In June last last year I made this
post describing how delighted I was with the 9' Walden SLX Epoxy Mega Magic longboard I had purchased.
By December, my delight in the board's performance had not changed at all and I had been having some terrific sessions on it.
But, I am horrified to report that the board itself had failed catastrophically!
I am not a weekend warrior, as I have the opportunity to surf most days in the week, so I am in the habit of leaving my boards on top of the car all the time.
Unfortunately, epoxy boards using an EPS polystyrene core are more sensitive to heat and, as I have found out to my detriment, prone to delamination!
The irony of this is that I live on the South Coast of Western Australia that does not experience super high temperatures as other more northerly parts do.
So, I took the board back to the local surf shop, and equal shocked they, asked me to take some pictures so as they could send them to the manufacturers to see what could be done for me.
Well, nothing was the answer as in their opinion the board had been exposed to excessive heat!
"That has been cooked in very hot temps inside a board bag, it will not fall under a warranty"
Well, that got me going I have to say!
"Well that is just not good enough.
I have owned umpteen boards ( 3 of them Waldens ) over many years, both epoxy and traditional, and none of them have experienced this sort of failure within so short a time no matter the exposure they may have been subjected to.
I am not a weekend warrior as I surf most days and my board are always on the car most of the time.
I was never advised at anytime that your SLX construction epoxy boards required a specific care regime, including the preference of a cover with a side vent, as they were prone to delaminate if they were exposed to too much heat. <
If someone had advised me that “They do not withstand heat very well” as stated in the png attached that will appear on your new website soon then I would have taken steps to ensure that the board was not likely to be exposed to heat!
In these circumstances I just don’t think you can make a blanket refusal to provide me with some level of assistance as you have mislead me as a consumer of your product and that is illegal!
So please be more reasonable about this and speak with your superiors before I do and come to some sort of agreement that."
Their reply.
"This has come from my Production Manager. He specs all materials and production processes. All surfboards should be kept from direct heat when not in use.
The screenshot you are referring to is from a blog and not our site. I directed that information to Big Drop as a matter of education."
So then they copped this from me!
"Oh for goodness sake I have never heard such a lot of crap in my life!
So if your customers go to the beach and decide the waves are not good enough to surf and go for a swim instead, you are expecting them to take their board off the roof racks and put it in the shade???
What I cannot seem to get through to you is:
1. The fact that the board may have been exposed to more heat than it could cope with is immaterial in this instance as I was unaware it was not capable of being used in the way I had normally done so for years with all the other boards I have owned. That usage has included leaving boards (both in and out of bags) sitting on top of my vehicle in far more extreme temperatures than we have experienced in the last week or so when it appears the damage to this board occurred.
2. I live on the south Coast of WA and we do not get very high temperatures here. During the month of December, when this product failure occurred, the highest temperature we have had was a balmy 25.8 degrees.
3. The information relating to the special care this type of board needs and it’s susceptibility to heat compared to a standard construction board was NOT! made available to me when I purchased it.
4. It appears that you had not provided the great guys who run the retail outlet here in Denmark with this information until I informed them of the problem with my 9’ mega magic a couple of days ago?
5. Had I been informed of this deficiency in the normal use of the board I may not have gone ahead with a purchase.
6. Under Australian Consumer Law, this product has suffered major damage during what I, the consumer, considered normal usage and therefore am entitled to either a full replacement or refund.
7. Under Australian Consumer Law, had I, the consumer, known about the problem, I may have chosen not to purchase the product.
ion
I rang your HQ in NSW and they advised me to cc Cory into this email"
So I got no reply to that one so I made an official complaint to Consumer Protection here in WA.
"Just letting you know that I have submitted an official complaint against your organisation to Consumer Protection here in WA in regard to this matter."
I received a call from Consumer Protection within a week to say they had rung the suppliers who still refused to assist in any way. The officer related that she had hotly disputed that the board may have been exposed to excessive heat and in view of the premium price, $1350, paid for the board that they should be covering the board under a warranty of some sort as it had suffered a major failure within a year of purchase. Her advice was that I now take the matter to the Magistrate's court and that it was highly likely that the magistrate would rule in my favour. Unfortunately, I would have to make the claim against the shop from which I purchased the board whose owners I happen to know well.
So I am in a bit of a quandary wondering quite what to do so I left it for a few days to think about it and eventually decided on a plan of action.
In the end I decided that I would go back to the shop in person and discuss with the owner what might be done in view of all that had transpired. I suggested that he ring consumer protection to get their view on the matter rather than hearing it for me. I did state that I preferred that the board was replaced, with a different more robust board at a similar price point or a full refund so as I could purchase another board elsewhere.
He was not particularly happy but I left stating that I would send him the contact details of the consumer protection officer involved.
Within in half an hour, to my bewilderment, I had been called back in to the shop and was handed a cheque for a full refund and asked to return the damaged board, which I happened to have on the car still! I did express that I was very surprised they had not offered to replace the board with another which would have been a much more economical option but he was adamant that he was sick of the whole thing and wanted done of it all. I accepted, got the board off the car and laid it damaged surface down as there were many customers in the shop. He offered his hand saying That was a relief as I did not want to fall out with them but felt that I was well within my rights to make a claim. Hopefully, there will be some redress for the shop from the manufacturers somewhere in the future as they certainly deserve it.
So the moral of the story is? If you by an epoxy board, particularly one with an EPS core, you will need to make sure that you do not expose it too any degree of heat at anytime!
Oh and, as I have enjoyed my return to stand up surfing so much, I have ordered a 9' 1" high performance longboard from my local shaper.
It is based on this Bonga Perkins Replica that I rode once and was pretty stoked about the performance of.
With the recent unfortunate but extremely lucky escape from an encounter with a large shark of some species, most likely a White Pointer, that a neighbour and acquaintance of ours had recently I have been reevaluating my surfing regime.
