Southern Style Offroad Bumper Experience

[ryguytheman]

There are plenty of vendor horror stories out there, but this isn't one of them. Given the pictures of the damage, I personally would have no problem touching up that tiny corner myself. It's trail armor, you're supposed to beat it up. To each their own, but it seems silly to me to whine about it.

Why would SSO take responsibility for damage they didn't cause? Sounds like they are trying to get it resolved without forking over $1K+ for something they didn't do. Any rational business owner would do the same.

Frustrating for sure, but hold the guilty party accountable.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

I would've asked for a $50 store credit, what paint matches best and most likely put my own scratches on it by now. SMH

 

[uh0h50]

My truck is by no means a show truck, but I keep it pretty clean.

That said, I'd rock that bumper as-is and hit it with some touch up. After all, it is an offroad bumper.

 

[ahtoxa11]

Well, remind me to never purchase anything from SSO. Hay, we’re just fabricators, once it’s shipped you’re essentially on your own. SSO Christmas parties must be fire!

I've never bought anything from SSO, but I stand with them here. They can't control carrier damage and on a large and costly item sometimes you have to wait for carrier claim. It's the way it is and SSO is right, IMO. Yes, there IS cost of doing business but it has to be moderated case-by-case.

Lastly, looking at the pictures, the damage is minimal. If you're getting a steel bumper to use it as such, just repair and move on rather than stressing yourself out.

My sliders from another company came with a big ding. Meh, they got more than that now and I certainly wasn't going to send them back or even look at it for more than a second.

 

[ahtoxa11]

What these guys said.

My truck is by no means a show truck, but I keep it pretty clean.

That said, I'd rock that bumper as-is and hit it with some touch up. After all, it is an offroad bumper.

There are plenty of vendor horror stories out there, but this isn't one of them. Given the pictures of the damage, I personally would have no problem touching up that tiny corner myself. It's trail armor, you're supposed to beat it up.

Why would SSO take responsibility for damage they didn't cause? Sounds like they are trying to get it resolved without forking over $1K+ for something they didn't do. Any rational business owner would do the same.

Frustrating for sure, but hold the guilty party accountable.

I digress. IDK why OP even bothered to create a thread much less complain to you guys; rattle can, install, enjoy....

After seeing the pics, I'd have probably filled a claim with the shipper for damages, asked for a small amount to "make it better", then hit it with some touch up and installed it. I'll beat it up worse than that offroad.

 

[Endle55_5earch]

SSO has been a great company to work with. They installed my Stage 2 kit for my slimline. FEDEX is in the wrong here.

Spray the bumper down with paint, bolt it on, and enjoy. You'll need the practice touching it up for when you scrape it up on the trails anyways!

 

[justanothereric]

SSO has been a great company to work with. They installed my Stage 2 kit for my slimline. FEDEX is in the wrong here.

Spray the bumper down with paint, bolt it on, and enjoy. You'll need the practice touching it up for when you scrape it up on the trails anyways!

Agreed.

This is a company that deals with people from all across the country and produces so much different product. They did their part in fabricating a bumper...you can't knock them for it not being delivered in the same state it left their facility in.

When my bumper arrived I saw the damage that was very similar to the damage OP displayed and just said eh, this bumper was made to scrape/grind/smack all kinds of terrain anyway; as long as the bumper bolts on and lines up correctly it's not a big deal.

To me, this is no different that your ubereats or grubhub driver dropping your cheeseburger on the asphalt and still bringing it to you. You wouldn't complain to McDonald's would you? You'd hit the delivery person or the business in charge of facilitating the food delivery..

 

[N2TRKYS]

Even as small as that is, it would drive me crazy that I paid that much and it didn’t arrive the way it should. That seems to be a shipper’s issue. I’ve been thinking about a bumper/slider purchase from SSO for awhile. I believe I may drive down there and pick it up, instead of having it shipped when I do.

 

[bring_it_on]

Does SSO still make the rear bumper for the 5Gen (original design w/o tailgate)? I don't see any rear bumper options on the website.

 

[ElectroBoy]

The company I work for routinely ships expensive electronic gear across country that takes months to design, build, and test. There is no option for shipping damage so a packaging engineer designs a shipping container for each product. They range from a small pelican-style suitcase to a large custom wooden box. Cardboard is used for the smaller lightweight products but is always double-boxed with at least two layers of foam between the outside of the box to the product. Sometimes three layers.

For larger heavier objects a custom wooden box is designed and built in-house. It’s not real complicated, it’s job is to prevent punctures from forklifts or break-throughs of the internal heavy object. Multiple layers of foam and cardboard are inside protecting the product. The case has a hinged lid and is re-usable so it is shipped back after delivery.

This all adds to the cost but after months of hard work it ensures the product is always delivered in good shape and the customer is happy.

Beefier shipping containers may not fit your economic model but it’s something to consider.

 

[YellowSnow]

Call me crazy, but the moment a customer forks over thousands for a product, it is the vendors responsibility to ensure that product arrives as advertised and to the satisfaction of the customer....end of discussion! You will absolutely not survive in this business when you essentially tell the customer there is nothing they can do, and to take it up with the shipping company. I agree, offering a discount to the customer and just rattle canning it would be a pragmatic option. Tell me again why SSO couldn’t ship a replacement immediately and then work the claim directly with Fed Ex?

 

[YellowSnow]

You're comparing apples to oranges Yellow. You're talking about 1x crossbar which LFD nor any other shipping company fabricates, Tnutz does worth roughly $30 to a bumper which cost hundreds to make and ship. It cost more to ship a bumper then it does to buy a new crossbar and ship it. Look YellowSnow, I get it, you don't like SSO. I looked at your profile, for some reason you really took a disliking to us it seems when we made Stage 2 bumper attachments. I can't tell you why this tilted you so hard, that you had to post pictures of your "viper cut" multiple times and call the Stage 2 a waste, but hey.. it did. So I get it, SSO bad, Lemonsnow and his company list good. It's noted!

Actually no...I’m comparing a reputable company who stands behind their products, to a company who doesn’t seem to give a shit, and is now resorting to name calling and stalking profiles on a message board. You stay classy SSO.

 

[CF_Machete]

View attachment 382985

WTF!!!! [MENTION=49749]Speedsurfer[/MENTION], you're loosing you damn mind over a podercoat scuff and you plan on putting a winch one your truck? Time to turn in your man card.

LMFAO... lightly sand it, wipe it down with windex and hit that spot with steelit and move on. You're going to have plenty more of those between highway and trail. I had my sso on for 2 years of NE winters, light sanded and hit with steelit last fall. Its still in immaculate shape. Meanwhile my victory rear bumper started rusting right out of the box; great product, shit p-coat.

as far as quality. due to shity tires and my position on a narrow trail, I had my bud (high centered on a rock in water) linked to my trailer hitch and a jeep helping me pull him out off one of the sso D-ring points. Got him out and the bumper didn't deflect in the slightest. Just saying, thats quality.

 

[arehman11]

I’d ask for a 10-15% discount/refund and just touch it up. I did go with the Warn bumper and purchased through 4WP, my local store had me open and inspect before I left with it, no damage, but had there of been any I’d of accepted a discount and just touched it up.

 

[somenoise]

We do wish that we had the extra capital to just send out $1,000 products every time Fedex damages something, but we honestly just don't. We ship anywhere from 100 to 350 products out a week, Fedex messes up a good 1-4 a week on average easily. Some are easy fixes and some are not, and some weeks are much worse than others. If we were to payout and cross our fingers every time Fedex made a mistake, you're talking about a good $10,000-$15,000 swing every month praying with get positive claims back. On the year we're easily talking about $100,000 and to small companies, that's kind of a big deal especially if let's say only 30-50% payout.

Right... that was my point. I think you can afford to be a little less defensive here when people are almost exclusively on your side. Sure there's a couple people being unreasonable but if you engage at the same level it's unnecessary and not the best look. Worked for years shipping for small businesses and while some people don't get that shipping is a pita managed by corporations we have little sway over, most, if not all, of your customers get it and appreciate the time and effort you put into your products instead.

 

[IYAAYAS]

Come on man, it’s not a piece of jewelry

Touch that up and install it. Best I could tell from the pic, the damage is near the bottom and would be hard to even see unless you were on your knees. Remember you purchased a welded steel winch bumper not a piece of jewelry.

Full disclosure- first heavy fabbed part I bought and had shipped was a ARB front bumper back in 2009 for my FJC which I still have. Bumper came in with some minor scratches, no big deal since I was building an off road truck.

In 2015 when I got my TRDPro 4Runner I ordered an SSO bumper- unpainted, for 2 reasons. #1 I remembered the minor shipping damage the ARB bumper had and wanted to avoid and and have the opportunity to blend any surface defects that normal shipping may induce before having it painted #2 I hate the matte textured paint used by most bumper accessory Mfg’s. I prefer a gloss black with a smooth surface, washes the mud and grime off much easier..

Bottom line is shipped heavy fabricated parts are rarely ever gonna arrive totally unscathed unless you were to pay another 2-300 bucks for a tank like container to have the item shipped in. If that’s a concern then you should definitely order unpainted so you can have the chance to blend any surface scratches on the metal before you take to your local powder coater, avoiding shipment on a heavy painted part that has a higher than normal potential to be be scratched through normal shipping.

I do feel like even heavier fabricated parts that are shipped truck line in a box on a pallet always Fair much better than just a heavy box that is shipped through fedex or ups... those package handlers are definitely hard on stuff.

 

[Stembot]

I just installed my SSO bumper last weekend. When it arrived, it had damage on the box in the exact same place you do. Luckily, the bars hadn't poked all the way out of the box and as such hadn't gotten scratched at all. I was extremely wary of getting this product shipped in after having a bad shipping experience with a different fabricator weeks earlier. I could tell immediately that the SSO bumper was packaged much better than the other company's product, so I forgave the small holes in the box. These boxes are huge and heavy, you just have to accept that the shippers (who do not give a single F about you) are going to have a hard time and probably damage something. I'll side with SSO here, and would order from them again in the future.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[jp.vegas]

We don't sell on Ebay/Amazon. We don't adhere to their rules and profit margins. What is your girl fabricating? What is she selling? Can we see some examples so we can compare apples to apples? If we're talking about reselling some cheap products for minimal margins multiple times a day, that's one thing, but comparing it to a very expensive fabricated product is another.

IE: We sell light switches, they sometimes go out. We send out replacements. You're talking about a couple dollars in a switch, not over a grand in metal. So please post up your girls shop so we can compare.

Good thing or you'd be out of business there in a hurry. My point is not what she makes or doesn't, it's that she's required to insure that the product sold gets there safely, and the customer is happy, no matter what. Clearly you don't feel that way. That's OK of course, but stop trying to make it out like you're some sort of martyr.

Bajarack shipped me a rack a few years ago, it arrived damaged, they shipped me another one within a week. It was a hand fabricated item, large and expensive to ship. No excuses. Done. End of discussion.

You do you buddy.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

Wow there sure are a lot of shipping and fabrication experts in this thread. SMDH.

 

[YellowSnow]

Good thing or you'd be out of business there in a hurry. My point is not what she makes or doesn't, it's that she's required to insure that the product sold gets there safely, and the customer is happy, no matter what. Clearly you don't feel that way. That's OK of course, but stop trying to make it out like you're some sort of martyr.

Bajarack shipped me a rack a few years ago, it arrived damaged, they shipped me another one within a week. It was a hand fabricated item, large and expensive to ship. No excuses. Done. End of discussion.

You do you buddy.

You need to stop making sense....it’s damaging SSO and their narrative on how we should feel sorry for them, their shipping troubles and tight margins. Tread lightly, or they might start stalking your profile!