ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Suzuki 4x4 Forum => Topic started by: joesteak on November 01, 2007, 06:03:51 PM
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I urge anyone who has had a bad business deal with OTT Industries to register a complaint here: https://www.bbbvan.org/file_complaint.php .
Here’s my story. I was quoted a 3 month lead time on a Kicker 2, so that’s what I based my build around. It took 8 months. When it arrived, the front part of the case was damaged from shipping. OTT told me they would file a shipping claim, but then they did nothing. After repeated attempts to contact them and no return phone calls, I gave up and installed the damaged Kicker 2. The first time out, and it pops from low to neutral under load. Since the shifter stays locked in low while this happens, I assume it’s a problem inside the case. Now it’s so bad I can’t even drive down the street. I call OTT back and they say they will send a replacement in two weeks. That was 3 months ago. Now they won’t return my phone calls. I’m out $650 for the Kicker 2, $100 in shipping, more than I want to think about in driveshafts, and over a year of my time. This is no way to run a business. I don’t mind that it was damaged or even that they were off on their estimates of time. What bothers me is that they make no effort to correct the situation. All I get is empty promises.
Because I contacted the Better Business Bureau, there is now a file on OTT. This is what it reads:
“The BBB develops a report on a firm based on inquiry or complaint activity. The BBB has not received a sufficient volume of requests for information, nor has the BBB received any complaints on this firm to warrant the development of a report. The information provided, however limited, is presented to assist you in your purchasing decisions or for any other purpose you deem relevant. The BBB suggests you read and understand company promotional materials and contracts and check company references and licensing, where applicable.�
If more people file complaints they will generate a report that can let others know what they are getting into if they decide to do business with OTT. You may have been screwed out of time and money as I have, but we should do our part to help protect others. I'm making this post on every Suzuki forum I can find. Unfortunately this is the only recourse I have left. Everything I've written is truthful and honest, and when OTT honors their commitments I'll post that as well. If they want to stop the bad press then they need to step up and do what it takes to make things right.
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sucks to hear that man
but i got one smiley for this thread
:police:
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Hey Joe, Id give Rockrat a call and see if he can repair it. I know he is familiar with the kicker 3, not sure about the kicker 2. His work # is 1-847-544-1823. Im sure it wont be free but an alternative none the less.
Mike
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as dissapointed i am to hear about the personal trouble people have had with venders as of late, they are just that...... personal! these problems need to be addressed thru the right channels, which it sounds like you'v started. but it is not gonna help you solve your problems comming here and expressing negitive opinions. this is zukiworld, there is no constitution here, there is only the simple rules set forth by the owner, one of which is......... there is no vendor bashing allowed on this site.
wise words..........
if i'v done something wrong tell me, if i'v done something right tell everyone!
good words to live by ;)
jason
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Locjaw is correct. There is no vendor bashing allowed on this board. Im not sure if it only applys to zw vendors or all vendors ( have to talk to the boss on that one) but probabally not a good Idea anyway.
Snip that applys here
vendor ‘bashing’ or negative information threads should be considered a thing of the past for this forum. If you are having problems with a vendor contact them directly.
I would guess this means all vendors. :-\
This is the first paragraph of the agreement letter that you accepted to get your account. If your not sure of the rules of each forum click on the welcome thread at the top of the page. The rules of each forum are there.
Mike
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If you are having problems with a vendor contact them directly.
I agree with the non negative staement rules of the board as mentioned by the previous members. But have they ever tried to contact Ott directly? This company is pretty hard to get a hold of for a one on one talk.
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out of curiosity :angel:
why is this thread open but this one locked?
???
http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=19459.0
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"wise words..........
if i'v done something wrong tell me, if i'v done something right tell everyone!"
You have no idea how many times I called. I call every day, sometimes twice a day. I leave a message once or twice a week.
"Second, vendor ‘bashing’ or negative information threads should be considered a thing of the past for this forum. If you are having problems with a vendor contact them directly."
I'm not vendor bashing in the sense that I'm making personal attacks against these guys. I just posted what happened. Actually, Ben has been very pleasant with me on the phone - he sounds like a great guy. I understand the moderator wants this forum to positive experiences only, but the world isn't all sunshine and roses. I have a Suzuki vehicle with no low range and I need help to get it fixed. Isn't that what this site is for? How else do I get the word out? I don't know, work, wheel with, or otherwise have access to other people that wheel suzukis.
Look, I don't want to sound like some whiney jerk, but I don't know what else to do. It's easy for others to post that it's no big deal, it's my problem, whatever, but how would you feel if someone screwed you out of $1000+ and a year of your time? This is unethical. If you saw someone getting mugged on the street would you keep walking and think to yourself, 'hey, that guy's got a personal problem, he better address that thru the right channels.' From my experience and from reading other posts online, OTT is ripping off the Suzuki off-road community. So I am doing a positive thing with this post by trying to protect others.
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I agree with Joesteak, this forum can't just be about the good stuff. I for one am glad to get information on possible problems with any vendor. Joesteak seems to be a reasonable man, and his post was articulate and written in a NON bashing, but informitive manner. If we all just rolled over and took in the you know where, when being dealt with poorly or unfairly, we might as well just drop the communicating on this forum, adopt the language of BAA BAAA BAA, and act like the sheep we would become. Keep making noise Joesteak, don't give up. My .02$
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I agree with Bentparts:
It's not bashing--it's simply relating an experience so we can all LEARN from it, so it doesn't happen to us. And to HELP us.
A guy on my trailer site recently bought a "new" Little Guy teadrop trailer. He drove hundreds of miles to pick it up, drove hundreds of miles to get it home, then discovers tons of wood rot. He makes his calls, gets no satisfaction, and he's beside himself. He spent a LOT of money, and to make matters worse, this guy tried to build his own teardrop TWICE but just didn't have the skills and he screwed up royally.
This was a beaten man, you know? The kind of experience that sours you on life. We ALL work hard for our money.
Well, he posts his story, we all contact Little Guy, and guess what?
Brand-new trailer. They pay for his hotel, gas, the works. Little Guy was shitting a BRICK at the response, and you know what? That's not going to happen again to ANYONE.
This is what the internet should be all about.
If you're interested, here's the guy's full thread. He later renamed the title "Happy Ending" because fortunately, that web site helped him have one.
http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18755&highlight=nightmare
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unfortunatly you are all right, i'm just as upset as the next person when i'm not treated right as a consumer, but we dont own this board !! this board IS owned by a very peace loving individule and he can require us to not have any negitive threads if he wants, and we all NEED to respect this !! this place is an awesome resource, but for all positive reasons. it
should must remain that way !!
jason
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Jason, how about having a section of the site where members can give star ratings or some such to vendors for their customer service? No comments, just the "data." This sort of information is very valuable to our community, and there should be some way to get the word out in a bash-free fashion that would maintain the positive environment that we all enjoy here at ZukiWorld.
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Hey Joe, Id give Rockrat a call and see if he can repair it. I know he is familiar with the kicker 3, not sure about the kicker 2. His work # is 1-847-544-1823. Im sure it wont be free but an alternative none the less.
Mike
X2
Besides, I want Rockrat to make a Kicker 2 for my GV. ;)
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Jason, how about having a section of the site where members can give star ratings or some such to vendors for their customer service? No comments, just the "data." This sort of information is very valuable to our community, and there should be some way to get the word out in a bash-free fashion that would maintain the positive environment that we all enjoy here at ZukiWorld.
This doesn,t soud bad to me, but no comments and maybe it could show who gave the rating so other venders could not give bad ratings (but I'm sure that wouldn't happen)
Ryan
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Jason, how about having a section of the site where members can give star ratings or some such to vendors for their customer service? No comments, just the "data." This sort of information is very valuable to our community, and there should be some way to get the word out in a bash-free fashion that would maintain the positive environment that we all enjoy here at ZukiWorld.
kickturn, that would probably be a good idea, unfortunatly i am also just one of the masses. i'm all for finding information out about a company before doing business with them. but it's not what i want , it's about the wishes of the owner of this board. i will second your idea of a non objective and annomous way of rateing the performance of our vendors, but for there information , AND ours. the vendors need a place they can view a rating of there performance to make changes (or not) to increase the happiness of there customers, not just read smack talk and get pissd over it. if they want that they can go to pirate ;D
jason
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Does anyone here know that Jeff (Hoepkers) actually took the time to CALL me to calm my nerves about my lift and the inexpensive spring spacers that I had YET to even buy from him? And it's not like he called to "make the sale"--he called to help.
Yeah, I missed the call because I was in a bar drunk at the time (what else is new?)--but he still called. Heck, I was embarrassed to even call him BACK because this was such an inexpensive purchase that i didn't want to bother him. Plus, I exchanged additional emails with his WIFE for such a tiny purchase.
People should know these things--good and bad.
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Think of this in a strictly business light...
If you were a vendor, would you advertise on a website that allows negative feedback at all? What good could come from it? Imagine how many people would post negative things about a vendor they just didn't like (e.g. RRO or Calmini) even if they never really bought anything from them?
What would prevent me, for example, giving RRO a bad review if it was unwarranted? What would prevent me, as a vendor, from rating myself as great?
Any site that looks to vendors for ad revenue, will not likely bite the hand that feeds them. Remember iZook? Have you ever seen a product review on that site, or any Zook website, that basically said, "This part is crap and don't waste your money on it."
Until we have a subscription-based Zook website that does not rely on vendor-ad revenue, you never will.
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Think of this in a strictly business light...
If you were a vendor, would you advertise on a website that allows negative feedback at all? What good could come from it? Imagine how many people would post negative things about a vendor they just didn't like (e.g. RRO or Calmini) even if they never really bought anything from them?
What would prevent me, for example, giving RRO a bad review if it was unwarranted? What would prevent me, as a vendor, from rating myself as great?
Any site that looks to vendors for ad revenue, will not likely bite the hand that feeds them. Remember iZook? Have you ever seen a product review on that site, or any Zook website, that basically said, "This part is crap and don't waste your money on it."
Until we have a subscription-based Zook website that does not rely on vendor-ad revenue, you never will.
Well, there you go. You said it:
That some sites are created to make money. Others to help the people who visit the site.
And yet others who actually manage to do both. And it's these sites which are truly successful.
But subscription-based? Don't know where you got that from, but aside for porno, there ain't no such animal these days.
Heck, this is almost like a religious decision, where you have to delve deep into your soul and decide whether it's all about making a buck or maintaining a great site. Nothing wrong with deciding on either, but you have to be honest about it and say that up front.
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Thanks guys for the comments and the smiley face ::). If this thread gets pulled I understand why. To be honest, I didn't realize it was against the rules make a post of this nature. I know, ignorance of the rules is no excuse, but who really reads every disclaimer online before clicking [Accept]?
I do, however want to address locjaw's feigned sympathy and patronizing comments about peace, love and only simple rules. If the rule is there to protect the paying sponsors of the site, just call it like it is. I can respect that - I'm as capitalist as the next guy. But don’t blow smoke and act like it’s for some greater good.
And in the spirit of capitalism, maybe I will call Rockrat. If he wants to hook me up I’d gladly send him my Kicker 2 to reverse engineer. I’d love to see someone else start selling a competing product with better service.
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Thanks guys for the comments and the smiley face ::). If this thread gets pulled I understand why. To be honest, I didn't realize it was against the rules make a post of this nature. I know, ignorance of the rules is no excuse, but who really reads every disclaimer online before clicking [Accept]?
I do, however want to address locjaw's feigned sympathy and patronizing comments about peace, love and only simple rules. If the rule is there to protect the paying sponsors of the site, just call it like it is. I can respect that - I'm as capitalist as the next guy. But don’t blow smoke and act like it’s for some greater good.
And in the spirit of capitalism, maybe I will call Rockrat. If he wants to hook me up I’d gladly send him my Kicker 2 to reverse engineer. I’d love to see someone else start selling a competing product with better service.
fregned sympathy and patronizing comments was not my goal, sorry if it sounded that way. as for calling it like it is, i dont have a clue what it is !! i'm no moderator, i do not own this site. i do however respect the wishes of the owner be them personal or finance oriented. as should everyone on this site.
jason
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no need to appologize if it was genuine. Hell, I'm the new guy in here breaking the rules and causing trouble so I'll stop now.
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no need to appologize if it was genuine. Hell, I'm the new guy in here breaking the rules and causing trouble so I'll stop now.
no worries... not like you got temp banned or anything :P
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try to deal with the vendors that bacck our website
personally i have never had any problems with any of them
i respect them and they return it to me
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ok, everybody, group hug >:D :laugh: >:D :laugh:
it's all good joesteak we are all friends here !! sit back , hang out a while, drink a few brewskies..... you'll love this site like we all do !!
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I really do wish that there was a place to relate experiences with vendors. I still have alot of parts to get and I am willing to pay extra dollars for good service. I would rather pay a bit more and support someone that is going to take care of me then get left hanging. For what it is worth, every call to Hawk I have placed has been awesome. Not a pretty website but they have great service.
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Spidertrax is awesome to deal with. Incredible service and tech support.
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Good luck on situation and as a business owner my self, I no that it is easy to make every customer happy, but this is a different situation!! I hope that your problem can be solved without big $$$$. As I have done in the past, I will fix some problems of my competitors at no charge or no labor charges since this customer has been thru H|removethispart|@|removethispart|@l and back already. This sounds like a great business opp for RockRat whom every thing I have read is a God in this area!!! Good Luck again!!
As for a great service on my Sami parts, Its been Roadless Gear!!!!! I think I'm on their XMAS card list!!! 8)
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Bah, Hawk Suzuki Parts all the way. And shipping is only 3 days out from my place. :D
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First part of this thread made me kind of nervous. It got kind of rude. I thought rudeness was for other forums.
Anyways, I've had good luck with Hawk too. I order on a Monday and it's here the next Monday. Sometimes by Friday p.m. I wish they would ship Fed-ex ground because they're quicker than ups. I may have to start ordering on Friday so I have the stuff in time for the next week end. Pretty good luck with Petro too. They are late on my carb though so I had to call and check. If there is a hold up on a part, they should call. I'm pretty patient so I guess as long as my parts show up with in a couple weeks I'm o.k. but I don't like being lied too either. I've been too busy to put the carb on anyways so it's no big deal.
-Adam
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There was a good bit of conversation and some great ideas that came up from this thread. Some things to work on perhaps. Thank you all for keeping it polite that shows some real integrity which I think is pretty cool.
Thank you, Eric