BondXII
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2009
- Messages
- 1,041
- Reaction score
- 71
Good evening ladies and gents,
There has been a lot of sole searching at the infamous XII Performance Headquarters over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, we have made a conscious decision to close the doors…sorta. We are not closing down the business, but we are going to have to stop with the XII “one-off” parts that we have offered you guys for nearly 10 years (amazing how time flies).
You all have been a great community and we are proud to have been a part of this niche market for this long, but it is time. Over the past couple years, it has increasingly been harder to get the parts manufactured that you have grown to love (us included) in some kind of a timely manner. It has seemed that the “big guys” have grown less and less worried about helping out the “mom ‘n’ pops” businesses to keep you guys happy. It use to be that these larger companies were excited that we were around because we were doing all of the homework and putting up with the headaches for them, so they could concentrate on the larger scope work they needed to do to continue to grow.
We really hate to make this post, but this was definitely not a spur of the moment decision. I couldn’t tell you how much sleep that I have lost debating this decision. Between trying to get a manufacturer to get going on orders we placed, juggling business credit cards, and putting out tons of personal funds to keep these parts a reality. If we jacked the prices up like we “should” had, the personal funds would probably not be a factor. We ensured that the costs to you guys are as low as possible because we know how money is for everyone and how much you love your X’s and want to make them even more bad a@@ then they are fresh off the showroom floor. Hell…the cost for us on QA1s has slowly creeped up, but we still sell them at the price we started with. We now make a blistering 5 bucks a set when we sell them to you guys.
If you are reading this post before the update to the sway bars…the sway bars have been gone through and passed our QA checks. There was only one front sway bar that the powder coat was messed on from shipping. That works out perfect for us, since I needed it for our X and I’ll take the “damaged” one to ensure the ones you receive are the quality we expect. You guys have not seen tracking numbers for these yet because of a combination of things. There was an initial credit card issue when the sway bar company ran our card due to the increase in credit card fraud. Our bank was not expecting such a large purchase and declined/shut the card off even though the funds were there. Got it straightened out. Then the lady at the sway bar company thought that it was the amount they charged and proceeded to make several small charges to add up to the cost they needed. Of course that yet again shut down the card. I did not notice that at the time because the sway bars arrived at the shop. They went ahead and sent them because of our history together and knew that we were good for it once the credit card stopped shutting down. We call our wholesaler to get all of the bushings to try and get the cost down a bit while buying in bulk. Got everything rolling and did not think about it. I had an extensive command inspection at work (those of you military types know how much of a headache those can get). Worked late hours and pulling my hair out for a week. Questioned why the bushings aren’t here yet so we can get the kits out to you all and thought maybe it was because of this credit card nonsense. NOPE…the person that we talked to about the bushings got everything figured out…but never finalized the order. After a few sentence enhancers and flipping of a table or two later, the bushings are ACTUALLY in route to the shop now. HOPEFULLY they get here by week’s end so these kits can start heading out. More to follow.
In respect to the XII parts, the remaining sway bars are still up for grabs at full price. The other manufacturer we’ve been dealing with is another story. A few of you know which one that is. We initially placed an order for drop coils right after the new year since you guys wiped us out over Christmas. Still haven’t received them. Every time we called it was “should be ready in a week or two” over and over and over again. Now (assuming that they were too busy making springs for the big companies) they do not have the right size round bar to make the springs we need. They blamed Trump and not being able to get metals and such. Never mind the past (almost) 7 months that we have patiently been waiting for our springs. We have unfortunately finally given up. With the amount of orders/refunds/emails/calls/etc that we have received about these from you guys, we would have blown through that order and nearly halfway through another order. We are now about to eat a considerable amount of money in PayPal fees as we are going to refund everyone that has placed orders involving our drop coils and flip a couple more tables.
We do not plan to sell off the rights to these parts anytime soon. We MAY revisit offering the parts again at a later date. I can tell you that group buys are a thing of the past. I’m surprised I have not developed an ulcer from the current one…while still trying to get the drop coils in. If we do decide to try again, we’ll simply place an order. Once they arrive (however long that will take), we’ll advertise a sale for those parts for a short duration of time. So kinda the same thing as a group buy…only backwards.
I’m sure there are mixed feelings with you guys as some of you will feel bad for us and hope for the best…and then there are others that will think they could have done better and what not. Bottom line is that this is not for the timid at heart and it is a lot harder than what you think behind the comfort of your keyboards. It is pretty easy to sell parts that already exist…the niche market that only a few care about is a b@@@@@. LOL
Sorry for having to break this news to you all and we wish you all the best.
Buck and Amy
There has been a lot of sole searching at the infamous XII Performance Headquarters over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, we have made a conscious decision to close the doors…sorta. We are not closing down the business, but we are going to have to stop with the XII “one-off” parts that we have offered you guys for nearly 10 years (amazing how time flies).
You all have been a great community and we are proud to have been a part of this niche market for this long, but it is time. Over the past couple years, it has increasingly been harder to get the parts manufactured that you have grown to love (us included) in some kind of a timely manner. It has seemed that the “big guys” have grown less and less worried about helping out the “mom ‘n’ pops” businesses to keep you guys happy. It use to be that these larger companies were excited that we were around because we were doing all of the homework and putting up with the headaches for them, so they could concentrate on the larger scope work they needed to do to continue to grow.
We really hate to make this post, but this was definitely not a spur of the moment decision. I couldn’t tell you how much sleep that I have lost debating this decision. Between trying to get a manufacturer to get going on orders we placed, juggling business credit cards, and putting out tons of personal funds to keep these parts a reality. If we jacked the prices up like we “should” had, the personal funds would probably not be a factor. We ensured that the costs to you guys are as low as possible because we know how money is for everyone and how much you love your X’s and want to make them even more bad a@@ then they are fresh off the showroom floor. Hell…the cost for us on QA1s has slowly creeped up, but we still sell them at the price we started with. We now make a blistering 5 bucks a set when we sell them to you guys.
If you are reading this post before the update to the sway bars…the sway bars have been gone through and passed our QA checks. There was only one front sway bar that the powder coat was messed on from shipping. That works out perfect for us, since I needed it for our X and I’ll take the “damaged” one to ensure the ones you receive are the quality we expect. You guys have not seen tracking numbers for these yet because of a combination of things. There was an initial credit card issue when the sway bar company ran our card due to the increase in credit card fraud. Our bank was not expecting such a large purchase and declined/shut the card off even though the funds were there. Got it straightened out. Then the lady at the sway bar company thought that it was the amount they charged and proceeded to make several small charges to add up to the cost they needed. Of course that yet again shut down the card. I did not notice that at the time because the sway bars arrived at the shop. They went ahead and sent them because of our history together and knew that we were good for it once the credit card stopped shutting down. We call our wholesaler to get all of the bushings to try and get the cost down a bit while buying in bulk. Got everything rolling and did not think about it. I had an extensive command inspection at work (those of you military types know how much of a headache those can get). Worked late hours and pulling my hair out for a week. Questioned why the bushings aren’t here yet so we can get the kits out to you all and thought maybe it was because of this credit card nonsense. NOPE…the person that we talked to about the bushings got everything figured out…but never finalized the order. After a few sentence enhancers and flipping of a table or two later, the bushings are ACTUALLY in route to the shop now. HOPEFULLY they get here by week’s end so these kits can start heading out. More to follow.
In respect to the XII parts, the remaining sway bars are still up for grabs at full price. The other manufacturer we’ve been dealing with is another story. A few of you know which one that is. We initially placed an order for drop coils right after the new year since you guys wiped us out over Christmas. Still haven’t received them. Every time we called it was “should be ready in a week or two” over and over and over again. Now (assuming that they were too busy making springs for the big companies) they do not have the right size round bar to make the springs we need. They blamed Trump and not being able to get metals and such. Never mind the past (almost) 7 months that we have patiently been waiting for our springs. We have unfortunately finally given up. With the amount of orders/refunds/emails/calls/etc that we have received about these from you guys, we would have blown through that order and nearly halfway through another order. We are now about to eat a considerable amount of money in PayPal fees as we are going to refund everyone that has placed orders involving our drop coils and flip a couple more tables.
We do not plan to sell off the rights to these parts anytime soon. We MAY revisit offering the parts again at a later date. I can tell you that group buys are a thing of the past. I’m surprised I have not developed an ulcer from the current one…while still trying to get the drop coils in. If we do decide to try again, we’ll simply place an order. Once they arrive (however long that will take), we’ll advertise a sale for those parts for a short duration of time. So kinda the same thing as a group buy…only backwards.
I’m sure there are mixed feelings with you guys as some of you will feel bad for us and hope for the best…and then there are others that will think they could have done better and what not. Bottom line is that this is not for the timid at heart and it is a lot harder than what you think behind the comfort of your keyboards. It is pretty easy to sell parts that already exist…the niche market that only a few care about is a b@@@@@. LOL
Sorry for having to break this news to you all and we wish you all the best.
Buck and Amy
hopefully some will turn up.
