Complaint Review: Kaufman Trailers - Internet Internet

Well, after reading many-many similar reports of cheap or poor quality Kaufman Trailers, substandard parts, inferior warranty compared to the competition, and not honoring warranty combined with overall customer dissatisfaction I turned to the BBB for guidance. They rated this company an "F". I believe I will go elsewhere and pay a couple hundred more dollars to get a quality trailer, someone who will honor the warranty, and just peace on mind. Too much drama in he world to have to deal with this.

Cheers,

Miguel

I would like to update the circumstances and out come of this original report as I am the author.

I am just a driver and did not purchase the trailer referenced in my original posting. That posting  was more out of anger for having to change tires on the side of the road, and in reality my anger should have been directed at the company that I drive for instead of at Kaufman Trailers.

Let me explain. The company that I drive for purchased the trailer and was offered the chance to upgrade the tires but they declined, even after knowing the details of the tires.(A fact that I was unaware of) Within 2 weeks of the trailer being used everyday tires began to blow. After talking to Kaufman the company took the trailer to a trailer inspection dealer to have it looked at, and that dealer thought the axles were bent, turns out they were not familiar with chamfered axles, so everything was correct on the trailer. Kaufman sent one replacement tire and paid the dealer,(which they didn't have to do) it turned out to be several hundred dollars.

After hearing all of the facts, I feel like Kaufman was very reasonable in how they helped the company considering they really weren't obligated to do anything.  I can understand their side that they can't warranty tires because of overloading issues, hitting a curb, etc..., that is the customer's
 responsibility.

I have been driving 3 years and the majority of the time it has been pulling a Kaufman trailer.  All trailers have issues if you pull them 300/365 days a year, and upkeep is vital.  The company has a Kaufman trailer with 400,000 miles on it so that means they must be built well.  The trailer that the original posting was written about is being used every day and we have no issues with it at all - very dependable. I recommend Kaufman to anyone needing a trailer.

The bottom line is that I wrote the posting from anger which is not ever the best thing to do, it was a mistake and I regret it. Kaufman was more than fair and after using their trailers everyday I think they are an excellent value and well built, just do your drivers a favor and upgrade the tires.

    I am Tim Carter, President of Kaufman Trailers, and would like to give an accurate account of the events that lead up to the Ripoff Report being made about our company on 9-4-2012.

    We record our calls for customer service purposes, and monitor before and after the sale to make sure that we are offering quality customer service.    

    Kaufman Trailers uses the same tires that the entire industry uses and the tires are rated to match the application for which they are intended. We take this a step further, by offering US made, Uniroyal or Firestone tires as an upgrade for the customer that wants an upgraded tire.

    The author of the Ripoff Report  was offered the Uniroyal upgrade for his trailer but refused the upgrade, stating that he would just get as much use as he could from the tires and then had access to some very low cost used tires that he would use as needed.  Obviously, we cannot be responsible for every customers road hazards and replace tires whenever they have a blowout.  But in this case, when I got involved in the situation, our warranty department had already sent this guy a new tire, and paid shop labor of $278.01 to replace the tire and fix alleged alignment issues. 

I had two separate conference calls with the shop, going over every detail possible with the shop only to confirm that there were absolutely no issues with the construction of the trailer.  The shop also confirmed with me that there was no way of assessing whether the tire blew due to something in the road, or something wrong with the tire.  The customer was also talking about two other tires that he thought suspect.  My refusal to supply two more tires after all the above needless cost, was what prompted this Ripoff Report.      

    This customer has purchased from us before and I considered him to be a friend of the company.  Sorry we got off on the wrong foot this time.  He has about 600,000 miles on his old Kaufman Trailer.  He does an excellent job maintaining his trailer and is a very detailed person.  I asked him to call me directly if he has any issues with his trailer that are warrantable.

    We do warranty the trailer, yes including steel, and work with the customer to have axles, jacks, etc. covered by their manufacturer, many times coordinating this work and obtaining the credit from the supplier ourselves. Hope this helps.  Things are not always the way they first may appear.  Thanks for allowing me to explain.