Problems with Safari Equip?

[ajh]

I ordered a number of items from Safari Equip including their stainless extended range tank, their aux arch tank, a steering guard, and vent covers. When things arrived as far as I can tell all the instructions for installing anything were missing, the spacers for the rear ARB were missing along with other hoses to connect things up, what exactly is missing I cannot tell because while Tom seems very personable on the phone and keeps insisting he will get me the information is has now been over 2 weeks and I am still nowhere nearer to getting what I paid for despite many email detailing exactly what I need which have just gone unanswered.

What are my legal options at this point? Return shipping and ordering new parts from someone else will probably cost me $2000 or so in the end. I obviously cannot stay patient and wait forever with tanks I cannot install without the directions for safety reasons or deal with the missing vent covers that never arrived.

What have other people had to resort to in order to get a vendor to live up to their responsibilities? It will cost me about $1000 to fly in and challenge him face to face and I am prepared to do this, but I will have to recoup those costs.

Frustrated.

To be clear, I am very happy with the product, but the level of communication has just made it impossible. Being GMT-5 does not help either because by the time I can get around to calling, nobody is there and it looks like voicemail has not yet been imported to the UK yet.

[Ex Member]

Sounds like bog standard UK business practice.....

Can't help, but usually posting here gets someone local to head over and break his legs calmly solve the problem.

[ajh]

I would be more than happy just getting what I paid for. It is the 3rd vendor who screwed up badly. Paddocks sent me ONE RRC hub when it was supposed to be 2 for my rear disc conversion, another send me door shells when it was supposed to be late-model complete doors, and now this.... how can people live with such a poor level of service?

[reads90]

I can feel for you . Since leaving the Uk and Living in Aus. Dealing with any Uk companys in a complete nightmare. Trying to get though to the that you live in another part of the world but yeah happen to speak english is a nightmare. Alot think the Uk is the only place that speaks english. Have a massive agruement with the bank everytime i phone them because they give you a 0845 number which can't be called from oversea's . Or for them to tell you to go into the local branch. mmmm LLoyds arn't in Aus you numpty

I also had it the other day that a company want £80 to send a £34 set of defender rear seat covers to Aus. He told me that was the cheapest he could find. I then pointed out that it would cost £18 by royal mail (air Mail) (sent him the webb link with the price)Got them set to my brother in the end as it was easyer for him to send it on .

And because what Brown has done to the country ,it makes the Uk a good place to buy stuff at the moment , because the pound is pretty much worthless

Although after all that ,have delt a bit with Mud stuff and found them to be really good and really Quick delivery

I have a safari rear long range tank in my 90 . I have had it in the car for 5 years and put it in to give more fuel when i drove around Aus . I a very very happy with it . But BTW it came with no instructions but all the bits were with it

[ajh]

Can you recall which bits came with it?

[reads90]

Can you recall which bits came with it?

well as i remeber the tank, Fuel pump,(as mine pumps from back tank to the original front tank, when the front tank is empty)Pipe to go from tank to tank. Pipe to go from the original filler neck, A Y peice to attc to the filler neck (so you can fill both tanks up at the same time from the original filler)

And like most stuff i have bought for landies over the years. Did not fit perfect and had to be push and squezzed into place and a few mods to the car to make it fit . But i have had the same with that on ARB bull bars, Southdown side steps and lots of other stuff

[ajh]

I am seriously ready to lose it on this guy, trying to mount the rear if the tank with no access to the bolt heads alone is bloody frustrating. I am just going to drill access holes to tighten these things. On top of this the fastener order I picked up today contained all kinds of wrong and random bolts. Baaargh.

[reads90]

I am seriously ready to lose it on this guy, trying to mount the rear if the tank with no access to the bolt heads alone is bloody frustrating. I am just going to drill access holes to tighten these things. On top of this the fastener order I picked up today contained all kinds of wrong and random bolts. Baaargh.

I have to admit i got someone else to fit mine as i did not have the time . But i remeber him moaning like buggerary at the time and thinking i am glad he did it and not me ,, and the charge from him doing it was well worth it

[ajh]

Well, that solved one problem. Now to find some appropriate gaskets for the sender and fuel tube.

Is it just me or is all of this made worse by the fact that rover owners tend to be militantly self-reliant?

[ajh]

Oh an of course I notice that once the tank is fitted there is no way the bolts for the tow-bar/tie down eye would ever fit. "luckily" I have to make

my own anyway since I have the North Offroad rear winch tray that is a nice 8mm thick that I am going to make up a 2 inch receiver and bolt it to the bottom in 4 places with some nice big bolts under the winch. Then I can just slide in a removable drop plate with pintle.

The firstfour offroad Shadow bumper also would not fit until I cut off the outer "ears" between the frame rail and the dumb irons. Not to mention that the galvanized steel steering guard does not line up right and is going to require a pile of spacers to get it all to look like it should.

I guess a lot of rover owners are utilitarian in their demands, but over here a NAS 1993 110 v8 sells for 25-30K GBP in moderate condition so I really want to make this rebuil something special. Now if only I could get the correct front doors so the paint guys could start putting

more than primer on things.

[Ex Member]

Really, you can not expect anything to ever just fit on a Defender. The build tolerances are plus or minus an inch. And I'm being serious here. I think it is understood that no aftermarket stuff will just fit as no two trucks are close to the same.

[nicks90]

use www.4x4overlander.com instead.

I know the guy personally (Leeds off this very forum) and he`s spent many years travelling all over the world in his 110 using the equipment he now stocks. Brilliant guy and knows his a*se from his elbow. Website is still a bit sparse, but give him a call!

We will be supplying some of the best equipment available, much of which we have personal experience of using in our vehicles both on long solo trips through Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and in Australia. Our philosophy is to buy good kit which will do the job the first time. Many of the products we sell are fitted to our Overland vehicle and have stood up to the test of long trips, the longest one being 25,000 miles.

[Ex Member]

use www.4x4overlander.com instead.

I know the guy personally (Leeds off this very forum) and he`s spent many years travelling all over the world in his 110 using the equipment he now stocks. Brilliant guy and knows his a*se from his elbow. Website is still a bit sparse, but give him a call!

That does not really help the OP. He is in Canada and needs to make what he paid a lot of money to work....

[bill van snorkle]

Does Arthur Daley from Minder operate a school of business ethics over there ? With some notable exceptions, aside from producing mostly carp, built to an even lower standard than the original Rover rubbish, UK manufacturers and vendors of Land Rover equipment are fast gaining a bad rep for shonky dealings and lousy service.

bill.

[landy andy.]

This does seem to be the way with Safari Equip, and I for one will not be using them again due to this.

I feel for you, I can know how bad it was for me, let alone add a few thousand miles, and a 5 hour time delay.

Sorry you have had these probs and wish you luck in solving.

Andy

[q-rover]

In future, although they don't have a fancy webshop, or that much of a

web****e, give Brian at Four+4 (in Leeds) a ring.

I have been dealing with them for about 3 years now, and am very pleased

with the level of service, and rectification of mishaps.

They can get most things for and related to LR's.

[ajh]

Well, after 2 more email, 2 more email sent using the web-form on the site so he cannot claim it went into a spam filter, still no response at all.

What is the easiest way to file a lawsuit in the UK? Next time I am in London I assume there is some kind of small claims process I can start? Should be enough to cover at least my time, flight, hotel, and having the missing parts fabricated... I gather is would be <1000GBP.

[jeremy996]

What is the easiest way to file a lawsuit in the UK? Next time I am in London I assume there is some kind of small claims process I can start? Should be enough to cover at least my time, flight, hotel, and having the missing parts fabricated... I gather is would be <1000GBP.

You can file online: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp ; proper link below.

Moneyclaim Online

The process is reasonably straightforward and as its 'paper' based, would not need you to come to the UK for judgement.

[callum]

Well, after 2 more email, 2 more email sent using the web-form on the site so he cannot claim it went into a spam filter, still no response at all.

What is the easiest way to file a lawsuit in the UK? Next time I am in London I assume there is some kind of small claims process I can start? Should be enough to cover at least my time, flight, hotel, and having the missing parts fabricated... I gather is would be <1000GBP.

are you not getting any luck on the phone at all?

i bought a towbar from them last week and had no problems, phone was picked up first time and the stuff was with me the next day. I bought a wheel carrier from them a few years ago, granted that took a little while to arrive, but it came with a set of shop drawings, explaining how things went together. didn't show you how to fit the stuff to your vehicle, just had to guess that, but it was reasonably self explanatory.

i will caveat that, however as the tow bar doesn't currently fit, but its to be expected i'm afraid. land rover tolerances are not the finest and i've had an aftermarket crossmember welded on, so expecting the face of the crossmember to be bang on with the jate ring holes is a bit like wishful thinking. i just wish they'd left a bit more steel on beyond the hole so i could enlarge it a bit.

good luck with getting through to them, from my few dealings with them they don't seem to be a bad bunch.

[El Duderino]

Does Arthur Daley from Minder operate a school of business ethics over there ? With some notable exceptions, aside from producing mostly carp, built to an even lower standard than the original Rover rubbish, UK manufacturers and vendors of Land Rover equipment are fast gaining a bad rep for shonky dealings and lousy service.

bill.

PMSL! I've not yet dealt with anybody who sells Land Rover stuff from there, but have had enough bad experiences buying motorbike parts from the UK to make me think twice. Slack service, parts paid for and never delivered, wrong information, wrong parts posted with a "oh well" attitude, blah blah. Socks need pulling up and butts need kicking big-time! The rest of the world doesn't function like this and something needs to improve dramatically, or else nobody's going to bother importing from the UK.

[mick110]

PMSL! I've not yet dealt with anybody who sells Land Rover stuff from there, but have had enough bad experiences buying motorbike parts from the UK to make me think twice. Slack service, parts paid for and never delivered, wrong information, wrong parts posted with a "oh well" attitude, blah blah. Socks need pulling up and butts need kicking big-time! The rest of the world doesn't function like this and something needs to improve dramatically, or else nobody's going to bother importing from the UK.

Maybe some other members from overseas would like to pass on any positive experiences [quick & problem free service or ,,,mistakes can happen.... ..rapid & polite rectification?]............I don't run a business,but if I did I'd bend over backwards to not tarnish the repute of my firm & country especially to overseas clients

[leeds]

AJ you have a pm

I can also vouch for Four Plus 4 in Leeds. Tony their parts guy is a fountain of useful LR knowledge.

Safari Equip do make some extremely good gear and will make one offs

Regards

Brendan

[sean f]

For overseas shipping try giving Anton at OEC a call.

There website mostly covers TJM stuff from Australia but they are able to supply just about all LR parts.

They regularly ship stuff all over the world so are very familiar with overseas shipping requirements and Anton will always answer enquirys promptly, can't alway give the answer you want but thats not his fault.

Worth an e-mail with a list of requirements then see what prices they quote.

[leeds]

Oh an of course I notice that once the tank is fitted there is no way the bolts for the tow-bar/tie down eye would ever fit. "luckily" I have to make

my own anyway since I have the North Offroad rear winch tray that is a nice 8mm thick that I am going to make up a 2 inch receiver and bolt it to the bottom in 4 places with some nice big bolts under the winch. Then I can just slide in a removable drop plate with pintle.

AJ I was speaking to Tom a few days ago as I want a 110 litre fuel tank and a wing tank to fit to our new Puma 110. He did say that to maximise the volume of the fuel tank it does make it difficult if not impossible to fit standard towing gear. His suggestion was to fit their 2" receiver for towing/recovery purposes.

Now I do not know anything about the North Offroad winch tray but wonder if that has made things slightly more awkward by intruding into the space required by the new tank?

I did not have time to look at their 2" receiver when I was last there but will in the near future. Since standard fuel tank guards are not compatible with the large tank and none exists for the wing tank I will have my new tanks double bottom. On my red 110 overland vehicle I have one of their wing tanks which has been double bottomed and extra vertical waffle to counter the lack of external tank guard.

Their equipment is in general extremely well made and often stronger then some of their competitors. However they do seem to let themselves down in the instruction side of things.

Regards

Brendan

[ajh]

Now I do not know anything about the North Offroad winch tray but wonder if that has made things slightly more awkward by intruding into the space required by the new tank?

No, more that the fairlead is on the rear crossmember where the backplate for most receivers would go, on the up-site it does give a lot more depth to mount something to the bottom of the crossmember/tray that will be more than strong enough and recessed enough not to impact departure angle when the hitch is not in place. I'll post some photos when I work out the final solution but it will most likely just be a gusseted 2" receiver tube welded to an 8mm plate which will then be bolted to the underside of the winch tray.

Tom was always polite and tried to be helpful on the phone but there have not been any results. Someone has offered to go talk to him in person for me which might work out for the best.