Has anyone out there recently purchased anything from Epic Kayaks. I bought a new Epic 18X in June and almost every time I have customer support question, I get little or no response. Also, it seems no one is minding the Epic website. On two occasions, I tried to purchase some items on their website (i.e. t-shirts, etc.) and the site took my address and credit card information but the order was never confirmed via email and I never received the items. Luckily my credit card was not charged either.
It seems these guys don’t give a hoot about their customers once they make a sale or do they really care about their website business.
I’d be interested in hearing any similar experiences or comments.
Is this “sherco”?
Probably someone from the
"QCC cult"
Not me - honest!
Back when I bought my first good Epic paddle, Greg was the one who they connected me with and he gave me all kinds of good advice.
cheers,
jackL
Nope
Pretty funny Jackl. Sounds similar but this is definitely not sherco.
Mixed Bag
While I’d definitely not place them in the upper echelon of customer support as I would QCC, I’ve never had a problem contacting them. Sometimes it may take more than one phone call, but I’ve also had more than one occasion when Greg himself has been the one to directly respond. Heck, I’ve even seen Oscar post from SA on the surf ski site and personal blogs to assist. They may be backlogged dealing with the rudder issues on the surf skis. Call and ask to talk to an engineer if it’s a setup issue. The site I’ve found to be a little wacky depending on the computer you’re using. I’ve found the drop down bars to be so sensitive it’s almost impossible to click and select unless you have the lightning fast reflexes of a mongoose. I treat it like a video game now (“I did it! Clicked on ‘surf skis’! 500 bonus points!”)
*Let me guess on the 18x…you want to know how to adjust the Spectra line for the rudder and/or you want a deeper rudder blade?
My experience
Nice hul design, adequate hardwre and outfitting, unresponsive service, and horrendous build quality
small industry small company
They may not have adequete staff to handle, emails etc.
Most companies could always use improvement when it comes Follow through.
Have you tried to call them directly? maybe you should that before air “dirty laudry” on this forum.
I personally appreciate it
when someone posts a comment–negative or positive–on a particular company and their experience with product quality or service. I’m a consumer, and all of that information is considered when I decide to where to spend my money. That doesn’t mean I take every positive or negative as gospel truth. We are all big boys and girls and can use our own judgement in assessing praise or criticism.
But this latest trend of jumping on folks who post a negative experience from a manufacturer or company is a bit silly. Do we want pnet to become like most advertising-driven magazines, where all reviews and comments are positive?
I’m not likely to be swayed by one negative comment, but when LOTS of people were talking about quality control problems at Wilderness Systems a few years ago, that is information I want to know. And now that I hear many more positive comments about Wilderness Systems boats, I want to know that, too.
It seems that the sycophants are policing the boards these days.
good points
However I think most reasonable folks realize that one has a basic decent responsibilty to give adequete time to respond sucah as Epic.
If this person has called and emailed for weeks, they they have legit point, I don’t think this is the case.
This forum has become a place where someones opinion on an experience can cause significant harm to a companies like epics wellbeing.
The freedom to post anything should not be taken lightly.
A single negative comment
only causes harm if the majority lack the capacity for independent judgement. I think most of the pnet posters are fairly savvy consumers.
another good point puddlman
but just think about this
did you parents raise you by saying? “if you can’t say anything nice then don’t any anything at all”
it just seems that poeple us the ineternet/forums to leverage thier own self interest/beef with a situation or company after having a bad day.
I just think proper reasonable/good judgment should be used before you just POST and there it is.
I’ve received good service
– Last Updated: Nov-21-07 10:14 AM EST –
I've purchase two paddles with good result. I did have to phone in the orders because of my browser and their website not getting along too well. On the service side, I cracked a blade practicing starts and the paddle was promptly replaced with apologies. The replacement paddle is now 3 years old with 1000s of kilometers of hard use with no issues, aside from damage caused by careless (and one downright abusive) wash-riders. Granted, I haven't delt with them in three years as a custromer but my brief interactions with with Greg and Oscar at races indicates that they're definitely not in the business of ignoring people. Shoot, I emailed Greg last spring just to ask for contact information of fellow surfskiers in the PAC NW before a race there and he got back to me pretty promptly even though he was in China at the time. IMO, They're proud of their products and out to support paddle sports and paddlers. I'd chalk it up to growing pains as their company expands. They might appreciate a little feedback on how their automated features on their website could be improved since as they grow, it's going to be hard for them to personnally respond to everyone.
That’s so cool puddlefish
I always wanted to be a fairly savvy consumer!!!
Epic: Product Vs. Cust. Serv. Quality
– Last Updated: Nov-21-07 10:36 AM EST –
I love Epic products (and anyone that knows me could testify of this), its quality is second to none. I have quite a few of their paddles and one of their skis; however, lately, their customer service if a truly piece of #@$T$@^%$@%^.
1. A year and a half ago, I bought a Large wing, and it was sent to a wrong address (or at least, that is what they said). I was made to wait for them and UPS to re-route it. It took like two month to get that paddle to me because of their mistake. They should have sent me another paddle right away, and then, they should have dealt with UPS.
2. A a few months ago, I bought a small wing (for ultra marathon events) and a surfski. I was promised the wing was going to be delivered right away and the surfski in about 4 weeks. It wasn't. After four weeks, I did not receive the wing paddle neither the surfski, so I canceled the order of the paddle very pissed. The surfski was delivered a fee weeks afterwards.
The worst part of this was to have to deal with a girl (of which I do not remember her name right now - in both cases the same person) in their customer service. She knows as match about paddling as I know about rocket science!!!
***Anyway, as long as their quality is as outstanding as it been up to now, I would keep buying from them; the rest of the manufactures are ten times worse!!! However, in my particular case, the current buying experience has been not even 1% of what used to be several years ago when I got my first paddle from them.
Best Regards,
Support and product quality
Perhaps they are sometimes lackluster - but they do deliver by the end of the day. I think they are probably more of an engineering type culture than a marketing and people company. That is not to say that they ignore or dismiss client concerns or requests.
The paddles I’ve have from Epic are really good. They are stiff, light, and durable as heck. The oval indexing never seemed quite right, but that is an individual preference.
As for their boats, well the hull designs and performance are just really outstanding. As far as manufacturing, materials, and build quality - Let’s just say they have some catching up to do.
Like I said, they seem to be a real engineering (and design) company who really know their stuff. Engineering does not always include an interest in manufacturing and materials. They are also dealing with China based manufacturing. Imagine trying to run just the US operations, while managing the China manufacturing vendor(s), and do the travel back and forth. Whew.
Again, I think they have a tough situation to deal with, and the Epic Team will come through in the end.
uh oh, I’m running off the rails
Little derail:
On the indexing. I learned to paddle with an epic wing. Indexing on everything else feels weird to me.
thanks for the contemporary info
Hey Ice,
Sounds like growing pains. That really stinks that their customer correspondance/service hasn’t kept pace with their produce expansion. Back when I dealt with them as a customer, they were a much smaller outfit (unit sales wise, paddles was just about all that they did). Greg handled most of the correspondance and some lady with a heavy SA accent took the order. (I think they were still headquartered in Washington at the time).
same here
When I used to be a dealer for Greg, I just drove out into the county to Mark’s barn in the mountains where he built the paddles. Talk about an excellent set up. An old restored barn. Really well done. He’d give you a cup of coffee and you’d never want to leave as they worked.
Gregs a very conscientious fella, and Oscar has a lot of pride in doing things the right way. Its definitly a case a growing pains at the moment. Where as Nigel Dennis can delegate responsibility and walk away, Greg tries to do it all cause he wants to make sure its done right. He’s smart, and his work ethic is, of course, without question. IMO, this is just a glitch in the time continuum of a business. We went thru it a GRO years ago. In the old days, we simply referred to it as “The Garage Composites Industry”; smart guys, making great things, trying to make a real business out of it. Thats where Epic has come from. They’ve come a long way.
epic
trilobite,
Actually I was asking about providing information on there gelcoat pigments so I could try and find a matching one to complete a repair.
They did right by me…
I had a question about my paddle…
I CALLED them, and got immediate satisfactory asistance.
Phone calls almost always rule over emails…