My relentless fab experience

I got an aluminum bumper also and had to drill the mounting holes out and add more washers on one side to get it to fit. I also had noticed as you did when sitting on the ground it only had 3 points of contact. Maybe an aluminum thing?

 

Max (maxmillion###) doesn't work for Relentless Fab

I do agree that the business model is slightly off when you have multiple delays etc. Maybe it's time to look into hiring into someone else to do paper work, and give a hand around the shop. So Eric can focus on fabricating pieces as the wait time is starting to become a little on the long side which from this thread is apparent he is loosing business from.

 

I apologize to Max, the signature made me think he did...

As a business you provide two things: customer service and the product. Neither were good and that's the definition of a poor business model...

 

Damn sorry to hear about your woes OP. The bumper is sick, but the fitment would bother me. I'm sure Eric will chime in and attempt to right things. Best of luck. Truck looks great.

 

sounds shitty... i absolutely HATE not having people be up front with me. if its going to be 6 months say its going to be 6 months.

hope things work out to your satisfaction by the end.

 

Why the hell are you going off on Max ?

 

He thought Max was repping Relentless because of his sig.

 

Mike, the bumper looks good, I'll give you that. Can't wait to see it in person.

This is why I ALWAYS tell people "worst case scenario let's shoot for X, I will try to have it done sooner, but plan for the worst, hope for the best". I'm not saying build yourself a giant cushion and say "8 months" assuming the customer will be happy when it is done in 6, because chances are if you tell me 8 months, I am going somewhere else. The patience required for something like this is something I will never have, Mike I commend you.

 

To be quite honest, it kinda is a legit excuse. It takes time to hone in on actual turnaround times, especially as demand grows.

To be honest, Eric either needs to raise the price of the product or state a new turnaround time.

Your product isn't going to line up perfectly. It's assembled by hand. If you look at the rest of your vehicle and then look at the exact same year Taco, the measurements of the truck are going to be different. When I had Mr. Marv make me a sub box, I had to give him a hojillion measurements. He'd say, "measure this, it should be about 25 inches." I'd measure, and it would be 27 inches. On a part from an assembly line, made by TOYOTA.

You want him to go faster. Fast, Cheap, Quality, pick two.

Compare some of these small shop products, let's just go with sliders since it's an easy product to compare. Relentless, Elite, Beefed, etc. Consider the cost, fitment, and quality. About $300 roughly, plus shipping.
Another similar sized shop is Metal-Tech. They have two (possibly 3 now) workers. They are more established, have extra quantity on hand, and have a shop that's been around for several years. They can probably get you things quicker, it will be painted, and quality might be better as well. Their product is $800 plus shipping.
Now, a big shop. DeMello. About $400 plus shipping unpainted. How much of that do you think is actual product vs. markup? How many products do you think they have to ship to offer that price? How many welds get inspected?

Comparing a small business to a large business and expecting apples to apples is not possible.

 

Consider what you paid for the bumper and the amount of time a single person was able to deliver upon.

Now, what allows CBI/Demello/ARB/etc to deliver faster?

-UPS or Fedex established account: Eric, Tim, and the other small guys have to use Fastenal to keep costs down. To qualify for UPS/Fedex, you have to ship a minimum number of orders. If you want those guys to ship faster, you are going to have to pony up the money. A quick estimate on Fedex says shipping for 1 pallet would be $1,700 from Reno to me. Compare to Fastenal at $75.

-Quicker turnaround due to stock on hand: To do this you have to have the space to store your items while making sure you inventory turnover remains high. you have to have to equity to be able to do this.

-Order fulfillment: My company has a TEAM of people that are dedicated to just this task, and have college degrees on the subject. Warehouse dimensioning, bin layout, TI-HI, JIT delivery only begin to touch what's going on. in a previous job, I spent a year with a team of folks reviewing the fastest way to get a forklift through the warehouse - we considered aisle width, how many aisles, length of aisles, how many rows on an aisle, turn radius of the forklift, best and worst case order resolution, how to group product, where to mount the barcode scanner, what barcode scanner to buy, electronic vs. paper picking sheets, optimum placement of picking stations, optimum number of picking stations, optimum number of concurrent forklift movements, and fastest paths from shipping dock to the picking stations. This only STARTS covering the issues we dealt with.

-extra workers who are trained and dedicated to specific tasks.

-equipment: if they are smart these small shops are sinking every dime into getting better equipment to meet demand. If it breaks, they have to eat ramen and take out a loan. Their tools are probably hand tools or Craftsman and they have to cart it home. CBI, ARB, etc., have an on-site maintenance team. Also, they have a Snap-On or MAC tools representative with special rates. Their welders and benders are most likely automated and part of an assembly line. If something goes down, there's a practiced drill to restore that equipment. Afterwards, there's a meeting to discuss minimum downtime and research automation uptime.

-I already mentioned automation

-KPIs, business methodologies, and meetings to review and enhance business speed and best practices.

Additionally, you required feedback. Consider how many other people are requiring feedback and updates.

This includes phone calls for order placement
This includes customer credit resolution
This includes shipment update calls
This includes special order placement emails and phone calls
This includes forum updates as well
This includes new product announcements

Consider that as a single business owner you don't have time off, you work weekends, you are handling all western time zones, and you have to deal with guys who are awake at 2am pouncing you for a status update.

 

LOL have you ever seen an All-Pro bumper? KalamaKid had to use a dead blow hammer to get his on.

Overall, I'm saying that dealing with a small business is going to require some patience. If you are unhappy and the shop (Eric) doesn't offer a resolution that is satisfactory, then there is cause for concern, but even the big shops get complaints.

 

The price of the product is not the issue with Relentless products, no one is complaining about the price. Raising it will not solve anything.

It's the customer service aspect in relation to the price of the product you are purchasing.

All those shops stated started off in the same boat. It's all about risk & expansion to make it (some get a lucky break) but most go through the same process & I believe Relentless is at that the step before the next stage if it wants continuous growth with the demand it has for it's products.

All big companies started as small companies, and there's no "secret" to business, it's all about willing to take the risks & abilities to get there

Relentless makes a good product & would like to see them succeed & grow!

 

Raising prices reduces demand. Hand in hand, the quality should raise as a result.

Well said! (Why do I always take the long way of saying it?)

At this point Eric can either go boutique (high cost, high quality, low orders) or grow to mainstream (automation, additional workers, etc., maintain prices, high volume sales)

 

I get around this by finding quality vendors that I *KNOW* will do the job right, and telling them to just let me know when it's done and what the bill is.

Works better that way. I don't have to bother them much, they can take their time and do their work.

What's everyone worried about? You gonna sell your truck before the bumper's finished?

Chickenmunga made most of the points I would've. Saved me some typing.

Dealing with small businesses isn't like dealing with Wal-Fucking-Mart. There are advantages and disadvantages. Research and decide what's most important to you specifically.

 

True, they'll have to find profit in relation to demand to determine whether or not to change the price.

Agreed

 

Hey with your Kings, did you notice any sag after the bumper was installed? (did you adjust your setting?)

 

From what I understand Eric is working on improving his turnaround times. As already stated he's a one man show. He just bought a cnc cutter so that will help some. He also said something about hiring some help.

As far as the fitment of your bumper, I'd give him a shout.

 

The biggest success or failure for any business plain and simple is communication. There is no question that Relentless provides an excellent product at a great price.

 

I'm also surprised no one mentioned:

The fitment can almost certainly be corrected by adjusting the mounting nuts/bolts, shimming with washers where needed. Shouldn't be too difficult to get even.

 

OZ did.