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I don’t think I ever wrote a negative review or complained about a kite manufacturer before, but just like I take the time to write goods things, I think that when a company does something very wrong and shows lack of decency and effort for minimal costumer service, it deserves a post as well.

Earlier this year, I purchased a brand new Ozone Reo. My first session on it was amazing, and it truly is an amazing kite. After only three sessions, I began to notice pinholes in the canopy. I had my local distributor patch the pinholes and expressed my concerns that something was very wrong with the material of the kite. He agreed with me, and we decided to give it some more time. A few more sessions I noticed more pinholes in the same area, and this just kept on getting worse and worse. I decided to call Ozone.

• I sent an email to Ozone’s US offices, and no one bothered to respond or call me back
• I called them myself, and spoke to the person in charge. He confirmed he received my email and asked that I send him some images of the pinholes
• I took the images, and emailed to them, and again no one bothered to get back to me
• I called again, and they basically told me this is normal wear and tear and that they are not responsible
• I was shocked that they didn’t even want to examine the kite to see what was wrong with it. When I suggested that they should, they said they are willing to look at it but I will have to pay for the shipping. It was at that point that I realized they don’t really care and were just trying to make me go away
• I called again and told them that any serious kite manufacturer would offer to inspect the kite, and in fact would replace it immediately but they refused

I am not sure if all of their kites have these issues, but I do know that the one they shipped me does. It is very possible that the one they shipped me has defective material but Ozone refuse to acknowledge this and were basically ignoring my emails. Every time I sent an email, I had to chase them in order to receive acknowledgment that the email was received to once again hear that this was “normal wear and tear”.

I had about a dozen kites over the years and never had this issue with any of them. This was clearly a defective issue, and Ozone refused to man-up to their warranty and do the right thing.

I can’t even begin to describe how frustrated and disappointed I am. You can only image what it feels like to purchase a brand new kite, drop so much money on it, discover that it’s defective, and have the manufacturer completely ignore you.

At this point I am pretty certain that Ozone does not care about it and to me this reflects on really bad customer service.

If anyone from Ozone contacts me to try and resolve this and do the right thing, I will post it on this forum and report.

I am also curious to hear if anyone else had similar issues.

Thanks.

Posting a picture will be better than a thousand words.

I have pin holes in my all ozone lei kites too. I have 4 ozone lei's 13m edge, 10m c4, 8m catalyst, 6m reo.

It was explained to me (not by ozone) that the pin holes can be caused by sand when tightly packing a kite. Since then I pack my as loosely as possible and have seen a significant reduction if not complete stop in pin holes.

I don't think you have defective material that is any different to any other ozone lei kite.

I have almost exclusively run ozone leis since 09 and assumes that these pin holes were common occurance amongst all leis?
It is interested that you haven't had this issue in other brands.

Now that I think about. The previous 7 Ozone lei's I have owned also had pin holes in them. So that's all total of 11 ozone leis a pin holed.

Wait I lie. I have owned an one more ozone lei that I bought new rode twice, didn't suit my style so I sold it. That kite is the only one that didn't have pin holes in it.

Plummet:
I agree with you, the canopy on the Ozone kites have pin holes. I must have patched a dozen of them in one year. My Cabrinha kites don't seem to have the problem, but the bladder on the Ozone seem to last longer than the 0.06mm Cabrinha's.

Kiterunner - youve gone about things in the correct manner and what there saying is a croc if shit !!! And im a big hater of any brand with bad customer service for someones hard earned $.
Sand causing pinholes from being wrapped tight - any 'Rocket Scientists care to engineer and fix their problem for them ???

Thanks for posting kiterunner, i will avoid their kites like the plague! Sounds like hassle to me

Thanks for posting kiterunner, i will avoid their kites like the plague! Sounds like hassle to me

I don't know if it is the same problem, but I had small pinholes in my 2013 Catalyst, too. But what I noticed is, that they where all in the region where I put sometimes the kite bag with stones in it or somthing similar to weight the kite in stronger winds, so mainly left and rigth from the center. I often do that on a rocky beach. So think in my case it comes from something heavy pushing the kite canopy against some sharp stones edges.

Did the distributor get you to fill in a warranty form?

have to say from personal experience with ozone this sounds unusual