't what you were waiting for when you placed your order.

Pretend the company has a different name and is making knock off SSO bumpers. Would you place an order now with that company?

 

Precisely, and hell no I wouldn’t be placing an order. Right now this is all fairies and pixie dust.

 

As someone who is also in this boat, the way I'm looking at it is this. We can file a charge-back to protect ourselves and possibly help the new owners as they now have one less order to fill. If everything works out for SSO we can then place a new order in the future when/if the new manufacturing is up to speed. Or we can go elsewhere if we're not willing to play the waiting game.

 

We hope you can get your money back through a chargeback. It's just an awful situation, I personally got affected by the Pelfreybilt situation a few years back before we started making bumpers. I had one on order and put $1,800 into it and then they went under and my money was gone. So I take issues like this to heart.

 

I'm not a customer or related to SSO in any way.

In many of these business takeover cases, the transactions are involuntary, meaning the so-called "Investor" is actually "Creditor". They did what they have to do to recover as much of their money, as soon as possible, the business itself and customers are just collateral.

Get your money back and move on.

 

I get what you're saying, and I agree to the premise, but after 25% off, there is likely not much profit to be had.

 

We can say true to the heart, we aren't gaining anything for this. I already know tons of customers who spent $1,000+ On products back in April who have yet to get their orders, and now they are telling people it can take up to March 2024! At the end of the day, we are offering someone who worked hard for their money and can get a product right away for a great price instead of playing this "potential" game. As I said in this thread above, I was affected by the Pelfreybilt situation a few years back before we started making bumpers. If we can help out a few people, who have been screwed over, we, as a company are going to do that.

 

Lurking on this a bit and decided I want to speak up in hopes of being helpful to those affected by this.
I've been in this world as a business since 2015. I am a prior dealer of SSO and knew the owners many years back.
In the GX world and other Toyota platforms Kevin was very well known. Overall, a solid dude, and really passionate about what he did.
They built a good brand, made good product, and for the most part, gave good customer service.
I did some collaborations with them on GX470 products back in 2017. Kevin was a forerunner for the aftermarket industry for the GX470 and they were such a blast to work with back then on that build and for some subsequent Expo's. Purchased a lot of product from them as a dealer during and after that time-frame all with zero hiccups.

The fact of the matter is they've been behind the curve for a while now. Companies like C4, Cali Raised, and CBI just took too much market share and it's difficult to compete in such a small space when you have the sales / ad / marketing campaigns they run coupled with the heavy hitter partnerships they have... Not to mention (as a current dealer of all three and have personal relationships with the owners / managers) they have very healthy financials so they're in a good position in the market even if things slow down a lot.

I will not, and don't think ANYONE else should speak to the exact details of the current situation with any authority unless they are verifiably privy to the FACTS. All the statements about the potential new owner, fulfillment of prior orders, etc. etc.... it's all speculation at best.


Facts show one thing; If you've placed an order, done your due diligence trying to communicate, and have no product; file a chargeback and move on.
I was around and involved / affected by so many of the other companies that did what *APPEARS* to be happening now with SSO. Don't get your hopes up. Follow the easy and legal routes to work to get your money back from your bank / credit card company and sit back and chill.


I absolutely HATE the idea that SSO may very well be going out of business. They've had a lot of hard hits over the years with natural disasters, family health issues, and covid... Never want to see folks suffer. However, I currently own multiple businesses and have owned many others in the past. Stuff like what is *POTENTIALLY* happening doesn't just pop around a corner and surprise you. If you have a small pulse on financials you can see stuff like this coming months and months before.

I've seen too many metal product manufacturers in the Toyota industry knowingly and willingly continue to take orders knowing full-well they are slowly going out of business and getting into a hole they can't get out of. I sincerely hope that is not the case with SSO. Only time will tell when the FACTS become available.

If and when SSO makes an official statement you'll get more facts, then, but outside of that no body has anything to go off other than some really gray area details.
Stop waiting, work to get your money back through the simple and legal routes provided through your bank / credit card and move on.

 

Well said. It's just an awful situation and just hope everyone involved gets their money back or gets a product.

 

The current developments with SSO is like a broken record at this point in this industry. Facts will likely be slim, as they usually only come from people who can’t recover their cash and attempt legal action. I remember when Mobtown was supposedly being bought out and then that led nowhere.