Caster Plates and Radius Arm clearance

[calokie]

If you listen to him again then you only have your self to blame.
Darren has had this same issue long before covid and supply chain issues.
People need to stop supporting vendors that operate in this manner.

What other choice do I have at this point???

 

[Broski]

What other choice do I have at this point???

I thought you were doing a change back with your credit card company?

 

[calokie]

I thought you were doing a change back with your credit card company?

They gave him to 8-31 to deliver the goods. Not sure what the process is, I’m about to call. Honestly I’d rather just get my money and buy from a reputable source

 

[Box Rocket]

Yet we still have someone fanboying, coming up with several paragraphs of excuses for Darren and tells everyone they're being emotional and reacting to feelings

I wish I did my research when I ordered my arms from him, but glad I got my full amount back via dispute with my card company.

So your mission in this thread is to crush the “fan-boy”? The only “ fanboy-ing” I’m doing is for the products themselves. I’m absolutely a fan of the products. The stage 5 Slinky setup on my cruiser is among the best mods I’ve done in 20+ years of having an 80.
Anything else I’ve said in earlier posts is in an effort to shed some light on what might be happening with the situation because I have had more interaction with Darren over the past 5 years than many who are dealing with him for the first time. That’s an effort to try and help, not “fan-boy-ing”.
I’m not defending his handling of any particular situation, nor am I implying that any frustration being felt by customers is not valid. And sorry to say that your reaction is, in fact, an emotional one to the situation and the customer service experience. It’s an understandable reaction, but disputes have nothing to do with the products themselves not being as advertised.

 

[landtank]

disputes have nothing to do with the products themselves not being as advertised.

Unless you are advertising them as available.

I have quite a few items that aren’t available because my shop doesn’t have the capacity. I’d like very much to be able to sell them and from the requests I’m getting people seem to be ready to buy them, alas they just aren’t available.

This is the new business norm. Businesses need to realize the old play book is dead and buried.

Adapt or fail.

 

[Squeegee]

This doesn’t seem worth the heartache. Contest it with your credit card and and get something else. There’s nothing special about the blackhawks that’s worth this much fuss over

 

[calokie]

This doesn’t seem worth the heartache. Contest it with your credit card and and get something else. There’s nothing special about the blackhawks that’s worth this much fuss over

Yep
Agreed
Other vendors available and other choices

 

[mudgudgeon]

And sorry to say that your reaction is, in fact, an emotional one to the situation and the customer service experience. It’s an understandable reaction, but disputes have nothing to do with the products themselves not being as advertised.

How many decisions to spend money on a 25-30 year old enthusiasts vehicle aren't emotionally based?
These purchases are not small sums of money. The decision to spend big chunks of money on these things is not usually a rational or logical decision. They are often heavily based on emotion.

A bad experience with specialist vendors can taint the enjoyment of owning and modifying these cars.
The thread that was just above this one is about exactly that.

I agree with the comment above about the vendors failure to fill an order leaving a customer trapped.

These purchases are not small sums off money. Being repeatedly promised something's on the way strings you don't.
There's no certainty on when a product is gonna turn up,
There's no certainty or confidence you'll be able to get a refund from a vendor who's been dishonest repeatedly.
Outlaying a second big chunk of money on an alternative product from another vendor is not always practical, and is rubbing salt in a wound.
Then there's the prospect of maybe having to deal with a warranty issue in the future with the same vendor.

I was gonna drop $1600 on Icon shocks for my cruiser that cost me $5k.
Didn't take much of a search to turn up negativity regarding Darren. I don't want to be caught up dealing with him if they need warrantied or servicing. There's other options.

 

[calokie]

How many decisions to spend money on a 25-30 year old enthusiasts vehicle aren't emotionally based?
These purchases are not small sums of money. The decision to spend big chunks of money on these things is not usually a rational or logical decision. They are often heavily based on emotion.

A bad experience with specialist vendors can taint the enjoyment of owning and modifying these cars.
The thread that was just above this one is about exactly that.

I agree with the comment above about the vendors failure to fill an order leaving a customer trapped.

These purchases are not small sums off money. Being repeatedly promised something's on the way strings you don't.
There's no certainty on when a product is gonna turn up,
There's no certainty or confidence you'll be able to get a refund from a vendor who's been dishonest repeatedly.
Outlaying a second big chunk of money on an alternative product from another vendor is not always practical, and is rubbing salt in a wound.
Then there's the prospect of maybe having to deal with a warranty issue in the future with the same vendor.

I was gonna drop $1600 on Icon shocks for my cruiser that cost me $5k.
Didn't take much of a search to turn up negativity regarding Darren. I don't want to be caught up dealing with him if they need warrantied or servicing. There's other options.

You know I searched 4XOUSA and didn’t find much, but now I know

100% agree with you, sucks to get derailed

 

[calokie]

Yet we still have someone fanboying, coming up with several paragraphs of excuses for Darren and tells everyone they're being emotional and reacting to feelings

I wish I did my research when I ordered my arms from him, but glad I got my full amount back via dispute with my card company.

Folie à Deux

 

[synapse]

So your mission in this thread is to crush the “fan-boy”? The only “ fanboy-ing” I’m doing is for the products themselves. I’m absolutely a fan of the products. The stage 5 Slinky setup on my cruiser is among the best mods I’ve done in 20+ years of having an 80.
Anything else I’ve said in earlier posts is in an effort to shed some light on what might be happening with the situation because I have had more interaction with Darren over the past 5 years than many who are dealing with him for the first time. That’s an effort to try and help, not “fan-boy-ing”.
I’m not defending his handling of any particular situation, nor am I implying that any frustration being felt by customers is not valid. And sorry to say that your reaction is, in fact, an emotional one to the situation and the customer service experience. It’s an understandable reaction, but disputes have nothing to do with the products themselves not being as advertised.

LMAO my mission is to prove all the negative comments about Darren and 4xo over the years are actually factual. I don't know why you think my mission is about you after only writing a couple sentences that pertain to what you've written. But ok go ahead and write lengthy comments to justify yourself.

We're in the second half of 2022, anyone using the pandemic as an excuse to supply chain woes is just right out wrong and deflecting their own issues. Nobody is talking about slinky in this thread, we're all talking about Blackhawk 4x4 products that are available from multiple other vendors in OZ. They are not Darren's products, he's only a reseller for the brand.

And to prove there are absolutely no supply chain issues for the radius arms, I've reached out to Blackhawk and they gave me a list of vendors, contacted three of them and aside from Road Runner Offroad who is not shipping internationally they are in stock and ready to go. Blackhawk is investigating customer's issues with 4xo and looking into how they can be better distributed in North America.

And Darren said they were already en route back in April, he sold this "1 set available" to multiple people...

Everyone's more than welcome to come to their conclusions about Darren and 4xo, either by taking your "word" on what you've seen and what you've discussed with Darren, or they can believe factual evidence Darren is deceitful. When you tell someone something is in stock or ready to ship out in two weeks, that DOES become part of the advertisement for the product, no ifs and or buts about it.

 

[synapse]

Folie à Deux

100%

We're all supposed to take their "word" now.

 

[calokie]

Well end of the week is shortly approaching. Its technically 1:00am Australia time (I assume Darren is an American living in AU). "Shipment will go out by end of the week" according to Darren. in my book "end of the week' is Thursday/Friday, so ill see what happens this evening and tomorrow.

I actually ordered a set of Land Tank Plates, Landtank has a good functioning website and they communicate properly with customer, thank you LT. I ordered the plates as a backup contingency since we all know Darren loves toying with his customers. If I end up installing the plates and Darren actually ships the radius arms (im guessing sometime around August 30th), Ill have a set of BH radius arms for sale. Ill resale the BH arms and whomever buys them wont have to deal with Darren or imaginary leadtimes

 

[calokie]

Here we are end of week, No show Darren with his 4XO / 4XOAU / 4XOUSA empty handed promises , I'm sure he's waiting for me to cancel my order so he can collect his 18% + re stocking fees oh and shipping and some made up additional up fees. 4XO, 4XOAU, 4XOUSA "Keep em in the dark, feed em BullShite"

 

[leonard_nemoy]

@calokie

What's even sadder than this guy's business behavior which apparently is horrendous, is the fact that his ethics and dealings caused you so much stress and angst. Ain't nobody got time for that!!!!

I suspect it's not so much the wasted time and money as it is the way he made you feel.

But they way he made you feel is also a reflection of yourself. You can't let stupid things like this stress you out, cause anger, or bring you down.

I know it's a lot easier to say than do, but sometimes we just got to let things go and enjoy our lives instead of letting some D-Bag across the globe ruin our day, week, or month.

 

[calokie]

@calokie

What's even sadder than this guy's business behavior which apparently is horrendous, is the fact that his ethics and dealings caused you so much stress and angst. Ain't nobody got time for that!!!!

I suspect it's not so much the wasted time and money as it is the way he made you feel.

But they way he made you feel is also a reflection of yourself. You can't let stupid things like this stress you out, cause anger, or bring you down.

I know it's a lot easier to say than do, but sometimes we just got to let things go and enjoy our lives instead of letting some D-Bag across the globe ruin our day, week, or month.

Yep love me some Sweet Brown, I seen that news reel when it first aired, I was in Oklahoma at the time. We watched it like 5 times, I told everyone it would go viral.

I'm not stressed, I ordered a set of Landtank plates and calling it a day, they arrived yesterday. Just wanted to show people what its like dealing with Darren, you keep letting him give you promises that he wont live up to. I searched 4XOUSA on the forums and didn't find any negative feedback, guess I should have searched for other key words. Just helping others, I guess you could say I'm trying to helping out my fellow land cruiser community. We have an outstanding community member here already, but he failed on the Darren / 4XO topic.... personal interests perhaps? Anyhow... we have a lot of good options available no need to go through the whole 4XO ordeal.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Yep love me some Sweet Brown, I seen that news reel when it first aired, I was in Oklahoma at the time. We watched it like 5 times, I told everyone it would go viral.

I'm not stressed, I ordered a set of Landtank plates and calling it a day, they arrived yesterday. Just wanted to show people what its like dealing with Darren, you keep letting him give you promises that he wont live up to. I searched 4XOUSA on the forums and didn't find any negative feedback, guess I should have searched for other key words. Just helping others, I guess you could say I'm trying to helping out my fellow land cruiser community. We have an outstanding community member here already, but he failed on the Darren / 4XO topic.... personal interests perhaps? Anyhow... we have a lot of good options available no need to go through the whole 4XO ordeal.

One thing that bugs me is the 4XO moniker is so close to 4XOverland.com, it cashes in on someone else's reputation and online presence.
Online links after searching for Darren's business names appear to show Darren's businesses were using 4XOverlanding.com.au as a web address. Which seems a blatant ripoff of someone else's address.

With some digging, there's a trail of complaints on forums about non existent communication, and the same stuff complained about here.

There's a trail of defunct business names, web addresses, and physical business addresses that from Google Street view look suspiciously unrelated.

 

[Broski]

Yep love me some Sweet Brown, I seen that news reel when it first aired, I was in Oklahoma at the time. We watched it like 5 times, I told everyone it would go viral.

I'm not stressed, I ordered a set of Landtank plates and calling it a day, they arrived yesterday. Just wanted to show people what its like dealing with Darren, you keep letting him give you promises that he wont live up to. I searched 4XOUSA on the forums and didn't find any negative feedback, guess I should have searched for other key words. Just helping others, I guess you could say I'm trying to helping out my fellow land cruiser community. We have an outstanding community member here already, but he failed on the Darren / 4XO topic.... personal interests perhaps? Anyhow... we have a lot of good options available no need to go through the whole 4XO ordeal.

Did you ever get your arms ?

 

[calokie]

Did you ever get you arms ?

Yes, I did they are installed, much improved tracking. I might have over castor I'm still at 2" lift, planning on 2.5-3" soon, currently trying to decide on spring manufacture.