New Raptor smoked mirror lenses by RECON!!!

[dan200]

I was asked why the price was what it is and gave the explanation. If "that shit is wack" is honest criticism then I guess I was way out of line.

I wanted to let you guys know about a new product that we produce for a Raptor and was met with pure venom within 5 posts. We offer a really nice discount to all of the members here and it just seems odd that my post of a new product was met with all of the negativity. If you don't like an item,then I obviously cannot change that, but I just don't get the negativity. Since I posted the new item, we have had quite a few members purchase the product using the discount code and I am sure they will be thrilled with the lenses on their Raptor.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!!!!

Ryan

Im curious why I was quoted since I never came at you with "venom" but it really doesnt matter. I am a big fan of upgrades and participate on many car forums so I am very well "schooled" on the way things work with parts suppliers and the politics of forums. Just for fun, lets re-read your reply to peoples reaction.

These lenses are not the cheap black plastic covers that Ford sells for the base model F-150 work trucks. These lights are smoke reflectors and licensed by Ford Motor company. We are also working on them with LEDs that can be wired as running lights or turn signals which will be available by late summer.

If you are more comfortable spray painting the lights on a $65,000 truck then obviously this is not the product for you.

The last sentence is what really got me (and its not just the inflated by like 10k raptor list price reference.) It seems belittling.

How much a person feels like paying for something like this product is up to them. Obviously someone who can afford a raptor likely has enough income to afford these lenses BUT they dont need them. Forum people are educated buyers. They research, compare and learn all they can about their vehicles and invest time in this passion. Along the way they will learn things and one of them is how to do things themselves or source a way to have it done inexpensively. They are also real people who like to be treated respectfully.

Unfortunately, as a dealer you are not supposed to react to criticism emotionally. You are a brand, a company, a sales machine. Your customers are not wrong, even when they are wrong. Your job is to sell them. Sell them your product and also sell them YOU.

As a consumer I have choices. One of them is to buy or not, and another is to buy from who I chose.

Now, I expect that these being licensed by Ford for you to sell is a good long game plan but you must admit its also an expensive one for you. And regarding the price, this expense is passed on to the consumer. SO basically the buyer is sending ford money when they buy these.

Eventually some guy is gonna make these in china, import a cargo container full of them and sell them on ebay for 20 bucks and he wont have a licensing deal to worry about.

The end buyer will enjoy the cheap ones just as much as yours. Some guilt may exist for not supporting a forum vendor site supporter and for buying Chinese knock off stuff but once they are installed and they look cool for 1/5 of the price they wont care.

What I am really saying is that even when you fell disrespected personally by some random strangers from the web you should shrug it off.

I will give you an example of a better response that deals with the "Venom" you were handed...

"Well it sounds like you guys like these but don't like the price. They are a fantastic product and the quality is remarkable. In fact, they are soo good we were able to secure a deal with Ford for these but that comes with a fee. What we did to absorb the fee and still make/sell these was reduce the price as much as possible in the hopes we will get a decent market share (aka sell a bunch) while still being able to afford the licensing agreement with Ford and make a few bucks. Basically we wanna be above board and offer the best product in this category as opposed to nefarious knock offs.

Mentioning the quality again i should point out that tinted tail lights are popular and there are many DIY ways to do those. Over the counter sprays from auto parts stores and hobby shops get the job done but the final product is inconsistent. One light may be darker than the other, drips, and the labor should all be considered. Even paint shops seem to charge a premium for good work in this area and sometimes real stuff like I sell looks like a bargain when confronted with the price of a professionals paint work.

But tails dont see much airflow and something like these that is forward facing will. road debris, bugs, rocks etc will quickly chip the spray on tints and the wrap style tints. These are impervious to that. They are solid and dont fade and the tint is part of the plastic. They will look as good as new for the life of the vehicle. No buffing, sanding retinting will ever be necessary. These are awesome and will always be awesome.

Cheaper alternatives are possible however if you want the good stuff I am your guy.

I appreciate your criticism regarding the price and today all I can offer is a discount of X percent to forum members. If i could give them away I would but thats just not the way things are LOL.

Simply click here (LINK) and it only will take a few minutes to order and they will ship almost right away so you can begin enjoying them.

I hope i have answered your concerns and explained things you may have questions about. If I have not, please fell free to comment in this thread or send me a private message so we can discuss things.

Oh, and to those of you who have ordered, I hope you will comment about your feelings about this product, good or bad. Without our customers we would not exist and we appreciate your business.

OK, I have gone on long enough. Its a holiday weekend and I'm still pecking at my keyboard when I should be kicking off shoes and putting on my flip flops and opening a beer.

Sincerely,
guy who sells stuff to truck people."

I hope you take this as constructive criticism and not an attack. My intention was/is to off you some wisdom from a guy whao has had over 20 years experience in sales in specialty markets like yours.

Enjoy your weekend.

 

[Hocker52]

I do agree that you were met with extreme critisism, and being a supporting vendor I think it was uncalled for. I will ask a lot of people are getting water in their lights that RECON is selling are yall looking into the issue and attemting to correct the issue? I have really looked into yalls lights but these issues are holding me back. if yall correct the issues i would probably buy your product. but I need to know that the issues were dealt with. Are yall working on a solution??

 

[Baldwin09]

Im curious why I was quoted since I never came at you with "venom" but it really doesnt matter. I am a big fan of upgrades and participate on many car forums so I am very well "schooled" on the way things work with parts suppliers and the politics of forums. Just for fun, lets re-read your reply to peoples reaction.




The last sentence is what really got me (and its not just the inflated by like 10k raptor list price reference.) It seems belittling.

How much a person feels like paying for something like this product is up to them. Obviously someone who can afford a raptor likely has enough income to afford these lenses BUT they dont need them. Forum people are educated buyers. They research, compare and learn all they can about their vehicles and invest time in this passion. Along the way they will learn things and one of them is how to do things themselves or source a way to have it done inexpensively. They are also real people who like to be treated respectfully.

Unfortunately, as a dealer you are not supposed to react to criticism emotionally. You are a brand, a company, a sales machine. Your customers are not wrong, even when they are wrong. Your job is to sell them. Sell them your product and also sell them YOU.

As a consumer I have choices. One of them is to buy or not, and another is to buy from who I chose.

Now, I expect that these being licensed by Ford for you to sell is a good long game plan but you must admit its also an expensive one for you. And regarding the price, this expense is passed on to the consumer. SO basically the buyer is sending ford money when they buy these.

Eventually some guy is gonna make these in china, import a cargo container full of them and sell them on ebay for 20 bucks and he wont have a licensing deal to worry about.

The end buyer will enjoy the cheap ones just as much as yours. Some guilt may exist for not supporting a forum vendor site supporter and for buying Chinese knock off stuff but once they are installed and they look cool for 1/5 of the price they wont care.

What I am really saying is that even when you fell disrespected personally by some random strangers from the web you should shrug it off.

I will give you an example of a better response that deals with the "Venom" you were handed...

"Well it sounds like you guys like these but don't like the price. They are a fantastic product and the quality is remarkable. In fact, they are soo good we were able to secure a deal with Ford for these but that comes with a fee. What we did to absorb the fee and still make/sell these was reduce the price as much as possible in the hopes we will get a decent market share (aka sell a bunch) while still being able to afford the licensing agreement with Ford and make a few bucks. Basically we wanna be above board and offer the best product in this category as opposed to nefarious knock offs.

Mentioning the quality again i should point out that tinted tail lights are popular and there are many DIY ways to do those. Over the counter sprays from auto parts stores and hobby shops get the job done but the final product is inconsistent. One light may be darker than the other, drips, and the labor should all be considered. Even paint shops seem to charge a premium for good work in this area and sometimes real stuff like I sell looks like a bargain when confronted with the price of a professionals paint work.

But tails dont see much airflow and something like these that is forward facing will. road debris, bugs, rocks etc will quickly chip the spray on tints and the wrap style tints. These are impervious to that. They are solid and dont fade and the tint is part of the plastic. They will look as good as new for the life of the vehicle. No buffing, sanding retinting will ever be necessary. These are awesome and will always be awesome.

Cheaper alternatives are possible however if you want the good stuff I am your guy.

I appreciate your criticism regarding the price and today all I can offer is a discount of X percent to forum members. If i could give them away I would but thats just not the way things are LOL.

Simply click here (LINK) and it only will take a few minutes to order and they will ship almost right away so you can begin enjoying them.

I hope i have answered your concerns and explained things you may have questions about. If I have not, please fell free to comment in this thread or send me a private message so we can discuss things.

Oh, and to those of you who have ordered, I hope you will comment about your feelings about this product, good or bad. Without our customers we would not exist and we appreciate your business.

OK, I have gone on long enough. Its a holiday weekend and I'm still pecking at my keyboard when I should be kicking off shoes and putting on my flip flops and opening a beer.

Sincerely,
guy who sells stuff to truck people."

I hope you take this as constructive criticism and not an attack. My intention was/is to off you some wisdom from a guy whao has had over 20 years experience in sales in specialty markets like yours.

Enjoy your weekend.

I agree with Bo. And Dan If you have had sales experience in the markets like Recon's why belittle them? A product is a product you don't want to buy it then don't then and just ****. To come on a supporting vendors thread and talk shit is something you would see on the Z not FRF. I for one have recon lights all the way around and have not had one issue with water for a year. When the led's burnt out under the taillight I contacted Ryan and he sent me 10 led bulbs on next day at no charge. I for one will be purchasing this product because of the way Ryan has treated me as a customer and that the product I have bought as been great with no issue at all. If you guys don't like it don't come back to the thread.


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[dan200]

I agree with Bo. And Dan If you have had sales experience in the markets like Recon's why belittle them? A product is a product you don't want to buy it then don't then and just ****. To come on a supporting vendors thread and talk shit is something you would see on the Z not FRF.

Once again, I was just offering some constructive criticism. I definately wasnt talking shit on his product. tinted plastic forward facing lenses are far superior to one with spray on tint. Im pretty sure I said that.
I just think his initial reply was a bit gritty is all.

One thing i know about forums is that you cant really UNSAY anything. In hindsight i guess I coulda said what I said via PM just to avoid drama but its too late now. I really wasnt trying to be confrontational though. If it was taken as such I APOLOGIZE.

I have written more product descriptions and product reviews than I could probably remember and learned plenty along the way.

If the moderators want to punish me or delete my posts for being disruptive I wont take offense but i do have vast experience in the world of off road and think forum members can draw value from that so, i hope I can still be considered a member in good standing.

Again, I apologize for my comments if they seemed like an attack. It was not my intent. I was simply trying to help the vendor by showing that there is, what I feel to be anyway, a better approach to the concerns raised on the board.

I for one have recon lights all the way around and have not had one issue with water for a year. When the led's burnt out under the taillight I contacted Ryan and he sent me 10 led bulbs on next day at no charge. I for one will be purchasing this product because of the way Ryan has treated me as a customer and that the product I have bought as been great with no issue at all. If you guys don't like it don't come back to the thread.

Please note, I have zero experience with these so I cant comment BUT a vendor who does what he did here, replacing defective bulbs immediately and without charge, is one who I would happily do business with. Kudos to recon for operating this way.

 

[BIRDMAN]

I'm gonna go ahead and throw my .02 in here.

Some of you still might not realize that RECON offers an 18% discount for FRF Members, and that's been the case for almost 2 years. Go to the RECON Discounts sub-forum and find the discount code. I just used it, and it works.

This brings the price of the smoked reflector kit down to $65.56. Still seem like a lot?

Each of the "OEM" quality orange reflectors cost $17/ea from Ford.

Can of Nightshades? $14

Sand paper? $4.00

So right there, just in parts...is $52 bucks. Isn't that amazing how that works?

When all is said and done you save yourself $13 bucks by doing it yourself, not including your own labor/time. Is an hour of your time worth $13? Is the additional quality worth $13?

Not trying to **** in the punch bowl, but think about it. Some of you flew off the handle without thinking this through IMO

 

[Ruger]

Now why would I spend $34 to buy two new reflectors when painting the ones that came on the truck would do just fine? A minor point, but it's more realistic.

 

[BIRDMAN]

Now why would I spend $34 to buy two new reflectors when painting the ones that came on the truck would do just fine? A minor point, but it's more realistic.

the orange reflectors don't come standard on all F-150s or Raptors(at least in 2010 they didn't). Also, if someone wants the ability to return to the stock look for any reason including re-sale/trade-in maybe they don't want to spray paint their reflectors.

In any other event, if you already have the orange reflectors and want to paint them permanently then by all means do so then you don't need the RECON set. The factor of durability and quality is still a constant though.

 

[Steve-O]

Now why would I spend $34 to buy two new reflectors when painting the ones that came on the truck would do just fine? A minor point, but it's more realistic.

true statement. i did mine yesterday with some leftover paint and clear. i even had the 2000 grit sandpaper laying around to wetsand them. in the end, i have nice shiny black pieces on my mirrors. essentially, it didnt cost me anything. everything was just laying around. as far as the cost of my time, i did them while smoking a cigarette so i was on "break"

 

[BIRDMAN]

sorry i said anything. of course everyone has nightshades and 2000 grit laying around, and factory quality can be attained in the 2 minutes it takes to smoke a butt. how silly of me.

 

[dataustin]

I sold test equipment for 27 years that was always more expensive than my competition (customers always said that my company logo, Hp, stood for higher price). . So I always had to explain why my product commanded a premium.

Given that both products come from Ford, take the "do it yourself" option off the table and compare the differences between a $20 pair and $60pair. At that point, buy the set that works best for you.

---------- Post added at 07:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:27 PM ----------

I assume one big difference is one is a reflector and one is not?