ok. i am going to give all of you a little slice of truth here.
if you live in a small town, you may still have a small family owned drug store or grocery store. most likely you do not still have that in your town anymore due to large corps coming in. this same trend over the past ten years has also taken affect in the automotive lift industry. the small distributor is being weeded out and the large companies that sell direct to you are taking the majority of the business. the only people that will survive this trend are those that buy container loads directly from the overseas manufacturer. the end user can now buy a quality lift for 20-30% less off the internet than they can buy it from a local distributor.
this is a good thing and a bad thing. good part is that you dont have to pay a higher price so that the local distributor can make their cut. bad thing is, a company can just throw up a website and sit at home and sale while laying out by the pool. watch out!!! their are alot of companies that dont have a warehouse, have never installed a lift, and sometimes are not even the company that runs your credit card.
as far as warehouses and companies that sell the same lifts with their own labels, take into account the following. even the people who buy container loads direct from overseas cannot buy directly from the factory. the way the china government has the economy set up, you have to go through a "trading partner". the china government will not allow USA companies to buy auto lifts directly from the manufacturer. therefor, most USA companies have no idea what factory they buy from, unless they actually visit china. i can assure you that most of the internet based companies have never visited the factory where the lifts were made.
here is what you do when looking to buy an auto lift:
there are also a few large warehouses in the USA that sell to internet based companies who then re sell to the end user. you probably have noticed the same picture used on many companies websites. they are in fact all buying from the same warehouse and selling to you. just get them in a price war and they will undercut each other until they make almost zero profit.
if you get put on hold 4,5, or 6 times when calling to ask questions and try to buy the lift, you can probably be assured that you are dealing with one of these home based companies. they dont know the answer to the questions so they put you on hold and call someone else to get the answer. or they may have to go tend to their kids while your on hold. or they may have to answer they front door while your on hold. why would a company put you on hold when you are wanting to give them your money? doesnt make sense to me.
see how long they will stay on the phone with you. if they try and push you and push you and you don't budge then they try and end the conversation quickly after that, then you probably don't want to deal with them. if they are willing to stay on the phone while you tell your life's story, then you might know that they actually want to help you and get you want you need not what they want to sell you.
make sure that the registered address with the state or the one on the BBB is the same address where your credit card is ran. if they ask for a check, make sure you send it to the same address as their registered address. if they ask you to send it to another address or they run your card from another address, you can be correct in assuming they are one of these work from home companies.
in reference to backyard buddy, they do make it a point to bash other companies. they have several cartoons on their website bashing those "other companies lifts". the thing they fail to provide, is any evidence of when or where these "cheap lifts" fell and hurt someone or the vehicle. give us some medical records, court records, or police reports. the last two are public record and if their claims were true, they could provide this evidence. the only time i have heard of a lift falling was once when the user removed the safety locking system and then continued to use the lift. the user did like having to disengage the locks every time they were going to lower the lift.
What makes you think that they have changed their ways of doing business?
