SHROCKWORKS out of business?

[Rhino]

sooo as someone who use to do stuff and get discounts with a armor company on the tacoma side this is how that company died.... at first it was just a couple of guys making bumpers for their own trucks then others were like wow! its different i want one! well that steam rolled into a small company when a friend of mine ordered his front bumper it took 6months to get it since they were so small and had two people doing everything but! they kept in contact and were great about it! now lets fast forward a year or so they have grown a lot and i needed a new front bumper (offroad accident lol) so i ordered one on black friday! sos concepts steel front bumper and ifs skid! now i forgot to input the black friday code and most company's go welp sucks to suck but the owner reached out to me and said hey you forgot to put this in so i put it in for you! after that point i was part of the sos crew i did photos of my truck and they were used for sales and other promotions so i would get some smaller deals on stuff. the company had expanded again! into a much larger company more employees a larger facility ! it was going great they did great about contacting people and giving updates on tw and insta or emails if you emailed! they were always bad about phone calls thou.... during that height i ordered the belly skids i needed my mid and t case skid so i wouldnt bend my t case cross member thingy again lol. fast shipping and great updates on them! but after another year it fell off! the owner left tw for some reason so it became hard to get updates on anything it became hard to get ahold of him on insta and as well on emails... it kept going down hill for awhile but i still liked the guys and armor so i ordered my rear hc bumper... that bumper looked great but had some issues with quality sadly... some things were off and the shipping was messed up plus it took way longer then it should have because they kept forgetting to take it to powder coat! towards the end of this company's life nobody was getting orders but they were taking money just fine! eventually the owner filed for bankruptcy and it ended because people were doing charge backs and trying to get thousands back after nothing was made for them! (sound familiar? well it should its similar to pelfrybilt...)


so the lesson with all this is if you like a company that makes armor be careful because at any point in time this can happen... (i saw a few people legit lose thousands of dollars because they couldnt get money back....) this happened to about 3-4 company's i know of on the tacoma side of things back in 2021.... the only ones that have never had this happen is cbi and arb and then all the jeep stuff because well they have been around long enough to keep buisness.....

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[AzScorpion]

People like to have opinions on what other people should do. ?‍ If you don't like the business, go somewhere else. Could they get bigger and make more money doing things differently? Probably...but if they have enough sales to pay the bills maybe they just don't care about getting bigger and would rather focus on the parts of the business that they like. It doesn't really have to be the case that every company must keep getting bigger until it turns into a massive multinational and collapses under its own weight.

Most times when a small business gets bigger the quality usually suffers. I've seen this happen numerous times in the trades and I almost fell into it myself. During the building booms you have so much work you can't handle it all and hate to say no when someone calls. You start to grow but there's only so many out there who are going to do the work like you want them to and the quality you (and your customers) expect. At some point things slow down and now there's not a huge demand and now you'd better bring your A game because people are not as willing to accept sub par work or inconsiderate business owners who don't call back or don't show up.

The most employees I've had was 7 and I'll tell you it was tough finding them. I could've used 7 more but knew it wasn't going to work out well and when things slowed down I cut it back to 3. I still made the same amount of money because I was paying less insurance and taxes and was able to stay busy even through the 2008 recession when others were either slow or went out of business.

I know Shrokworks makes a great product but he's getting a bad name. Just go on the other off road forums and you'll see these same type of posts dating back a couple years. There's to many other good businesses out there to waste your time with those who don't care about their customer service.

Word of wisdom that an old timer once gave me: "It's quicker to get a bad reputation than it is to get a good one".

 

[Dr. Zaius]

Point is, anytime you're selling a product, no matter how good it is, user perception is every bit as important as reality.

If a customer feels that the vendor doesn't care about them, then they probably don't care about making a quality product either and are turning a deaf ear to questions or complaints.

Most will go somewhere else where their patronage is appreciated.

These products are expensive and it's natural that people would have questions before incurring the wrath of their wife.

While I fully understand that they may not want to hire a receptionist to answer calls, I see no reason they can't take some time in the mornings to have a cup of coffee and respond to the emails from the previous day.

And an opportunity to give a shout out to @Stage3Motorsports.

My dealings with them have all met or exceeded expectations.

Granted that they are not a manufacturer, but they are a vendor and deal with the customers on a daily basis.

 

[OFC Ranger]

I suppose there's that to consider. But still pretty shitty.

Shouldn't be too difficult to return an email or phone call in some time span.

But are they active on instagram?!

 

[Joeiconic]

Lots of small shops return phone calls and emails. I wouldn't deal with anyone that doesn’t care enough about their customers to at least let them know their order is still in the pipeline. Especially when they already have the customers money.

 

[Dgc333]

People like to have opinions on what other people should do. ?‍ If you don't like the business, go somewhere else. Could they get bigger and make more money doing things differently? Probably...but if they have enough sales to pay the bills maybe they just don't care about getting bigger and would rather focus on the parts of the business that they like. It doesn't really have to be the case that every company must keep getting bigger until it turns into a massive multinational and collapses under its own weight.

No matter how big you want your business to be if you are not customer focused the only thing that will happen is it will get smaller until there is no business.

 

[GTGallop]

I started following Shrock in 2000 when I got my Nissan Xterra. Bought some of their stuff and put it on. Was a member of a board called XterraFirma (now gone). From 2000 to 2022 it seems like they go through waves of great service and production to poor service and production. It is a small family owned shop that is barely keeping it's head above hobbyist levels. Loosing or gaining an employee could represent a 20% swing in their ability to do anything and with the back log of orders and rapid price increase, he may have been unable to fab at a profit. Cost of metal going up faster than he can get orders out may mean that hes got cash flow issues.

Sign of the times and how the economy can crush a small business. Hope that isn't the case and he comes back strong soon.

 

[ppfd]

So, any word if the doors are still open?
Who else is making sliders for the Ranger? This is my next buy and these cats are for sure off the list.

Charge back - just went through this with my debit card / credit union. I had 90 days to file a dispute. Had the money back in 24 hours. The outfit I disputed had 90 days to present their side and get said money back if the win the dispute.
CC manager said, that's rare though.
My case was about 3 weeks in the making. I had to provide a written timeline what I bought, when I bought it, dates I attempted contact, invoices, shipping info. Last 2 I never recieved so it made it easier to get my money. And this was a reputable company, (not vehicle related).

 

[AzScorpion]

So, any word if the doors are still open?
Who else is making sliders for the Ranger? This is my next buy and these cats are for sure off the list.

White knuckle makes some good frame mounted sliders.

https://white-knuckleoffroad.com/product/ford-ranger-2019-newer-rock-sliders/

 

[Colo_Ranger]

White Knuckle are great. I have them, and they have stood up to the abuse I have thrown at them. They answered my emails when I asked for updates, they held true to their estimated delivery timeline.

 

[Trigganometry]

From what I have gathered from this thread sounds like a small operation that probably gets enough orders to build 6 sets of whatever it is they make. Who knows how many different varieties and for what that they make. With a few guys you can only pull off so much. Hope they do come through for you. I wouldn’t be happy about it.

 

[ppfd]

Damn shame, I really wanted one of their bumpers as well

 

[Wolfman00]

sooo as someone who use to do stuff and get discounts with a armor company on the tacoma side this is how that company died.... at first it was just a couple of guys making bumpers for their own trucks then others were like wow! its different i want one! well that steam rolled into a small company when a friend of mine ordered his front bumper it took 6months to get it since they were so small and had two people doing everything but! they kept in contact and were great about it! now lets fast forward a year or so they have grown a lot and i needed a new front bumper (offroad accident lol) so i ordered one on black friday! sos concepts steel front bumper and ifs skid! now i forgot to input the black friday code and most company's go welp sucks to suck but the owner reached out to me and said hey you forgot to put this in so i put it in for you! after that point i was part of the sos crew i did photos of my truck and they were used for sales and other promotions so i would get some smaller deals on stuff. the company had expanded again! into a much larger company more employees a larger facility ! it was going great they did great about contacting people and giving updates on tw and insta or emails if you emailed! they were always bad about phone calls thou.... during that height i ordered the belly skids i needed my mid and t case skid so i wouldnt bend my t case cross member thingy again lol. fast shipping and great updates on them! but after another year it fell off! the owner left tw for some reason so it became hard to get updates on anything it became hard to get ahold of him on insta and as well on emails... it kept going down hill for awhile but i still liked the guys and armor so i ordered my rear hc bumper... that bumper looked great but had some issues with quality sadly... some things were off and the shipping was messed up plus it took way longer then it should have because they kept forgetting to take it to powder coat! towards the end of this company's life nobody was getting orders but they were taking money just fine! eventually the owner filed for bankruptcy and it ended because people were doing charge backs and trying to get thousands back after nothing was made for them! (sound familiar? well it should its similar to pelfrybilt...)


so the lesson with all this is if you like a company that makes armor be careful because at any point in time this can happen... (i saw a few people legit lose thousands of dollars because they couldnt get money back....) this happened to about 3-4 company's i know of on the tacoma side of things back in 2021.... the only ones that have never had this happen is cbi and arb and then all the jeep stuff because well they have been around long enough to keep buisness.....

i remember all of this from my tw days

 

[Todd Chapin]

Rocky Road Outfiltters make some pretty stout sliders with a lifetime warantee against bending them. Just be ready for a three month build wait. Very happy with mine once recieved and installed.

 

[Rhino]

i remember all of this from my tw days

yuup it happens

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