Aries Bars - a cautionary tale

[ggoug]

On Feb 5th I purchased a set of stainless steel Aries nerf bars for my '07 CrewMax. I purchased from an ebay store: T-rex motorsports (stainlesstruckparts). I didn't read the reviews - first mistake. In spite of sending many emails - I received no response until Feb 21st and that was a FedEx tracking number. The bars arrived on the 26th. It is a rare sunny day here in Oregon so I took some time off today to put them on. I found that the bars are generally very well made. The problem is that the threaded bolt receivers on the bar were not installed at the rear mounting position - just two 1/4" holes were drilled through the bar. The first two mounting points aligned correctly; a third mounting point on the bar did not correspond to a mounting point on the rocker panel.
If my experience to date with this vendor holds true - I will not receive an answer to my email and will have to try to get compensated via PayPal.
I will probably not try to buy anything else for my truck through ebay - my time wasted on this transaction is worth more than I (could have) saved.
I'll just keep the stool in the back to help my 'short' wife get in.
If you order these bars - when you check for damage, check to make sure that the all receivers for the 3/8" bolts are installed in the bars.

[TrippinBilly]

Purchased my Aries bars exactly as you did (e.g. ebay and through T-Rex). The threaded holes were all present and mounted fine.

[07DCwhiteSR5]

Originally Posted by ggoug

On Feb 5th I purchased a set of stainless steel Aries nerf bars for my '07 CrewMax. I purchased from an ebay store: T-rex motorsports (stainlesstruckparts). I didn't read the reviews - first mistake. In spite of sending many emails - I received no response until Feb 21st and that was a FedEx tracking number. The bars arrived on the 26th. It is a rare sunny day here in Oregon so I took some time off today to put them on. I found that the bars are generally very well made. The problem is that the threaded bolt receivers on the bar were not installed at the rear mounting position - just two 1/4" holes were drilled through the bar. The first two mounting points aligned correctly; a third mounting point on the bar did not correspond to a mounting point on the rocker panel.
If my experience to date with this vendor holds true - I will not receive an answer to my email and will have to try to get compensated via PayPal.
I will probably not try to buy anything else for my truck through ebay - my time wasted on this transaction is worth more than I (could have) saved.
I'll just keep the stool in the back to help my 'short' wife get in.
If you order these bars - when you check for damage, check to make sure that the all receivers for the 3/8" bolts are installed in the bars.

ebay sellers are iffy but most of my purchases have been ok....most...not all haha. hope it works out. have you tried to go through the manufacturer yet? i had shipping and customer svc issues with deals of steel online and the manufacturer of my cover is who i ultimately dealt with and he was very helpful...

[rovin]

I had "issues" with Deals of Steel also, resolved in time(too much time, and ended up with a brand I had not ordered).
The vast majority of my ebay transactions however, have been very satisfactory. So have the parts I have purchased online from other sources. Ordering parts online will save some coin sometimes, but when they go bad it can be a pain to resolve with less than upstanding venders.

[Firencrash]

This is where I got my Aries bars that I posted about a couple of days ago..this guy/dealer sucks. I am hoping that I can get the treaded plugs from Aries to put into the pilot holes already drilled...AGHHHH