ballistic fab

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[jeepgod]

i know they are a sponsor of this club and offer members club discounts but . . . .

i ordered 1 ballistic joint (item number BJ-671-11) to rebuild the crappy rubicon express track bar joint on mar 14, billed my credit card for it on the same day. received confirmation of my order within minutes via email

flash forward to today (mar 25)  after receiving no parts, no notifications or any communications what so ever i called them. after waiting on hold for 23 minutes (confirmed cause the joy of cell phones is that they tell you how long you are using it and i watch the minutes tick away cause i hate being on hold) after someone answers the phone i ask what the status is?  "you know what i will check and see and call you back" is what i am told? i say "huh, what does that mean?"  "i think that is due to go out this week?" (its friday dude, is it shipping today or what?)  he then tells me he will look into it again and call me back.  i ask when i will get a call back?  "maybe later today" i am told and he promptly hung up on me!  now keep in mind i have NOT been rude or mean or done or said anything inappropriate

so now i am pissed, so i call clayton (who i didn't call in the first place cause i wanted a 1/2" bolt not 7/16" as claytron sells)  clayton answers the call i order and he says that part is in stock will ship out today. thxs clayton

i call ballistic back to cancel my order. i again wait about 18 minutes, the dude answers the phone and i say i want to cancell my order. he says to me "i can check on your order and call you back" i am thinking seems weird that they can't just look it up and see the status i tell them "no thxs"  and then there is total silence . . . . i finally say "hello" the guy says "yeah i am here"  "uhmmm is this being cancelled or what now"  i ask  "its being cancelled" he responds.

in short, totally ridiculous situation. one $39 part, over an hour on the phone and waiting for 2 weeks!  crappy business, with crap customer service!

i will NEVER order from them again. and i am going to post this on every board i can think of cause i want people to have info about how some companies are run


rant over

twd

[Mitch]

sounds like you are finished finished with it, and I also dont like being on hold so I dont blame you. But that said, I do think you should send Dave (has an account here) a message or email as he has gone out of his way to make others on our forum happy after experiencing simular frustrating events. Just an idea, I know you and believe that you are probably pretty much done with this.

[jeepgod]

you know mitch, i would contact dave but honestly what is he going to do?  its not like i was asking for some crazy custom part and dave could in some way get the work done faster.  i honestly wasn't mad about the "hold" time really until i got on the line and the guy was a total monkey! i mean the fact that they can't even tell me if the part has or is going to ship soon seems completely insane to me!!  the simple fact that they would have to "call me back" to verify if they have the part or if it is going to ship is ridiculous!!

i have posted this on many other club forums so that other people can see how stupid ballistic is! i even linked to ballistics own thread they started on pirate saying how they have made all kinds of changes to better serve their customers.  HAHA biggest bunch of horsesh!!t i have ever read!

fyi, i called clayton offroad yesterday (mar 25), placed my order at 12:45pm, received an email with a tracking number at 6:30 last night from ups. i will receive the part i need on monday!!!  want good customer service with quick turnarounds?  don't use ballistic fab!!



oh and one other thing, the same day i ordered from ballistic i also ordered some brackets from ruffstuff, i placed the orders about 45 minutes apart. my stuff from ruffstuff came on thursday march 17. so the fact that ballistic is far away really had nothing to do with shipping time, it is plain and simple incompetence on the behalf of ballistic fab!

have a good day

 

[jason m]

Todd Ive been saying this for over 2 years now, been there and dealt with them to. Won't ever do it again period.

I order from Ruffstuff, 100% of my parts come from them, you wont see a "bling bling" skull on my junk.

Jason.

[BallisticDave]

You're absolutely right.  At this point in regard to the situation you had...there's not much I can do.  However, I can and do take these types of things seriously.  Had I known about it sooner, I would have gladly jumped in and found out what the issue in communication was. 

I am the person that contacts customers about back ordered items.  This is a clear failure on my part.  I obviously screwd up and it has cost us something valuable...a customer, possibly many.  I hate to lose a customer, regardless of size of revenue...a customer that spends a dollar is as important to me as one who spends $10,000.  Many vendors don't understand that type of thinking, but I know how important everyone is. 

I will be using your remarks in a weekly sales meeting.  We will learn from this and will do better.  I have a suspicion as to who you likely spoke to.  That person and I will be having a nice long chat tomorrow about this.  Although I can only guess who you spoke to, I will be speaking to the person I suspect and everyone else in the meeting I mentioned earlier. 


The reality of this situation is that I cannot do anything at this point to make it be fixed, however I can and would like to offer you some compensation for your time and effort.  Please send me a PM with your name, so I can send you my attempt at compensation. 

We are continuing to do our best to improve, I recently made an announcement on Pirate that is huge.  We are now shipping shocks within a few days of the order being placed, and honestly would send them sooner, but we are committed to continuing a built to order shock operation.  Many of the people on this board have ordered shocks from us and know that we had some issues getting those things out the door!  It's over. 

I have recently expanded my duties at the shop to include working with the machinist and schedulers to make the operation more efficient.  This means there is someone in the mix of the scheduling and machining process who is watching out for the customer end of the business as well as everything else.  Ballistic in its whole is my responsibility, but I know I am not able to be everywhere at every moment, so I work on certain areas, make the necessary improvements with the help of team members, and then I move on to assist another area.  Still overseeing the area that I just worked with, but also allowing for another employee of Ballistic to step in, and step up reporting back to me how the operation is running.  It allows me to stay focused on all aspects of the company while assisting the improvement of certain areas. 

We will never be perfect, but we will always strive for perfection.  I lead and follow with this thought in my mind at all times…”Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”  ~Confucius

I hope you will take me up on my offer.  All the best!  Dave

[05rckymtn]

Good on you Dave for stepping up and making a solid reply.  From what I have read here and on other forums if I do need to order from Ballistic I will only order through you and not deal with some nit-wit on the phone.

[HEYzipupyourfly]

on that note, I too had issues once before, I got them straightened out, thanks to Dave. so i figured I would give them another try. so I made my main order for my suspension(FEB 4th). i was told that they were waiting on material for one of the joints I was fine with that he told me they would be a week out. So he did hussle and get everything he had in stock out to me that week. But since then i have two or three un-answered emails into Dave wondering about the ETA on my joints and if they wanted to do anything with the wrong size tube ends they sent me.
obviously Daves reading this, maybe he's missing his PMs.
 so send me a message let me know whats up man.-Tony

[jeepgod]

pm sent


start your own thread tony!

[BallisticDave]

on that note, I too had issues once before, I got them straightened out, thanks to Dave. so i figured I would give them another try. so I made my main order for my suspension(FEB 4th). i was told that they were waiting on material for one of the joints I was fine with that he told me they would be a week out. So he did hussle and get everything he had in stock out to me that week. But since then i have two or three un-answered emails into Dave wondering about the ETA on my joints and if they wanted to do anything with the wrong size tube ends they sent me.
obviously Daves reading this, maybe he's missing his PMs.
 so send me a message let me know whats up man.-Tony

I am clearly missing emails/pm's guys.  The problem (I think) is this.  I work here until about 8 or 9pm then go home to see my kids before bed.  As of late, I have been answering emails after everyone else has gone home for the night, or even from home.  I believe what is happened is I am answering emails/pm's ans then losing track of them because I am not answering from my main computer here at the shop.  Perhaps I should submit a requisition for a nice laptop. 

All joking aside, I take everyone's issues and concerns seriously.  I am running harder then ever sweeping up the mess that Will left behind.  I never intentionally don't answer someone, and am not sure if I am actually getting emails when I see a pm...I will check though and resolve any and all of these problems from my end. 

Tony...I have your rod ends coming in, if I remember correctly (and there is always a chance that I don't) you stated you weren't in a huge hurry for them as long as they didn't take a year.    They were placed on my most recent stocking order and will ship to you just as soon as they arrive to me.  I think about your order every time I walk by that shelf. 

JeepGod, I received your PM, and appreciate the things you have shared with me.  I will be listening more closely from my office to the incoming calls and ensuring much better service than what you described. 

Everyone, please keep me in mind when and if you are having troubles.  I am busier then ever but am always happy to stop and figure things out for our clients.  I am most easily reached at dave@ballisticfabrication.com

Thank you!  Dave

[jeepgod]

dave


i still have not received my refund from ballisic fab as i was told i would for product that was ordered 2 weeks ago and i was billed for on the day of order  i hope that this gets resolved before i have to involve my credit card company and despute the charges ?


have a good one

todd


fyi- my intent with this thread was to warn people of the possible issues with the ordering process and customer service issues i had with ballistic fab.  just wanted to make this clear!