Gobi: Could customer service be any worse?

[TerraCrawler]

I don't know what it is with Gobi, they have the most poor customer service I have ever seen. Originally I ordered a rack from them, but cancelled like so many others, because of their inability to have basic customer communication. Later I ordered a ladder, which was still the same very poor experience. Recently I ordered their heavy duty struts and after a week or so asked for an Order Status. You have to use their very antiquated system. You would think you just enter an order # right? No you have to fill out all this redundant information like make/model, year, when did you place your order, you name, etc. Makes no sense. You fill it out, only to be ignored, sometimes indefinitely. But not one to be ignored, I followed up multiple times via email to insist they give me an update to no avail. You can't call their #, because you will get routed to what seems to be the sole lady for answering such questions, and will ALWAYS get voicemail.

So I give up on these guys. I suggest take your business elsewhere, to a company that actually understands customer service and how to run a business. They hold virtually no inventory, even on hard goods like the struts, where all they are doing is taking $25/piece StrongArm struts and reselling them for 100%+ markup.

Very frustrating experiences, done with them.

 

[jthoms1]

My only advice on this, assuming you just can’t live without their products, is to buy through a dealer/distributor that does volume with them and has some leverage and influence. Try out Josh at @ApexOverland http://www.apexoverland.com. The added benefit is you delegate the follow-up and update seeking to a third-party.

 

[Off-choader]

My rack was sitting on a freight for a month because error with a distributor who I called several times, he fed me bs for 3 weeks. So I called up gobi they got to the bottom and it was at my house the next day.

wrong rack shows up again distributor fault.. Hindsight should have direct ordered from gobi... anyways I call gobi they handled it very professionally and quickly.. they pushed me a new rack into production and allowed me to use the wrong rack until it got here.


my advice is if you are calling about status updates chill out and wait, or get your instant gratification from front runner or something . If you have issues call them up they definitely seemed to value me as a customer, I would buy again.

 

[ZiaMan]

Once again, f Gobi:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/general-discussions/203660-roof-rack-controversy-gobi-vs-whitson.html

Why anyone would buy something from is beyond me, esp with bad customer support.

 

[Off-choader]

Once again, f Gobi:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/general-discussions/203660-roof-rack-controversy-gobi-vs-whitson.html

Why anyone would buy something from is beyond me, esp with bad customer support.

they make a great rack, american and options are limited? due to lawsuits or not they started out little fish and were smart enough to take out patent on their design

 

[Drunner97]

Now that CBI is making the Prinsu racks I imagine we'll be seeing a lot more of those and a lot less of Gobi. It's a better rack, it's more versatile, and it's cheaper.

 

[T4RZAN]

Once again, f Gobi:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/general-discussions/203660-roof-rack-controversy-gobi-vs-whitson.html

Why anyone would buy something from is beyond me, esp with bad customer support.

This is the primary reason I will never buy from gobi. They have ruined the roof rack market for our vehicles. I still search the classifieds for a Whitson rack...

 

[MyanRagahis]

This is the primary reason I will never buy from gobi. They have ruined the roof rack market for our vehicles. I still search the classifieds for a Whitson rack...

Same here. Although I do like the design, BajaRack is the only closest design I'd found. The pinsu racks look great too, but I wanna be able to lay on the rack lol. I like the mesh designs.

 

[2flyfishin]

Same here. Although I do like the design, BajaRack is the only closest design I'd found. The pinsu racks look great too, but I wanna be able to lay on the rack lol. I like the mesh designs.

You can always buy some expanded metal and make you own mesh floor for the prinsu. Just paint it and bolt the mesh on the cross bars using the t-slots.
P.S. Thanks for bringing up a mesh floor. I will be doing what I just said for my prinsu I just received and with the prinsu I'll be able to take the mesh floor off if needed. Best of both worlds.

 

[doghart]

Any opinions on Baja racks/ladders?

D

 

[2flyfishin]

Any opinions on Baja racks/ladders?

D

There is a Gobi vs Baja thread over on the 5th gen forum if I remember correctly.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

I ordered direct from Gobi, had no problems with either the delivery, the product, or the customer service. It did take a couple weeks longer than the predicted delivery time, but I wouldn't consider that excessive. I knew when I ordered that stuff like this, which is made to order, can sometimes take longer than expected to receive.

 

[MyanRagahis]

You can always buy some expanded metal and make you own mesh floor for the prinsu. Just paint it and bolt the mesh on the cross bars using the t-slots.
P.S. Thanks for bringing up a mesh floor. I will be doing what I just said for my prinsu I just received and with the prinsu I'll be able to take the mesh floor off if needed. Best of both worlds.

Thank you for giving me the idea! Definitely gonna look into this more.

 

[JBurt]

Don't forget guys you could always take pictures to local fab guys and see what they can come up with. They're not cheap always, but gobi prices are excessive so I'm sure they could be in the same ballpark.

 

[Babyjake16]

Prinsu is gonna kick them out of business

 

[JBurt]

How does prinsu bypass the patent issue?

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

[mrblah]

everything about prinsu is different, it uses aluminum, vs steel, and flat bars vs tubes, and is significantly less expensive. Also, prinsu's design is completely modular, which can be a pro and a con.

However, prinsu's CS is similar to gobi's.....something that needs to be improved upon.

 

[JBurt]

I understand how three racks are different, but the patent is for any rack that mounts to factory mounting points.

Maybe the modular part?

 

[Aussie4x4]

From a marketing standpoint Gobi is holding themselves back on two major fronts. The two biggest gripes I hear from people are the extreme wait times and the customer service that goes with that and the whole Gobi vs. Whitson Metalworks lawsuit. There is a simple fix to the first one, if it truly takes 12-15 weeks to make these, show us. Certainly they must be proud of the engineering so throw some videos up on YouTube showing the customers what a day is like in the Gobi factory. Implement something like Domino's does with their order tracking; allow the customer to log in and get real time updates on the product they ordered; steel being shaped, cut, welded, powder coated, packed, shipped etc. I think people would be a lot less impatient if they could see in real time the queue in front of them and what exactly is going on with their product, unless of course they're trying to hide something.

Second, they should never have gone after WMW but since they did they should drop the suit. The Gobi patent basically covers any aftermarket roof rack that mounts to the factory mounting points. Let that sink in for a second. This situation would be the equivalent of Shrockworks for example, suing any aftermarket bumper manufacturer who uses the factory mounting points to attach their bumpers and grill guards, which is just silly. That patent should have never been awarded in the first place, it provides for no new or innovative 'idea.' It simply is using the threaded holes already in my car (for a roof rack mind you) and telling everyone else that they can't use them. Sorry for the rant, I followed that lawsuit closely and it pissed me off to no end.