Tacoma Lifestyle Review

Looks like they monitor this thread, so why not...

I've spent several thousand dollars with these guys since I bought my truck last December. Seemed like a decent one-stop-shop kind of place, and I had seen pretty good reviews, so if they had it listed on their site I usually went with them.

Most of my orders have been great but when it’s bad, it’s bad.

My first issue was when I ordered some rock-sliders. It was during a sale, and they clearly stated that they were made to order from the manufacturer and had a 4-6 week lead time. No problem. I paid my $1200 and waited. I didn’t hear a peep until about 6-7 weeks later, when all of a sudden my video doorbell told me someone was in the driveway. I take a look, and here is a delivery person with 200 pounds of rock sliders on a double-long pallet, dropping them on my front doorstep. Now, I’m out of town on business for a week, and I live in a development. So this is on full display for my neighbors. Luckily my wife was home at the time and I was able to call her in a panic to tell her to run after the delivery driver and get him to move it into my garage. But if it had been 10 minutes later, she would have been gone, I would have had a delivery that my wife had no way to move, and I would have had to choose between ending my trip early or having $1200 of truck parts just out there for anyone driving by to take. Moral of the story is that the minute Tacoma Lifestyle gets an order for something they dropship, you are on your own for shipping notices.

That brings me to my current problem. I wanted to put cat shields and a skid plate on my truck, and I wanted to do it all at once. So the shields show a 3-4 week lead time, and the skid says nothing about lead time, and nothing about ‘made to order’. So I figure I’ll order the shields, wait a few weeks, then order the skid plate and everything will come at once. Turns out the website is wrong. The shields are in stock and ship right away. So I immediately order the skid plate. After a few days I reach out for the lead time, and find out it’s ‘built to order’ with a 4-6 week lead time. The day before I had received a promotional email from the manufacturer saying that their skid plates are all in stock and ready to ship. So for the hell of it, I call the manufacturer and ask them about lead time. They tell me the same thing about 4-6 weeks but then mention that every other option than what I ordered (steel, powder-coated) is in stock and ready to ship. So I text Tacoma Lifestyle and ask if I can change from the steel to the aluminum (I was on the fence anyway since I don’t do any real rock-crawling, just lighter off-road stuff, and a month and a half wait made me lean towards aluminum). They tell me the lead time is exactly the same for the aluminum. So I asked to cancel the order, and then order directly from the manufacturer - hey, maybe I’ll get shipping notification and tracking this way. Tacoma Lifestyle’s customer service tells me he needs to reach out to his manager. Fair enough. I follow up 4 hours later. “We’re just waiting on the refund”. Ok. That’s weird because the order is still active… I also asked about the $40 gift card I had applied, since I had some other parts I was going to order right away, and was told I would be issued a new one. Cool.

This all happened last friday. I gave them until about noon today, and reached out again. About an hour later I hear back that “Since this is a custom order we have to cancel, there is a 15% restocking fee from the manufacturer that you have to pay. Do you want me to proceed?”. So they don’t tell me there is going to be a month and a half wait, I have to reach out to them even though they usually put that plainly on the description, they say nothing about this item being 'built to order' and now I need to pay $65 because they're just drop shipping and not holding any inventory?

Enjoy the $65. It will be the last money you get from me.

 

You’re not the only one that has dealt with this, you just happen to have more patience than others. I was waiting on a stealth shift know with switches, but gave up months ago. I called and offered more for a quick sale but nothing. Waited because I was told there would be an upgraded version dropping soon. Stopped holding my breath after months. Plenty of other shops out there.

 

That sucks man.

The other thing that drives me crazy with them is how much of a mess their website is. I actually contacted them once because I noticed a set of rims that if you picked a specific color, it was free. Like you could add as many as you wanted to your cart - normally like $250 a piece or something like that - and it was $0 per item, you just had to pay shipping. They did give me a $25 giftcard for that, so that was nice anyway.

I've had other instances where their website said one thing in the description, I reached out to the manufacturer because it didn't seem right, and the manufacturer gave me the correct info, which I relayed to them.

Writing all this out, I'm starting to feel kind of stupid, and maybe I should have seen the writing on the wall sooner.

 

I did want to follow up and say that both a manager and the owner reached out to me last night, and took care of the cancellation with no cost to me. I agree with others that it shouldn't take some kind of "public shaming" to get a decent response, but I'm hoping they are learning from this. It does seem like they're trying, so hopefully the customer service people get some kind of wake up over this. The bulk of my orders came from them and they were fine. I'm hoping they can sort out their issues with things that are drop shipped.

 

Tacoma garage is just as bad with there customer support I messaged them four times before getting a response with no real clear answer to my question and they don’t have a phone number that you can just call on there website.

 

Look closer, there is a number. I've dealt with Taco Garage several times, with no issues. As well as, speaking with them directly. There customer service has been great. Can't say the same from my experience with Tacoma Lifestyle. Just my experience

 

I looked all over there site as well as went ahead and looked at the contact information on there site with no number present, I will look again though.

 

Try 619-693-8907

 

Thank you

 

Their support service still has not improved. Basically non-existence. You cannot even talk to a person to explain things. I will avoid any more orders with them and overpriced items as well. Gus

 

When will people learn! Same story, different day. I will never deal with them again, just a sketchy middleman, always with an excuse for bad service. Good luck