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Dirtbound offroad made in china?

Oooooo

NAXJA Forum User
Location
America
Ordered an optima battery tray from thejeephut.com on 4-21-18.*

Dirtbound offroad shipped me their "universal" battery tray instead.*

Called Max at Dirtbound, he claimed thejeephut.com told him to send that tray instead, that it fits fine but he could make the optima tray in 2 weeks.*

The "universal" tray fits an optima 34-78 battery like Max's size 9 feet fit in my size 13 shoes.*

Called Valerie at jeephut, she insists they did not and would not tell Dirtbound to ship a diff product.

Valerie repeats that Dirtbound will make the tray I paid for, lead time 2 weeks, she said she'd call the following Friday to follow up.*Sounds good.

no follow up.

3 weeks go by I email Val for an update. No reply.

1 more week, I call jeephut spoke to Art, tells me Val will call in morning, no callback.

I call again yesterday. Valerie at Jeephut is unable to contact dirtbound offroad, tells me they have had several problems with this company lately, lots of finger pointing.

There is absolutely no way dirtbound is making product in the US. If you believe this guy has access to a CNC plasma table and cant*make a battery tray in 6 weeks you need help. What a load of crap.

I told jeephut I will be initiating a chargeback.*

then they call back and tell me they are refunding the charge and to keep the crap tray I didnt want/dont want/wont be installing on my truck. Fabulous.

what an insane amount of hassle over the simplest possible product, a battery tray. 6 weeks of bull stories and no product.

steer clear of the drama with these two companies each pointing the finger at each other with heads stuck up you know where. Unreal.

Lots of wasted time dealing with these clowns prompted me to waste just a few more minutes to write this to save you the hassle.

If max ever comes thru on his word I will update this post. If past performance is indicative of future results I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
I think the problem is that you are trying to obtain a product which they don't make anymore. In order to get you what you ordered they have to make a one off run just for you. Doing so is anything but efficient.

The fact they don't make that product anymore was discussed in January here: https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1104372&page=6

Jeephut should not have still listed the product for sale.

It is kind of a shame, but OTOH, Optima's have become a bit of a disappointment ever since they moved production out of the US. If you want to complain about someone's production and not being in the US there is your candidate.
 
If max ever comes thru on his word I will update this post. If past performance is indicative of future results I wouldn't hold your breath.

I find it interested you signed up just to post this.

Myself, and MANY others have done business with Max, and know he's a stand up guy with a stand up business.

He's not a major shop, but a small handful cranking stuff out.

To think his stuff is made in China is hilarious. He wheels, and wheels more than most on here, and has been to events. If you think his stuff is really made in China, go visit his shop :laugh:

Also, why haven't you called Dirtbound and try to talk with Max yourself?

Seems like you're trying to blame Dirtbound...for a vendor that is selling something they don't make any more, who won't respond to you.

Yeah...nice try.
 
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Perhaps you should re-read the post, from your comment it appears you didnt understand. Called max FIRST. Max said he could have one made in 2 weeks. 6 weeks later, Max failed to deliver.

Yes I suppose it's the customer who paid for a product up front should take responsibility for Max not being able to do what he said he could do. Nobody set a demand and gave him a timeline. 2 weeks was what he said.

Whether he has once upon a time or always done what he said he was going to do isn't really relevant in this situation. I stand by what I said, it's a battery tray. A plasma table can cut this in a minute.

Bottom line, he did not deliver. Lots of formerly standup businesses are gone.
 
I did miss the part about calling Max.

As someone who has dealt with fab shops and businesses, I hate to tell ya...but you're at the bottom of the list, being that it's a now one off part, that wasn't to be sold by the outside vendor.

Hell, I'm surprised he even said he's do it. 99% of shops would have simply said the order needs to be canceled, we don't make that any more.

Hell, I'm not the vendor and know he stopped selling those a bit back.

That being said, have you called Max back to follow up?

Seems like all your follow up is with Jeephut, and not Dirtbound.

Why not just cancel the charge through the Jeephut, and place an order with Max?

"There is absolutely no way dirtbound is making product in the US. If you believe this guy has access to a CNC plasma table and cant*make a battery tray in 6 weeks you need help."

He very well can, but as mentioned, is likely not remotely at the top of his list.

Don't like it, cancel the order...order and Optima try from someone else.

Either way, you still signed up just to bitch and moan. Be glad this isn't Pirate.
 
Passing on current and accurate true life vendor experience for others to make their own decisions when they are looking to buy.
 
Passing on current and accurate true life vendor experience for others to make their own decisions when they are looking to buy.

Mmmmmk yeah.

Would you still be in here if he just canceled your order?

Sorry, but Max and Dirtbound are well known on NAXJA. Hell, he goes out to at least one of the events.

Joining up just to say what you have doesn't make you like like someone trying to "pass on current and accurate" info, it makes you look like someone who had an agenda to sign up and complain.

Sorry, but most any here will skim right by you, especially given the no credibility part.
 
Customer reviews are part of life. Google reviews, yelp, trip advisor. So fragile. You dont want bad reviews, honor your word. Fair enough.
 
I stand by what I said, it's a battery tray. A plasma table can cut this in a minute.

Speaking as a manufacturing guy I can tell you that is not at all an accurate representation of what it takes to produce this.

Assuming the program for this already is in the system, you still have set up of the machine. For two separate parts.

You also have I believe 8 bends to be made in that product. With at least 3 different set ups required.

And you have to weld it up.

Assuming everything is working properly and there are no other jobs in the way this is at best a 30 minute job. At best. Reality is probably more like an hour. For a one off part. Which means it has to bump something else out of the queue.

If you think he isn't doing his job well I would strongly encourage you to start your own manufacturing business.

Go for it.
 
Thank you for explaining why Max is not a man of his word who does what he says he is going to do. That really clears it up.
 
Well, if that is the standard by which you live I want to see you produce that battery tray yourself in under a minute.

You said it can be done. Show me.
 
Since you did not buy directly from Max/his company, he did not have have an obligation to build one specifically for you.

If he was requested to make one from the third-party, that is really between them. But, it seems to me that they are attempting to sell a disco'd, non-stocked part to make money.

Everyone likes to blame everyone else.



I agree with others, go directly to DBO, or go somewhere else.





Thank you for explaining why Max is not a man of his word who does what he says he is going to do. That really clears it up.
 
Well, I just saw this now and feel I should post up a response.

When the order first came in I did inform Valerie by email that we no longer make that one and that we have a universal one that works with all batteries and it is in stock, I would have assumed she would have communicated with HER customer about that and see how HER customer would want to proceed.

She replies to go ahead and ship the ones we have in stock. Ok, Done...

Fast forward a few weeks and I am just getting ready to go out of town and leave the guys back at the shop, after being pressured a bit to make it happen from Valerie I give in and say its possible to make one. A few days later you called, I was driving through the middle of Texas on my way to pick up a machine for our US-based shop. After 4 long days of solo driving 2400 miles with a huge trailer, I make it back to MN for 2 days to unload and then I had to go back out of town for a few days for my grandmothers 103rd birthday celebration.

After being gone from the shop for a week and a half I come back to a mess of emails and phone calls, I will admit that I did forget about this custom order by that point and I will take 100% of the blame for that. We have computer systems in place to track and manage orders, but being a discontinued item I am not able to just put an order through in our computer system, it would have purely been a side job and not run through our normal production schedule. That throws another wrench into the problem, we don't keep scraps around, we cut full sheets of steel at a time. So it's not as easy as just throwing a sheet on and cutting one part.

A few weeks later I get a phone call from Valerie with her yelling at me for this taking so long, and that you threatened with a chargeback and that you are keeping the product and refuse to send it back. I even said I would send a prepaid return label for it, but that was no good according to her...

I will take the blame for forgetting the custom cut part, but we did not ship the item without Jeep Huts approval first. Technically speaking we would have needed to get the other tray back or charge for the second tray because we did ship what our vendor told us to send, thus fulfilling the order.

As much as I would like to make this for you at this time it is not possible as the tooling we used for that specific item got damaged so we are not able to make the double bent lip anymore.

I can assure you that all our products are 100% made in the USA, the problem is we're not currently set up for custom parts. As were more set up for production runs of parts.

Screen Shot 2018-06-24 at 8.26.51 PM.jpg
 
I've done business with DBO a couple of times. Nothing but good to say about them. Talked to Max about a couple of issues and he took care of them politely and promptly to 100% of my satisfaction.
 
What I'm reading here is that the OP ordered through a 3rd party. That 3rd party sold him something that doesn't exist anymore, and now he's blaming the company that doesn't make it. The only mistake made here was trying to go over and above by offering to custom make a discontinued item to fix someone elses screwup. The beef should have started and ended with the vendor the part was purchased through. THEY are the manufacturers customer, not you. You are their customer. The manufacturer has no relationship with a customer that isn't their customer. This is why when you buy an alternator at O'reilly and it quits working you have to take it back to O'reilly, and not ACDelco or Autolite.
 
What I'm reading here is that the OP ordered through a 3rd party. That 3rd party sold him something that doesn't exist anymore, and now he's blaming the company that doesn't make it. The only mistake made here was trying to go over and above by offering to custom make a discontinued item to fix someone elses screwup. The beef should have started and ended with the vendor the part was purchased through. THEY are the manufacturers customer, not you. You are their customer. The manufacturer has no relationship with a customer that isn't their customer. This is why when you buy an alternator at O'reilly and it quits working you have to take it back to O'reilly, and not ACDelco or Autolite.




Perfectly explained
 
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