Well, I pushed the point about my board as hard as I could, but that ended up not accomplishing anything. I made the point that I had wanted a board that could effectively deal with rocks, and had given examples of my request in writing, and what happened as a result was that the sales representative and the proprietor of Progressive Sports started attacking my honesty. That was very ugly. When I spoke to the head of Progressive Sports, he was very condescending. He then misrepresented some pictures I had sent to him in good faith and then accused me of lying. He furthermore disparaged me as a teacher. Pretty ugly stuff.
Well, I'm done with them. I made my feelings known to the head of Exocet. I doubt he's going to do anything but at least the way I was treated became public. After I did that, I received an even more bizarre e-mail from the proprietor of Progressive Sports, accusing me directly of lying. Even more ugly stuff.
I'm not happy completely with the way I handled things. I aired a little too much laundry on the Zone out of frustration, but I can't take that back. I feel a little stupid. I also have that feeling after a fight when you regret fighting in the first place. I felt strongly about making my case and needed to, but I hate getting into the ring with that kind of energy, especially with people who are determined to make me wrong.
Caveat Emptor, everybody. I certainly learned that the Hudson requires a special type of board. I also learned that companies aren't terribly concerned with little people. Not that I should be surprised, but it hurts when that hits you in your wallet.
After I get the Marlin repaired, I'm going to sell it and get something a little more tough. Even if it's fine for ocean paddling or bays, I don't want to use it anymore. Too much bad karma.
Hey, don't feel bad! After doing a google search on Steve Gottlieb Exocet, I came across a blog post from someone who had damaged an Exocet windsurf board while doing noting but windsurfing in surf and he had gotten the same type of response from Patrice as you did.
ReplyDeleteHere's the blog post: http://boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2013/01/exocet-boards-break-and-company-thinks.html
Here's a blog post with photos of the damage and accompanying text.
http://boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2012/12/exocet-windsup-10-not-for-surf.html (this is a must read all the way to the end)
And then there is this from June...
http://boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2013/06/blame-yourself.html
Yep, come August, another board breaks (apparentally the AST construction sucks!) and Exocet has to deal with yet another pissed customer and you end up as the punching bag. So don't feel bad. It's probably in their employee manual on how to deal with people like you.
The boardsurfr dude was considering a Bic too, wonder what he ended up getting?
I just saw on another thread somewhere that there is someone who no longer deals with Exocet because "he loathes and despises the current sales rep in this country." If his last response to you is indicative of how he treats other people, then I can see why.
DeleteThanks for looking this up, Sweetie. Have I mentioned recently that you're awesome?
ReplyDelete