Early on APEX Specialty Vehicles stood out to me because it appeared to be a well motivated small business that put customer relations first. Unfortunately, I found out this simply wasn’t the case. When I was first reaching out to trailer companies I was exposed to a wide variety of establishments. APEX stood out to me because of their sales representative Luke. In our initial conversation Luke went over some of the specifics that we would need to consider as a result of the design specifications I had laid out. He also was able to give me some insight into their processes, giving me comfort since I was looking at a $160K purchase. A big thing that Luke stressed is that APEX does not give out basic style quotes and instead will only give a range of prices and will give a fixed price after a $2000 engineering deposit is placed and the whole trailer is built in a 3D modeling software. Seeming like a reasonable system I told Luke I would need to get my finances in order and would contact him shortly.
After approximately two weeks I secured my initial investor allowing me to make the deposit to APEX and be prepared for the down payment. When I tried to contact Luke I was unable to get into contact with him but instead was reached out to by a man named Brad Carlson, the owner of the company. Brad informed me that Luke had been fired due to his “failure to line up with the vision of the company” and that I would be dealing directly with him from now on. We exchanged a few emails nailing down the design specs and I was told my build was being placed in the engineering queue. 3 weeks later I shot Brad an email to get an update on my project as I had not heard from him in weeks. After a few days Brad emailed me back to tell me I was now in 4th place in their queue. It was at this point I began to get nervous as I was set to launch with my new trailer in August of 2017 and APEX burned 3 weeks moving me from 5th to 4th in their queue. However, brad still assured me my trailer would be done by August. This was the last time I heard from Brad.
After waiting another few weeks we were into March I reached out to brad again to get an update and make sure we were still on schedule only to hear nothing back. Days later I tried calling Apex and Brad, leaving messages that were never returned. I continued to call every few days but was unable to reach anybody. Through the end of March and into April I continued to attempt to reach apex dozens of times, at all hours of the work day. Still no response, I even tried to contact their sister companies and similarly couldn’t get on the phone with anybody. It was at this point I gave up, I went back to the stage of looking for companies and felt angry as this ordeal had set me back months. I was shocked when a week and a half after my last attempt to contact APEX I received a call from them. The lady on the other end of the line told me they got my message the previous Tuesday. I asked her the status of my project and she said she would have to go ask someone and call me back. I never got a call back. Here we are in May and I still have not been reached out to at all.
After a bit of searching I am happy to have been able to find a new company who has been extremely helpful and professional in the process, though unfortunately APEX has set me back months and my business will suffer as a result. The lack of graciousness and professionalism I experienced at APEX is something that will forever astound me. Though I may not be the largest company I am by no means a small company as I look to purchase 5-7 trailers over the next 5 years, each one with a $160K price tag.
If you have any questions about my experiences with APEX please feel free to reach out to me. As I struggled to find information on specialty trailer companies when I was searching for a company I am happy to share some of my experiences with other companies including 4 which I had excellent experiences with.
APEX Specialty Vehicles Reviews
Early on APEX Specialty Vehicles stood out to me because it appeared to be a well motivated small business that put customer relations first. Unfortunately, I found out this simply wasn’t the case. When I was first reaching out to trailer companies I was exposed to a wide variety of establishments. APEX stood out to me because of their sales representative Luke. In our initial conversation Luke went over some of the specifics that we would need to consider as a result of the design specifications I had laid out. He also was able to give me some insight into their processes, giving me comfort since I was looking at a $160K purchase. A big thing that Luke stressed is that APEX does not give out basic style quotes and instead will only give a range of prices and will give a fixed price after a $2000 engineering deposit is placed and the whole trailer is built in a 3D modeling software. Seeming like a reasonable system I told Luke I would need to get my finances in order and would contact him shortly.
After approximately two weeks I secured my initial investor allowing me to make the deposit to APEX and be prepared for the down payment. When I tried to contact Luke I was unable to get into contact with him but instead was reached out to by a man named Brad Carlson, the owner of the company. Brad informed me that Luke had been fired due to his “failure to line up with the vision of the company” and that I would be dealing directly with him from now on. We exchanged a few emails nailing down the design specs and I was told my build was being placed in the engineering queue. 3 weeks later I shot Brad an email to get an update on my project as I had not heard from him in weeks. After a few days Brad emailed me back to tell me I was now in 4th place in their queue. It was at this point I began to get nervous as I was set to launch with my new trailer in August of 2017 and APEX burned 3 weeks moving me from 5th to 4th in their queue. However, brad still assured me my trailer would be done by August. This was the last time I heard from Brad.
After waiting another few weeks we were into March I reached out to brad again to get an update and make sure we were still on schedule only to hear nothing back. Days later I tried calling Apex and Brad, leaving messages that were never returned. I continued to call every few days but was unable to reach anybody. Through the end of March and into April I continued to attempt to reach apex dozens of times, at all hours of the work day. Still no response, I even tried to contact their sister companies and similarly couldn’t get on the phone with anybody. It was at this point I gave up, I went back to the stage of looking for companies and felt angry as this ordeal had set me back months. I was shocked when a week and a half after my last attempt to contact APEX I received a call from them. The lady on the other end of the line told me they got my message the previous Tuesday. I asked her the status of my project and she said she would have to go ask someone and call me back. I never got a call back. Here we are in May and I still have not been reached out to at all.
After a bit of searching I am happy to have been able to find a new company who has been extremely helpful and professional in the process, though unfortunately APEX has set me back months and my business will suffer as a result. The lack of graciousness and professionalism I experienced at APEX is something that will forever astound me. Though I may not be the largest company I am by no means a small company as I look to purchase 5-7 trailers over the next 5 years, each one with a $160K price tag.
If you have any questions about my experiences with APEX please feel free to reach out to me. As I struggled to find information on specialty trailer companies when I was searching for a company I am happy to share some of my experiences with other companies including 4 which I had excellent experiences with.