ulukaya wrote: ↑Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:01 am
I have a 9 month old Core XR5 which I used like 15-20 sessions, and kept always dry in great condition. All of a sudden on 15 knots the bridle line breaks into 2.
When I contact the dealers as well as the rep in Florida, they invoice me for shipping from Germany and I have to wait at least 5 days to get the replacement part?
Is this a norm, every time some thing pops on my kite do I need to pay international shipping and wait a week to repair? (I know a kite repair guy could make a line same length and stitch it for me) But aren't at least the distributors suppose to keep spare parts? I'm pretty sure there are even consumer laws around it. You wouldn't buy any brand outside your country if you had to wait for an international shipping each time you need a part. Like when you want to replace a light of your Mercedes, do you ship it from Germany, I don't think so.
Apparently they haven't fixed a thing since
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2400299&p=1023797#p1023797
What they changed is they doubled the price of spare parts. As when I asked for this $17 bridle, the rep quickly suggested I change the E1 PF bridle for as low as $47.88. That's just a 60% increase from last year's price (29.90). Good luck to Core USA with this quick ripoff strategies.
In answer to your question, the answer is no, it's not the norm and yes distributors do carry backup stock just as the manufacturers should, but.. Until recently Bridles have not been an issue with Core and whatever it is about the set up with the XR5, (because we here in the UK have also had a couple of premature bridle failures, well not failure like yours, but undue wear which were quickly replaced.) that caused this will be quickly investigated. Core themselves were helpful and I imagine if there is an issue they will address it, it wouldn't be the first time that some far east supplier scalped the quality specs of an item like this.
However had you taken the issue straight to the internet in a deliberate attempt to destroy a companies reputation instead of contacting the head office to complain first, I'm sure I'd probably also have asked for the shipping costs. On a kite as young as the XR5 I'm quite sure you are as legally protected in your market as our customers are here in Europe, so frankly your suggestion of 'attitude' doesn't surprise me, but nonetheless two wrongs don't make a right, contact Core USA direct. They can't be held responsible for transit times between mainland Europe and the USA, hell our internal mail service here in the UK can take five days locally if the weekend is involved. The XR5 is a very good kite, there are lots and lots of happy users, if as you suggest we have bridle issues I'm sure we'll make sure there are spares, we all (Core distributers) carry spares particularly to known issues, but it's not BS when I say we seriously don't get that many problems, until now we have no bridle spares,never having needed them. I've been selling Core for four years now and have sold several hundred. I get depower rope wear problems with the Sensor bar occasionally, the odd blown valve, but until very recently not a single bridle failure, but I'm now duly aware and would have thanked you for a less public heads up.
Where do you store the kite? You don't have a rodent issue by any chance, nothing they like more than a good chew on a bridle line, just thinking aloud, even our worn bridles have not snapped.
I hope you get your carriage refunded, I'm sure it's an oversight.