Sorry I've just got to ask this....

[Guest MJG]

I've been on this forum (and the one before it) for a number of years and I have noticed a level of animosity against a certian company that feels a little bit like..... well to be honest........ "if you slag these off you can be in our gang".

I could post links to the various posts but won't bother.

I really and truly don't know what this is all about so I am going to ask.

Why do people sign off their posts with an image of a scorpian with a no waiting sign superimposed over it, why do I see references to a company called scrapiron and irreverence to things that are orange.

This is abviously much more serious than the childish references to "Halfrauds" seen in other posts.

I obviously am aware of which company these posts are refering to but I truly don't know what this is all about......who did they originally upset and why????

Obviously because I have to ask I am not one of the "gang", but hey........"does this face look bovered"

[western]

A while back Si of X-eng fame supplied Scorpion with his Disk handbrake units, at some point Scorpion decided to sell these as their own & also to copy them, if you really want to read more somewhere within the forum is the thread all about it.

[Les Henson]

Scorpion racing copied X-Eng handbrake disc conversion after SimonR spent considerable time and expense perfecting it. Most of the main L/R websites were disgusted by this. If you are that interested, there's quite a thread on here about it.

Les. (Gang member)

[ROGUE TROOPER]

Wot like mine

If the company has no morals or bad customer service etc then they need taking down a peg........... but its no good venting on here unless you approch the company in question and tell them of the problem and give them the chance to deal with it before venting here

Then again good servive should also be appladed

[Guest MJG]

A while back Si of X-eng fame supplied Scorpion with his Disk handbrake units, at some point Scorpion decided to sell these as their own & also to copy them, if you really want to read more somewhere within the forum is the thread all about it.

So he will have been able to claim breach of copyright........or did he forget to do this bit????

[Les Henson]

If you find and read the thread you'll see that all options were discussed at the time.

Les.

[Guest MJG]

If you find and read the thread you'll see that all options were discissed at the time.

Les.

No worries I get the gist and understand what it is all about now.

PS I have to say that was the fastest reponse to anything I've posted in weeks, clearly a sensitive subject.....

[honitonhobbit]

Funnily enough Simon didn't seem overly bothered as this is a standard business practice in the real world.

This forum and the previous incarnation have had a bee in the bonnet about S C O R P I O N R A C I N G for ages - it just got blatant post LRe/Gree/Lamontage as it could.

Scorpion have a place - in fact a strong place - in the market, sell well . make money and produce some fair to middling products. Most of those products are copies of products produced by companies with little or no clout/funds in the legal dept. Every now and then SRmake a mistake and get well and truly warned off, but that takes clout. Heyho, such is life.

[Mark90]

I think the whole issue was compounded by the fact that even prior to the X-Eng thing Scorpion had a bad rep for poor customer service / attitude.

I have personally experinced this when trying to spend money with them but it was obviously not enough money for them to actually be interested in my business.

[pugwash]

as mark says scrapiron aren't noted for any customer service skills, generally they seem out to to over charge people for ideas they ripped off over people, through spending as much cash as possible on advertising and thus getting certain magasines into their pockets.

as dave says they have a roll in the LR world, but it's not a particularily enviable position in my opinion.

to clarify- i think most enthusiasts get the impression that SR are only in it for the money, and will do anything to get that money even if it includes blatantly ripping other people off. I think most enthusiasts would prefer to deal with a company who have both some integrity and a genuine interest in furthering the general LR scene not just taking the money and running!

[white90]

Martin

just untick the box in control panel that says show signatures

saves looking at the plethora of stuff in most.

[reads90]

I've been on this forum (and the one before it) for a number of years and I have noticed a level of animosity against a certian company that feels a little bit like..... well to be honest........ "if you slag these off you can be in our gang".

I could post links to the various posts but won't bother.

I really and truly don't know what this is all about so I am going to ask.

Why do people sign off their posts with an image of a scorpian with a no waiting sign superimposed over it, why do I see references to a company called scrapiron and irreverence to things that are orange.

This is abviously much more serious than the childish references to "Halfrauds" seen in other posts.

I obviously am aware of which company these posts are refering to but I truly don't know what this is all about......who did they originally upset and why????

Obviously because I have to ask I am not one of the "gang", but hey........"does this face look bovered"

Well in my personal experiance

I bought a set of springs and shocks of them for my 90. They turned up with no notice as to which were front and back and which were left and right. Sorted that out and then fitted them to my 90. Which was a toy and not used during the day (so low mileage). After 3 months the rears had sagged so bad that the simex were hitting the rear wheel arches and smahing them to bits. Phoned Colin to ask about the problem and was told it was my fault as i had Simex on. (but i told them that when i bought them). He siad they had made them sag. Personally could not unsderstand how as they are an unspring weight. (There are not held up but the springs) explained this to him and was told rubish it is the fault of the tyres. I pointed out there advetising trucks had Simex on so what coils do they use then. But they said if i bought the truck up to the center of London they would look at it. Well i was in Southamopton and i was not going to drive up to the center of london on a 90 on Simex. Just for them to look at it but in their words " not promise anything". Also by this time i was on my 3rd rear shock as well.

They told me to take them off and messure them and tell them what they were from top to bottom sat on the floor. But i told them that does not mean anything as there is no load on them.

So starting to get a bit Mildly miffed off. They then said for me to send the coils to them and they would test them. But i would have to pay to send them to them . And if they found there was no prolem then i would have to pay form them to get shipped back to me. The cost for this which they quoted me was the same price as the 2 coils we new. But the comments and way colin spoke to me i could tell that when the coils got there they were going to be ok and i would have to pay for them to come back to me. And plus i had no confindence in the company or the products, service they offered. So i just left it and put it down to experiance

By this point i got a set of OME (+2 like the other ones) for the rear and when i put them on it took the back of the car up by 4.5 inches. Now for a 3 month old set of sagging that much is no way good

Have not touched there produscts since

As they say One Bitten Twice Shy

This is my personal experiance and as to why i don't like them and will always recomend somone to buy OME over the orange stuff.

I do agree to a point that some jump on the band wagon and some like me have had their fingures burn't by them.

BTW i was the one with my brother Jules who started calling them Scrap iron (on the LRE forum) after my fun and games with them.

BTW2 there are other companys that i will not deal with becasue of past bad dealing. Some of them alot of people do deal with but no me

[Lewis]

I think the whole issue was compounded by the fact that even prior to the X-Eng thing Scorpion had a bad rep for poor customer service / attitude.

I have personally experinced this when trying to spend money with them but it was obviously not enough money for them to actually be interested in my business.

This seems to follow my own experiences with them and those of almost everyone i have spoken to, it is rare to have someone recommend them. It is their terrible customer service that prompted me to write

All suggestions welcome, except those involving orange companies

in this thread which I beleive is the most recent in a long line of similar comments.

I know they sell the tyres I wished to buy, but i would rather not deal with them hence my comment above

Lewis

[jules]

I think the whole issue was compounded by the fact that even prior to the X-Eng thing Scorpion had a bad rep for poor customer service / attitude.

I have personally experienced this when trying to spend money with them but it was obviously not enough money for them to actually be interested in my business.

I had some dealings with them years ago with the age old saggy rear springs.

I gave them the weights and it still sagged after about three weeks they blamed it on all sorts eg my tyres , they did offer if I took the springs off and posted them back to them and they tested them and if they found them to be faulty they would replace them but not the cost of my time to remove the springs.

Basic story

I bought a product which I don't think was unreasonable to assume I could fit new and not need to worry for a few years how ever its compromised my truck handling and ability and I had to waste a Sat removing it and then another Sat refitting only to find no change. and told there was nothing wrong.

I don't like my truck looking like it has bags of cement in the boot

I know three people within five miles of my home that have had the same problem.

The fronts shocks and springs were fine and I only took them off a few years ago.

this all happened to me years ago but never forgotten

[headhunter]

I just find them very expensive, so I don't nowdays even consider them as a potential supplier.

John

[Top90]

I've never had any problems with them, so I won't jump on the bandwagon to join "the gang"

They are local and easy for me to pop in to.

The main point they fall down on is return phone calls........ and the fact that everytime you want to know a price you have to ask which gets rather tedious so I'll have a look at websites with prices.

By the way I use Devon, Gigglepin, Scorpion and X Eng (in alphabetical order) so don't think I'm "sponsored" I'm not that good.

Richard

PS. I like LRe too and thier holiday week in Wales that I've done for the last five years.

[nicksmelly]

A long long time ago, when the word "Extreme" was a twinkle in Colins eye, a nice company called Equipe made a dislocating suspension system with very long travel shocks, cranked trailing arms and funny looking spring seats. Colon sold a few of these setups and thought there was money to be had... so he copied it and told poor equipe to keep thinking up good ideas for him to copy. There starteth the story, his little grey cells are just not up to thinking of new ideas for himself so he made a business out of copying others ideas.

I wonder if the new owner will carry on Colons old traditions?

[pugwash]

I wonder if the new owner will carry on Colons old traditions?

huh? i missed this- when did that happen?

[mattD110td5x]

I've never purchased anything orange - but that's 'cause I'm 1000km south of Ali and 15,000km east of that penguin fancier, but now at least I feel like part of the gang

The Race to Dakar is on the box over here at the moment and from the trouble they had with oranges and Col's camera time would was not a great endorsement, as a matter of fact Col was made out to be a right turkey - I realise they are trying to [over] dramatise the events to make a more compelling story - but this was definitely at the expense of the orange bits.

From abc.net.au

....Events leading up to the start of the race in Lisbon are fraught with technical difficulties including major problems with getting the BMW X5 support vehicle ready on time. In a nail biting dash to the ferry, the support vehicle is loaded with just seconds to spare. On scrutineering day there are more final glitches....

ttfn

Matthew

[Guest MJG]

I've never purchased anything orange - but that's 'cause I'm 1000km south of Ali and 15,000km east of that penguin fancier, but now at least I feel like part of the gang

The Race to Dakar is on the box over here at the moment and from the trouble they had with oranges and Col's camera time would was not a great endorsement, as a matter of fact Col was made out to be a right turkey - I realise they are trying to [over] dramatise the events to make a more compelling story - but this was definitely at the expense of the orange bits.

From abc.net.au

....Events leading up to the start of the race in Lisbon are fraught with technical difficulties including major problems with getting the BMW X5 support vehicle ready on time. In a nail biting dash to the ferry, the support vehicle is loaded with just seconds to spare. On scrutineering day there are more final glitches....

ttfn

Matthew

Woosh... was that the sound of something going over the top of my head??????

[white90]

A red arrow perhaps?

[Guest MJG]

A red arrow perhaps?

Nice one.... when red---one and his mates pass over you know about it.......................

As to the last post, I was subtlly suggesting I did not know what the hell he was talking about.......did you??????

[geoffbeaumont]

Woosh... was that the sound of something going over the top of my head??????

Do a search on here for 'race to dakar' - it was discussed in, I think, the International Forum.

[MarkieB]

Although once you start naming companies who have provided shoddy customer service, the list gets longer!

one Midlands company, one of the cheapest, with a full although not particularly well-organised website, who sit on orders for MONTHS without answering Emails, promising to return calls then not doing so, although at least don't normally make the definitive credit card transaction [the authorisation affects your credit limit for the time being though] until the goods are ready for shipping, who regularly promise the goods'll be "in stock tomorrow"; whose ordering system appears to involve scraps of paper, so hard is it for them to look up your order on the computer

one other company who, although very friendly, with aspirations to complete all kinds of orders, rather annoyingly can't seem to organise international shipping themselves at a reasonable price

several companies who aren't particularly helpful in trying to track a part number on the telephone/Email

others who send the wrong parts / who seem to 'forget' orders entirely / whose prices are higher than their service merits / who simply take their time preparing orders, knowing that shipping itself delays international orders / a combination of the above

the list goes on, that's in just 2 years of LR ownership for me

[BogMonster]

Although once you start naming companies who have provided shoddy customer service, the list gets longer!

Very true.

I try to run a business at the other end of the planet dealing with mostly UK suppliers and actually my experience is that gross stupidity, incompetence and unwillingness to levitate off butt and help, is sadly the norm with suppliers these days and to find a good one is the exception. Our biggest supplier (if you know what I mostly do for a living that's a clue) is about the worst when it comes to parts (the other stuff we buy is ok), but it is soo difficult to get anybody reliable to deal with.

Some of the ones that are often listed on here as "jolly good" are equally bad, they might be splendid chaps when you pop in to see them for a yarn but try getting the lazy b*****s to answer an email.... I shan't name names. It is such a pleasant surprise when you find somebody responsive and keen to let you give them money that I usually order stuff from them even if they are more expensive.

I have never dealt with the orange-utangs, my main gripe with them is over the X-Eng business. I did send them an email about something once but I don't think I ever got an answer and most suppliers only get to ignore my emails once because there isn't a second time.