On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, QCC Kayaks wrote: [snip] > I agree that there is an added element of risk for the buyer purchasing > sight unseen. However, there are things that can be done to mitigate the > risk. I'm sure there many stories to be told about unhappy kayak buyers who > purchased from retailers as well. Personally I won't buy anything from a > local store, catalog house or Internet store unless they will give a 100% > satisfaction money back guarantee, including shipping both ways. That tells > me that returns are rare and they stand behind what they sell. The other > thing is how I'm treated as a customer prior to purchasing. We regularly > receive comments from folks that they received better service, more > knowledgeable help and better answers to their questions than they did in > their local store. I'm sure Matt Broze would concur with this and receives > the same type of comments. [snip] i've got to tell this from my side then ;-) my dad used to race sailboats, then he got into canoeing, and a few years ago, decided he liked sea kayaking the best... he started with a plastic boat [which he later sold me ;-], then got a glass boat. after a few years, he decided time to buy the one boat he would paddle the rest of his life ... after lots of research, and a few test paddles, he decided on the "mariner II"... he contacted matt, through the mail, as he's not on the net. matt asked what he was paddling, how tall, how much he weighed, how and where the boat would be paddled, then said two things. the first was my dad's [then] current boat was designed for a bigger paddler [matt, i'd _love_ to hear how you really described it, off-line if you'd like, the seda viking] and the 2nd recommendation was to NOT buy the mariner II. he felt it wouldn't be a good choice. now, he did recommend another mariner boat, more suited to my dad's alleged ;-) needs. [i say that in jest, as more experienced paddlers know, what you want now, might not be what you want in a year, or when you get it, you find you really wanted something else!!] anyway, through their mail and a phone call, my dad got the mariner max ... and loves it. he got the "feel" he wanted. he hasn't gotten to paddle it in rough weather yet, but has had a chance to paddle in 1ft chop. he was very satisfied by the way he was handled, and by the boat when he did finally receive it [i think he agonized a year over the purchase, it was shipped as soon as it was made, so the agony was because of him, not mariner kayaks] mark #------canoeist[at]netbox[dot]com----http://www.diac.com/~zen/mark ---- # mark zen o, o__ o_/| o_. po box 474 </ [\/ [_| [_\ ft. lupton, co 80621-0474 (`-/-------/----') (`----|-------\-') #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~ http://www.diac.com/~zen/paddler [index to club websites i administer] Rocky Mtn Sea Kayak Club, Colorado River Flows, Poudre Paddlers The Colorado Paddlers' Resource, Rocky Mtn Canoe Club Trip Page -- Fortune: Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person? ---Francois De La Rochefouauld *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 29 1999 - 15:41:29 PDT
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