When Jay and I were looking for a way to mount the bus to a movable object we did a ton of research. We found Trailer Made Custom Trailers in Denver, Colorado. They had advertised that they were Denver's leading Tiny House Trailer fabricator. We were so excited to reach out the them and they quickly responded! Yes! How exciting the Tiny Bus crew to have found an answer so quickly to our current problem of how to get mobile and out of that junkyard! Unfortunately for us we had no idea that this would take a very different pace very soon. We had a consultation with the owner and he assured us we could make this old bus a duly axel and a strong hitch and come in under our $2k price range. AWESOME! ....But time would only tell our fate.
We had 2 failed meetings with them at the junkyard. The first one Jay and I waited for 3 hours. We called after 30 mins had passed and figured since it with straight to Voicemail they may be on their way. so We waited an hour. After the first hour passed we called the office again. We were connected with he owners wife who told us that her husband should be on the way but was tired up with another business deal and would be there soon. so we waited longer. After the next hour we called again and this time a young man answered. He said that the boss had been quite busy and was leaving the office very soon to meet us at the junk yard. Finally after the last hour, we threw the towel in and left the junk yard after being told someone was coming who never did. We called the office again to let them know that if someone ever cared to show up we would no longer be there. So they rescheduled for 3 weeks later (Ugh!) When the time finally came the owner once again promised that he would be the one to meet us. This time once again they were an hour late. We called the office about 30 mins in to the wait and were told that someone had JUST LEFT the office and should be arriving soon. (note: we are 45 mins away) So we continued to wait because we needed the bus on a trailer and these were supposed to be the knights in shining amour. When they finally showed up it wasn't the owner at all. It was a 19 year old kid and his girlfriend with a large trailer and no clue what they were getting into. He assured us that he would get the bus to the shop safely but had never transported something so large and weird.
We FINALLY arrive at the 3 weeks point. We haven't heard ANYTHING from the shop. While we were a little worried and ready to get the bus back we were patient and understood that sometimes shops get backed up and these special projects can take longer.
4 WEEKS go by (1 week after the promised date) Jay calls the owner to find out what is taking so long. The Shop informed us that they signed a deal the Tiny House Nation on HGTV for 100 trailers and our project had been bumped. (which would have been fine if we were given notice...which we weren't) We now only have 3 months to finish our build and we are starting to get very nervous that it wont be finished before we have to move out of our loft.
3 more weeks pass and Jay calls again. The owner explained it would be ready at the end of the week- they hadn't started on it just yet but it should come in under our $2k budget and everything is going to be fine! (sigh of relief) and we should expect to pick up the bus on Friday with its new axel and we were pumped! Well, Friday comes around and we never had a call on what time to pick it up so shortly after 11:30 we decided to make the 45 min track down to Thorton, Colorado where the shop is located.
We arrived to find the welders just finishing up the wiring on the brakes. There surprisingly was no second axel and the shop owner was floored that we asked why. He explained that he wasn't able to do any of the things he had promised and since this was such a unique RUSH order (note: they had access to the bus for over 7 weeks) they had done the best they could. Upon handing us the bill for the bus updates we became stunned. The bill was $1.5k over the estimated total. The shop owner explained that since it was custom and they had to learn how to execute it on the fly they had put in extra man hours. Unfortunately when we explained to him that they had been out of contact for 7 weeks and we had tried to reach them multiple times with no response.
After quiet a few more exchanged words we gave in. We paid the now $3,500 bill and took our little Wayne home. It sucks that we weren't able to change the business owners mind about our experience with their company on lowering their price but now we know that you should not shop at Trailer Made Custom Trailers.
Meanwhile Onward and upward ahead.
We weren't going to let this stand in our way!
No comments:
Post a Comment