Never buy from Nates4X4.com this is my experience:

[lostissues]

I did a little research before I ordered from Nates4X4, I read through a bunch of posts about his lack of communication, slow completion dates and figured as long as I got my bumper I could wait a little while.

So on March 31st 2009 I placed my order for a slim line winch bumper. I opted for the grade 8 mounting hardware for an additional 25 dollars. My account was charged for $426.50 on April 9th 2009 (price of bumper, grade 8 hardware and shipping.)

Later I attempted to contact him to add 2 D-rings to my order, I got no response so I decided that I could find them else ware.

After waiting for a while to receive my bumper I finally noticed that Nate had put an ETA calendar on his website. He did not email or let me know of this calendar I simply stumbled across the small link on his home page one day. My bumper was set for a completion date of May 19th.

I emailed him on June 9th to find out if there was a problem. He replied that he was running behind and that he had just finished it and would ship it out the 11th (of June). I sent another e-mail on June 25th because my bumper had still not arrived. He said it will ship out on June 30th.

I FINALLY received my bumper on July 6th without the Grade 8 hardware. E-mailed him and he said he would send it out the next day. This went back and forth and I never received my hardware. He agreed that he would refund my money and never did that either.

I had enough so I went through my credit card company to file a complaint. On September 18th I was finally credited back my 25 dollars for the hardware I never received.

In conclusion I will NEVER buy anything from Nates4X4.com ever again and I suggest that everyone else does the same. He lies to his customers, tries to screw them out of money and make them wait for obscenely long amounts of time to receive their products.

 

This is a copy of the Email conversation I had with him throughout the process and also my tally for the times that I tried to/ successfully call him. (Also in the time that I was waiting for my bumper he sent out an e-mail advertising new products that he was going to be carrying/making. If you can’t get the products that you are already making what makes you think that you can expand you business?)

 

E-mail:

Bumper status

11 messages

________________________________________

Me Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 12:57 PM

To: nathan@nates4x4.com

I ordered a bumper from your site on March 31st order number 724. according to your estimated completion calender it was supposed to be finished on May 19th, last name is Buchanan. Allowing the 7 days for shipping I should have received my bumper on the 26th of May. It is now the 9th of June 20 days after the bumper should have been finished and I have not seen anything. I would like to know if you have shipped it out so that I can figure out where it is. Is there any way to get a tracking number for it if you have shipped it already? if not is there any way to find out where the status of my bumper is at?

 

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

________________________________________

Nathan McCann Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:06 AM

Reply-To: nathan@nates4x4.com

To: Me

Running a little behind, just finished it today and will be shipping out Thursday. Sorry for the delay. -Nate

 

________________________________________

Me Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 11:05 PM

To: nathan@nates4x4.com

It has been 14 days since you said you were going to ship out my bumper and the grade 8 hardware I ordered, your site says to allow 2-7 days for shipping, it is now double that and shipping from Michigan to New Hampshire shouldn't take the full 7 days let alone 14. Had you said it would take this long to begin with I would have been fine waiting, but your calander says it was to be completed the 19th of May and has not been updated, after waiting and allowing a grace period where I figured maybe you were backed up, I contacted you and you replied that you had finishied that day (10th of june) and would ship it out the next day well again it is now 14 days later and I don't have my bumper and hardware. I would like to know if you have shipped it out yet and if so what day exactly? And if you have not shipped it I would like to know exactly when it will be shipped and I would like to get a tracking number for it.

Thank you,

Jonathan

 

________________________________________

Nathan McCann Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 12:10 AM

Reply-To: nathan@nates4x4.com

To: Me

Jonathan, Sorry for the delay, but I have your order shipping out on Tuesday of next week. -Nate

 

________________________________________

Me Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 3:22 PM

To: nathan@nates4x4.com

Received my bumper today but the Grade 8 hardware did not arrive with it. is it shipped separately?

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

________________________________________

Nathan McCann Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 4:37 PM

Reply-To: nathan@nates4x4.com

To: Me

It should have arrived shrink-wrapped to the bumper. I will send replacement hardware tomorrow.

 

Thanks,

Nate

 

________________________________________

Me Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 4:55 PM

To: Nathan McCann

The bumper arrived with just the shipping sticker attached to the hoop and that was all.

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

________________________________________

Me Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 9:20 PM

To: Nathan McCann

Just checking in to see if you sent out the grade 8 hardware, been over a week since you said you would send it and I have not gotten it yet.

 

________________________________________

Me Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:08 PM

To: Nathan McCann

Looking to see if you sent out the grade 8 hardware that I bought. its been 15 days since you said you were shipping it out. I would like to finally get my bumper mounted but cannot do so without this hardware.

 

________________________________________

Me Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 6:54 PM

To: Nathan McCann

Checking AGAIN to see if you shipped out the mounting hardware I bought from you.

 

________________________________________

Me Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:44 PM

To: Nathan McCann

you said you would refund the money that I paid for the hardware I ordered and never got. you said you would do it a few times and you do not answer your phone. I would like for you to credit what you owe me back to my card so that I can be done with this.

 

 

 

Phone calls:

 

• July 27 – called to check on hardware, no answer

• July 28 – called, Nate assured me he would ship it out.

• August 5 – called Nate, he said he was out of the shop and would call me back when he got back back, never returned my call.

• August 6 – called 5 times, no answer

• August 7 – called 4 times, no answer left message on last call to call me back

• August 11 – talked to Nate on the phone, he said he would refund the money back to my account

• August 17 – called 2 times, no answer

• August 18 – called 3 times, no answer

• August 20 – called 2 times, no answer, mailbox full

• August 21 – called 3 times, no answer, mailbox full

• August 24 – called 1 time, no answer

 

• On August 25th I went to my local Citizens Bank location and asked how to go about filing a complaint to attempt to get my money back.

[jpdocdave]

that sucks, and thanks for sharing. it kinda sucks there's a lot of 4x4 companies like this. i guess a good rule of thumb is if you see more than a couple bad comments on a company, don't use them.

[landlubber]

That sucks. at least you got the bumper anyways.

 

thanks for the heads up.

[lostissues]

I did get the bumper and finally got my 25 dollars for the stuff I never received credited back to my account. I just wanted to let others know about this so they can make an educated decision when choosing a company to buy from.

[dfreeman616]

thanks for what appears to be a fair description of your experience without throwing every name possible at him. i've looked at his stuff before, but never thought it seemed like that good of a deal.

[dakal]

thanks for the heads up.

[Eagle]

I thought it was illegal for them to charge your account before they actually ship the merchandise. It's also a Federal requirement that if they can't fill your order within 30 days, they have to notify you IN WRITING of the delay, give you a revised shipping date, and offer you an opportunity to cancel the order.

 

A couple of years ago we ordered a jacket for my brother-in-law's Christmas present from Sportsmans Guide Company. They backordered it. We bought the same jacket locally to get it by Christmas (more money, but probably better quality) but, just for chuckles, I left the order standing to see what would happen. Every 30 days, for about ten MONTHS, I got an update, always revising the expected ship date to about 35 days farther out. Meanwhile, they offered the exact same jacket under different stock numbers (at higher prices) about six times. Ultimately, they canceled the order.

 

The point being that they ostensibly played by the rules and notified me of the delays, each time offering me the chance to cancel. (Obviously, they hoped I would cancle but I called their bluff.) I think Nate should be reported to the FTC.

[reson46]

I did a little research before I ordered from Nates4X4, I read through a bunch of posts about his lack of communication, slow completion dates and figured as long as I got my bumper I could wait a little while.

 

Not to in any way justify Nate's crappy customer service, but are you a masochist? :hmm: I don't want to be an @$$, but all I can say is that you really have nobody to blame but yourself. This sounds exactly like every other encounter I've read from Nate's customers. Apparently you read those same complaints and still decided to buy from him? It just sounds like you wanted to torture yourself. This type of stuff just doesn't make sense to me. :???:

 

Willy

[lostissues]

I did a little research before I ordered from Nates4X4, I read through a bunch of posts about his lack of communication, slow completion dates and figured as long as I got my bumper I could wait a little while.

 

Not to in any way justify Nate's crappy customer service, but are you a masochist? :hmm: I don't want to be an @$$, but all I can say is that you really have nobody to blame but yourself. This sounds exactly like every other encounter I've read from Nate's customers. Apparently you read those same complaints and still decided to buy from him? It just sounds like you wanted to torture yourself. This type of stuff just doesn't make sense to me. :???:

 

Willy

 

I did read through the reviews and at the time they all said it took a couple months to get their bumpers and that they did not have any communication with him. I figured beacuse it was a nice bumper and I did not need it right away that as long as I got my bumper sometime within the next couple months then I would be fine. He then put up an estimated compleation date and a fair amount of time after the estimated completion date came and went I decided to find out why it was taking so long. Had it just taken a while and I recieved it without hearing from him I would have been fine.

I hardly think that I am to blame here. I am not the one who puts out compleation dates and then ignores them, lies to customers on the phone and through E-mails, takes peoples money and refuses to give them the product in return, and I am not the one who continues to put more work on my table when I cannot even get the merhandise that has already been paid for made and shipped out to my customers.

had someone given a detailed description of the ordeal they had to go through with Nate as I have tried to do here then I probably would have realized that he is not just late with his product and has poor communication skills. but that he is an all around crappy business owner, and a very shady person to deal with.

[reson46]

I hardly think that I am to blame here.

 

I'm not trying to be offensive, but, yes, you are at least partially to blame. Is Nate a douche bag with sh!tty business practices? Fairly obviously yes. But you still chose to do business with him after you already knew this. This type of stuff is what allows many companies like this to continue screwing people over. Until the customers start taking responsibility for their own actions they will continue to do so.

 

Willy

[64 Cheyenne]

OUCH!

[Eagle]

I think maybe we'll just do a pre-emptive strike on this discussion. The caution about doing business with Nate's has been posted and duly noted by some. There is really no need to discuss, and certainly no need to be calling each other names.