Official Tennessee Thread

I like stories. Do tell!

 

I have mixed opinion of them so far.

 

I can harbor them in Knoxville if needed. I also make Asheville runs a lot

Edit: Posted in your thread

 

If you dealt with Tyler, I believe it.

So i contacted them the week after we got back from the LBL trip about doing front and rear on the 4Runner. A few people had great experiences with them, and I was excited to spend $3600 on suspension. Spoke with Tyler, and at the very beginning of the call I told him, the fronts will be easy, but in the back it's going to have to be something custom because I have a lot going on back there with long travel. We covered the fronts, then when we got to the rear, he didn't believe my measurements, questioned me multiple times about it, and couldn't come up with anything that would work. I needed something that was 17.5" compressed, and 28.5" extended. He finally suggested an F150 rear shock, but I'd have to make custom mounts. I didn't know why he didn't just suggest a generic 12" shock oif I was going to have to do custom mounts, but I'm not the "expert." He said he'd get back to me in a day or two to try and find something better.

Five days later I still hadn't heard anything, so I sent an email to their customer service link from the website. Tyler contacted me again after that, and apologized because they had been busy with races etc. In the meantime of waiting on him, I found that a front shock for a JK with 4-6" of lift was 17.3" compressed and 28.8" extended, had a top stud mount and a lower eye mount. All it needed to have changed was the lower bushing. I told him about it, and got back "yeah I guess those would work." Ultimately I placed my order, with the knowledge that the rear shocks would take some time because they didn't have them in stock.

A week later the fronts show up and I get them installed, and I'm super happy again. This is what I was spending my money on, and it was great. I couldn't wait for the rerewards to show up. We're into the end off of March now, and entering major Coronatine. I emailed again asking about an updated timeline, and was told that they're still waiting on my shocks, but it should be the end off of April still.

Three more weeks, not a peep, so I email again to ask about my rears. "Oh, Fox has shut down production on that line because of the quarantine, so we don't know when it will be." I was pissed, not because they couldn't get what I needed...I understand that. Throughout this entire process I received zero communication unless I initiated it. I had to dig through Fox's shocks WITHOUT access to a database to find something that would work for me when the experts couldn't. Because of all this I cancelled the rears and ordered from Jeg's who had them to my door in 4 days. Granted they weren't "custom valved" but they work fine.

At some point during this whole process I also asked Tyler if he had the specs on the shim stack they used on my fronts. His response was "it's proprietary." Some big secret that I can just find out by disassembling my shocks. At some point I might revalve the rears, but they feel good how they are.

I was NOT pleased at all from a customer service standpoint. What made matters worse was this. I made a post on Instagram about the shocks, and called them out about terrible service. Their response was less than professional.



They later sent me a DM with this.



But never got back with me, and never said anything else on the post. I'll never do any kind of business with them again, and can't recommend them to anyone.

 

interesting. I sent 1 email but never got a response that way.
Their guy on TW here responded to my PMs quick enough and whoever I spoke to on the phone was great once I finally got to someone. Was on hold for about 15 minutes.
Forgot his name. He said right now they are doing their best with the work from home situation for phone support and office-type work but are a bit understaffed. Then he said they've been swamped with orders (timing is likely tax refunds plus covid money) and the shop/warehouse guys are doing the best they can but it's just a lot going on right now. All sounded reasonable to me. He gave me a timeframe based on current backlog and said if I haven't heard back again by then, he apologizes in advance and I should call them back at that time.

I'm still giving them benefit of the doubt right now with the extra chaos around us. I'm in no rush and they had the best price of anyone else for what I wanted.

 

Whoop whoop. Been sitting at my office since Friday but I’ve been off since Thursday for the wedding. My poor girls had to drag the boxes across the room because they couldn’t pick them up.

 

Damn. I want mine. What day did you order again?

@dirtydeeds what day did you order too? Lol

 

My experience with them was fine when I ordered an oddball set of threaded body coilover shocks valved for leaf springs. Had them revalve the rear a little softer and they turned them around quick and hit the valving right on the head when I got them back. Responded to email within a day and even recommended a cheaper/different shock shaft than I had originally planned on based on how I use my truck.

I'd chalk the miscommunication down to them trying to work through CA's mess of coronavirus rules on what was deemed essential business. RCV in IL had some of the same problems when a friend tried to order a replacement birf from them in March when the shit hit the fan. Guys trying to work from home to skirt the state rules while the main shop was closed, then realizing that they were allowed to be in the shop, but still having to have some workers at home....it's a mess for businesses in states with tight rules right now. Our office has quite a few people at home and it made customer service pretty challenging since it threw normal processes completely out the window. Fox may have been closed and they didn't have those on the shelf so then they are at the mercy of Fox to put them back in production...Jegs probably had them sitting on the shelf in a warehouse and were able to ship them right away.

No shock shop is going to send you their shim stack specs either...AccuTune/DSM/Icon all work hard to get them dialed and I'm sure don't care to have them posted all over the internet by someone that hasn't opened the shock up to measure the stack for themselves and do their own shock tuning.

 

About 2 weeks ago maybe 3 I can’t remember

 

I would chalk it up to that too except the problems started well before any issues with quarantine or stay at home. It was just constant piss poor communication. There's no excuse for not communicating with your customers. Ever. To be clear, the wait time wasn't the issue for me. I get there are problems, especially right now. Just communicate it to your customers.

 

Wrong tag lol
I ordered on 4/14, delivered 5/11

 

This 100%. I'm having issues with some Supra stuff I ordered and there has been 0 communication, I don't really need the parts now but would like an some sort of update whether it's the parts are back-ordered or we can't get them due to the virus

 

Maybe I'm just jaded but I don't expect much communication pushed to me from any of these niche market vendors ever. It's almost always needing to pull information from them if you want an update. Doesn't matter the industry whether its karting suppliers, 4x4 shops or machine shops. Doesn't make it any less frustrating, but I don't think it's a vendor specific problem as much as it as an industry problem where shops are run largely with 1-5 people that have to wear all the hats in the company to be profitable.

It really hit home for me when I stopped by 4xInnovations a couple years ago and Adam (the owner) had to drop whatever he was working on in the shop to go answer the phone in the office when it rang and answer questions. Same situation with my karting engine builder that ends up tied up on the phone for half his day instead of actually building engines. Then at the end of the day you need an hour or two just to answer new emails. Sure you can hire somebody to work the phone and answer email presuming you're profitable enough, but that person likely doesn't have the same passion or knowledge as the owner or fabricator on the floor so it makes the customer service aspect more difficult and clunky at times.

Don't get me wrong, some vendors are better than others (ECGS>Marlin Crawler) but they all have their struggles as small businesses operating in a society where the expectation is set by Amazon. I wish it were different and definitely get frustrated from time to time but I'm happy to support (within reason) the small businesses cranking out specialty stuff for our obscure hobbies.

 

GOOD Customer service is what keeps most folks/places in business. If you don't have that, then you need to have a dam good product or low price point. I do feel bad for the amount of work these small business owners put in, and I get delays and what not, but really how hard is it to send a message to the customer that says hey shits going to be delayed, don't know yet send me a message in a week for an update.

 

I agree, good customer service is what sets vendors like ECGS, Low Range, and Ruffstuff apart.

Sending messages out gets hard depending on the volume you are behind and what your current daily email workload is. Most of these places don't have a fancy order tracking system beyond a paper file or an excel spreadsheet.

 

A spreadsheet is all they need. Shit make a form letter that emails once a week, using data from a spreadsheet.

And if they have too many orders to maintain good service, then maybe they should re evaluate there current oppositions. I’m not sure how much these forums help, but I think a lot, so they need to make sure these forums don’t hurt them. Have an honest dialogue with customers and you will be good.

 

One way to control the volume is to stop taking new orders until you get caught up. I've been ordering Supra parts from Driftmotion and they have been open for new orders once a week and that's it. So far all but one order (somewhat a custom piece) have shipped out fairly quick, haven't had an issue with them.

 

And you just gave them a plug because they are managing things well. Also, this Covid stuff definitely has an effect and customers need to understanding of that.

 

3rd gen Supra. There's YOUR problem .....

 

Was I the only one positive in your IG post? What's this world coming to