Hanson Offroad Rant

[Backdraft]

I don't know how many of you have dealt with these people, but I've reached my last straw. Around 6 weeks ago, I placed an order for their MJ rear bumper. I was told it would be a week before production was complete on it due to it not being a popular item they sell. I was cool with that, expected it actually. Well a week goes by and I make an inquiry. They tell me it would be another 2 weeks before it was built, but they would make sure it gets built on time and shipped out. I said it's cool, I understand. Another two weeks go by and I don't hear a word from them about it being completed or shipped, so yet again I call them up. They tell me the same story. It hasnt made it into production yet. The guy gives me some sob story about how long it takes to cut all the pieces from flat steel and weld it up into an actual bumper. I tell him, look, Ive fabricated many different things in my life and know it doesnt take but a few days to get this thing built in my garage. It shouldnt take them anytime at all to get it together with plasma cutters, mig welders, jigs, and expierenced fabricators. Hell, the measurements are what takes time and that work is done for them already. All they have to do is cut it out and stick it together! I would be happy to fab my own rear bumper up, but with this project truck of mine along with my work schedule, I don't really have the time or the energy. Their product looked quality to me and I figured even though its overpriced in my opinion, why not "stimulate the economy" and have them hook me up at the same time sending them some business. Well, the salesman tells me it would be another 10 business days or so before it was built. I warned him that this has happened twice before. I understand production problems and all. And if that is the problem then just tell me. I don't want to hear another BS lie saying it will be ready when it in fact isn't. He tells me he completely understands my frustration and wants to do something about it. I tell him what he can do is tell me two weeks from now that it is finished and shipped. So that brings us up to today. I call them up hoping for the best and ask to check status on my bumper. Once again, after being what I think is me being patient, he tells me it will be two weeks before they can start fabbing this thing up for me. So I promptly told him I was done monkeying around with them and he can cancel my order. I will do business with a company that wants to do business with me! If any of you are in the market for a rear bumper. I would DEFINITELY NOT recommend this band of lazy liars. Save your dollars for someone who wants to do good business and enjoys making their customers happy.

 

By the way, anybody know of a good aftermarket rear bumper with a built in reciever and tow points for our trucks?

[ComancheKid45]

Sadly all i can say is Good Luck! :dunno:

[87Warrior]

Wow, I am quite shocked. I have always been under the impression that Hanson was a top notch company with top notch products. I still have no doubt about the latter. They have been in the Jeep parts business for a while and should know that a product for a niche of the niche (Comanche being the niche of Jeep) would be under a watchful eye. Why they wouldn't just say "it will be two months" instead of a series of 1 week or 2 week ordeals.

 

Unfortunately I think your only other option for a bumper will be a custom built unit.

[1990 Pioneer 4x4]

not good news about Hanson... RE: the bumper - make one, or find someone who can :D

 

[86FUBAR]

Sorry to hear that , the worst part is Wayne Hanson him self ( the guy that started it all) is no longer apart of the business and hasn't been for a wile so the "family" that has taken over is just smearing his name and he is an awesome guy to hang with (just bring a bottle of crown and a case of beer). As for the fabrication time etc.. Last I here most if not all of the products are laser cut and bent by an outside company and then assembled in house so ... Now as for who else makes a MJ specific rear bumper I don't know , maby call JCR and see if they have any stock left ?

[btm24]

I'm Realy sorry to hear that. What ever happened to that one fab guy Rob had who was

Going to make a MJ rear bumper? You might want to look into that.

 

Brandon

[Backdraft]

I have a few ideas I'm exploring. Not really at liberty to give too much information yet. Talking to a few people and bouncing a few ideas around now. I can say it may be beneficial to our community as far as an alternative for rear bumpers. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

[PiginaMJ]

Backdraft,

 

I work for HANSON Off-road. No, I was not your salesman. I am sorry for the delay you encountered in trying receive your bumper order. However, we did not charge your credit card. You were not out any money at any time. Your post makes it sound like we took off with your money, which is not the case at all. We never charge anyone prior to the day the products leave our warehouse. I think that shows what kind of company we truly are when it comes to dealing with our customers in an honest fashion.

 

 

We make the highest quality bumpers on the market. We recently designed and built the MJ rear bumper to expand on our line. We will not ship any bumper if it does not pass quality inspection. On the MJ bumper we had more than one production delay as your salesman told you two more weeks more than once. Trust me, we want your money as bad as you want a rear bumper. The delays are not any ones fault. It happens with production. We had an issue between being sure that this bumper would fit both long & short bed models correctly. Ever considered how tough is it to find a pristine long & short to fit to? We had problems. Could we have shipped you a bumper quick? Sure we could have. However it would not have been of HANSON quality. Did we lose a sale? Yep. Would we do it again? Yes, if necessary to ensure a HANSON quality part.

 

If HANSON Offroad was a bunch of “Lazy Liars”as you call us, would JEEP be using us to build bumpers for high profile JEEP Skunkworks project vehicles such as Porkchop or the JT Pick-up? Of course not. JEEP is one of many in the industry turning to Hanson Offroad to make the Highest Quality American Made components for their vehicles.

[PiginaMJ]

86Fubar,

 

 

 

For your information we still work with Wayne Hanson. I have personally visited his shop recently. We talk to him all the time on his projects and ours. Wayne knows his name still makes the best bumpers on the market. Don’t make statement of fact type posts without knowing the story first.

[xjrev10]

"Make sure it fit LWB and SWB jeeps correctly."

 

Theres a difference? So it was offered forsale, and the bumper was "orderable" and the research on building the dang thing wasnt even finished!? :dunno:

[jeepman 87]

That makes me scared, I would love to have one of those bumpers but I hate waiting. I'm still waiting on my front bumper corners from classic to current I ordered a month ago, they keep telling me the same thing, they will ship out the next day. It would be so nice to just order something and get it atleast a week later.

[ride172]

I have to say I agree with Backdraft and xjrev10. Hanson obviously has better things to do then make his bumper. If they truly gave a damn he would have had the bumper in the time frame they gave him when the order was placed. Sounds like the only thing they tried to fabricate were excuses and lies.

 

Oh yeah one more thing.. Just because jeep asks a company to fab. stuff for them doesn't mean they are worth a damn. Does the name Rubicon Express sound familiar? We all know happened to them.. :brows: :rotf:

[86FUBAR]

86Fubar,

 

 

 

For your information we still work with Wayne Hanson. I have personally visited his shop recently. We talk to him all the time on his projects and ours. Wayne knows his name still makes the best bumpers on the market. Don’t make statement of fact type posts without knowing the story first.

 

 

Ooo.. ok . so how those bumpers coming along? :shake:

[87Warrior]

Pig - I think there is something to be said about a company addressing a customer's issue on a public forum. Rather it be for explanatory reasons or to try an drum up more business, I know a lot of businesses would not want to have the discussion out in public view. I appreciate you finding us.

 

Did we lose a sale? Yep. Would we do it again? Yes, if necessary to ensure a HANSON quality part.

I am afraid your statistics might be off. This ordeal has cost you two sales guaranteed, Backdraft and myself. As you know, the Jeep community is a tight knit group of enthusiasts. We are generally willing to pay a premium price for a premium product that comes with premium service. Although, 6 weeks with no product is unacceptable :shake: It will take another member (or two) to successfully order, receive and install before I will be brave enough to consider this bumper.

 

I have have seen the Hanson quality first hand, and it is top notch. It is awesome that the MJ community is getting some attention from Hanson, but how can an MJ owner be pleased with the quality if they can't get the bumper?

[PiginaMJ]

Pig - I think there is something to be said about a company addressing a customer's issue on a public forum. Rather it be for explanatory reasons or to try an drum up more business, I know a lot of businesses would not want to have the discussion out in public view. I appreciate you finding us.

 

Did we lose a sale? Yep. Would we do it again? Yes, if necessary to ensure a HANSON quality part.

I am afraid your statistics might be off. This ordeal has cost you two sales guaranteed, Backdraft and myself. As you know, the Jeep community is a tight knit group of enthusiasts. We are generally willing to pay a premium price for a premium product that comes with premium service. Although, 6 weeks with no product is unacceptable :shake: It will take another member (or two) to successfully order, receive and install before I will be brave enough to consider this bumper.

 

I have have seen the Hanson quality first hand, and it is top notch. It is awesome that the MJ community is getting some attention from Hanson, but how can an MJ owner be pleased with the quality if they can't get the bumper?

 

Thank you for your honest and not bashing post. We are shipping the MJ bumpers now. Another member on here stuck with us during the delay and his bumper is shipping monday along with several others. We did not purposely delay production or shipping.

 

I completely understand not wanting to wait on your MJ bumper. I also own a MJ and have yet to installed one on mine. I feel your frustration, trust me.

[HOrnbrod]

:popcorn:

[meljr]

I ordered a Hanson MJ rear bumper in early July from NorthRidge 4x4 and am still waiting. It's not holding up my build and my stock bumper is OK for now, so I'll just continue to wait. NorthRidge did charge my credit card and this is the only item on the order that has not arrived to date.

 

I am considering the MJ version of the Full Traction FTS720601 6" XJ long arm lift. Full Traction is related to Hanson, but I don't expect this kind of delay as this particular lift has been in their offering for a while.

 

-mel

[RockMJ]

After hearing/reading about this, Hanson is definitely off my list of items to buy. I have dealt with them when I had a ZJ way back when and they were helpful with my questions at the time. However, the argument of short box vs long box doesnt make any sense and bringing up Skunkworks is another useless point to justify lying to a customer. Giving a customer the run around and then trying to back up your reason for stringing him along is in bad taste, but doing it on a public forum makes the company look bad. I personally cannot understand why a company would offer a product for sale if it isnt ready to be produced and shipped. Regardless as to whether or not his card was charged or not you shouldnt offer something for sale if its going to be months before its shipped, or if so, at least post it on the website as an FYI. I am glad I read this post as I was going to purchase one of these bumpers next month. Thanks for the heads up on this, I will definitely pass on the headache. You can probably blame the JK craze for your problem lol

 

RockMJ

[imstuck]

I think I'm the guy he is referring to as the other member. Though it has taken a little longer then they intially said, Hanson's has constantly kept me in the loop as far as whats going on and the president of the co. has actually called me twice to assure me they are on top of it. And Dave my sales person has answered every email and called twice himself. They even told me since they couldn't get it out on friday as promised(due to an outside vendors oven failure for the paint baking process) that they would ship it 3 day delivery to me in Pa. from California! So so far I can't complain and I will follow up this week to let everyone know how it went.

[PiginaMJ]

I ordered a Hanson MJ rear bumper in early July from NorthRidge 4x4 and am still waiting. It's not holding up my build and my stock bumper is OK for now, so I'll just continue to wait. NorthRidge did charge my credit card and this is the only item on the order that has not arrived to date.

 

I am considering the MJ version of the Full Traction FTS720601 6" XJ long arm lift. Full Traction is related to Hanson, but I don't expect this kind of delay as this particular lift has been in their offering for a while.

 

-mel

I will check on your order tomorrow. I'm almost certain all the back ordered MJ bumpers are shipping out. We received several from the powder coater late friday after noon. Unfortunetly it was to late to ship them out.

 

I handle the Full-Traction side of things, I can tell you the 3.5" and 6" Long Arm XJ kits are in stock and can ship the same day. As of now, We can only sell/ship the front half of the kit for the MJ. We have not worked out the rear yet.

[PiginaMJ]

I think I'm the guy he is referring to as the other member. Though it has taken a little longer then they intially said, Hanson's has constantly kept me in the loop as far as whats going on and the president of the co. has actually called me twice to assure me they are on top of it. And Dave my sales person has answered every email and called twice himself. They even told me since they couldn't get it out on friday as promised(due to an outside vendors oven failure for the paint baking process) that they would ship it 3 day delivery to me in Pa. from California! So so far I can't complain and I will follow up this week to let everyone know how it went.

 

 

It will ship Monday for sure. The coater delivered the semi gloss bumpers very late Friday. He told me the Glossy was still baking

[PiginaMJ]

After hearing/reading about this, Hanson is definitely off my list of items to buy. I have dealt with them when I had a ZJ way back when and they were helpful with my questions at the time. However, the argument of short box vs long box doesnt make any sense and bringing up Skunkworks is another useless point to justify lying to a customer. Giving a customer the run around and then trying to back up your reason for stringing him along is in bad taste, but doing it on a public forum makes the company look bad. I personally cannot understand why a company would offer a product for sale if it isnt ready to be produced and shipped. Regardless as to whether or not his card was charged or not you shouldnt offer something for sale if its going to be months before its shipped, or if so, at least post it on the website as an FYI. I am glad I read this post as I was going to purchase one of these bumpers next month. Thanks for the heads up on this, I will definitely pass on the headache. You can probably blame the JK craze for your problem lol

 

RockMJ

 

 

We never lied once to this customer. We told him what we knew to be the truth at the time. Unfortunetly we were wrong more than once. Now that the MJ rear bumper is in production it will be a quick turn around. If we are out of stock on an item its normally two weeks at most before the order is built and processed.

 

If anyone else has a bumper on order please feel free to PM me here or call in and speak with Dave.

 

 

Chris

[Backdraft]

Well, I guess since I am "this customer", as well as the OP, I guess I should respond. However, what is there to say that my fellow MJ enthusiasts haven't already said? Thank you guys for having my back. Now with that said, you point specific things that only i know about due to it being a transaction with me. You point out that I made it sound like you "took my money and ran"? Where, in my post, did I ever mention money, a credit card, charging me, or running? don't twist my words to serve your defense. As far as you not lying to me? Well, I'm sorry, but you flat out did. "You" being Hanson collectively. Bear in mind Chris, I'm not, nor have I ever accused you directly. The lie I accuse you of is when my salesman told me, "it WILL be ready in two weeks". When it wasn't the first, second, third, or fourth time. That made it become a lie. Consider it a lie by omission if you have to. But its still a lie nonetheless. By omission, I mean your reason was production issues and delays. Fine, but you never told me that. You kept telling me it WILL be ready. Not "may", not "possibly". You say you want my money? Well, I want to give it to you. The bumper and its delays are not why I canceled my order. The way you handled business is. Another member mentioned that he received multiple calls from Hanson. As well as the president of the company contacting him to assure him of certain things. I never received a call from anyone explaining anything. It was I who made contact every time. And each time I called, I got nothing but excuses. I was even told once that there were orders in front of mine. Which, granted, may be true, but surely you weren't that far behind on total production. It was moot to tell me that anyway because I could care less about others orders. My issue was with my order. Point is, Hanson didn't handle me or my order professionally in the least. Bottom line, you guys dropped the ball and got a little mud on your face from it. I won't tell you what to do, but if it were me, i would try to save face and make it right instead of defending myself. Now, to avoid beating a dead horse too much, I'll just say that I DO believe the rear bumper from Hanson to be a quality product. I haven't come across another that compares. I still would really like to have one on my truck, would display it proudly, and trust it to take what I can dish out to it. I could believe that we could do business on this thing in the future, but as another member said, it would be up to you guys to establish some trust with this community before I will.

[JeepcoMJ]

I don't think we should burn a bridge with one of the few companies that offer parts specific to our comanches.

 

 

Should it take that long? nope. will it take that long in the future? If they are being honest in saying that they've got everything taken care of with production...I doubt we will have to wait long for a bumper now.

 

 

 

 

I think the OP should be upset, and has every right to be. but I'm not going to write off a company for only one bad experience that someone else had.

[H3RESQ]

First I'll say, I ran a Hanson front bumper on my XJ and then cutomized it to fit my linked Sidekick. It was a great bumper and held up well.

 

Second, I in no way got the impression that he was saying anything about Hanson taking his money and running. You just had to hunt for a way to make your post seem like the situation was not your fault and that he was bashing you. I felt his initial post was straigh up and fact oriented.

 

Third, The MJ rear bumper is simply a Early Bronco rear bumper with new mounts. Not that tough to get into production if you ask me. Seems it must have just been a priority situation within the company, that is fine if the sales people are open and honest about it.

 

Fourth, If you work with Hanson or not is irrelevant to the point of your lack of being up front and honest about knowing if and when the bumpers would be ready. When I ordered my first bumper from Hanson it was him I spoke with, just a small company trying to get there feet off the ground. Bushwacker using them in there adds really helped Hanson make a name for himself. I like that, I like Hanson. I understand and respect Hanson selling his company/name to Full traction. I don't like that it happened though. As a buisness person I like seeing small companys expand and make it, I just hate seeing what bigger companys do to the name sometimes. I hope this doesn't continue to be the way Hanson is pertrayed by FT and its affiliates.

 

Cheers, Jason