Southern Style Offroad (SSO) Ownership transition

I got this email back from SSO after inquiring about an in stock item I still had not seen shipped yet. Just wanted to pass the news along.

 

Sorry to hear and the original owners needing to sell. I bought a SSO slim front winch bumper and am impressed so far with the quality and the customer service I received (back in 2018). Hope the employees make it ok.

 

Same, I love my slimline bumper. I was hoping to love my ditch light brackets as well - but I guess I'll be waiting on those a bit longer now.

 

Bummer to hear, I really like their slimline full plate bumper.

 

Another similar thread started last week.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/southern-style-offroad-new-management.813998/

 

Not shocking. Their issues were self inflicted. I hope the new owner can distance themselves from the previous ownership and know that if you treat your customers poorly, it doesn't matter how good your products are.

 

Oh nice one, yeah looks to be the same information. Thanks

 

Hate to hear for you guys with outstanding orders. I have recently gotten a slimline bumper from them and it looks/ works great.

Hopefully the new owners can get the lead times under control and didn’t buy it only to close it.

 

Hello everyone. We have been watching this whole SSO ( Southern Style Offroad ) situation play out and we feel the need to step in, give our opinion, and offer help. To begin this is a terrible situation, not only for you the customer but the employees, families, and vendors who will also be burned. We as manufacturers are personally sick and tired of seeing our competitors go out of business and STEAL your hard-earned money. This is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. You may side with SSO but at the end of the day, they took your money, led you on, lied to you, and had no problem not delivering you a product while taking the easy way out.
While we understand that someone is trying to revive this company, we have seen this exact scenario play out several times before. For those who are familiar with PELFREYBILT, MOBTOWN OFFROAD, SOS CONCEPTS, SHROCKWORKS, AND NOW SOUTHERN STYLE OFFROAD just to name a few. All of these companies are reading from the same playbook in going bankrupt while stealing people's money.

Could an "Investor" come in and fix this situation? Possibly? Although there is SOO much to take into consideration. This is exactly the same scenario, where someone is trying to come in and save the brand, but in reality, it will take months to source material, quote manufacturing, create custom fixtures, shipping the orders, and not to mention tons of capital to "potentially" pull this off. Also not to mention paying off the debt they are already in.. No vendor is going to extend credit to them... Everything will need to be paid up front. Unfortunately, history does repeat itself as proven with multiple companies I have mentioned above.

Solution: FILE A CHARGEBACK IMMEDIATELY... That will be your only opportunity to get your money back. We want to do our part to assist those affected by our competitor's closure. If you have purchased a product from them that has not been recieved and can provide a valid receipt, we are here to help. We will offer you a 25% discount on a similar product from our product lineup, and we will ensure it is promptly shipped to you. You work hard to outfit your vehicle for adventure. We will get you your product within a week as all bumpers, skids, racks, etc are in stock and ready to ship from our DC in Fort Worth, Texas (PLEASE EMAIL INFO@CALIRAISEDLED.COM WITH A RECEIPT/INVOICE) LETS GET YOU YOUR PRODUCTS ASAP SO YOU DONT HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOME "INVESTOR" TO KEEP PLAYING WITH YOUR MONEY.

Thank you to the Toyota community for everything you have done for us. If anyone has any questions, please let us know how we can help, we apologize for the rant, but this is truly unacceptable to what our industry continues to do by taking advantage of our amazing community.

Contact us anytime 888-385-5036 or email us info@caliraisedled.com or send us a DM.

CaliRaisedLED
www.caliraisedled.com

 

Do you have any idea what entity bought SSO? They tout loads of experience in the email without mentioning themselves by name.

 

I wonder if it is Trail-Gear

 

Persoanlly we have no idea. But as I mentioned in the main post, there is lots to take in considersation.

Could an "Investor" come in and fix this situation? Possibly? Although there is SOO much to take into consideration. This is exactly the same scenario, where someone is trying to come in and save the brand, but in reality, it will take months to source material, quote manufacturing, create custom fixtures, shipping the orders, and not to mention tons of capital to "potentially" pull this off. Also not to mention paying off the debt they are already in.. No vendor is going to extend credit to them... Everything will need to be paid up front. Unfortunately, history does repeat itself as proven with multiple companies I have mentioned above.

We are just upset, because at the end of the day, the old owner and current inventory said they will not refunded anyones money. This hurts not only the customers who paid them there hard earn cash, but dealers who have interested money into inventory orders who paid Cash up front. Now there money is now lost and customers are coming after them for refundeds. This hurts everyone...

 

It’s Hybrid Racing.

https://www.hybrid-racing.com/pages/about-us

 

At least they wont have to rename their famous bumper

 

The new owner posted additional information here.