12° North Industries
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Joined: Thu Nov 23rd, 2017
Posts: 389
Name: Occupation: Vehicle Upfitter ... Interests: The great outdoors, nature, back to basics ...
Reputation Points: 389
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Well hasn't this turned into a unique debate. Before the hearsay becomes a talking point of defamation of a company not exactly here to present it's side of (any) story lets all keep in mind that there is always 3 sides of any and all stories. Side A's story, side B's story, and of course what really happened.
With respect to lack of first hand knowledge of most events leading up to the worse of situations all the way up to miscommunications, there is much hearsay being thrown around circling this and when it comes to a topic of a product or even a shops defense in support of or otherwise. it's always been my experience that it is a delicate balance that can easily go well for consumer confidence or turn into the all to popular internet based crap-fest.
For many if not all industries there is a certain limitation to where a product is designed for or intended to be capable of, or an expectation to meet and someone takes things to another level which may border on pure abuse, common sense, or lack thereof. All variables aren't and won't likely be accounted for nor given as working factors in any given discussion especially where anyone is looking to point fingers at for accountability. I myself would not dare to find any company completely infallible just as much as I cannot see any company with a track record of being prone to poorly made products being in business long as usually with poor product development and poor business practices all go hand in hand and the demise doesn't take long. I can think of a few aftermarket companies in the world of performance to aesthetic offerings going by-by real quick whence the market turned on them as they should. Shy of the bad position an owner may find themselves in, this is what makes the free market and America great. As of this moment the company in question despite all of its blundering's, admitted unhappy customers, poorly made products and marketing failures in both advertising or product development still rocks a pretty horrible 4.8 stars out of 3,145 verified purchase reviews.
Could those be skewed, bought, or removed bad remarks? Absolutely but if that's the logic we are to accept and use as proper fallacies couldn't that go for anyone in the market place that you're basing your thoughts of and on in perhaps another product? Maybe all companies buy their reviews per se`. We all at some point used a review rather than take a chance with a company to find out for ourselves if everything we've heard was true whether that be a good thing or a bad one. Food, a date, a dealership, parts store, babysitter, a school, or everyone's favorite - THE Dentist. We rely on a system that we know can be bought, skewed or tainted yet we still blindly have faith that it will always favor our thoughts and beliefs.. America loves its ignorance I guess.
I promise not to pick on any one topic or response but for simplicity of the debate, the F150 with the RC 6" lift that was.. "really stuck" I'd like to open the controversy because I've seen dozens of mistakes made by average Joe's to professionals alike for many years. So as an investigative person and inquisitive to question things because of warranty issues or general life:
How was it stuck?
Was it in mud? sand? rocks?
How deep? sunk to the axle? the frame? above the frame deep?
What size were the tires? on 31? 33? 35? 37? 44? bigger?
Where was it secured for recovery? On a suspension component? a frame component?
Who and how was it being recovered? Winch? Snatch Strap? chains? tow strap?
Was it correctly set up for the recovery? Did they attempt to run & pull on it? did they just pull/winch without consideration?
Was the vehicle damaged in the process of becoming stuck? was the vehicle damaged due to the recovery?
Could it had been installed improperly?
Could it been a undetected bad weld or a manufacture defect? A possible long term damage that finally gave way?
Could it have been compromised materials overall?
Or was it a purely poor design overall?
I ask things like this an on open record because I see none of these things being said nor anyone asking questions as to how the installation was done and yet all of them can and will contribute to error. I guarantee it without even adding in the usual culprit of human error to start. Was it professionally installed or a DIY application. What was the true background and experience of the installers know how. Not to say you need to be "Product XXX" certified but we see plenty of times by the types of people who come on social formats all over whom may have the mechanical aptitude to carry out such an install but perhaps the familiarity with either a specific vehicle or a brand and some particulars of either one of those aspects is an unknown.
For instance, I too have seen recovery videos where a NAME BRAND snatch strap has ripped an entire portion of a frame off a Land Cruiser and put it not only right through the windshield of a Nissan Patrol being used to conduct the recovery but penetrated through and took the passenger side headrest and upper portion of the seat clean off and exited the vehicle. Does that mean that brand is bad? How about the Land cruiser? Would knowledge of that experience put Toyota in your mind as building and manufacturing poorly vehicles? Or can we more than likely place blame on the construct of the recovery process and those committed to exercising its action?
My point here is people all across the board make mistakes or poorly execute actions and where those mistakes fall is an absolute consideration as to what may be at fault. As a smaller dealer supporting RC, I've personally read reviews and looked at the company history and make up before the owner and our team decided the product was of good quality and even reputation. Even in our Instagram page. I can recall 2 months ago a Jeep follower of ours we follow back had literally an incident I think with an RC center link or something in the front suspension of his JEEP JK and he posted a bent component part openly on Instagram. Ironically as he was trying his best to make the RC product look bad, a HOST of fellow trail goers and buddies roasted this young man blaming the way he drives on the trail and with video/vine footage of trail runs called this guy out on his own defamation and really all he ended up doing is self-incriminating himself as an abuser not a poorly made or designed product.
I for one can say this, and for anyone of those out there who work in any customer service fashion or make a product. Have you really ever made every customer 100% satisfied to the point where they had not a tainted thought and the experience was beyond exceptional. If you can say that you have with the utmost of honesty I may want you to come work for me and come show me what you got.
As for RC products and their lineup. I don't know of anyone but one person running it on their own truck except for one young man and he bought his second hand. Outside of that I have no idea who has again any first hand knowledge to fully discredit a company striving to make a part for a near 10 year old dead platform that few other companies are and when they are. It's products priced beyond the reach of not just the average customer but the competitiveness usually is stagnant to either a specific locale or a few dedicated venues where some customer loyalty and perhaps great customer service has paid off.
In that regard, anyone who has real experience with any RC products and or RC product installation background who could validate and or verify them as being a "not so great product to support", feel free to contact us and share those thoughts openly. I'd for sure as Chief Operating officer under the owner have some questions of my own regarding those experiences if you wouldn't mind talking shop.
Generally we feel that the product selections 12° North Industries makes or has made are based upon quality, uniqueness, the ability's and track records of said company's of standing up behind their products fully; which we feel drives consumer confidence and provides niche marketplaces. We carry some products that not many may have or would consider for the exact same reason we don't carry the same products as everyone else we may or could be in competition with. If we felt a company was lacking in quality or integrity, we would take those considerations well under advisement and simply found another way to fulfill the demand.
In the interim, if there are any specific questions we can field for consumer benefits or confidence, again let us know how we may be of service.
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North Industries
Las Vegas, Nevada 89118
Web http://www.12degnorth.com
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