CFB Manufacturing dissatisfaction with food trailer purchase and service Dahlonega Georgia

 My wife and I purchased a food trailer from CFB manufacturing in November of 2012.  The entire experience was very dissatisfying.  In reviewing the consumer report on CFB in your complaint system, I was shocked how similar the experience of the person reporting was to our experience.

The intial experience of specifying and ordering the trailer was fine.  But every other aspect of the experience was a huge disappointment.  I would never purchase another trailer from this company. Nor would I every recommend them to anyone interested in purchasing a food trailer.  The following are a list of the issues we had with our purchase.

Communciation during the manufacturing was incredibly poor.  I have a job in manufacturing and constantly deal with the customer in both good and bad situation.  I know what good customer service is and this was bad service.  Although they did not miss delivery significantly, the communication during the process was extremely poor. CFB promised regular updates and photos of the trailer in progress - they never provided.  The delivery of the trailer frame from their supplier was delayed and it seemed that the reason for the delay change everytime that we called to check on the status.  We had a tight schedule for the launch of our business and wanted to confirm the status of the exterior of the trailer so we could apply art work.  Eventually, the delays and communnication of differnt stories on reason from CFB made me concerned that we might have been scammed.  The supplier never called to update us.(not once) We always had to call.  I had a one hour phone conversation with one of the owners of CFB about communication, customer service and our frustrations.

Once we picked up the trailer. There were many problems. On the day of our scheduled pick up, the company was not staffed with any technicans or mechanics.  The ball did not match the ball on our truck. We bought the correct ball, but CFB had no means to install the ball.  We had to travel to a near by tire repair shop and get them to install- at our cost. Albeit , a very small expense but CFB may no attempt to to pay for this cost.  The generator on the trailer was installed such that the trailer lift handle/crank could not be used to raise/lower the trailer without striking your hand on the frame of the generator. Ironcially, the CFB owner struck his hand when he showed us how to hook up the trailer.  The genrator that we speced in the purchase order was propane. CFB delivered a gasoline generator.  The fit and finish on the interior was poor in many areas.  Within 1 month, we had to repair leaks.  The floor  received minor damage during the CFB installation of the refridgerator.  We specified 2 propane stove top, but since the generator delivered was gas powered instead of propane, CFB suppied a cheap electric 2 burner stove top.  When we arrived home, we noticed that one of the roof exhausts was missing. We immediately contacted CFB. They replied on the phone was that it must have fallen off in transit from their facility to our home, but the unit was clearly not installed. They stated that I climbed on top of the trailer to inspect the exhaust prior to leaving. This clearly did not happen as I never did this.  Later, they admitted that the exhaust was not installed and paid for the problem to be corrected.  The method that they engineered to secure the refridgerator resulted in bowing of the trailer frame which would eventually result in the door frame being warped.  We had to correct with a local shop.  We should have been more dilligent with the check out, but we had traveled 4.5 hours to pick up the trailer and were rushed to return home.  With no maintenance or installation staff present, I am not sure how the issues would have been corrected.

Once the trailer was in operation, we had many issues. The noise of the gas genrator was so loud that we could not use it in many locations as the customers complained.  The generator had to be turned 90 degrees and the lock box removed to allow the trailer to be loaded on the ball of the truck.  Attempts to muffle the exhaust sound resulted in overheating.  The generator does not have enough capacity to operate all of the power sources similtaneously. This is very annoying as CFB was involved in the specing of the equipement and the generator. They purchased and installed all of the equipement and should have known the total amp/wattage load.  I cant help but wonder if the specified generator(propane) had been provided, the power loading  would not have been an issues.  We have recently been informed of by local auto mechanics that the total load of the trailer is too much for the frame and tire size.  This will cause excessive tire wear and will need corrected.

There were many small issues with what was delivered. As state above, the 2 burner stove top was replaced by an inexpensive electric unit  The PO specified delivery of coffee urn and pots- not delivered.  Power hook ups/pigtails were not provided (although not in the PO, this seems like something that should be included in the price and the product).  No manuals were provided. Nor were recipts provided for any of the components.  Obtaining the title of the trailer so that we could tag in SC was an ordeal.  During the check out, CFB management did not even review the PO items- and we did not require them to do so- shame on me.

I must be fair to CFB. Our frurstration level was so high up to purchase, that we bascially discontinued communication with them after the issue with the exhaust fan and our very poor experience leading up to delivery. We opted to trust local mechanics and electricians to resolve the issues at our expense. I do not know if CFB would have honored these as warranty items -but their initial reaction to the exhaust fan issue was so disappointing that we did not pursue any other issues. 

The ownership of CFB clearly understood our dissatisfaction with our purchase and the total experience. But, they never once followed up with us to see how things were going.  That says it all !