Topic: Tactical Armor Group suspends operations

[viper]

I am in the process of upgrading my X. One of the improvements ins a rear bumper. I selected the Tactical Armor Group bumper (https://tacticalarmorgroup.com/). I made the big mistake of not Googling them. If I did, I would have found many complaints about them. I ordered my bumber in July 2015. I only received it last month. That is almost 1 year, much longer than the 5-8 weeks promised.

Now that I am about to mount the thing (I just finished painting it) I notice they failed to weld on the shackle mounts as I ordered (https://tacticalarmorgroup.com/MultiCarrier/Tow-Points).
It is also not clear to me how I am going to mount the licence plate, since no holes were pre-drilled for me. I am also not clear how the Hi-lift jack stand plates are going to work.

As I report this and request a resolution, I get the short email: "Operations are suspended".
When I call them, I get a short message: "due to credit card fraud, their operations are suspended".
Given their poor track record, I find it hard to believe they are the victim of credit card fraud, and instead closed the door due to too much crappy service.

Nice, I just hope this thing fits when I mount it.

[JFanaselle]

Very sorry to hear this, and fingers crossed that the bumper fits well. In the end, if all you end up with is missing recovery points, you might be able to call yourself lucky that it wasn't worse. I've seen some horror stories about this company and people having to spend A LOT of money with a local fabricator after they receive their product due to poor workmanship and issues with fit. It's a bummer because some of their designs look really great, but execution and delivering what the customer expected seems to be their shortfall.

If their past history repeats itself, they'll pop up again with a new name in a few months and you'll be able to contact the new company up and demand that they make it right for you (although that still might not get you very far, but it's worth a shot).

[RikRong]

In the interim (before the come up with another name and new company, which they have done at least three times already), you might be able to find a local welder to weld up some recovery points.  Really, an aftermarket rear bumper isn't much better than stock if you don't have the recovery points.  I'm sure they had their doors forced closed because of them committing credit card fraud, not the other way around.

[JFanaselle]

I'm sure they had their doors forced closed because of them committing credit card fraud, not the other way around.

Or someone (or multiple people) successfully performed a chargeback because they didn't get their product, or got an inferior product, and TAG had the nerve to call it "fraud" because they still felt entitled to the money when they didn't deliver the result. That wouldn't surprise me either.

[RikRong]

Or someone (or multiple people) successfully performed a chargeback because they didn't get their product, or got an inferior product, and TAG had the nerve to call it "fraud" because they still felt entitled to the money when they didn't deliver the result. That wouldn't surprise me either.

Yep, I can definitely see that.

[Ghost65]

Or someone (or multiple people) successfully performed a chargeback because they didn't get their product, or got an inferior product, and TAG had the nerve to call it "fraud" because they still felt entitled to the money when they didn't deliver the result. That wouldn't surprise me either.

To the OP...hopefully you can work out your product issues, sorry man.  Xoskel, InSain Fab, and now TAG...just sucks for all.

Joe...I was thinking the same thing, that the CC fraud was vendor related, precipitating the shut down.  Better for future consumers, because as witnessed above, those other two bastards continued to take money and not deliver product. 

Frankly, I'm amazed that InSain is sponsoring goneMOAB, because Xoskel continued to sponsor even after all of their roof rack delivery issues.

Tactical Armor Group suspends operations

The small niche market can be a double edged sword for sure...

[RikRong]

To the OP...hopefully you can work out your product issues, sorry man.  Xoskel, InSain Fab, and now TAG...just sucks for all.

Joe...I was thinking the same thing, that the CC fraud was vendor related, precipitating the shut down.  Better for future consumers, because as witnessed above, those other two bastards continued to take money and not deliver product. 

Frankly, I'm amazed that InSain is sponsoring goneMOAB, because Xoskel continued to sponsor even after all of their roof rack delivery issues.

The small niche market can be a double edged sword for sure...

InSain still has some pretty good support from the Colorado Nissan peeps.  I also believe Boulder Nissan still sells their product in their parts department.  They also still sell a ton of stuff to the Toyota crowd. 

[Ghost65]

InSain still has some pretty good support from the Colorado Nissan peeps.  I also believe Boulder Nissan still sells their product in their parts department.  They also still sell a ton of stuff to the Toyota crowd.

Maybe...there is a lot of "coverage" for Corey's business practices. He may have saved some face, but having tried to help some local peeps recover their money/product was an illuminating experience.

His Nissan product thread was totally hidden from view over on Thenewx, which I thought was a curious move.

I know for a while he was in vendor purgatory over there...

[RikRong]

Maybe...there is a lot of "coverage" for Corey's business practices. He may have saved some face, but having tried to help some local peeps recover their money/product was an illuminating experience.

His Nissan product thread was totally hidden from view over on Thenewx, which I thought was a curious move.

I know for a while he was in vendor purgatory over there...

First off, Viper, I apologize for the thread de-rail...

There's still an InSain Fab section in vendor purgatory over there, but one of the original threads did get hidden and was only visible to people that participated in the GB.  The whole thing hurt many people and took a lot of good people down with it (ie., the ones that helped arrange the GB and shipping).  It also split a lot of people's feelings because many people were personal friends with Mr. Sain and they didn't know how to treat him or deal with him after the whole ordeal. 

TAG (Kennesaw Mountain, or what other names it has gone under) never specifically targeted Nissan with a group buy that went bad, but I still think they need their own stickied thread in each off-road forum out there.

[JFanaselle]

I actually purchased my InSain roof rack from Boulder Nissan's parts department, but it was just as things were starting to go sour with the group buy on TNX. The rack had been fabricated months earlier by Corey himself, so I wasn't concerned about the quality issues that everyone was starting to uncover, and it's a very high quality product. My guess would be that if Boulder still sells anything from InSain, it could be inventory they still have from before the GB started. In keeping an eye on InSain's book of faces, they appear to be doing a lot of work in the Toyota market these days. I suppose if you're local to their shop and can bring them a rig to work on and practically babysit the project yourself, you're going to get good results from them for the price. This is probably why the Colorado community still gives them love, which just proves John's point about the niche market being a double-edged sword. Even after everything that InSain did to the Xterra community, they're still the best choice for people who are local to their shop.  Classic example of a wonderful fabricator with a great business and quality products who tried to take on more business than he could handle and failed miserably, burning dozens upon dozens of customers in the process. It ripped apart some cliques within the Xterra community as people tried to defend others and people who had supported the Xterra community forever were now "part of the problem."

[Ghost65]

Excellent posts gentlemen...and I also apologize for the thread derail...


Sent from Cygnus X-1

[Silverhorn]

To the OP.  I'm actually from NICO club, but I was browsing and saw this post, so I thought I'd jump in.  Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with TAG.  I can't speak for everyone but I had a great experience with them.  And I found out that they closed as I tried to go back to their website to order my rear bumper.  I have a 99 Infiniti QX4 (which if you don't know is nearly identical to Nissan Pathy of the same year) and I custom ordered a front bumper with A LOT of custom work.  Matter of fact, it was soo custom that I drew what I wanted, and sent it to them.  They built from scratch what I wanted after a few back and forth design decisions.  I'm happy to say that they did a good job of taking my input and responding to me.  In the end I got exactly what I wanted and what I ordered.  They were able to custom build and ship it to me within the 6-8 week timeframe.  I think I actually got it right around week 6.  It fit perfectly and was well built. 

It does sadden me that they've had trouble and others have had bad experiences.  I think a lot of my success with them stemmed from the fact that I was in constant (and I mean daily) communication to make sure I got what I wanted, and that I got it on time.  Specifically on my entire bumper I can only find one weld that isn't perfect (and I've looked at every single crack and crevice of that thing by now.  In particular the owner was very helpful and knowledgeable, but I can't speak the same of the secretary that I often talked to. 

Attaching some pictures of my pride and joy  
My only point is that nothing is black and white, and not to judge too harshly what you don't know first hand.  I love my bumper, and I'm extremely happy with both the quality, price, and delivery of my bumper.

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[CAWoody]

That is a serious bumper. Very cool.

[Ghost65]

This is a serious thread revival.

[xxSVxx]

These aren't the droids you're looking for