Rock Lobster JKU
New member
Hey guys, I purchased a Bestop Supertop NX Black Twill for my 2013 JKU Rubi recently. When I installed it though I noticed several problems. I called and spoke to customer service and was asked to send pictures of the issues. Please check out the email communications and pictures below and comment. I'm not sure I buy the response. What do you all think?
Note: I will not use the names of the company where I made the purchase nor any names of people involved.
My notes are in Blue
To whom it may concern,
My name is Mike Cameron. I ordered a Bestop Super Top NX BLACK TWILL from XXXXXXX in XXXXX, TX. (see attached invoice) To start with I was given an arrival date of Thursday April 4, 2013. I scheduled a day off of work for Friday April 5 to have it installed. After work on the 4th I called XXXXX to verify the installation time at which point we realized that the top had not arrived. XXXXX made phone calls and notified me that the top was damaged while in transit from Bestop to his supplier and had been returned on Wednesday the 3rd and the replacement was to arrive on Monday the 8th. However, No one felt the need to notify XXXXX nor myself at that time. Now I have missed a days wages for no reason because my shift had been covered by another employee. Furthermore, i had an off road event to attend that weekend and was unable to because I do not take my Brand new 2013 hard top Off road. (Hence the purchase of the soft top) The top did arrive on Mon. the 8th as expected and I picked it up that evening. On Sat. the 13th of April, I unpacked the top and installed it. After assembly and during the actual installation on to my Jeep I began to have concerns. I have documented these concerns in the photos that are attached. (If there are any problems Viewing the Photos in the email you can follow this link to a journal page where you can view and or download them.
https://www.icloud.com/journal/#4;CAEQARoQQ7A-taMvRKOzHFi_SVwRnQ;589A91EB-3191-45D0-A2DC-D2E4F752C546
They are in order as addressed in this email.)
If you click on the link above and view the pictures you'll see the driver side and passenger side header latches respectively. As you can see they are both to the left when attached to the windshield loops. Although the driver side is extremely to the left.
This one is difficult to get hooked.
The next picture shows loose stitching above the passenger side front door near the header section.
In pictures four and five you'll find the plastic door surround over the passenger side front door. When installation was completed, I attempted to show my wife how to operate the top and remove the aluminum bows. I used my two thumbs to gently apply pressure to the bow's flat area on the driver side pushing toward the passenger side. The photos show how the area of the door surround that holds the bow broke off.
Pictures six, seven, eight, and nine show what appears to be abnormal where on the bows Over the rear doors.
Photos six, seven, and eight are on the passenger side while nine is on the driver side. Please keep in mind, that the top was installed on Saturday in these pictures were taken on Sunday and Monday following.
Pictures ten and eleven show the latch where the Sunrider folds back. Note the position of the handle in Picture ten (pass. side) in terms of the elevation compared against the silver ribbon. As you can see the latch handle in picture 10 is lower than the latch handle on the driver side in picture 11. The latch operates much easier on the driver side then it does on the passenger side. The passenger side latch seems to have more forward pressure on it and it's tougher to pull to the rear when unlatching.
The rest of the pictures show just how low the quality of this top is. I have no doubt that this is a singular issue. Because of Bestop's great reputation.
Pictures number 12 and 13 show the rear quarter windows radiused zippers, picture 12 being of the driver side while picture 13 shows the passenger side.
Note the amount of rent clean and bulging of the zippers. I have never seen these issues this bad on a desktop product nor on a factory jeep soft top. Pictures 14 and 15 Show the zippers on the top and extreme rear of quarter windows where they attached to the top. Note how in one of the pictures the zipper appears to be sewn in backwards not only on the top but on the window as well.
Pictures number 16, 17, 18, and 19 show the rear window. Note the terrible wrinkling of the rear window especially on the passenger side. Look at the rail tabs at the bottom of the window and where the tailgate bar is you will see a large amount of sagging on the Passenger side.
Picture number 20 shows the rear window and rear corner of the top on the driver side. Note a small amount of wrinkling in the rear window but relatively tight rear corner on the top itself. When you compare this to picture number 21 which is the same location on the passenger side you will see a huge difference. Picture number 22 is a side view of the rear corner on the passenger side and illustrates the looseness of the top on that corner.
Finally the last picture shows that even the Bestop sticker on the lower corner of the back window is crooked. This is a small detail but come on this is your advertisement.
In conclusion, I understand that in mass-produced products you will have a small number of pieces that have slipped through the quality-control cracks if you will. I believe that I have received one of these. I have time and again been impressed greatly by Bestop's dedication to quality fit and function. I am also confident that Bestop's customer service will be the silver lining to this dark cloud. I am a member of several online jeep forums and had full intentions of doing a write up on the Bestop Supertop NX Black Twill installation and function. This writer will now be to showcase Bestop's customer service and quality control. I will be posting these pictures and a copy of this email to the forums to show that a great company like Bestop is sure to take good care of their customers in the unlikely event that they receive a product of less than the highest quality.
Thank you in advance for your quick response to and resolution of this issue.
Bestop's Reply
Hi Micheal,
Ok, so I am replacing the passenger front door surround, passenger and driver side bows along with the rear window.
Your Bestop order number is XXXXX . I do not have the passenger front door surround in stock though, that will take approximately 4-6 weeks to get in from my other facility, however that will not prevent you from using the top as that door surround just holds the arch which you can go without until you get the replacement door surround.
As far as the windows go and the zippers, that is the design, its a "handed zipper" meaning the slider is on half of the deck and the pin is on half of the window.
Thank you,
XXXXX
Bestop, Inc.
"Its All About The Service"
800.845.3567 www.bestop.com
PLEASE REPLY WITH PRIOR COMMUNICATION
The link should work to the pictures. There are 20+ of them and I couldn't figure out how to up load that many here.
Note: I will not use the names of the company where I made the purchase nor any names of people involved.
My notes are in Blue
To whom it may concern,
My name is Mike Cameron. I ordered a Bestop Super Top NX BLACK TWILL from XXXXXXX in XXXXX, TX. (see attached invoice) To start with I was given an arrival date of Thursday April 4, 2013. I scheduled a day off of work for Friday April 5 to have it installed. After work on the 4th I called XXXXX to verify the installation time at which point we realized that the top had not arrived. XXXXX made phone calls and notified me that the top was damaged while in transit from Bestop to his supplier and had been returned on Wednesday the 3rd and the replacement was to arrive on Monday the 8th. However, No one felt the need to notify XXXXX nor myself at that time. Now I have missed a days wages for no reason because my shift had been covered by another employee. Furthermore, i had an off road event to attend that weekend and was unable to because I do not take my Brand new 2013 hard top Off road. (Hence the purchase of the soft top) The top did arrive on Mon. the 8th as expected and I picked it up that evening. On Sat. the 13th of April, I unpacked the top and installed it. After assembly and during the actual installation on to my Jeep I began to have concerns. I have documented these concerns in the photos that are attached. (If there are any problems Viewing the Photos in the email you can follow this link to a journal page where you can view and or download them.
https://www.icloud.com/journal/#4;CAEQARoQQ7A-taMvRKOzHFi_SVwRnQ;589A91EB-3191-45D0-A2DC-D2E4F752C546
They are in order as addressed in this email.)
If you click on the link above and view the pictures you'll see the driver side and passenger side header latches respectively. As you can see they are both to the left when attached to the windshield loops. Although the driver side is extremely to the left.
This one is difficult to get hooked.
The next picture shows loose stitching above the passenger side front door near the header section.
In pictures four and five you'll find the plastic door surround over the passenger side front door. When installation was completed, I attempted to show my wife how to operate the top and remove the aluminum bows. I used my two thumbs to gently apply pressure to the bow's flat area on the driver side pushing toward the passenger side. The photos show how the area of the door surround that holds the bow broke off.
Pictures six, seven, eight, and nine show what appears to be abnormal where on the bows Over the rear doors.
Photos six, seven, and eight are on the passenger side while nine is on the driver side. Please keep in mind, that the top was installed on Saturday in these pictures were taken on Sunday and Monday following.
Pictures ten and eleven show the latch where the Sunrider folds back. Note the position of the handle in Picture ten (pass. side) in terms of the elevation compared against the silver ribbon. As you can see the latch handle in picture 10 is lower than the latch handle on the driver side in picture 11. The latch operates much easier on the driver side then it does on the passenger side. The passenger side latch seems to have more forward pressure on it and it's tougher to pull to the rear when unlatching.
The rest of the pictures show just how low the quality of this top is. I have no doubt that this is a singular issue. Because of Bestop's great reputation.
Pictures number 12 and 13 show the rear quarter windows radiused zippers, picture 12 being of the driver side while picture 13 shows the passenger side.
Note the amount of rent clean and bulging of the zippers. I have never seen these issues this bad on a desktop product nor on a factory jeep soft top. Pictures 14 and 15 Show the zippers on the top and extreme rear of quarter windows where they attached to the top. Note how in one of the pictures the zipper appears to be sewn in backwards not only on the top but on the window as well.
Pictures number 16, 17, 18, and 19 show the rear window. Note the terrible wrinkling of the rear window especially on the passenger side. Look at the rail tabs at the bottom of the window and where the tailgate bar is you will see a large amount of sagging on the Passenger side.
Picture number 20 shows the rear window and rear corner of the top on the driver side. Note a small amount of wrinkling in the rear window but relatively tight rear corner on the top itself. When you compare this to picture number 21 which is the same location on the passenger side you will see a huge difference. Picture number 22 is a side view of the rear corner on the passenger side and illustrates the looseness of the top on that corner.
Finally the last picture shows that even the Bestop sticker on the lower corner of the back window is crooked. This is a small detail but come on this is your advertisement.
In conclusion, I understand that in mass-produced products you will have a small number of pieces that have slipped through the quality-control cracks if you will. I believe that I have received one of these. I have time and again been impressed greatly by Bestop's dedication to quality fit and function. I am also confident that Bestop's customer service will be the silver lining to this dark cloud. I am a member of several online jeep forums and had full intentions of doing a write up on the Bestop Supertop NX Black Twill installation and function. This writer will now be to showcase Bestop's customer service and quality control. I will be posting these pictures and a copy of this email to the forums to show that a great company like Bestop is sure to take good care of their customers in the unlikely event that they receive a product of less than the highest quality.
Thank you in advance for your quick response to and resolution of this issue.
Bestop's Reply
Hi Micheal,
Ok, so I am replacing the passenger front door surround, passenger and driver side bows along with the rear window.
Your Bestop order number is XXXXX . I do not have the passenger front door surround in stock though, that will take approximately 4-6 weeks to get in from my other facility, however that will not prevent you from using the top as that door surround just holds the arch which you can go without until you get the replacement door surround.
As far as the windows go and the zippers, that is the design, its a "handed zipper" meaning the slider is on half of the deck and the pin is on half of the window.
Thank you,
XXXXX
Bestop, Inc.
"Its All About The Service"
800.845.3567 www.bestop.com
PLEASE REPLY WITH PRIOR COMMUNICATION
The link should work to the pictures. There are 20+ of them and I couldn't figure out how to up load that many here.