The official Brute Force Fab "My money was taken" thread

I hope all goes well for you.

 

Thanks! Me too haha

 

But you still haven't answered the question, have you contacted him about the holdup? And I heard the whole story... Long bed yada yada...

 

Like I said, you've heard one half of a story. And I don't know what you mean by long bed yada yada. And you haven't answered my question. Do you think that still entitles him to fuck me over, to short me on products that I paid for?

And the last time I contacted him, for the 1,0000,000 time, at the end of April, he said covers would arrive in 1-2 days and he would be shipping immediately. I'm done wasting my time getting smoke blown up my ass. I'm not contacting him again, it's like chasing a fucking 2 year old around.

It's pretty fucking rude of you to think that you know a whole story from on person's point of view, who very clearly screwed people over for quite a while, and then act like I'm the dick causing all the problems, and that I'm in the wrong.

 

I'm not trying to say people don't have a right to be upset. I'm one of them, but billy really seems to be working his ass off to make things right. He didn't try to make any excuses for his poor managment of his company, he knows he fucked up. In my opinion he's one of the better fab guys making stuff for our trucks. It would be a shame if he was forced to close shop, people would miss out on a great bumper.

 

I've never once shit on his fabrication skills or his end product. This is an entirely different story. And I spoke to him so many fucking times, and I was courteous, and patient, and understanding, and professional, and FUCKING BUDDHA. I'm sick of being treated like an idiot.

And PS by the way, he offered me the tire carrier after fucking up my first bumper and having to completely make a new one. At that point, I was extremely worried about not having my gear for an off road trip I was taking to celebrate the life of my father, which I had planned out for well in advance, and Billy knew about. So I resent the fact that you make it sound like I should be grateful for his charity and move on.

 

There was a part of the story you left out, I put it here. We're both guilty of only telling part of it, now it's all there. I'm done/ over it. I'd still have a beer with you at a meet.

 

for those new customers, Billy's operation depends on other sources for his products. He just received his own Plasma table. He out sources his bends and powder coating. I'm sure if it was all in house, lead times would be more accurate.

 

I don't believe he outsources his bends..I'm fairly certain he's got a tube bender otherwise it would have been impossible for him to make my roof rack.

 

He out sources his bends. Didn't see a bender or iron crafter in his shop as of 3 weeks ago

 

[QUOTE="Rebelimo, post: 10319528, member: I'm done/ over it. I'd still have a beer with you at a meet. [/QUOTE]

I know you Jay .... You would have a Beer with Anyone & Everyone ! Meet or Not !! Lol!!

 

I know you Jay .... You would have a Beer with Anyone & Everyone ! Meet or Not !! Lol!![/QUOTE]
There's some truth to that

 

He has a tube bender but not a brake. You are correct in that, I meant the bends for his bumpers are done elsewhere.

 

You have a contact number? I've tried 3 different numbers and nothing.

 

Yeah I'll pm you. I've talked to him about 10 times in the last few weeks and he's always answered so I'm surprised to have found this thread. I hope that everything gets solved for everybody!

 

Just spoke to Billy recently. I'll have my bumper within 2 weeks it sounds like. Hopefully all goes good.

 

My brother purchased a set of Radflos from Billy back in February. Everytime he called Billly he kept saying Radflo was backed up.

Fast forward mid-may when things were getting ridiculous Radflo says they never got the order and started working on the set-up. As of today Radflo has contacted my brother saying things are ready to ship...but they need him to pay the outstanding balance!! The fucked up part is he paid Billy for the Radflos!

Good thing we are LOCAL because if he seriously thinks he's going to get away with screwing my family out of 3k+ he's in for a surpise.

I've purchased things from billy back when he was welding and bending pipe in his garage. I find it very alarming he has taken this route with his customers.

 

Highly satisfied BFF customer weighing in here. I've read every post, and have worked side-by-side with Billy while he finished up my bumper and did some other work for me. I'm NOT looking to get into it with anyone on here, nor am I looking to defend or flog Billy.

If you look at the pattern of satisfaction versus dissatisfaction, the pattern is quite apparent: Billy has terrible customer service when it comes to third-party products. Every complaint I've read is about lights or shocks or other stuff not directly related to fabrication (some bumper issues, but most [all?] were eventually taken care of, if maybe ridiculously late).
Billy has told me directly that he does his best when he has unusual and custom orders, things that give him design challenges and make him have to think. Perhaps that is why my experience was nothing but sublime. He doesn't mind doing a dozen copies of the same bumper, but it does get old after a while.
He has recently picked up some shop help. He may be looking for one more helper, I'm not sure. But the kid he hired has good work ethics and very good welding skill. So I would expect his times and customer service to improve somewhat.
Billy has a brand-new plasma table, a tube bender, a tube roller, and the usual necessary fab-shop tools like saws and welders and such. He does not have his own brake, so he has to outsource plate bends. He has been working with his powdercoater for something like 15 or 20 years, so the two of them take care of each other very well (my entire HC rear bumper with dual swingouts, tire carrier, and eight can carriers was done three hours after being dropped off, and only cost me $250!).
He is typically only reachable by phone. Not very prompt on email or text, and hasn't checked into TW for a couple years. So be advised when trying to reach him.
He is currently looking to expand sales of some new light bars. However, going by the experience of those on this thread, I would buy elsewhere if you wanted to make sure you get them. As I said above, he just sucks when it comes to third-party stuff not related to fabrication.
Billy is a fabricator. He is not a retailer. His fabrication skills and quality are matched only by Pelfreybilt. He needs to stick with that, and stop trying to sell shit on the side.

 

He's made a choice to be unethical. Skills and products aside, he's still taking people's money for a product, and whether it's his product or someone else's, he should have the same approach to it. When customers buy other companies' shit from him, that's the easiest money he can make for christ sakes!!

 

kinda sketchy to take money for something where all you have to do is place a phone call and make the order. It wasn't a partial payment either it was full total payment. And it was in February lol. No excuse for that. And to find out that no payment has been made to radflo. And!!!!!! To have the customer find out from radflo themselves holy crap this is bad.