I did have a good experience with shopping at KJTO’s shop but I’m not trying to defend KTJO here as I know that others have not had good experiences. I do feel that it’s necessary to comment that many small businesses make a lot of cool accessories for our trucks. KJTO is a two person shop so yes they are very busy designing, buying, selling, shipping, answering the phone, responding to emails, etc and as you can imagine they can get overwhelmed. MESO Customs comes to mind as well, he started out as a one man part time operation and designed so many cool goodies for our trucks that he was soon swapped with orders and even though he has expanded to a full time operation with employees he still can’t meet demand. I’ve had great success with MESO despite his inventory limitations. Others have come and gone because they couldn’t meet demand, held deposits too long or were slow to respond to their customers. My point is that when dealing with small businesses we need to be smart, patient, and understanding that they often operate on the edge chaos or bankruptcy.
I do take that into consideration and give the small guys more leniency. I understand not being able to keep up demand due to productions times and limitations. I have more than enough patience when it comes to waiting for products. $2000 for a custom folding pocket knife and waiting 16 months without contact. I'm willing to wait, but also do have fair expectations return. I'm not trying to bash KTJO, but just want to share my personal experience. I've had a small online business for a few years now and I get it. I was a one person sweatshop that came up with an idea only for it to be copied by other larger small business shops. Sucks.
KTJO offers things people want and overall quality isn't as good as what you would rate a mid tier industry standard. Responses are super late and delayed. Sometimes not even getting a response.
When I wouldn't get a response, I could cycle through all the contact info. From the website, Facebook, email, PayPal email and I might get a response. I have preordered things and it was hard to even get confirmation my order was received and accounted for. Whatever preorder system she had in place was just horrible. I feel she just kept a spreadsheet and just didn't bother unless there was an update on her end. But she didn't keep the people waiting updated. It's as if she went with things as they happened and didn't have that business sense.
KTJO Items I have installed:
Pop N Lock - The wiring was too short. Should have been planned out better. A little longer on her end wouldn't have increased cost as much.
Bolt N Open - Something I regret purchasing. The mounts in the kit were sized incorrectly or just didn't have the correct tolerance to be universal to all Tacomas. I ended up having to fabricate a link myself just to get it to actuate.
HU Display - I'm pretty sure this was another long pre-order. Maybe even over a year. When I got it there were just general directions of the UI. No install. Pretty straight forward, but there is a harness in there and it leaves you wondering if you use it or not. Had do dig up the Chinese manufacturer and watch their YouTube videos. Didn't really get an answer. Figured it out with the help of others that bought it. Mine has this whining sound, sounds like interference. I saw that some people experience the same thing where they were send a replacement harness and that fixed it for them. I emailed and asked about it and it wasn't acknowledged at all.
Grab Handle Bar - Fitment and quality. Bad hardware. Had to supply my own. Super long wait. Lack of update.
Door Bowl Lights - No issue.
While the pre-orders happened, she was banned from TW. So then there wasn't a way to contact her. So it was radio silence for a while.
There should have been some effort to just pop up to say it's still in play.
I learned to only buy things that are simple and non-issue. Where you won't ever have to contact her.
With MESO, I spent a lot on his stuff. It doesn't matter where I reach out to him. He always responds pretty quickly answering all my questions about the item or my order. When something is wrong, he fixes it. You can contact Stew with an issue, you'll have the replacement part in hand and installed weeks before hearing back from KTJO. Even in the beginning. I'm sure MESO had more interest and inquiries than MESO. He stayed on top of it.
www.ktjo4x4.com
