Rovers NorthReviews of roversnorth.com

Very responsive re product questions and decent prices, however I asked them for a reference for someone to rebuild a 300tdi a few years back, $40,000 later I've got a Landy I wouldn't dream of taking off the ranch.. stick to what you know unless you own RBE that is... If you don't know, don't refer it looks terrible on you.

I bought a complete shock absorber and parabolic spring kit from Rovers North and was told the kit was in stock and available for immediate shipment. I ordered a stainless steel NRP exhaust kit at the same time, but was told it was backordered about a month. This was fine by me since I wouldn't be able to install it all in a single weekend anyway. However, when the shocks and springs kit arrived, only 3 of the shock absorbers were present in the kit, and one was backordered. I called twice to check on the backordered shock, and each time was told it would be another 2-3 weeks. Never once did Rovers North even apologize for the delay. It finally arrived about 5 weeks later, but I wish I'd been told they didn't have the complete kit in stock to begin with. Additionally, the shocks come with incorrect washers and a very ambiguous generic graphic on how to install them. This required more calls on my part, and I was given two different answers about how many washers there should be and how to install them. Rovers North eventually sent me the correct washers for free, but I had already figured this out and bought my own at my local hardware. The NRP exhaust kit arrived, and is in fact a Magna Flow exhaust kit. Although it is of very high quality, the mid-pipe attachment flange did not line up with the bracket on my frame by about 1". Additionally, the special custom tailpipe hanger thingamajig was obviously not made to fit my early Series 3 frame, which has the bracket on the outside of the frame rail, not the inside. Although it still worked, it meant I was short one of the fancy stainless steel exhaust clamps. I called Rovers North to let them know this, and they said they would have Magna Flow drop ship me a clamp for free. It's been 2 weeks to the day and I've heard nothing from either Magna Flow or Rovers North, although Rovers North committed to getting back to me with a drop ship date. Finally, the Magna Flow exhaust kit has a very "tuner car" sound to it. My 17-year old son who's into modding his Focus ST and auto-crossing it loves the exhaust note, if that tells you anything. I wish I had known this, since my primary motivation for buying the NRP system was a quiet exhaust note and to upgrade to stainless steel. So now I have a Series Land Rover that sounds like a Focus ST or WRX or something. Not what I wanted. I have been a Rovers North customer for over 20 years and have spent literally 10's of thousands of dollars with them. I used to consider them the LL Bean of classic Land Rover parts, but no more. I will definitely be shopping around for Rover parts now, since Rovers North's initial competence and after-sales service have apparently suffered in recent times. Their premium prices used to be justified by the service experience, but that was definitely not the case with my most recent purchase. If I were the Letorneys I would want to know that this was going on.

More expensive than other sites.

I maybe placed a half dozen orders from RN over the last few years and been generally satisfied. The last few times have less successful. With an order for exmoor hood sticks and canvas I got an incorrect bow, and the wrong canvas. Both were corrected reasonably quickly. Last order was fruatrating. Communication was poor, despite a sense of urgency I didn't get acceptable response times with returned emails or quotes. Expectation is 1 business day. But what was truly irritating was that I had a large quote:order, perhaps $3,500 or so if parts, and i was timing the purchase/arrival based on a number of factors including the stage of restoration, exchange rate, shipping etc. I had ordered about half of it. I get an email, I think on a thurs or Friday, about a Memorial Day sale. I email in and ask if I can get the balance of my order included in the sale. No response. On the Tuesday following the sale I get an email saying sorry, my quote doesn't qualify because I didn't order it on line. Well, that's just irritating. I mentioned it to Scott and he said he didn't get the email because he wasn't working on the weekend. Fair enough, but you would think that I would still be able to get the benefit of the sale. I responded, that was fine I'll get my next order out of the UK. Nobody seemed to care. So I'll get my next order out of the UK! Anyway I find it hard to believe that the purpose of the Sale! I have a bad feeling about RN now...

I dropped it from 3 stars to 2 because after telling me they were going to help me out after the fact, they didn't bother. ************************************************************ I've bought a lot of stuff here and I had an issue last year with a part. I then sent a note about it and never heard back. Expected more honestly. **I did talk with Steven and he said they would figure it out with me the following day and then no one called. That was 2 + weeks ago. FWIW. ***Three months later, no call back. I kind of see this as a double fail now. Why bother having if you aren't going do anything about it?