About a week ago I ordered a Mad River Adventure 16 from Overton's. Great price and shipping was fast. The canoe arrived at my house and my wife had them put it in the garage. The packaging looked mostly fine, just scuffs here and ther, she peeked in to make sure it was the right canoe.
When I got home and opened it all up, I found a huge gouge in the top of the boat, pretty close to the stern. It looks like someone hit it with a machete.
I've already called Overtons, they're getting in touch with the "shipping dept."
But at this point I don't know what to do. Should I keep it and ask for some money off? Should I request a new one?
As a three time owner of “serious” MR canoes, I have a low, low opinion of the Adventure. I recommend contriving to return it and get something “real”.
Options Thanks guys, I’d love a “real” canoe, but its hard to find something in the under $700 range that seats three, has comfy seat and can accept a motor. My only other option in that price range was an Old Town, but it didn’t seem that much better. I’ve trolled around Craigslist and all I see is crap or $1500 boats.
New price, but not new condition? If I ordered a new canoe and it came damaged, I would not accept it. Sounds like you found the damage in a reasonable amount of time. When UPS or other shippers drop stuff off, they rarely wait for you to unpack it and inspect, so you aren’t to blame for finding the damage a day or two later.
IF you are really tight on money and you feel that you would be HAPPY to accept the damage for monetary reimbursement, that is OK too. It could work out well for everybody involved. Ya know, shipment damage does happen and if you can come to a mutually satisfactory solution between you and the seller and the shipper, why not.
IF the damage is all the way through the material, send the canoe back. It is not easy for amatures to repair polyethylene. If it is a blemish, you can smooth it out to some extent by using a heat gun BE CAREFUL. You can do a lot of damage to a poly canoe with a heat gun if you don’t know what you are doing. Check out Youtube for instructions on how to repair poly canoes and kayaks
hey ezwater, ease up a bit, I kinda like my adventurer 16. I’m kinda proud of my corporate blem boat that I bought at Dick’s sporting goods a few years back. There’s a lot it doesn’t do well but it paddles just fine. There are trade offs with every boat I’ve ever paddled or owned. Besides, I bet your “real” boats don’t have molded in cup holders.
I got a dream where I’m freestylin’ in the adventurer 16 from the high back seat in the stern, and slippin’ a pbr out of the cup holder, while paddlin with one hand, and chuggin’ down the pbr while the boat sinks on a low brace. The key is to finish the beer before you totally sink. You don’t want to get water in your pbr. That would ruin the beer.
Well, I should be more charitable toward floaters who get themselves stuck with rather unsuitable craft. I just wish I could get to them before the purchase, not after.
they might not I worked in retail sporting goods fir a while, and based on some familiarity with corporate return policies, it may not be worth their while to retreive the damaged one. the cost of labor, transport, warehousing and re-selling could cost them more than writing it off on insurance, as well as the customer good will gained by giving you duplicate boats. Unless it’s really in your way I would not remind them about it and see what happens. If they don’t contact you or show up within 60 days I would consider the damaged one fair game to sell or donate to a local scouting camp.
You’ll have fun with that boat. My ex and I were kind of boat snobs (sea kayaks and trad canoes) but we rented an Adventure 16 while in the Everglades a few years ago and liked it so much we watched Craigslist until we found a used one in good shape for $400. We paddled it with 230 (bow) and 240 (stern) Werner Skagit kayak paddles and loved it for negotiating our rocky but straight class 1 and 2 streams, sparing a lot of battering to our nicer boats especially during low water times.