Fitment and customer service problems with my Rogue bumper...

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tbone23455

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Hey everyone!! Loooong time member, always combing the boards for info and insight from all you pirates about mods, installs, creative solutions, etc. I don't post much, but am always hanging around. I'm on my second Raptor, a 2013 that I bought new, and I just recently sprung for new bumpers front and rear as I wanted to mount a winch.
I did a lot of research and finally bought from Rogue Racing on January 6th of this year. The cost was $4464.96. I was told on the phone they would ship around January 27th. I made certain of this and put it in my calendar as I was traveling that month. January 27th came and went, and no calls or emails from Rogue Racing.
I called on February 15th, two weeks after they were supposed to have been sent out, and they informed me that they were having issues with staff and were behind on orders. They informed me that my bumpers should ship in the next couple days and arrive in LA on Monday the 20th. At this time Nick, the salesperson also informed me that one of the custom options they offer that I ordered wasn’t done(an insert that was supposed to be color-matched to my truck), and they would be refunding me the $100 they charged me for it. This was the first I had heard of this, almost six weeks from the time I placed my order, and also as my order was complete. No biggie though, wouldn't have been a game-changer. I finally received the bumpers on February 27th, a week after the last estimate that was three weeks after the first estimate.
When I opened the box, I noticed that the bumpers were built wrong, that is, one of the other $100 options I specified (mesh skins) was not correct (dimple skins instead). Also, I had ordered them with a set of fog lights for $199, and they weren't there either. I immediately called and they informed me they would refund me $399 for the two $100 mistakes and the lack of the $199 lights. That refund was sent on March 6th, a week later.
The next day I installed the front bumper and winch plate and winch(which fit fine), and made my first attempt at the rear bumper. After a couple hours with no success getting it to fit, I called Rogue. I spoke with them a couple times as I was working, and finally spoke to the owner, Ryan, and he said that when they send them out to get Line-X coating(an optional offering), that can mess up the tight tolerances they construct the bumpers with. I have no clue why they Line-X the mounting areas instead of taping that off, but again, whatever. He suggested I take all the Line-X off where the bumper wasn’t fitting.
I went and got an angle grinder and wheels to take the Line-X off, and removed it everywhere it could mess up the fitment. License plate box and mounting tabs. I then rattle canned the bare metal and let it dry for a few days. All this was at Ryan, the owner’s suggestion. Not the way I want to go on a brand new $1600 item, but whatever.
On Sunday March 8th I attempted to install the rear bumper again. It still wouldn’t fit. This is when I pulled out the tape measure and figured out that the rear bumper had been built wrong. See picture below. 

The mounting bracket on the back of my truck is ~7.5". The Rogue bumper fits over the tab on the top, and fits under the tab on the bottom. You’ll notice that the clearance required is ~7.5 inches.


You can see on the next picture that the tape measure is up against the underside of the top of the bumper, as far as it can go. The bottom of the tape shows that the point at which the mounting tab, the scraped-up item with the hole in it, is welded to the bumper tube allows just ~7 inches of clearance, not the ~7.5 needed to fit on my mounting bracket.
In the picture the tab is bent at about a 35 degree angle, that is why you see so much of it as you’re looking straight down at it. It is intended to stick out at 90 degrees from the weld point, in which case you’d see it on edge. The owner, Ryan, told me as I was calling trying to figure out why this bumper wouldn’t fit, to bend the tab down a little as well as bend the tab on my frame mounting bracket on the truck (previous picture, you can see where I’ve bent it a bit) to get it to fit. I bent it quite a bit, as you can see, bent my truck, ground off the coating that they put on it that messed up the tight tolerances, and there was no way it was going to fit. The paint scrapes on the tab in the above picture are from where it was hitting on the truck bracket. As you can see, it’s nowhere NEAR close to fitting.
I had spent two full days working on what was advertised as a 45 minute job, pulling out my hair, trying to get the bumper to fit, modifying it as instructed by Ryan, the owner. Finally, I pulled out a tape measure and measured all the tolerances. That’s when I found that the bumper had been built wrong. Somehow it was around a half an inch off.
At this point my truck was undriveable, so I did the only thing I could to get the new bumper on. I cut off the bottom mounting tab. See the picture. Not what I wanted to do, but at this point, after pounding and bending and grinding...I didn't feel like I had much choice.

This shows the bumper mounted on my truck. The bumper tab, which I cut off, sticks straight out from where it was welded. As you can tell from where the cut is, there is no possible way the bumper mounting tab would have been able to slide below the truck mounting tab as it is supposed to. Cutting off the tab was the only way I had to get my truck street legal and safe to drive, and it was my only option. Now, the bumper is not secure on the truck, and rattles.
As I said earlier, I called the owner the first day it didn’t fit, he suggested bending the tabs and also grinding off the thick line-x coating they coated the bumpers with, as it’s so thick it can affect fitment. I’m not sure why they don’t take this into account when they Line-X them, but that’s what he told me. I went and bought what I needed and modified the bumper and the coating, and then two days later I tried again. That was a Sunday, and as I had no way to get in touch with the business, I was forced to cut off the mounting tabs in order to at least get the bumper on.
I called the place the next day, Monday March 6th and spoke to Nick, sent him these same pictures, and he said he’d have the owner get right back to me. On Wednesday the 9th, I emailed again as no one had gotten back to me, and he said he’d get the owner to call me. Ryan the owner then called late that afternoon and said he’d look into it, and do whatever he needed to “make it right”. He never called me back. I waited five days, until the 14th to call again, and left a message. After a bit of phone tag, we spoke today, March 16th, and he told me that the best he could do was send me a new bumper….for $900. Retail is $1599. At this point I calmly laid out the issues and mistakes his company had made, poor communication, missed deadlines and wrong items shipped, as well as sending me a bumper that I can prove, with pictures, doesn’t fit, and he became combative and told me that I didn’t know what I was doing. I got pretty pissed and said some shit I shouldn't and hung up on him.
So, any thoughts guys? I'm stuck with a bumper that was made wrong and a company that I'm having issues with. Sorry for the long post, I pulled this from some of the other places I registered this, so that's why the post is kinda formal and specific. I know the guys from Rogue frequent this forum...maybe I'm missing something here?
 

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TornadoRaptor

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Sounds like their fitment was flawed for sure. I'm wondering if it was actually fitted for a vehicle other than yours in the first place?
Hopefully with more cooler heads this can be rectified.
Seems like you Both attempted​ a solution that went sideways Try to get back on track by phone and figure out a happy medium to get to being a satisfied customer again if possible. Hopefully someone here can help make it happen. Good luck!
 
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tbone23455

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Hopefully someone here can help make it happen. Good luck!


Thanks! I sure hope so...I have no desire to rip anyone off or drag a business under the bus if they're trying to make it right.

---------- Post added at 12:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 AM ----------

Sounds like their fitment was flawed for sure. I'm wondering if it was actually fitted for a vehicle other than yours in the first place?

This wouldn't surprise me, considering all the other wrong items/build specifics they messed up on this order.
 
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tbone23455

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So how was the front bumper?

Front bumper was great. Easy install. Well, I was working by myself, so I had to use a bottle jack and jack stands to get the winch and plate in place, but everything fit fine, went on easy.
I had two frozen bolts in the stock skid plates though, had to drill/cut those off. Serious pain in the ass. Took a few hours.
 

Jimbo

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@tbone23455 - The bumpers are made in a built fixture, so the process is repeatable. However, I'd suggest you speak directly with Ryan. I have PM'd you his contact info.
 
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