Archetype customer service

[BUCKIN6VA]

Based on my experience with Archetype Racing, I will not purchase, nor moving forward do I recommend this business.

I was really excited and looking forward to receiving the stirrups and installing them on my Bronco. I really wanted to stick with this business and make a bunch of purchases from Curtis and the crew.

Originally, a lot of us that had orders were under the impression that it would be 12 to 16 weeks, that AR was getting caught up on orders from their “backlog” from the Fall/Winter of 2023.

My order is now 6 months out. I no longer received communication after inquiring about the order status several weeks ago. After not receiving any correspondence, I cancelled the order on July 2nd, 2024. I still haven’t heard anything back after submitting the request except for the automated generic reply from pit crew.

Then yesterday, I submitted another request regarding the status of my refund. The only change I noticed is the order status changed on the Archetype Racing Website: from ‘unfilled’ for the past six months, to now ‘restocked’.
I’m not sure as to why it is now restocked status since nothing ever materialized.

As of today, it is business day-7 since the request for a refund was submitted.
Still, nothing.

Strange - they told me they cannot Process refunds and I had to initiate a dispute. I suggest initiating a dispute sooner than later. No need for you to do this runaround.

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[Descent]

Strange - they told me they cannot Process refunds and I had to initiate a dispute. I suggest initiating a dispute sooner than later. No need for you to do this runaround.

AR does not refund your money when you cancel your order. In my case, They wouldn't even respond to my bank. They had to get Visa involved, before I could get a resolution.

 

[Emerald]

I waited (edit, lol) 3+ months for my AR Stirrups, and I won't say I was happy to wait that long, but I will say they were worth the wait. Every time I requested an update from AR via private messaging on this forum I got a reply in a decent amount of time.

There's no point in arguing about whether AR's customer service model is right or wrong, vote with your wallet.

Great products gain customers, great customer service keeps them as customers. That having been said, I'd still happily buy from AR again.

I ordered my Magnums 10/23 and began checking back with AR via e-mail a few weeks past the initially posted wait period. I had already been monitoring postings in this forum so knew not to expect accurate duration estimating from them, but did receive responses from PitCrew each of the 3 times I contacted them. Reading all the angst and sometimes vitriol in comments on this forum, I took the following approach in my correspondence with them, "be kind, supportive, and understanding", they are likely getting plenty of negative comments already. The messengers rarely have the control over the situation and often receive the brunt from the customer. Piling on will not help that situation. A person will more happily engage with someone not on the attack.
I don't know the situation, the business model or the extent of issues behind their operation. I decided I'd just monitor the situation and glean what I can from this Forum. The Magnums arrived almost 8 months to the day, and 5 months beyond the original estimate posted. While they are clearly not meeting the adage, "under promise, over deliver", the product is great and I have no complaints. I would also order from them again, but take their delivery estimation with a grain of salt.

 

[Emerald]

I choose to look at it this way, with the current rate of inflation

 

[GToddC5]

^^ Since this thread is titled, "Archetype customer service", we must take the good and the bad. Those of us with good experiences have a right to defend them.

I work for a large manufacturing business, and we are still suffering from long lead times related to supplier material shortages, quality, attendance issues (us as well) - with no relief in sight. On top of that, it seems like just about everyone ends up on credit hold for various reasons. So there's this constant juggling of money, labor and material shortages that are working against many manufacturers, on top of quality and shipping challenges. It all just trickles down, up and over, and unless you have been living and dealing with it for several years, it may be difficult to imagine how things can still be a mess out there - but I assure you, it is widely still a mess. And just when you think it's figured out or things are looking up, nope. I have seen first hand how lead times can and have changed in the blink of an eye, at the mercy of something completely out of anyone's control. I've dealt with people that can't wrap their head around a cargo ship that was redirected or held up at port for an extra week or seven, or a train or plane that didn't move as scheduled - like there's really any damn thing I can do about it - to the point where I thought they honestly wanted me to lose my job because they didn't get whatever on whichever date, and all I was doing was communicating the current challenge to them. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I say all that because I believe AR means to do their best but is met with many or all of the challenges I mentioned above. I will continue to say that AR has great, high quality products that are worth waiting for. And even if they divulged all their challenges and could somehow review each and every custom order to revise all the open-order lead times to an exact date, there would still be people that don't care to hear their "excuses", simply because they are tired of waiting for the cool mod to show up at their door, challenges be damned.

 

[zombie]

Look at it this way... has ADV even started delivering their hard tops yet?

 

[JBWildTrak]

Strange - they told me they cannot Process refunds and I had to initiate a dispute. I suggest initiating a dispute sooner than later. No need for you to do this runaround.

I have already reached out to the Federal Trade Commission and filed a complaint.
There are additional legal and authoritative measures that can be taken should Curtis / Archetype Racing choose to not follow through and do the right thing on his/their end. In the meantime, I have to allow him this opportunity again to follow through on his end.
This matter will get resolved. Might take a little while; or perhaps it might not.

 

[Base_Squatch33]

10 Jul 23 ordered
19 Oct 23 delivered

(guess it was only 3 months, lol)

This is unheard of. Everything I’ve seen has been over 6 months including mine, which I am still waiting for. Maybe it’s because of all the advertising they started doing and now the demand destroyed their production.

 

[Base_Squatch33]

Well, from all of these complaints and the shadiness that is being revealed about this company, I doubt they will be in business long. Then who knows what happens to those pending orders. Just stay in business until after you ship my magnums please?

 

[huey]

that's unfortunate you are not getting a response
I have not ordered from them in the last 6 months, maybe they are communicating less these days
Have you tried calling them?

 

[zombie]

Well, from all of these complaints and the shadiness that is being revealed about this company, I doubt they will be in business long. Then who knows what happens to those pending orders. Just stay in business until after you ship my magnums please?

I'm pretty sure for every customer who is losing their sh&t over the wait time, there are 3 or 4 who are patiently waiting for a great product.

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