CAMARO6 - View Single Post

VIRBound · 07-29-2019, 11:06 PM

For those interested in the other side of this story.

Greg reached out to us back in March inquiring about a cage. We went over every possible detail including fitment pictures, pricing, etc of our offering, including the sub harness bars and available options. Once pricing is discussed, conversation ends...for 6 weeks.

In May conversation starts back up with more questions regarding fit/finish of the roll bar, additional questions about sub harness bars, and recommendations for harnesses/connection points. We again go above and beyond with thorough responses including competitive pricing for OTS items like the harnesses. At this point it’s mentioned that Greg would now like to go the RPM route for the cage, and GT harness bars knowing of the conflict in designs. I ask why he’s chosen the RPM bar over GT to attempt to still provide him with a complete package. His answer is that his dad prefers how the stock back seats look in the car and doesn’t want to remove them. Obviously this is not something we can cater to with our roll bar, so I don’t press the discussion further. He mentions forming up an order the following week (May 10). Again conversation ends...for 8 weeks.

And it’s then rekindled in July asking us questions about harness installation in his car. At this point Greg has purchased an RPM bar and a harness from other vendors. We did not provide any support to his questions. Another week goes by and we then receive an email from Greg asking to move forward with the custom sub harness bars. (It should be noted that $0 has exchanged hands between Greg and GT, ever). I (Jordan) reply back to Greg and let him know that it’s still an option, however we no longer had a 6th Gen Camaro to jig them up on. At this point I get my business partner involved (Rosco) to discuss our options since we don’t have a 6th Gen to confirm fit on. At the end of our discussion, we agreed that it would be best not to offer Greg a custom solution that varies from our normal production jig, as we don’t have a car to fit them to like we did months prior. This is a huge risk for us already without having the customer car here with a rollbar we’ve never seen, and now introducing variation by fabricating outside of the standard jig. I replied to Greg’s email explaining that we can no longer offer the custom sub bars as I had originally expected. This was not well received, and Greg then asked to purchase standard sub harness bars. We opted not to move forward with offering the factory dimensioned sub bars to Greg, as we know they will not fit with an RPM bar, and will require modification. Again this is a safety related product with our name on it, and we are unable to control the modifications to it.

We thought that this was the end of the discussion as 1) we ultimately were unable to provide sub bars to cater to Greg’s needs and 2) there was zero financial obligation to move forward with, be it a refund or shipping parts. That was last Tuesday. Thursday rolls around and a Facebook post is made about a completely unrelated part we offer (brake ducts) by another ZLE owner, and Greg chimes in unwarranted implying he somehow never received parts he paid for. When I asked him what he’s referring to, he brings up the sub harness bars and a strange recount of what actually transpired between us (namely thinking that modifying our bars was the sole reason he picked up an RPM bar, despite telling me the actual reason was to retain back seats).

Following that discussion, Greg decides its necessary to leave negative reviews/slander of our business on any platform that he can (negative review on FB page, 1 Star on yelp, this thread) all because of a product we had no obligation to provide him with in the first place.

In the end, we chose to avoid an unhappy customer by providing a product we couldn’t guarantee to be a perfect fit, and ended up with an unhappy customer. Unfortunately, we did our very best to provide Greg with all the information he needed throughout his entire build process (spanning 5 months), and that has been swept under the rug in the end over not being able to provide a custom built part we originally intended to be able to provide.

To answer about the last email, yes it was unprofessional and I do apologize that it made it out to a customer. Emotions are/were running high over a non-issue that has somehow become a big to do. As such they got out in the way of an email, which looks even worse snipped out of context to suit a narrative.

Hope this helps clear up our position on the entire exchange.

07-29-2019, 11:06 PM	#18
VIRBound Drives: 2018 ZL1 1LE Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 44	For those interested in the other side of this story. Greg reached out to us back in March inquiring about a cage. We went over every possible detail including fitment pictures, pricing, etc of our offering, including the sub harness bars and available options. Once pricing is discussed, conversation ends...for 6 weeks. In May conversation starts back up with more questions regarding fit/finish of the roll bar, additional questions about sub harness bars, and recommendations for harnesses/connection points. We again go above and beyond with thorough responses including competitive pricing for OTS items like the harnesses. At this point it’s mentioned that Greg would now like to go the RPM route for the cage, and GT harness bars knowing of the conflict in designs. I ask why he’s chosen the RPM bar over GT to attempt to still provide him with a complete package. His answer is that his dad prefers how the stock back seats look in the car and doesn’t want to remove them. Obviously this is not something we can cater to with our roll bar, so I don’t press the discussion further. He mentions forming up an order the following week (May 10). Again conversation ends...for 8 weeks. And it’s then rekindled in July asking us questions about harness installation in his car. At this point Greg has purchased an RPM bar and a harness from other vendors. We did not provide any support to his questions. Another week goes by and we then receive an email from Greg asking to move forward with the custom sub harness bars. (It should be noted that $0 has exchanged hands between Greg and GT, ever). I (Jordan) reply back to Greg and let him know that it’s still an option, however we no longer had a 6th Gen Camaro to jig them up on. At this point I get my business partner involved (Rosco) to discuss our options since we don’t have a 6th Gen to confirm fit on. At the end of our discussion, we agreed that it would be best not to offer Greg a custom solution that varies from our normal production jig, as we don’t have a car to fit them to like we did months prior. This is a huge risk for us already without having the customer car here with a rollbar we’ve never seen, and now introducing variation by fabricating outside of the standard jig. I replied to Greg’s email explaining that we can no longer offer the custom sub bars as I had originally expected. This was not well received, and Greg then asked to purchase standard sub harness bars. We opted not to move forward with offering the factory dimensioned sub bars to Greg, as we know they will not fit with an RPM bar, and will require modification. Again this is a safety related product with our name on it, and we are unable to control the modifications to it. We thought that this was the end of the discussion as 1) we ultimately were unable to provide sub bars to cater to Greg’s needs and 2) there was zero financial obligation to move forward with, be it a refund or shipping parts. That was last Tuesday. Thursday rolls around and a Facebook post is made about a completely unrelated part we offer (brake ducts) by another ZLE owner, and Greg chimes in unwarranted implying he somehow never received parts he paid for. When I asked him what he’s referring to, he brings up the sub harness bars and a strange recount of what actually transpired between us (namely thinking that modifying our bars was the sole reason he picked up an RPM bar, despite telling me the actual reason was to retain back seats). Following that discussion, Greg decides its necessary to leave negative reviews/slander of our business on any platform that he can (negative review on FB page, 1 Star on yelp, this thread) all because of a product we had no obligation to provide him with in the first place. In the end, we chose to avoid an unhappy customer by providing a product we couldn’t guarantee to be a perfect fit, and ended up with an unhappy customer. Unfortunately, we did our very best to provide Greg with all the information he needed throughout his entire build process (spanning 5 months), and that has been swept under the rug in the end over not being able to provide a custom built part we originally intended to be able to provide. To answer about the last email, yes it was unprofessional and I do apologize that it made it out to a customer. Emotions are/were running high over a non-issue that has somehow become a big to do. As such they got out in the way of an email, which looks even worse snipped out of context to suit a narrative. Hope this helps clear up our position on the entire exchange.