Squatch Fender swap

[userdude]

They’re still in business. Hardtop division is not. Just bought another set of fenders from them for the long travel build. +8” this time.

Quality is still excellent. Turn around time still great. Customer service on point after we lost one piece of the +5” kit experimenting with extending the wheelbase an inch and the tire hit it.

Looking at as much information on the hardtop debacle as is available, it is my opinion that ADV was also a victim in this. They hired APG to build the tops, in the US, and gave them over $4M as APG continued needing funding for the project for “tooling” and materials. Then randomly APG says the tops need to be manufactured in China as they won’t be able to do it and turn a profit. Where did all their tooling go?! Coincidentally, they also bought several broncos and developed their long travel setup, and partnered with an onlyfans influencer to push the new ultimate platform. This whole time ADV is giving full refunds to every customer that asks. Not even taking back the credit card processing fees and taking a loss on every refund. For comparison - If you order a top from Armadillo, and cancel the order, they keep something like 20% of your $8000 top.

Fast forward and APG pulls the carpet out from ADV. They said they owned the patents and are cutting ADV out. After being bled out from both ends between refunds and “tooling” ADV hardtops were over, and as horrible as it is, stopped providing refunds. Much anger follows, including quite the thread on the forum. APG actually came on to the forum to state that they never told customers to put deposits down as they isn’t how they conduct their business. (Paraphrasing) When the screenshots showed up from their own account that proved this to be a lie, they scrubbed everything from their threads and went quiet. Not exactly behavior of the innocent, in my opinion.

We’ll see what happens with the lawsuit ADV is currently engaged in against APG.

And just to reiterate I completely understand why people are upset with ADV with this whole ordeal, and wouldn’t hold any ill-opinion of them for being beyond pissed off receiving no hardtop or refund. I’m simply providing a perspective that is an attempt to look at the whole scenario without bias clouded by a huge financial hit.

People aren't upset because ADV facilitated APG's malfeasance. They did plenty to earn it themselves. (Also, I don't think it was ADV hiring APG, I think it was APG partnering with ADV). It seems like to me they were both running their own sort of cons. The fender business does seem to be pretty well-run far as I can tell, though. So it was the pinhead son in the warehouse with the smartphone, Colonel Mustard. As always, be careful who you play in the sandbox with. Let's play again.

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[1979]

I’m well aware of the particulars of what went down. I don’t think APG is innocent here, both companies screwed a lot of people out of thousands of dollars. Companies like that should not be supported, it doesn’t matter what “division” you’re buying from.

I have no skin in the game. I didn’t order a top from them.