Hey Folks- Felt like I should pass along some words of warning regarding Pickup Truck Accessories and Advance Covers. I purchased an Advance Cover from Pickup Truck Accessories for my '01 SuperCrew. It had all the features I was looking for, or so I thought.

After being told that no drilling was required, I was a bit(no pun intended) surprised to find that the directions instructed me to drill through the walls of my truck bed to anchor the system. Well I chose the cover because I didn't have to drill so I called Pickup Truck Accessories and they said (paraphrasing) "wow, sorry about that. We never realized you had to drill, but we've sold lots of these and nobody's ever complained. In fact we had a woman install the cover herself, so it must be pretty easy." So I said let me think about it. NOTE: to their credit PTA offered to refund my money including shipping costs! I should have taken it.

The next day I decided to install the cover, what's a couple of holes? and no one has ever had a complaint so.... why not?

The instructions were pretty good and thorough. I followed them to the letter. After a few hours work, the cover was installed and it looked pretty good. Everything was flush and my chest inflated a little with the pride of a job well done.

The next day on my way to work is when things got interesting. After about 10 minutes of cruising at 70-75mph I heard a very loud bang. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the front of the cover had come loose and flipped over on the rear section of the cover. Luckily, I was able to pull over and slow down fast enough to prevent the cover from detaching altogether and going through someone's windshield.

After tossing the remains into the bed by the side of a VERY busy highway, I made my way to work. I looked at the cover and saw that one of the anchor brackets had broken loose. I called the manufacturer and we tried to piece together what might have happened. To make a long story short, Advance cover doesn't believe me when I say that the cover was locked correctly. They believe that I botched the installation.

Being a humble man, I couldn't discount that I could have done something incorrectly. So I took the cover and the truck over to a "professional." This local shop specializes in aftermarket products for pickups like bed covers. In any event we lined up the cover and tried to figure out what went wrong. His analysis was similar to mine, that the rivets used to anchor the midsection had broken loose allowing the cover to shift and letting the lock paules out from under their latches resulting in the front of the cover flying open.

Well now I had my second opinion and no longer felt comfortable with the quality of the product. I called the retailer back and they said that as soon as you try to install the cover, it's no longer their responsibility. OK, I said. I called the manufacturer. Advance Cover politely told me that I had to take it up with the company I bought the cover from. I told them they told me to call you! This has gone back and forth for a couple of days now. And the result? I’ve been flatly denied a refund for the cover, choosing to believe that it was a poor installation that was to blame. After some mild words with the previously very helpful person at Advance, I was told that I could try and talk to the president of the company tomorrow morning.

I’m sure some of you out there are interested in hearing the final outcome. I will post it tomorrow or whenever the issue is resolved.

P.S. I’m glad we have F-150 Online available to allow me to voice my opinion. Perhaps the court of public opinion can help me with this situation. If anyone would like to contact either company and let them know how you feel about this type of customer service, let me know and I'll give you the names and numbers.

Regards,

 

sounds like you got a rotten deal.
The company should stand behind the product.
1) do you have the ad stating that its a direct bolt on and no drilling required.
if you do call the pres. and tell him thats fulse advertising and you are going to call the department of professional regulation.
2) call him anyway and tell him to come to this web site and read about his product, start a new message with the company name and the problem in the topic so it comes out in the list, something like "looseing Advance Cover" something like that.
that should get a little attention from them. If the latch really did work loose and it was not a cause from installation they should be able to warranty the failed part by replaceing the product. otherwise the company should be fined by the your local Department of Professional Regulation, By the way dont say Better Business Bureau. when was the first time or when ever did you check a listing in the Bureau for anything. Not know one does, I laugh when people say it

 

My name is Mike Davis and I am the managing partner of Pickup Truck Accessories.com. I have been asked by several members of F150Online to respond to the post on this board. Two of these members have bought the product in question from me and one is preparing to. These are the documented facts and I will leave the decision on whether the gentleman was screwed or not up to the members. On 5-3, the gentleman placed an order for the Advance Folding Cover with one of my sales reps. On 5-7 the gentleman received the cover via Yellow Freight. That afternoon or the next day the gentleman called and told a customer service rep that he had been mislead and that the cover required drilling and he did not want to drill. I called the same day and left a message, that the cover did require drilling and that he needed to call me to make arrangements to get the cover picked up. I also mentioned that this was a great product and it had received the highest satisfaction rating of any product we sell. The next time I heard from the gentleman was 2-3 days later, he informed me that he installed the product according to the directions, that everything seemed fine and that while driving down the highway with the panel secured, the front panel blew off. I did not tell the gentleman that this was physically impossible (those of you that own the cover, know what I mean) I simply referred him to Advance Cover, as it was now a warranty issue. I will not comment on the conversation that took place between him and the gentleman from Advance Cover, since I was not in the conversation, I will say that each persons version of what was said is quite different. About 1 1/2 hours after referring the gentleman to Advance, he called back to say that he had taken the cover to a professional installer and the cover did not fit his truck. I mentioned to the gentleman that this was a different situation than what he had previously called to report. I asked him if his complaint was that the hardware was faulty as he had previously stated or that the cover did not fit. I also mentioned that we had sold 3 other covers for the Supercrew that same day and had no fitment problems. He stated that his did not fit. I told him I would try to find a win-win resolution to the problem. At our next conversation I informed the gentleman, that if he would ship the product back to Advance Cover for inspection and it did not fit, I would refund all the money he had invested. He replied, “ Well, of course it will fit when you get there”. I then offered to refund him $84.00 to have it professionally installed, to which he responded that the cover was a piece of crap and my customer service was appalling. I have not spoke with him since. These are the documented facts and I would like to know the members opinions on how I handled the situation and what could have been done different in the future. On a final note I would like to say that the Advance Cover is a great product and I have been selling it for over a year with absolutely no problems. I have had nothing but praise for it, including several members of F150 Online

 

Tampa Harley,
You offered some great insight on the matter of replacing the faulty parts or the cover, unfortunatly my customer was not open to those suggestions. Thanks for your input though, we are always trying to improve our customer service.

 

elecrange01, It is inappropriate to conduct business matters on the message boards, which is clearly posted in the vendor area of the FAQ. Please discontinue doing so or your posting rights will be revoked.