Addicted Offroad Bumper Status

4

4x3Lander

New member
[MENTION=17736]AddictedOffroad[/MENTION] - can I get a bumper order status please?

I sent this email this past Saturday:

“Hello,

I ordered a bumper for my 2002 4Runner on March 1 (order #525). It has been 13 weeks and I have not heard anything or seen anything online when I log into my account.

Can I get a status as to when the bumper will ship? Thank you.

Don”

It’s been 14 weeks now.
 
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Hope you are patient. Apparently the guy that runs that place is overwhelmed. My son ordered one of their bumpers for his 1st gen, took almost 15 weeks. When my son could not get any updates on status or any responses at all he called his bank to get his money back. My son did not know if they were still in business or what since no one would answer their phone or respond to his emails. The day after the bank put his money back into his account the bumper showed up. A week later the owner called my son looking for his payment. After my son gave the owner his 2 cents on how shitty the guy handles his customers he paid him.
 
hntz4x4 said:
Hope you are patient. Apparently the guy that runs that place is overwhelmed. My son ordered one of their bumpers for his 1st gen, took almost 15 weeks. When my son could not get any updates on status or any responses at all he called his bank to get his money back. My son did not know if they were still in business or what since no one would answer their phone or respond to his emails. The day after the bank put his money back into his account the bumper showed up. A week later the owner called my son looking for his payment. After my son gave the owner his 2 cents on how shitty the guy handles his customers he paid him.
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Thanks hntz4x4. I already knew how Addicted Offroad has been kind of mixed in their handling of orders, so going into my order, I prepared myself to expect what others experienced. Additionally, I made sure to not reach out one time during the 10-12 week build time because of course, if I did, it would detract from my order and other orders.

I think waiting 14 weeks has been plenty generous in patience and if I don’t hear anything within a week, I will process a chargeback on my card. I think that’s fair.

Glad to hear that your son got what he ordered, despite the way it was handled.
 
While there's certainly something to be said about treating your customers with respect, especially AFTER they've paid you, it should be pointed out it's an estimated build time of 10-12 weeks. It's simply a ballpark and could very well be longer or shorter - and as someone who makes car parts for all different categories of racing (top fuel, rallycross, midget, stock car, etc.) I can almost always assure you it'll be the latter; it's not nearly as simple as making a part and shipping it out a door and being done with it and chances are there are a few dozen other customers in front of your order. Waiting on and working with your suppliers is a big and never ending hurdle, and remember steel is a hot commodity right now. Our foundries aren't doing much better than our lumber mills currently.
I'd keep trying to reach out and bust their balls, but in my opinion getting a refund because they took a couple weeks longer than you expected during a time of overwhelming business and economic/infrastructural downturn is a little absurd.
 
I ordered mine a few years ago I think I waited somewhere around 14-18 weeks. He definitely isn’t great at responding but usually he will get back to you within a week or two.. Seems like maybe he just dedicates a day every week or so for responding to emails. Even when he actually gave me a ship date it took another week or two. I agree with [MENTION=549924]Devbot[/MENTION] it sucks not hearing back but I’d give it at least another month or two..

Right now I have an arb compressor on order from opt offroad since April 12th.. lol.. Although he is pretty responsive so I can’t complain about that part..
 
Devbot said:
While there's certainly something to be said about treating your customers with respect, especially AFTER they've paid you, it should be pointed out it's an estimated build time of 10-12 weeks. It's simply a ballpark and could very well be longer or shorter - and as someone who makes car parts for all different categories of racing (top fuel, rallycross, midget, stock car, etc.) I can almost always assure you it'll be the latter; it's not nearly as simple as making a part and shipping it out a door and being done with it and chances are there are a few dozen other customers in front of your order. Waiting on and working with your suppliers is a big and never ending hurdle, and remember steel is a hot commodity right now. Our foundries aren't doing much better than our lumber mills currently.
I'd keep trying to reach out and bust their balls, but in my opinion getting a refund because they took a couple weeks longer than you expected during a time of overwhelming business and economic/infrastructural downturn is a little absurd.
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I totally get all that and am fully aware of all the logistics in sourcing, building, etc. I had no expectations of a time frame either. However, what I do expect is communication. It’s not too much to ask to get a response that requires none of the above, but 5 minutes of time to even just simply say, your bumper is 2 to 5 weeks out from being done. I don’t need a story or anything - just yea, sorry, 2-5 more weeks. I am perfectly happy with that. I don’t need the bumper by any time frame and am not in a hurry. I just need communication, but lack of communication in the past years that others have purchased from Addicted Offroad seems to be the common theme.

I am perfectly fine waiting longer, but as any business owner will learn through growing their business, if people have been complaining about communication for years, you should probably change that component because if you don’t, money will flow elsewhere. I actually don’t think it’s absurd at all. It speaks loud and clear that something should change.
 
T4topher said:
I ordered mine a few years ago I think I waited somewhere around 14-18 weeks. He definitely isn’t great at responding but usually he will get back to you within a week or two.. Seems like maybe he just dedicates a day every week or so for responding to emails. Even when he actually gave me a ship date it took another week or two. I agree with [MENTION=549924]Devbot[/MENTION] it sucks not hearing back but I’d give it at least another month or two..

Right now I have an arb compressor on order from opt offroad since April 12th.. lol.. Although he is pretty responsive so I can’t complain about that part..
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I won’t repeat that I already said above, but yea, 14-18 weeks is fine - just need it communicated. I will give it that time frame then, based on your recommendation T4topher.

Wow, that’s a long time for the ARB as well. Hopefully you don’t need it anytime soon or are using something portable in the meantime!
 
4x3Lander said:
I totally get all that and am fully aware of all the logistics in sourcing, building, etc. I had no expectations of a time frame either. However, what I do expect is communication. It’s not too much to ask to get a response that requires none of the above, but 5 minutes of time to even just simply say, your bumper is 2 to 5 weeks out from being done. I don’t need a story or anything - just yea, sorry, 2-5 more weeks. I am perfectly happy with that. I don’t need the bumper by any time frame and am not in a hurry. I just need communication, but lack of communication in the past years that others have purchased from Addicted Offroad seems to be the common theme.

I am perfectly fine waiting longer, but as any business owner will learn through growing their business, if people have been complaining about communication for years, you should probably change that component because if you don’t, money will flow elsewhere. I actually don’t think it’s absurd at all. It speaks loud and clear that something should change.
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That was totally my sons thinking as well. All he needed was a couple word email about an expected ship date.
 
4x3Lander said:
I won’t repeat that I already said above, but yea, 14-18 weeks is fine - just need it communicated. I will give it that time frame then, based on your recommendation T4topher.

Wow, that’s a long time for the ARB as well. Hopefully you don’t need it anytime soon or are using something portable in the meantime!
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I went thru the same thing last year with addicted offroad... at one point it even seemed they went out of business because not a peep from them after a couple of phone calls and emails.

a magic shipping email arrived and my bumper showed up, eventually.

anybody know if addicted offroad is out of business?
 
Sadly another example that it is not the best products that succeed but the best people at business. Good communication seems to be a commonly horrible thing in off road businesses.
 
Patience Grasshopper, relax, circumstances we're under add some more time.
AOR's comms are as they've always been words been out for a decade.

Middle of pandemic supply chains already interrupted place order, what could go wrong.
Just saying, played the waiting game in 18.
 
Just to add my unrequested and generic 2 cents, I don’t think patience has much to do with it in a case like this. If more small business owners understood that reliable communication is just as important as quality of product, more would make it. My other “hobby” is collecting custom knives. And there are makers who are insanely talented and have an amazing product but can’t communicate for sh*t. Much like an expensive bumper, if I’m handing over $2000+ for a custom pocket knife, being able just to get a status update or a “hey, I’m not ignoring you, just busy” email back is extremely important. People get nervous when they can’t contact someone who already has their money and rightfully so. Anyway, I normally just lurk around here so I’ll shut up now ;-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
A Wyoming Gunsmith since 4-21 last I spoke with has a barreled action + $1k, lead time June-July maybe.
Say it runs into August Sept get on the Net n talk like sending your food back to the kitchen, not smart.

AOR been AOR since day one this comes up often enough people still buying n crying.
 
I waited about 13 weeks for mine, also zero communication until the magic shipment email.

As others said, a good (smart?) business person would allocate 15-30 minutes out of the day to answer customers' emails. Folks don't get as peeved by the delays, as by lack of communication. I never let an inquiry email go unanswered for more than a day or two, even when traveling out of town or country.
 
4x3Lander said:
Well, here we are on the 18th week…nothing. 6-8 weeks past the projected time with no communication.
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Dang man that’s frustrating.. Still waiting on my arb compressor, last I heard expected to arrive at the warehouse august 5th but who knows at this point.. Maybe try sending an email from a different email address?
 
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