Lexus gx470 TRD style grille -- Install tips and lighting wiring

[drowzyGX]

Stupid question because I have no experience fabricating products or doing any sort of manufacturing. Is the flimsiness due to it being 3d printed as opposed to whatever manufacturing process Toyota used on the oem grilles (injection molding?) would it be feasible for someone to source a place to replicate the oem-style fabrication with the style of this grille?

It’s a shame that this one is getting such poor reviews because it does look awesome, but the grille isn’t exactly something that should be flimsy plastic

 

[Oldjonny]

Stupid question because I have no experience fabricating products or doing any sort of manufacturing. Is the flimsiness due to it being 3d printed as opposed to whatever manufacturing process Toyota used on the oem grilles (injection molding?) would it be feasible for someone to source a place to replicate the oem-style fabrication with the style of this grille?

It’s a shame that this one is getting such poor reviews because it does look awesome, but the grille isn’t exactly something that should be flimsy plastic

Looks injection molded to me. You can see where the plastic 'gates' were.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

It doesn’t look like it’s 3D printed. Seems like a quick design to maximize profits. There’s no desire to improve and fix shortcomings it seems.

Reports of inadequate hardware were reported after first batch. No response from garage alpha.

I was in second batch. Same bad hardware.

Now more reports of issues here and there and again crickets other than 3rd batch now in progress. Web site has message about if you can’t handle the 60-day wait, then don’t order.

But grille does look good…

 

[Oldjonny]

So, I have been trying to get the company to communicate. Nothing. Out of the blue yesterday I get a notice that they would like my opinion and would offer me a 10% "coupon" on future purchases for my opinion....LOL. Yea. Got it.

 

[ArBrnSnpr]

Nice!

The 10% off is probably to compensate you for being charged tax twice.

 

[Oldjonny]

So, I submitted a review by hitting the "Publish" button. They acknowledged my 10% discount....but for some odd reason, my review never showed up on their site. Huh. I wonder why.............NOT

 

[jiggletits]

Nice!

The 10% off is probably to compensate you for being charged tax twice.

That’s highly illegal and you could report him to the state’s tax dept. he resides in as well as your own which he allegedly paid the taxes to. They do follow up on that stuff if you provide proof.

 

[sidneyhop]

That’s highly illegal and you could report him to the state’s tax dept. he resides in as well as your own which he allegedly paid the taxes to. They do follow up on that stuff if you provide proof.

Id wait till round 3 is shipped before reporting.... just saying.

 

[jiggletits]

Id wait till round 3 is shipped before reporting.... just saying.

I have no stake in the game so IDGAF either way, just offering a suggestion.

 

[sidneyhop]

I have no stake in the game so IDGAF either way, just offering a suggestion.

Well, only reason to wait is if he gets hassled he may just keep all the $ from those who paid and say F the GX'ers.

 

[urj150]

Hey guys,

I haven't been on the forums a whole lot - and I don't get alerted to this stuff because I'm not tagged. Truth is, I just stumbled into this thread looking for a way to fix something on my personal GX470.

That said, there's no apathy or hate for any customers - and all e-mails in my e-mail box have been answered. I try to control expectations from the get-go as there are a LOT of ways to contact someone (e-mail, IG comments, IG DMs, Facebook comments, Facebook DMs, Forums comments, Forums DMs, Reddit comments, Reddit DMs, contact us page from website, etc, etc) and customers tend to try ALL of them at the same time and it frankly overwhelms me. I may miss a few here and there - especially in the height of receiving / shipping orders - but e-mail is always best and I generally stay on top of it.

There seems to be a handful of guys on this thread that are unthrilled with the grille - and I get it. We shipped a ton of these and there's bound to be some issues.


1) The hardware isn't great. Anyone that has reached out has been told OEM is best. The fact is, there's just nothing off the shelf that is available in the OEM sizes. We include the gold hardware for people in a bind (or to use in conjunction with a washer as someone commented... great idea BTW, as is the Weld Bolts). But OEM is for sure the best. In hindsight, I should have not included anything and just instructed people to use OEM. I'm sorry for this.

2) These aren't 3D printed. These are injected molded. We ponied up tens of thousands of dollars to make a mold specific for an 18 year old vehicle that we love. It was a huge risk and I'm glad 99% of the guys out there installed them and love them.

3) The finish is matte black by design in an effort to match the other TRD style grilles made by Toyota. I've seen some guys paint theirs gloss, I've seen some people paint the emblems bronze, but the grille was made to be matte finish.

4) We use an e-commerce system that handles all the shipping and taxation. We enter box dimensions / weights and it does everything else automatically. Whatever conspiracy theories you have... well, believe what you want to believe. I'm not sure what to tell you.


For anyone not thrilled with their order, we always left the door for returns wide open. No restocking fee. You don't like your grille? Ok, I'll take it back. I'm not sure what else to offer?

As for anyone talking about reporting a small business to the state taxation department because, lemme check my notes... you don't like the hardware/finish/fact you were charged tax? Please, take a step back and assess the reality of the situation. I'm just a member here that had an idea, made something and offered it to the community. Is it perfect? I guess not. I'm sorry you're disappointed, but threatening to send the feds after me because of that - I don't know what to say.

End of the day, *hundreds* of people are happy with the product. A few are not. For those not happy, returns without a restocking fee are offered.

 

[ArBrnSnpr]

I don't think anyone was complaining about being taxed. People complained about being taxed for the product, then being charged tax for the cost of shipping. That's not acceptable and should be refunded to anyone it happened to.

I know I sent you a message on this forum on Sept 29th and have yet to receive a reply. If you opted to turn off the PM notifications, that makes sense, but if you're going to be a vendor on this forum, I'd suggest turning those notifications back on. Then we, as your customer base aren't left to use our imagination to figure out why you, as a vendor, are unresponsive.

I damaged my factory grill removing the hardware trying to come up with a solution to mount the grill you shipped me, so a no restocking fee return is nice, but won't resolve the issues created by buying a grill from you. If I had a factory grill, I'd return mine in a heartbeat as long as I didn't incur any shipping charges to do so. I don't see that happening and even if it did, I'd be left without a grill. However, I'm still left without a hood that will open, so will you send me a grill that functions correctly, and then I'll ship you the defective grill back?

 

[urj150]

Apologies if I missed your PM. It looks like ALL my notifications for the forums got shut off in September. I think I used a 'mass unsubscribe' feature to scrub my email box of junk and the forum notifications got caught up in that. Regardless, for questions about orders - e-mail is best. But I'll drop you a PM and try to sort this out.

As for the taxation issue - I'm for sure not a tax professional, so I leave it to my system to calculate everything and my bookkeeper to pay everything. As for people not complaining...

The 10% off is probably to compensate you for being charged tax twice.

That’s highly illegal and you could report him to the state’s tax dept. he resides in as well as your own which he allegedly paid the taxes to. They do follow up on that stuff if you provide proof.

Id wait till round 3 is shipped before reporting.... just saying.

I guess these guys are all just CPAs trying to help.

From what I understand, some states consider shipping charges taxable. Others say that shipping charges are not taxable, as long as they are separately stated on the invoice. And some states get even more complicated than that. Virginia, for example, states that shipping is not taxable, “handling” is taxable, and if both charges are combined, then both are taxable. So I leave the defaults in place to make sure I'm not doing (or doing) anything wrong.

Regardless, it's absolute insanity to accuse someone of doing something "highly illegal", suggesting customers are being "charged tax twice" and float the idea of reporting "to the state's tax dept".

Are we really this bonkers guys?

 

[HomersCanyonero]

I just wish I hadn't done business with this bozo.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Arghh

 

[jiggletits]

Apologies if I missed your PM. It looks like ALL my notifications for the forums got shut off in September. I think I used a 'mass unsubscribe' feature to scrub my email box of junk and the forum notifications got caught up in that. Regardless, for questions about orders - e-mail is best. But I'll drop you a PM and try to sort this out.

As for the taxation issue - I'm for sure not a tax professional, so I leave it to my system to calculate everything and my bookkeeper to pay everything. As for people not complaining...







I guess these guys are all just CPAs trying to help.

From what I understand, some states consider shipping charges taxable. Others say that shipping charges are not taxable, as long as they are separately stated on the invoice. And some states get even more complicated than that. Virginia, for example, states that shipping is not taxable, “handling” is taxable, and if both charges are combined, then both are taxable. So I leave the defaults in place to make sure I'm not doing (or doing) anything wrong.

Regardless, it's absolute insanity to accuse someone of doing something "highly illegal", suggesting customers are being "charged tax twice" and float the idea of reporting "to the state's tax dept".

Are we really this bonkers guys?

I stand by my statement. It is 100% illegal to double charge tax and not offer correction. It is also very illegal to charge tax and not submit said tax to your state. I run two small businesses, I am no CPA but anyone running a company can and should at least attempt to understand tax laws that implicate their business.

I don't own this grill for a variety of reasons. First; It looks f'n retarded. Second; I don't like my truck to look retarded. Third; From what everyone in here said, it's also very poorly made, and I like things to be OEM quality.... so don't think I'm over here trying to stir the pot for my own gain. I am not a stakeholder in this trash.

 

[urj150]

I just wish I hadn't done business with this bozo.

Sorry you feel that way.

I stand by my statement. It is 100% illegal to double charge tax and not offer correction. It is also very illegal to charge tax and not submit said tax to your state. I run two small businesses, I am no CPA but anyone running a company can and should at least attempt to understand tax laws that implicate their business.

I don't own this grill for a variety of reasons. First; It looks f'n retarded. Second; I don't like my truck to look retarded. Third; From what everyone in here said, it's also very poorly made, and I like things to be OEM quality.... so don't think I'm over here trying to stir the pot for my own gain. I am not a stakeholder in this trash.

If you haven’t purchased anything - how would you know how we charge taxes?

We don’t and never have charged “double tax” or whatever that means. Someone was complaining on why they were taxed out of state / on shipping.

Bottom line on that is different states and municipalities require different taxes collected and our e-commerce system handles it. It’s baked into the software.

As for not liking the product - so be it. It’s not for everyone. Of the 100s sold, there are 3 people (all on this thread) disappointed. Refunds were offered. Not sure what else you want, unless what you want is to just complain… about something you don’t own.

 

[sidneyhop]

Apologies if I missed your PM. It looks like ALL my notifications for the forums got shut off in September. I think I used a 'mass unsubscribe' feature to scrub my email box of junk and the forum notifications got caught up in that. Regardless, for questions about orders - e-mail is best. But I'll drop you a PM and try to sort this out.

As for the taxation issue - I'm for sure not a tax professional, so I leave it to my system to calculate everything and my bookkeeper to pay everything. As for people not complaining...







I guess these guys are all just CPAs trying to help.

From what I understand, some states consider shipping charges taxable. Others say that shipping charges are not taxable, as long as they are separately stated on the invoice. And some states get even more complicated than that. Virginia, for example, states that shipping is not taxable, “handling” is taxable, and if both charges are combined, then both are taxable. So I leave the defaults in place to make sure I'm not doing (or doing) anything wrong.

Regardless, it's absolute insanity to accuse someone of doing something "highly illegal", suggesting customers are being "charged tax twice" and float the idea of reporting "to the state's tax dept".

Are we really this bonkers guys?

Don't include me in any of this back and forth. Someone mentioned about reporting to some agency or whatever. I just said to wait if they actually plan to do that until after round 3. Not that they should or anyting.

 

[Rigger]

Let’s from here forward keep the postings on topic to the tech issues.

 

[jiggletits]

Sorry you feel that way.



If you haven’t purchased anything - how would you know how we charge taxes?

We don’t and never have charged “double tax” or whatever that means. Someone was complaining on why they were taxed out of state / on shipping.

Bottom line on that is different states and municipalities require different taxes collected and our e-commerce system handles it. It’s baked into the software.

As for not liking the product - so be it. It’s not for everyone. Of the 100s sold, there are 3 people (all on this thread) disappointed. Refunds were offered. Not sure what else you want, unless what you want is to just complain… about something you don’t own.

I was responding to other's comments. I know nothing of how you charge taxes, I never claimed to.