Trak Racer TR80 Shipping Review!

[td1garage]

A warning for anyone in the USA wanting to order from TrakRacer as they ship locally...

After having a pretty terrible order experience, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that they can't ship worth a damn. I'm reminded of the experience that Boosted Media just posted about a few days ago in his video about a review not going as planned. Except we're not talking about a brand new company, we're talking about a company that's been around for a long time that apparently doesn't seem to mind shipping a horrible experience to a paying customer.

I ordered a TR160 as their website had some kind of glitch and showed it in stock. After days of no response, they finally tell me it is, in fact, not in stock, but they do have the TR80 and the DD mount in stock. While not ideal, I need to replace my S1 and don't have time to keep messing about, so I agree to a refund for the difference, but only if they can meet my shipping deadline (if they couldn't I had asked that they cancel/refund my order). They confirm it'll arrive on or before Thursday (Feb 6) and proceed to process my order.

Shocker, it didn't arrive on the 6th. While scheduled to arrive tomorrow, it arrived today. Though I wish it didn't.

The packaging was terrible, cardboard boxes not designed to hold heavyweight items and no reinforcement. Their tape situation is equally a joke with the box completely torn open on one end. The surprises don't end there! Upon opening the primary box which has the bags of bolts, hardware and the 80/20 pieces I'm met with metal shavings everywhere! Every single bag of hardware/bolts is ripped open and they are loose and all over the box, with the side of the box torn open, who knows if I even have all the bolts necessary now, fun.

Every single piece has damage, whether it's scratches, knicks, dents, tooling marks, or more. It looks like this was slapped together in a shop in China, shipped to their US facility and that's it. No quality-control happens here, no one cares, no one looks at it, they just ship it to a customer and call it a day.

I regret ordering this, immensely. What's worse is all of the boxes are so messed up it'll be a nightmare to return. Hopefully, my terrible experience will help someone else avoid this nightmare.

I attached some photos of the worst pieces.

 

[AJ McDaddy]

To be fair sim-lab had issues with packaging too, took a while for them to learn how to do things right.
Shipping something that big and heavy is always a challenge.

Queue the mother-in-law jokes...

 

[rlslmshdy]

I've got a TR160. I love it. This thing is a tank. I thought I'd add what I've experienced and seen in regards to Trak racer customer service. Matt, from Trak racer, who replied earlier. He has replied daily (usually within the hour) to any questions or with help to any issues I've had. Hes always active on the Trak racer owners group on Facebook. He seems to be straight up honest on there. If theyve screwed up. I've seen him say so. He genuinely tries get issues corrected.

 

[td1garage]

To be fair sim-lab had issues with packaging too, took a while for them to learn how to do things right.
Shipping something that big and heavy is always a challenge.

If Trak Racer was a brand new company, had never been in this industry, had never built/shipped something before, then I'd say sure, there's a learning curve. They aren't new, they've been around a long time and should already know how this works. At the very least, who doesn't order a competing product for some R&D? And if they did do this, why wasn't anything they learned from that applied to the packaging/shipping process? I know for a fact I'm not the only one who had these issues.

Matt is who I spoke with throughout this ordeal and he was quick to respond and on top of it for the most part but also required prodding to do the right thing when it came to a refund, etc. I wouldn't say he ever was quick to admit that TR screwed up, at no point in time was there an admission of we didn't do a good job packing or we didn't bother to inspect these items before they were shipped to you. It's evident that they were never taken out of the box after arriving from their Chinese supplier.

I've heard that in the Facebook TR owners group since this issue has happened, they've posted about how they're revamping shipping and packaging, etc - hopefully, they're going to take the issue seriously moving forward.

---

I've since received my P1-X from Sim-Lab and the shipping quality is light years ahead of what I received from TR. Boxes were solid and capable of holding the weight of the items. The order was split up into 5 boxes to properly distribute the weight (TR was 3) with additional cardboard reinforcement inside the boxes on all corners and sides. Each box had 2-3 packing straps and was secured with quality tape.

There was next to no metal shavings upon opening, every bag of hardware was neatly labeled and intact. Every piece of profile was wrapped and arrived damage free.

Not shipping related, but the quality of the hardware, especially the t-nuts, that are included with Sim-Lab's P1-X blow away the stuff included with Trak Racer.

I was so impressed with the quality and process that I ordered 5 more P1-X's, immediately, to outfit our team garage and trucks.

 

[Nathan Pearce]

I feel your pain bud. I am waiting for a trak racer order that I should have had a week ago. Filed a paypal dispute today as they just ignore all communication. I wish I had done some research before ordering as they have a very poor reputation. It's not just the USA branch that sucks either as i am in the UK.

 

[Sumo Guri]

I also did not have a good experience purchasing TR80 from TrakRacer. The package was very bad. Many missing parts and scratched 8020 frames. They only responded to my support request once and asked me to shorten my message I was only explaining what was going on. After that, they stopped responding to me. I had to escalate the issue to Amazon Pay, and finally TrakRacer agreed to send the missing parts. When I received the parts from Trakracer, there were still missing parts Matt agreed to give me a store credit, but he did not give me the credit since the Amazon case was somehow closed by someone else. I did not close it. I am not sure what happened.

Anyway long story short, I would not recommend getting things from them. It is hassle to work with them, and quality is not very good. A couple of angle brackets cracked. Their 8mm hex bolts are not high quality. I also ordered some parts from SimLab. SimLab uses higher quality parts. Even 8020 aluminum frames can tell the difference.

 

[sjb266]

To be fair, 80/20 profile is a bitch to work with in general. I was going to start a small business building and selling rigs but the profile comes from china with scratches etc from the factory and I couldn't bear the thought of all the customer complaints.. I can't imagine how bad black profile would be to manage. A very steep learning curve indeed and I assume a lot of non-saleable product for the trak-racer team.

 

[djm68]

To be fair, 80/20 profile is a bitch to work with in general. I was going to start a small business building and selling rigs but the profile comes from china with scratches etc from the factory and I couldn't bear the thought of all the customer complaints.. I can't imagine how bad black profile would be to manage. A very steep learning curve indeed and I assume a lot of non-saleable product for the trak-racer team.

It is possible to get aluminum profile from multiple sources. There is no reason for the profile to arrive damaged or scratched.
Simlab, a company newer than Trak-Racer, was able to iterate quickly and address some challenges they had with shipping. Trak-Racer has also seems to come-up short in post-sales support in addressing customer's problems. See above post from Nathan Pearce and Sumo Guri.

DJM

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I could be just picture lighting, but finish on profiles on first page looks quite different from what comes from sim-lab, matte vs glossy. Perhaps quality of the finish is different too.
@td1garage, as you had access to both, is that the case?

 

[td1garage]

To be fair, 80/20 profile is a bitch to work with in general. I was going to start a small business building and selling rigs but the profile comes from china with scratches etc from the factory and I couldn't bear the thought of all the customer complaints.. I can't imagine how bad black profile would be to manage. A very steep learning curve indeed and I assume a lot of non-saleable product for the trak-racer team.

Ok, so if I’m to understand your point, you’re saying that Trak Racer should get a pass because it’s hard and has a high learning curve? That isn’t how business works.

The realistic business process to solve for this issue is Quality Control. It should be implemented in two places, China and at their warehouse. It’s a business process that has existed for at least 100 years now and no company, big or small, gets a pass on implementing it.

Trak Racer has been around a long time and joined the 80/20 game late. That means the bar had already been set and they needed to do the research and put in the effort to at least meet that bar. They haven’t and instead knowingly continued to poorly ship sub-par products.

I wouldn’t just say this off the cuff, I only say this after continuing to see more and more folks come out of the woodwork with bad experiences.

 

[td1garage]

I could be just picture lighting, but finish on profiles on first page looks quite different from what comes from sim-lab, matte vs glossy. Perhaps quality of the finish is different too.
@td1garage, as you had access to both, is that the case?

I think Sim-Lab’s product photos are actually renders or some kind of weird post production creation as they definitely don’t quite look that way upon arrival.

I’d say that that the finish on both the TR stuff and the Sim-lab stuff is very very similar.

 

[td1garage]

I got an amusing message on a different platform saying I’m “salty” and a “hater”.

I had a poor experience with Trak Racer and shared it, not because I’m salty or a hater but because the only way for our small community to get better is if we’re open and transparent about the issues we have.

This is the only way things get better, period.

I hope TR improves and does better and the 80/20 space gets some good competition as that’s what fuels innovation. I’m critical of things because as customers in a niche market, our views and voices carry so much more weight.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Did they also call you sim-lab fanboy by any chance?

 

[td1garage]

Did they also call you sim-lab fanboy by any chance?

Surprisingly no, the amusing part is the account and all their comments vanished. A more curious man might wonder if it was a TR shill.

 

[sjb266]

Ok, so if I’m to understand your point, you’re saying that Trak Racer should get a pass because it’s hard and has a high learning curve? That isn’t how business works.

Zzzzzzz....

 

[dwightyone]

Mm..... was about to pull the trigger on the TR8 and a few other bits and bobs for it from them as well. For what you get these days most of these style rigs are so overpriced as it is but yeah I get it, small niche market, but if packaging is poor resulting in scratches things feel second hand when you open them up - and who doesn't like that BRAND new feeling! However, posting a 15% discount here for non premium racedepartment members may get me over my packaging fears!

 

[Trakracer]

Yes, the TR80 first shipment was a problem. Yes we are a company that's been around 10 years. Yes, aluminium is very complicated to ship and unlike any of the products we have sold in the previous 10 years. We designed packaging of these items with a half meter droptest but should have tested with a 2m droptest. The second shipment of TR80 will not have shipping issues, period. We have learnt a hard lesson about selling/shipping aluminium profile. Here's a video which will be more than enough to get all shipments to our customers without damage.

 

[Trakracer]

I got an amusing message on a different platform saying I’m “salty” and a “hater”.

I had a poor experience with Trak Racer and shared it, not because I’m salty or a hater but because the only way for our small community to get better is if we’re open and transparent about the issues we have.

This is the only way things get better, period.

I hope TR improves and does better and the 80/20 space gets some good competition as that’s what fuels innovation. I’m critical of things because as customers in a niche market, our views and voices carry so much more weight.

Not us and better you dont suggest things like that. You should be able to ask admin to check the IP address then kindly redraw your message which is untrue.

We have fixed up for future orders and you were unhappy so we refunded.

We hope you can allow us to move forward from this nightmare relating to packaging on the first shipment of the TR80. If i am wrong and it happens again, by all means, post again.

 

[Trakracer]

Mm..... was about to pull the trigger on the TR8 and a few other bits and bobs for it from them as well. For what you get these days most of these style rigs are so overpriced as it is but yeah I get it, small niche market, but if packaging is poor resulting in scratches things feel second hand when you open them up - and who doesn't like that BRAND new feeling! However, posting a 15% discount here for non premium racedepartment members may get me over my packaging fears!

This issue related to our first shipment of TR80 (not TR8), aluminium rigs. Which has now been resolved anyway.

 

[mutant2290]

I purchased a TR80 in one of the first batches, things were not perfect but nor is life and nor am I. Let me be clear the service has always been first class and the products have been first class. I love my rig and the way the world is right now I should be sitting in it a lot more.
I recently contacted Matt regarding a integrated monitor mount, when I contacted Matt he told me he could fill order even though out of stock on web. He promised it would be ok, then the world got turned upside down and I had not heard anything. I contacted Matt again and said if it’s not sent cancel as I was thinking of the circumstances we are all in. Got a couple of phone calls today to double check everything and then another to triple check stock and a hour later a tracking number.
Matt treats his business and customers like nobody else. Sometimes he maybe swamped but he always gives 110%. Nothing is perfect and we all get a little hung up on small things that we don’t need to.
Big thanks to Matt and Anthony for the customer service.

 

[Ryno86]

That's unfortunate that you had a bad experience td1garage

I ordered a TR160 at the start of the year and the whole process was a breeze. Everything arrived in a timely manner and not a single piece of profile was damaged, nothing missing, no broken bags of bolts. I'm so happy with my rig and would recommend one to anybody that asked. The customer service i've found to be some of the best i've ever dealt with also. I hate seeing horror stories like this because personally i've had such an amazing experience dealing with TrakRacer and couldn't recommend them more highly :-/