Do not order from Proline. Their horribly outdated website should have been a good enough indication to dissuade me, but they offered cheaper prices on the "Thule" brand clamps with rails than anywhere else I could find. That also should have tipped me off to realize, while they're not entirely a scam company, they're pretty close. I should have heeded the warnings in the few bad reviews at the time. Quick summary: horrible customer service, did not give me a refund, and their website is a joke with links that often take you in circle instead of to the product information.
I was looking to order a roof rack for a van, and according to the measurements on their website (57"), the rails would not be quite long enough to my van. "No fear!" says the website, "you can order longer rails to fit your vehicle." (Not exactly in these words.) but you have to order the longer rails (which are only (3) three inches longer!) separately. And the 60" rails cost more than the 57" rails with the clamps. Ludacris. The clamps are the most significant part to the entire setup, which the real ones from legitimate companies cost significantly more. Anyway.
So I called to enquire about their products and figure out why the longer rails didn't just replace the slightly shorter ones for a reasonable price increase, and then to confirm that the longer rails didn't come with their own gutter clamps. I was first reassured that shorter clamps would indeed not fit the width of my van and then he explained that the rails and clamps are packaged and wrapped together, so they would not open the plastic wrap and swap the rails, therefore the only option is to buy both and find something else to use the extra 57" rails for. Okay, fine, even after buying both sets of rails it would still cost less than the legitimate Thule gutter clamps. I was also verbally ensured that the longer set of rails would in fact fit inside of the clamps the shorter rails came with, but when they arrived, they were extremely difficult to squeeze into the hole. And I didn't think I would be able to slide the clamps along the rails to get it to the perfect width, so after trying for a while I gave up and decided I would send these expensive rails back, and thankfully was able to make the shorter rails work, it was so close. The most unfortunate part being I was not able to the rail covers on them, so now after having them for a year they are rusted pretty badly. That's a different story though. There is one more part to this one.
As soon as I received the rails I tried to figure out switch, and when I couldn't make the longer rails work, I was glad I would be getting a refund for the most expensive part of the purchase, over half of the cost actually. So to the sorry excuse of a website to begin that worthless process. First, as you'd see on their website (https://www.prolineracks.com/return.html hopefully no one else will need this), it says I have to call to explain why I am returning and obtain an RA#. The person on the phone, I believe was the same man I had talked to before, I could be wrong as it was a few weeks apart, but they voices sounded very familiar. As soon as I told him I was issuing a return for a refund, he immediately had a very sour tone to his voice and was cold and slow to help me. The first time I talked to them about questions to purchase, he (or the other person) was quite warm and willing to help. Once he created the RA# for me, he very quickly read it off to me so that I could not keep up and was rude when I asked him to slow down and repeat it. He did repeat it though, slightly slower and I asked him a few questions to make sure I would be making the return correctly which he continued to be terse and rude in his replies and then as soon as I said, "Okay, I think that was all of my questions." He immediately hung up. Might have said a single right before, like good or finally, but it was too fast and soft for me to really tell.
And so I followed the instructions for return and sent it back. And then I never received my refund. I called once about it a month or so later and I was told they did not have the RA# on file so they could not confirm if they ever received it. Bastards. Once I learned that, I wish I would have just kept the rails and figured out something else to do with them. I'm surprised and disappointed to see they're still in business a year later. read more
