Dave Kruger wrote: > > I'll speak up for Folbot USA's integrity and to their commitment to service and > support of their boats -- they have served me well, and have been more than > generous with assistance on improvements I have made on my G II. In my book, > they are a great company -- and Phil Cotton is a class act. I second what Dave Kruger says about the company and Phil. The products are solid and the company has a well deserved reputation for customer service and followup. Like any company, they do get bad batches of components and when they catch it they make good on them. In case you might think this is an exclusive Folbot problem, I can tell you tales and tales about Feathercraft, Klepper, Nautiraid et al. From time to time, they all have had problems. The funniest happened to me well before I got seriously involved in folding kayaks. I had bought my first boat, a Klepper double without a rudder. The seller would not allow me to buy a rudder until I used the boat a sufficient amount of time without one. I was going on a camping trip and rushed by the shop, hoping by then he would finally sell me one. He asked me a few questions (I don't think there were any essay questions) then at last gave me his blessing. I wrote out my check, grabbed the rudder assembly and drove off. I didn't paddle to the site but rather took a ferry. The next day when I went to make the boat and attach the rudder, the rudder pin would not fit in the bracket hole. Try as I could, it wouldn't. Rather than try to sand it down, I sat a moment and thought...what could I use to replace the pin? It hit me at once. I was camping; what do you have when camping? tent stakes. We had several tents in the group and a stake from one of them was slim enough to do the job and we were able to paddle the rest of the weekend. The next weekday, I went in with the skin of my boat and the rudder. The fellow in the shop (I am avoiding a well known name) could see that the pin would not fit my boat. He went around to every other display model, about four of them. At each one, the pin would not fit and he would say "Ya", then on to the next one. Finally, he said this was an absolute first ever in all his days with Klepper and, crestfallen, gave me a replacement pin. A few days later I was in the shop and talking to one young guy who was working their part time. He said "Oh, yeah, we got a whole batch of them. They were too heavily anondized or something." To this day I think the old fox knew this all along and was just making a show for me! :-) ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Apr 08 2000 - 21:08:37 PDT
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