Bak Industries Tonneaus - Read Before You Buy

[ember1205]

Wasn't actually sure at first so I went outside to look at my cover. Now I see what you mean ... The hinges on my cover are likewise wider as the cover folds to accommodate thickness as folded. The extra added latch mechanism simply won't fit inside the folded bundle.

 

I wonder why they don't have a latch for every panel? Seems like a huge oversight in design.

 

BTW - I was banging around on youtube and found a video of a Bakflip on a 2011 Silvy extended cab with 6 6 bed. The cover was 3 panel. But guess what ... The middle panel had no latches.

 

Don't mean to rub it in (please don't take it that way at all) but all this has reaffirmed my decision about the UC Flex.

 

Be well Ember ... I sincerely hope you figure this out

 

Interesting that a THREE panel cover would have no latch on the middle panel... That makes no sense.

 

I would be happy to toss the Bak to the curb and get a UCF cover except for one thing: UnderCover is owned by the same company that owns Bak. This concerns me with respect to the level of Customer Service one might expect.

 

I heard from the reseller today (finally). He wants to wash his hands of the whole thing claiming that Bak "will take care of it" if it's fitment or defect related. I wrote back and gave a very brief outline of the major issues with the cover, poor design, lack of customer service, etc. We'll see...

[BOOMER119]

I hear ya but this seems to be the way of the world ... Economies of scale ... a conglomerate of various smaller companies owned by a single parent company

 

In fact, my company is likewise owned ... and I'm in the insurance business

 

The nice thing, however, is that we are left to operate independently ... as long as we turn a proft that is!

 

To possibly reassure you, I did have a customer service issue with UnderCover ... when I received my cover it was missing the bulkhead seal, drain tubes and installation instructions. I called them and they overnighted the missing pieces. They also spent some extra time on the phone reviewing installation (since I had them on the phone anyway) They were very patient while I asked several questions.

 

Again, good luck with everything

[BOOMER119]

 

Interesting that a THREE panel cover would have no latch on the middle panel... That makes no sense.

 

I would be happy to toss the Bak to the curb and get a UCF cover except for one thing: UnderCover is owned by the same company that owns Bak. This concerns me with respect to the level of Customer Service one might expect.

 

I heard from the reseller today (finally). He wants to wash his hands of the whole thing claiming that Bak "will take care of it" if it's fitment or defect related. I wrote back and gave a very brief outline of the major issues with the cover, poor design, lack of customer service, etc. We'll see...

A little slow at work now so here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxduB47XPGY

 

Actually its a 2012 Silverado Extended Cab, not a 2011 as I stated before ... Whatever - Basically same truck ... Anyway, at 7:13 when he starts to roll out the 2nd panel - there's no latch that I can see

[ember1205]

That's a four panel cover... You have to look very closely, and it's confusing at the point where you indicated because the first panel is already closed when they cut to that part, but there are four full panels plus the little plate at the front.

 

If you look at about the 8:50-ish mark, he has the cover completely folded and you can count the weather strip from the side.

[BOOMER119]

That's a four panel cover... You have to look very closely, and it's confusing at the point where you indicated because the first panel is already closed when they cut to that part, but there are four full panels plus the little plate at the front.

 

If you look at about the 8:50-ish mark, he has the cover completely folded and you can count the weather strip from the side.

And I stand corrected

[ember1205]

In hindsight, what I wrote came across a lot harsher than I intended - apologies on that.

[ember1205]

Leaned pretty hard on Bak last Friday and got some information from them.

 

The cover is manufactured so that that part that goes "inside" the truck bed has a length of 76 3/4". This is 1.25" short of the actual bed length, and is necessary to ensure that things like plastic drop-in liners (which take up space at the front and back) will not prohibit the cover from fitting properly. This is perfectly reasonable.

 

The issue is that the cover has only a 3/4" "overhang" at each end, making the total cover length 78.25". This is absolutely NOT reasonable. With the front bulkhead rail being 2.5-3" wide on top and the tailgate having at least 2" of width to it, this cover should have a total length of 80-82" in order to properly fit and provide the advertised aspect of security (this cover can be opened in about three seconds without opening the tailgate in a couple of different ways) and the implied resistance to water leakage (I say implied because their marketing comments are aimed specifically at the hinges, but the rest could be quite good if it didn't leak like a sieve at the front and back).

 

When I pointed out to them that the cover is simply too short for the 6.5' beds when there is either NO liner installed or a spray-in liner installed (taking up a negligible amount of space inside the bed), he said he was going to call my reseller and I would get a call back.

 

Well, here it is Tuesday and I finally was contacted. Not the phone call that I was promised, mind you, but an email. And, no information on what would be happening was provided - simply a pre-paid shipping label to return the cover. The person who sent the label (which expires in ten days) has no knowledge of my issue and zero information as to whether their intentions are to charge me return shipping or to refund the entire amount of the purchase.

 

My last contact to the reseller stated that I wanted to find out how to return the cover for a full refund. We traded a couple of emails, and then I got pre-paid shipping labels. So, even if they don't intend to grant me a full refund, PayPal will almost certainly side with me if I file a claim.

 

The one constant through all of this is Bak's customer service is atrocious. On the up side, I have come up with an add-on part that I can manufacture and add to either a Bad or UnderCover cover and end up with a tight-fitting, reasonably secured, and reasonably weather-tight cover. Too bad that neither of these companies understands that there's a gap here or they could offer the part themselves as a fairly inexpensive add-on.

[ember1205]

Well, it's been almost two more weeks, and not a huge amount has changed...

 

I boxed up both the original cover AND the replacement and shipped them both off. Bak never bothered talking with the reseller as they stated they would, there was no "resolution" that was reached, and the reseller sent pre-paid labels to ship the cover back "as a courtesy". Their idea of resolution to Bak's incorrect size design is to refund my money less $35 to cover the shipping they supposedly had to pay for when delivering the cover to me in the first place.

 

I talked with the reseller today and was accused of not attempting to contact them during the return window. The owner argued with me and was getting very belligerent about it until I forwarded him the original email I sent (that he never responded to). While he didn't bother to even admit he was wrong, let alone apologize, he WAS nice enough to call Bak and inflame them further. Bak wrote to me to tell me that I would not receive ANY credit until BOTH covers were returned (which they really have no authority to mandate).

 

Once both covers are received back, and I see the refund processed, I will have to potentially open a claim with PayPal to get the rest of my money back.

 

I can not stress enough that Bak was completely unsupportive through this entire process. Their market materials do not actually reflect the product you are looking at, they do not disclose that different size covers have different designs, and their product is absolutely sub-par in so many ways.

[ember1205]

Well, here's how things ended up working out.

 

The reseller argued with me about taking the cover back, stating that I never contacted him during the return period. I proved to him that I -did- attempt to contact him and that he never responded. No apology, no taking back of anything he said. He simply dropped the argument and essentially ended the phone call.

 

The reseller had sent pre-paid labels to return the box with the cover and the box with the rails. I was told that, upon receipt, I would receive all but $35 of my original purchase price back and that holdback amount was to cover their shipping costs to send me the cover in the first place. This made no sense to me at all since total shipping for this cover is easily over $100.

 

Bak stuck their nose in the middle and stated that they would also need to receive back the cover they sent me under warranty or no refund would be issued (apparently, they were refunding the reseller only after I returned everything, and that would facilitate the reseller's refund to me.

 

I packed everything up back into the original boxes, drove all over town to find a UPS -and- a FedEx location (each company used a different shipper) to get everything on its way to where it needed to go, and the verified the shippers' systems the following day to ensure that everything was showing up in the system. I then sent an email to Bak and the reseller jointly to state that everything was on its way. I provided links to the tracking status for each package for the different parties, and then went on to state that I should be receiving a 100% refund. If the reseller felt that they lost money due to Bak improperly designing, building, and advertising the product (resulting in a return), then they should take that up with Bak and reclaim their expenses from them.

 

About a week later, I received an email indicating that I had received a refund from the reseller, and it was for the full amount of my purchase.

 

In my eyes, this demonstrates that Bak ACKNOWLEDGES that their product suffers from a significant design flaw by being too short since clearly all parties were willing to refund the appropriate amounts, resulting in my getting a full refund.

 

I will never again even contemplate owning a product produced by Bak industries. And, as THI looks to leverage economies of scale and such by merging companies together and building products on the same assembly line down the road, I will also avoid 100% of the brands that they own. I've absolutely NEVER received such poor customer service regarding a product in my life. And, as far as the reseller goes, I've not been treated that rudely ever.

 

If you're considering buying a product from Bak Industries, I URGE you to consider whether or not it is actually a product that you want to have to deal with the manufacturer on in the event of issues. And, the resellers are pretty useless when it comes to ANY sort of issue - they completely wash their hands of any sort of post-sale anything and will cling hard to their return policies (which I never received a copy of, BTW).

[WigMastur]

Ember, thanks for keeping us in the loop & am sorry for your troubles, but you have possibly spared us some trouble. I was considering the Bak Revolver X2 or Gator FX3, but now I'm not so sure. What manufacturer do you recommend?

[ember1205]

I wish I had a recommendation because that would mean that I had found one for myself.

 

Here's what I can tell you with certainty:

 

Bak industries, as a manufacturer, makes a reasonably well put-together product. Their hard folding tonneaus are NOT designed to work well (properly?) on anything but the under 6' length bed trucks. Once you get to the Standard bed length, you end up with four panels and one doesn't lock.

 

Their customer service is atrocious to deal with. You keep calling and getting different people, no one knows what you're talking about, they talk to you in their engineering terms only and expect you to understand what they're saying, they have NO pictures or drawings to show what they're talking about, and you will spin in circles with them for a long time.

 

Their tonneaus are simply not designed to work unless you have a hard plastic drop-in liner in your bed. Anything less in terms of thickness at the front bulkhead rail and tailgate and the covers are "loose". What's terribly disappointing is that their sister companies, like UnderCover, use the EXACT same dimensional design information to build their covers. So, even though UnderCover has a three panel cover to fit the longer bed trucks, and every panel locks, it's exactly the same amount "too short" for people like me that have a spray in liner.

 

My specific needs from a cover point me to Bak and UnderCover (Gator is another, but their covers are built by Bak). I want a hard folding cover that can give me almost full access to my bed without removal and can be removed very easily in the event that I need full access. The other hard covers block up to 1/3 of the bed (the front panel doesn't swing up against the cab) and/or require tools for removal and installation (plus need to be correctly aligned each time they're installed).

 

At this stage of the game, I'm considering getting a larger trailer (I have only a 5x8 utility trailer currently) that can haul the heavier loads I would normally put in the truck. And, I'm also wondering what incentives GM will run to either clear out the '15s or will run mid model year on the '16s that would make it very painless for me to trade in my '15 for a CC model with a short bed. In that configuration, the Bak cover would be more acceptable to me with its shortcomings.

[ember1205]

I found this the other day and thought I would add it to the thread. Bak's Warranty Registration page on their website has the following statment:

 

"Products purchased at discounted rates on auction sites such as Ebay and Craigslist, to name a few, will not be covered under factory warranty under any circumstance. BAK Industries is unable to verify whether products sold through Auction Sites are new, used, or refurbished, and as such, we are unfortunately unable to warranty such purchases. We advise using caution when buying through auction sites as you'll be doing so at your own risk."

 

Not ONLY do they insist on resellers using their Minimum Advertised Pricing that is WAY over-inflated, they punish the consumers that find dealers willing to sell at a more reasonable price point by voiding the warranty. And, I'd like to point out, there are a number of companies selling these covers on eBay that are AUTHORIZED resellers. Additionally, Bak HONORED the warranty on the cover that I bought even though it was purchased through a company selling them on eBay (my transaction was actually handled outside of eBay, so that MAY have had something to do with it).

[4x4LJB]

• Whew! What a mess!

I was contemplating a BAK Revolver X2 for my new 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 extended cab, spray-in 6.6' bed. But, I can do without the grief.