Ozone edge V8 stitching on leading edge

[teabaggin]

Thanks for the pic downunder . In your pic you see the zigzag stitch that is 30 mm away from the LE join that is a layer of reinforced material on the inside that has been zigzag stitched to main LE material ( I think its teijin ) to strengthen the LE join. That reinforcing layer of material stops at both first struts away from centre. Where it finishes is where the problem starts . Where that extra layer of material that has been glued and stitched to the outside section ( which happens to be at the largest diameter across the centre for 3.6 metres ie 13 metre kite ) I have no problems. Just outside of that reinforced area is where the material is tearing. My first pic on my last post shows where reinforcing finishes. BTW that pic is not my kite but another 13 metre V8 ( 4 mths old ) that this is happening to , not as bad but is getting worse. This could just be an issue with 13 metre V8 's but ozone wouldn't even look into it . Serial number of my kite below , any others close to this I strongly advise to check them cheers

CAM00343.jpg (96.42 KiB) Viewed 1526 times

[Faxie]

Ozone use to be regarded as one of the best kites in performance and build quality.
Teabag should get paid for R&D on this one.
It doesn't matter how small they appear to be, now they are selling products now fit for purpose and then not standing by its dwindling customers

I still regard them as excellent performers, but after so many stories in real life and on internet about quality problems, I certainly don't regard them as good build quality anymore. Nice and tidy, yes, durable, no. Most stories concern the LE btw, either stitching on segments and closure seam, or bladders.

[kitcho207]

The last edges I had were 2013. Absolutely loved them. And I agree they are still excellent performers.
I understand that they have to keep making them lighter, faster, stronger and cheaper (lol)
But the 2013 was really sorted. Now all the racers are on foils what is the point of making the edge so light it's frail?

[Cees Kerkmeijer]

I can confirm what Matti says in his post above. The dealer and importer have to take care of any issues.
My 11 meter Ozone Edge (see my post above) was sent to a kite repair centre by the dealer. There did in fact appear to be some loose stitching (about 3 cm) on the outside of the leading edge. Not sure how this can have happened, it does in my opinion appear to be a stitching quality issue. Or perhaps the material of the leading adge is not strong enough? The kite has been repaired, not sure now though whether this solves the issue. Who's to say that the stitching on the rest of the kite is ok?

[Hannay]

Hi guys, I am Iain Hannay, the Ozone GM. I have been following this thread, speaking to our dealers and distributors about the posts that are appearing here and also our design team have been informed about them too.

We do take our customer service and warranty very seriously, we record and document everything and the Ozone owner Matt Taggart personally takes care of all warranty claims. If there is a problem that has been found with the design or the factory workmanship then we recall and replace. You can ask our dealer network about the actions we have taken in the past when issues have appeared, I am sure that they will back us up with the speed and actions that we have taken.

Our Warranty system is the same as most companies, the customer takes the kite back to the shop where they bought it and the shop deals with the distributor, if he feels that this is a production issue, lets us know and we make the tests and decide what to do. We do not use the warranty procedure as a marketing tool, it should be fair and strong otherwise it will be abused. As a shop owner myself I have seen many examples of abuse and bad treatment of kites by the user but they ask for a replacement! If you throw your board on the kite and it makes a hole, that is not a manufacturing mistake. If you pump your kite up too much and the material deforms, that is not our fault, that is the customers error.

Gerry (Teabaggin) who started this post has not shown the images of his over inflated kite, please check them out yourself and then make a decision on this if you were in our position. Kite Power, the shop, also offered a full repair for him. I think that if this was a car or a motorbike that had been damaged there would be no question of not a warranty, somehow kites seem to be different.

Here is how the timeline happened...

Gerry claimed warranty to the shop Kite Power
Kite Power sent Matt Taggart the warranty file
Ozone refused manufacture warranty due to over inflation (see pics)
KP informed the customer and offered a free repair on the area/s of concern
Gerry accepted and got the repaired kite.
This forum thread was started.

We use industry standard materials from Teijin, the strongest on the market now. We are constantly making tests on new methods and due to this post we are now having a look again at the stitching. Please bear in mind that this case represents .01% of our sales and although a small percentage, we are reacting to it and taking it seriously.

I will post the results of the factory tests in this thread once they are done.

Thanks for your time and understanding Iain.

P.s. There is some chat on this post about tax evasion and some guesswork about who we are, for me this is not a very constructive post about the problem that you are having. We are 7 people based in New Zealand, Spain, France and the company is registered in UK, all company taxes are paid in the UK and personal taxes paid in the country of residence. We are a very small team and all very dedicated to producing kites for the sport that we love, we all ride on a daily basis if possible.

[Kamikuza]

Who took the photos up there?

I've seen that recessed seam called a "feature" to protect it from abrasion, but can't remember where.

[ragzilla]

wouldn't have happened if it was a slingshot......

-24hour slingshot help hotline.
-bombproof construction
- next day replies via email.

they got my buissness for life...... shame.... I really liked my 2011 C4.

[Huib]

After 3 kitesession the lining of my bar let go . See picture.
Out of courtesy I received assurances that the bar part would be replaced . That was early January.
Despite numerous times urging my dealer , I still have not gotten a new bar part.
I really like kiting with my Ozone kites. I have five kites and 4 bars of Ozone .
But I hate their warranty service at Ozone .
I had this year an other warranty issue with a Chrono V2-18 meters that didn't fly well. Getting an satisfied solution was very time resuming.
Update: I got from my dealer a new bar. But he didn't get from Ozone a new bar.

[corbett]

I think that if this was a car or a motorbike that had been damaged there would be no question of not a warranty, somehow kites seem to be different.



lr_Seam_Comparison3.jpg

You model yourselves after car dealers? right

I understand some of your re-sellers, powerkiteshop.com for example, are refusing to re-sell certain Ozone kite models. Will you confirm or deny the truth of my experience?

[jeromeL]

I have had same issue with my first kite, the seams stretched before between strut on each side.
It took a lot of abuse (tomahawk, inverted inside out, self rescue in waves, probably over inflated it a bunch of time as well) so I am not really allowed to complain.

Anyway that shop did a great job repairing stitching and wasn't overly expensive.
http://precisionkiterepair.com/

Basically they have added some material in the leading edge and restitched over it.