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Ballistic Fabrication sucks! Crooks, liars, do not buy from!

219K views 638 replies 229 participants last post by  Taragon 
#1 ·
First I would like to start off this Slaying of ballistic fabrication by saying that I am not some kind of jack ass that doesnt take all the variables of the way the world works into consideration like shipping times, back orders, norman processing times ect. ect. I know what posting something like this can do to a business but these guys need to get there shit together or they should be banned from here!

The story goes like this. I ordered some shock tabs, two sticks of DOM tubing, weld in ends, and two tie rod ends. Not a huge order about $300 but if they treated me right there would have been much more to follow. When I placed the order I specifically asked the sales person if they had everything in stock? He told me they did and that it would all ship out that day. I was very happy because it I am working on a time sensitive project and was very important to have these parts asap. I am located in bay area CA and they are located in AZ should not take any longer than a few days or a week at the most! I also ordered parts from 3 other off road suppliers the same day all of which were farther away from me than ballistic. I thought it was kind of weird that everything else showed up and I still hadnt seen anything from ballistic?

I called them one week later to see if I could get a tracking mber and see whats up? They told me that my order had not been shipped yet because they didnt have the DOM tubing in stock. I instantly was pissed becaus I just spent the last week waiting for parts that never left. I asked why the sales person who took the order told me that everything was in stock and that it would ship out that day? He could not give me a answer? I then asked when he would expect the tubing in stock and he told me by the end of the week or possibly early next week! I told him that was rediculus and that I could not wait that long. I then asked him how they can be this huge off road supplier advertising how they have all this trick ass shit but yet dont have a couple of sticks of dom tubing in stock? Such bullshit I am located in CA and I can get my hands on DOM tubing at about 7 different places in a day or two! WTF?

I tried to calm myself down I was just going to try and make the best of it. I asked him if they could just ship out what they had in stock and cancel the DOM tubing. He then told me that he could but would have to charge me a 20% re stocking fee. I fucking hit the wall! How the hell can you charge a re stocking fee for something you havent even shipped out yet nor do you even have in stock? We went round and round on the phone and I basically told him that he just lost the complete order and that I wanted to be refunded all of my money! He then tried to give me all this B.S. about how long the refund process was going to take and reasons why it was going to take 2-3 weeks for me to get the money back in my account. I told him how full of shit he was. I told him I know that my bank takes a few days to process the refund but it is no where near 3 weeks! Theses people are just straight up crooks! I told him that i would be calling my bank the next day and that they would be able to tell me if the refund had been placed yet. Well I did end up getting my money back but I had to contact my bank and have them do a reversal on the charges and basically take the money back from those assholes!

What makes this story even better is that I noticed while all this was going on Ballistic fab had a huge listing in the vendor section for DOM tubing on sale. Boasting about how they can beat everyone elses prices and how they had all this DOM in stock Blah Blah Blah.

Do not buy from these guys! I would love to see them go belly up! Pirate 4x4 customers beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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#26 ·
Well I did end up getting my money back
this thread will not be deleted. but as is policy it will be locked as the OP has his money back and the customers issue is resolved. so while this case is closed.

Ballistic is on a short rope. but I will say from my monitoring ( and I monitor them weekly they have been making steady improvements to their customer service and for that they will continue to be on Pirate4x4......for now.

we, being pirate4x4 expect more from our vendors
you, the members deserve more from our vendors.

time will tell how this one plays out

camo
 
#3 ·
Next time Id hit up WFO or Ruff Stuff. Both way closer then ballistic....
 
#4 ·
Yeah WFO in Auburn is the place to get stuff from. Great group of guys there. If you need something super quick from there send me a PM and I could grab it and meet you some where between here and there. I'm at WFO almost every morning. I can't say any thing about Balistic though as I have never ordered from them.
 
#5 ·
One bad story after another.

Ok, so they made a mistake about not having it in stock. They should have called you the same day to see what you wanted to do.

How can you charge a restocking fee for something you didn't even have in stock?

A refund by credit card takes 3 days, not 3 weeks.

All this looks like financial problems. They don't have the money to buy the DOM or they would have in the next day or a week at the most if it was a really odd size and had to be ordered several states away. Then the refund problem is like they don't have the money to give it back to you.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Yeah, I agree with GubNi, this sounds like a company using current order $$ to purchase last orders materials.

Too many of these kinds of posts about Ballistic. Sounds like a company going under. That's one ship I don't want to be a passenger on that's for sure.

WFO, RuffStuff, PartsMike get my orders and have never treated me with anything other than complete courtesy and respect. Whether I'm buying a shock tab, or $2000 in parts.

Sorry you had to go through this. Especially since you are on a time sensitive project. That really sucks...
 
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#18 · (Edited)
If you are in a bad place and really need some today give me a call and I could meet you at the shop this morning, we have all sizes in stock. At the most we are 2 hours away depending on where in the Bay you are...
These guys here are by far the best company I have ever done buisiness with. I recommend them you anyone! I have never ordered anything from ballistic so I can't say anything bad about them but threads like this is why I have not ordered from them nor probably ever will.

edit: I live in Indiana and they are located in Cali. Anything that is sent out through USPS which is basically everything except really large items such as tubing I believe I always receive 2 days after placing my order. As far as their bigger stuff like the steering kits and panhard kits, both of which I have bought, take a little over a week to get here through ups.
 
#11 ·
This is absolutely not acceptable. This is the first I have heard of this. I want to apologize personally and will look into this.

We are committed to making our customers happy, we clearly failed here. I will gladly do everything in my power to make this right. Can you please pm me your name or order number? If you haven't already sourced this elsewhere I would /like to get this handled at no cost to you whatsoever.

Dave
 
#12 ·
This is absolutely not acceptable. This is the first I have hears of this. I want to apologize personally and will look into this.

We are committed to making our customers happy, we clearly failed here. I will gladly do everything in my power to make this right. Can you please pm me your name or order number? If you haven't already sourced this elsewhere I would /like to get this handled at no cost to you whatsoever.

Dave
WOW way to step up
Ben
 
#16 ·
You did the right thing by disputing the charge. After he called me out as a liar on the board (see "Ballistic Fab...thieves or liars? You Decide" thread), Dave admitted all to my cc company almost a month ago and still no refund from them. I am still working off a prov credit from my cc company. Keep in touch with your cc dispute person handling the case. You will be spending alot of time with him/her.
 
#21 · (Edited)
From MY interaction with them on May 20 2009. What has been going on with Ballistic HAS been going on for YEARS!!! This was a reply when I complained about an order that I had to follow up on that I did not receive when I expected it to be here.. No, the order wasn't shipped nor did I get a notification for which MONTH I should look for it!


Quote

Okay

First off it has been 7 business days. 2ND you ordered online and it has no way of knowing timeline for shipping. 3rd if I could predict when someone would get the flu and back up my welding I would be a genius. We do not mean to hold up any ones project. 4Th with 3 to 4 hundred orders at any given time it is darn near impossible to call everyone when something is going to be late. If I did call everyone then we would not be able to answer the phone to take your call and have you yell at one of us. I am sure you never make mistakes so this is something you don’t have to deal with. We are sorry your order took 7 days to leave we have some others that are still from April and are patiently waiting because we have good prices and a good product. We can only do the best we can sorry its not good enough for you.

End Quote



It is VERY SAD to see that Ballistic STILL hasn't changed. :shaking: Honestly, I do NOT wish ill will upon an American Company. I don't, but seriously, when is Ballistic going to straiten up! I emailed them YEARS ago about this VERY SAME problem that we, consumers of their products go through. It is just silly that they are apparently unable to get the right people to handle the procurement and shipment of their parts that they manufacture in house for the most part.

I sincerely wish I could purchase from them once again, but, as they BURNT me bad once years ago, I won't be made the fool the 2ND time.

So, if you all have had a good sales interaction with Ballistic, good for you, as I did have one, once in person that went excellent. It is just ordering and then receiving your parts via phone or Internet sales interaction is severely lacking.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I've been reading thru the balistic fab bad review threads.. Im kinda worried.. Why didnt I read thru this stuff before I made an order. I have about $450 in 2 orders that are both backorded ( I ordered both online, as I have never had a problem ordering online from any other place)

Sent them an email (not worried at the time) asking if they could give me a timelne to ship both orders- website claims that they will reply back within 24 hours.. But that was 4 days ago
 
#23 ·
Talk is Cheap

Wise Man Say- "When words and actions differ, believe actions".

I hate it when a vendor sincerely apologizes for a mistake but then doesn't put any $'s behind the apology to make up for what they put you through. Talk is cheap. Ship him the parts ASAP at no cost and that action will show true sincerity. Else, turn in your yellow star and go home.:mad3:
 
#24 ·
these guys need to get there shit together or they should be banned from here!

!!!
I agree and have had a few recent phone conversations with dave and Jeff of ballistic.

while I do not agree with you that they are crooks as you state I do believe that they need to get the management of their business straightened out or they will be banned from Pirate4x4.

I am certainly not making excuses for them and am personally disappointed in how some pirate4x4 member orders have been handled.

I do know that they are working hard to reorganize and improve their business management and customer service. however they are on a definite time line with us and if these complaints continue they will be banned from Pirate4x4.

generally speaking, Jeff and dave are good guys, offer innovative products at a good value. for whatever reason their customer service has gone in the shitter and if while it HAS improved in recent months, they must do better. and fast. or like i said. they will be banned from Pirate4x4.

camo
 
#27 ·
72 high boy

if I missed something and in fact you are not whole and have either a part or money due you then PM me and I will reopen this thread.

but as far as i can tell your issue is resolved, you have said your peace and as is policy. thread is now closed
 
#30 ·
some of there threads have gone missing here and from what i have read a lot of them have gone missing in there own section. :shaking:

but i do agree thay need to clean house and shape up or ship out. as publicly saying i am sorry only goes so far till its just words and not a real action.
 
#32 ·
some of there threads have gone missing here and from what i have read a lot of them have gone missing in there own section. :shaking:
This happens ALOT. I've seen many posts and threads put up and gone back to see their response to find that the thread/post has been deleted. What worries me about it is if I've noticed the amount I have I wonder just how many others have been removed.

They have some parts I would like to order, but have been following their customer service issues and to be honest have not placed the order due to just that.
 
#31 ·
72highboy

Chris,

I have sent you a PM, thank you for the name, it assisted greatly in finding the order. Please take a look at my PM and we can proceed from there. Dave
 
#35 ·
i waited for several months on some ballistic joints and got the run around that everyone else is getting. swore them off and said I would NEVER buy anything from them again.... call me dumb, but i placed another order because the price was right and the quality is top notch. so I dropped another grand on parts last week. immediately noticed some major changes. one of the parts was on back order, the website made you click a box saying you agree that you understood there was a back order. I got numerous emails (they were all form letters, but there were emails) as soon as i placed my order. when i responded to the emails I got an auto response from the receiving person (another form letter, but it was a response). I was reminded upfront that the steering parts were on back order but the remainder of the order would be shipped out immediately (this was last wednesday). at this point i am somewhat impressed and thinking that things may have changed. as of friday i didnt have any tracking numbers or any packages, so i sent an email asking for the number. no response... so i sent another email. I did get another response with the "shipping manager" copied in telling me that my order would ship asap. i guess i will see tomorrow just how much things have changed. so far i am impressed by the changes that appear to have taken place, however until i see how my order is processed i still remain skeptical.
 
#36 ·
I truly believe that they really should be banned! I am in the middle of two big projects and will never order from them again. The reason I joined pirate last year was for all the good info on builds and vendors, I didnt think that this great community would endorse such a lame duck of a company.

Yeah yeah yeah they are working on it.... Right.... They have been working on the same shit since day one it appears!

I completely agree with the earlier statement in regards to not wishing any ill will on ANY American company, however I feel that ballistic just flat out does not give a shit and I am one of the many pirate newbs that attempted to use them, went through hell, THEN found all these threads..... Its time for some change! And not the obama kind!!!!!
 
#39 ·
yea i would say it was settled yesterday. probably should have been left open until you received your refund. sucks that you had to go through all of this for your money. i doubt i will ever order from them due to all this negative feedback.
sorry for your negative experience but thanks for sharing also. to the op as well
 
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