What's Up With MobTown??

This thread was perfectly off the rails for Friday and y’all ruined it.

 

Weird the other two companies I have ordered armor from had one. Must be losing their ass huh? What idiots.

 

Since you asked - Can I fit 305/70-r17's without a lift and chopping? Saw it on the-google or the-youtube, so it can, no must be done.

 

Only on 2017 Sports.

 

Yes, because every fab shop ever is exactly the same.

 

Yes, I've done it no issues.

The secret is that every 2000 miles I line each fender well with a tub of vegetable shortening. One whole tub per wheel. My Costco bill is atrocious, but the results are worth it.

 

Long story short... I used to get a lot of emails! Now I don’t.

 

These are all great reasons to to justify putting-off taking care of the underlying issue, which is customer service. Do you remember trying to buy things like this 20 years ago? Its was word of mouth, phone calls, and maybe a shitty website that didn't take online orders. There are so many junk companies in existence on the internet that you don't know what you are going to get until you talk to people. Take this conversation for example, I could be a 14 year old kid in some other country who is just trying to piss you off. I could be a 60year old person with years of experience that has taught me that you need customers to run a business. Or I could be anything in between. You don't know what you are going to get on the internet. I'm old school enough that for a company to get my business it requires a phone call. I don't need to feel good about it, or have my hand held, or anything like that. I need to know they are real people, if I can get what I want, and when I'm going to get it. If a company cant do that, there is something wrong with the way the business is done. Ive seen enough shops go out of business doing exactly what you are talking about - ignoring their customers. Like I said, I dont mind paying more for my phone call to answered. If Mobtown is still reading this thread, they now know they have a potential customer with 3k to burn (which is the definition of high-end, its 3k for a bumper!), and if they want it they need to pick up their phone.

 

I'm old enough to have been working in the last few years of the industry you just described. Back then you didn't order bumpers from small shops across the country, you ordered the mass-produced parts out of a catalog where you had a corporation backing them or you went down to the shop shook the hand of the guy doing the work. The problem is that like many other things 20+ years ago, that world doesn't exist anymore. Where there was the one best fab shop in town that did all the best trucks, there's now 17 of them across the country competing for the same business. You also get information from customers that give you a far better perspective on how a company will treat you than a phone call could ever dream of providing.

Customer service is multi-faceted and entertaining the front end doesn't pay as well as delivering on the back end. To add to that, the best customer service on the front end doesn't save the company. You say the issue is customer service, the real issue here is a dude trying to save his company that recently lost most of its staff. When you're bleeding out, you don't exactly worry about how your hair looks, you deal with the more pressing issue. Luckily, he's been able to do that while providing meaningful customer service by making his deliveries and not sacrificing product quality.

I get where you're coming from but for every one of you, there's 10 people who have the "I spent a lot of money and I demand answers" attitude. Those who were told 12+ week lead times and demand answers at 8 weeks in where their stuff is.

That said, I was exactly the same as you in that I needed a phone call because I needed an answer on the weight. Joe answered the phone and literally put a freaking bumper on a scale to give me the exact numbers I wanted and about 20 minutes later, I dropped a bunch of coin on a dual swinger rear bumper and some sliders. There's definitely cases where a phone call is necessary but it's not something that can generally be expected in an entirely digital age.

 

What brand tho? I also need it to survive rust belt winters and fold my laundry.

 

MT is pretty up front with Lead times. Sliders are about 12-16 weeks. As with most larger purchases do your research and ask questions.

If a vendor doesn't reply to your questions before you make your purchase you shouldn't buy from that vendor. Simple as that. That's on the vendor at that point. Move it along to someone else that has the customer service you want.

For any large dollar purchase you should be comfortable with your purchase before you hit buy to the point where all you have to do after is wait for the promised delivery window.

Also, have some sense. This is a fab shop/small business not Amazon... emails pile up and stuff falls through the cracks. Just keep reaching out on the forum, email, phone call or what ever a few times if what ever you need is so important.

No need to constantly check on your order status unless you're at or near the 16 week mark (For sliders in this example).

Also, the forums experts on the cost of a small business employee is over blown. The cost isn't in dollar figures its in the time and energy it takes to interview, hire, train and trust an employee in a role that will inevitable be a revolving door. Its very hard to give up being the face of your business and trust that someone will represent you in the way you would represent your own business.

 

Get back to work!


I kid... I kid...

 

You are right and that is exactly the point . My hard earned money went to fab shops that have a proper infrastructure and lead times. I think MT makes good stuff. They are couple of fellow bros banging it out in a small shop, it just wasn't right for me. I didn't drink the cool aid that a lot of users here do about thinking it is superior over other armors either. As long as it's fabb'd proper, metal can protect. I wasn't going to over pay, wait 6+ months, and pay for shipping for something that I could drive up the road to get in a matter of 2 weeks for less money and same protection.

 

Now we have some common ground - I share your dislike for this group. I understand where they are coming from (likely not going to drive that truck off road, its all about the looks), but I don't like who they are. There are plenty of cheap shitty parts that look cool for these people to buy... now with a whopping 25% tariff on top.

Yeah, this is what I'm looking for. I have the money, I'm ready to buy, I need to finish doing my homework (understand exactly what I want), and make the phone call.

The only point I would argue is that both customer service and product matter. Different customers will have different values. Ideally you get a quality product and enough service to make you feel good about it. Like you said, now these people compete with the entire country, so a good modern business needs to be ready to handle the spectrum of people knocking on their door/posting anonymously online/submitting orders for a 3K bumper and expecting something else/etc. My point is that if Joe (is that actually the MobTown owner's name) wants to try to keep these customers during a rough time of transition at the very least make that clear on the website so I can get my expectations in-line with his reality. Under the contact page, say something like "We are busy getting our current orders out and will be available to take on new customers in X amount of time. If you know what you want and don't need assistance with your purchase, please place your order. Orders will take approximately X amount of time to ship". The beauty of technology is that it doesn't take much effort to get people the information they need.

 

And honestly, a lot of this is perspective. I said it elsewhere but I'm a bit more old school and I like to buy somewhat local (bonus points that it saves me shipping). The west has a lot of larger shops while we have 2-3 here on the East coast that do this quality of work for Toyotas. I'm far more flexible with local shops because I'm used to dealing with tiny 1-2-3 man shops and I've been there before.

 

This was the Friday afternoon laugh I needed. Thank you.

 

Holy damn. As stated in Post #20 at the bottom of Page 1, I got my answers from MobTown and I'm satisfied.

How this thread devolved into all this noise from blustering Chest Thumpers, business professionals eager to tap into their own vast experiences and school everyone within earshot, and fan boys wading into the fray to blindly defend the honor of a company that didn't need defending is beyond me.

 

Welcome to TW...


it's usually like this.....Toyota says it's abnormal

 

As you'll find on TW, just because you got your answer, doesn't mean the thread has outplayed it's usefulness. I've actually found this thread to be fairly entertaining and informative. It's interesting to see everyone's perspective.