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JBA/4xGuard vendor/business review.

4K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Big Blue 
#1 ·
So I had my XK in the shop the other day to have an oil change done and to have my mechanic look at the driver's side front end as I'm starting to hear a light clunk at times when driving over some of the larger bumps & pot holes.

It turns out that the forward most arm's bushing in my driver's side JBA upper control arm is apparently starting to go bad as that's where the clunk is coming from - but it's happening inconsistently - only when tire was hit hit just right would the bushing make a clunking sound. Obviously, I was pretty disappointed, the JBA UCA's haven't even been installed on my XK for a year yet and probably have only 7,000 - 8,000 miles on them.

Anyway I contacted Marlin Gehman at JBA/4xGuard late Friday afternoon (3/16) and discussed it with him. He asked me if I just wanted a new bushing - or if I wanted a new UCA and I told him I wanted a new UCA of course because who knows what else might be wrong with this one if there is already a bushing failing.

Marlin agreed, he just asked me to e-mail him my original order number if I still had it (which I did) and I e-mailed it to him Friday evening (3/16).

Well apparently Marlin's business is closed on the weekend so I had a long wait until Monday morning (3/19) to see his response - the only problem is, he did not respond.

So, I called Marlin Monday afternoon around 1:30pm and there was no answer - his office voicemail was also full - so I have to assume that for whatever reason, he was not in JBA's office on Monday.

Tuesday morning (3/20) I called Marlin several times, I felt that he was in his office because his office voicemail had been emptied and was now accepting messages. After the 3rd call, he finally called me back - and said "This is Marlin Gehman, you were trying to reach me?" I told him my name and he basically had no idea who I was and apparently and he did not remember our conversation on the phone 4 days prior.

Now I understand Marlin is running a successful business and I'm sure he has a lot on his plate - I get it. But to not even remember my name - or our phone conversation from Friday - 4 days prior, frustrated me a bit. It was also pretty obvious at this point, that he didn't read the e-mail I sent him 4 days ago either - which frustrated me even more.

So, after refreshing Marlin's memory (somewhat bluntly) and giving him my e-mail address, he found the e-mail I sent him, confirmed my shipping address & promptly agreed to ship me a new JBA UCA. He did say he wants me to send the old one back, which I naturally agreed to - he said he would send me the return shipping label to send it back USPS, so, it shouldn't cost me anything.

Shortly after I hung up the phone with him, Marlin sent me an e-mail confirmation with the shipping info for the new JBA UCA he's sending me.

So, Marlin seems to be a nice enough guy - which is what I have always heard about him - but he is obviously a little forgetful at times. Now that being said, Marlin does stand behind his products, which is the most important thing to us, as consumers & jeepcommander.com forum members.
 
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#3 ·
Yea, I hear you...I would have never expected this to happen - but hey, Marlin is sending me a new replacement at no cost to me, so, it could definitely be worse.

Thanks, I liked these rims when I saw them on e-bay - but now that they're mounted and I see what they look like on my XK, they are really growing on me.
 
#4 ·
Update: So, I finally opened the box that Marlin shipped me yesterday, because I am having the bad driver's side UCA replaced tomorrow and Marlin actually sent me a new set of JBA UCA's instead of just the one that I asked for, so, I'll have them both replaced.

I was very surprised, since I was only expecting a single replacement UCA.

That was very cool of him to do and I would say - Marlin & JBA exceeded my expectations - and most certainly, stand behind their products.
 
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