Extremo

Seriously, Ride makes some banger products, but this is discouraging. I may never buy Ride again as well. Too many good companies out there taking care of their customers to tolerate this shit.

Kudos to the companies that go the extra mile.

scotty100

I'd rather judge a company on NOT having to use customer service at all. Too many comments on how great "company x went the extra mile the five times I had to contact them to get spare parts because their bindings fall apart every 2 weeks..." Give me products that work as intended so you never have to hear from me again and you'll keep my business is how I look at it.

crash77

But not every and I'm willing to bet most products aren't purchased directly from the manufacturer. As a retailer, if you choose to carry a product, you should stand behind it.

East§ide

you must really realllllly baby your gear. shit happens, why is why these products are offered with a warranty to begin with. and do you know BEFORE you buy something that it isn't going to break? You must really throw a fit when you need to take a car in for service. lol..what a stupid fucking post.

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Never Summer Evo 153/Restricted ReFlex Cartel
Gnu Danny Kass 156 BTX

onefutui2e

yeah, considering a six sigma designation (pretty much the highest mark you can get that basically says your company has all its shit together) still allows room for manufacturing defects (3.4 per million, or .00034%). and since snowboard manufacturers typically don't have the wherewithal to get to this designation, i'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that their defect rates are significantly higher.

mmmmmm, doughnuts.

snowklinger

Sittin in your squad car behind Arby's doin a little SBForums?


fwiw: I had a buckle on my Contrabands break during a very good season 2 years ago and I had a bag of free parts in a week. Unfortunately it took me months of run-around to get service from the same company, K2.

Imo metal baseplates are just not comfy by comparison. I'll probably buy another K2 binding because I like them.

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is it late october yet?

scotty100

I don't "baby" anything. But what I expect is a product that is often north of 250 bucks not to break down due to inferior materials or design < 30 days of use on the hill. I don't expect to have to chase a company's customer service for something that should not happen in the first place. Bit like you presumably don't expect to chase Never Summer on quality issues because their 3 year warranty is a statement of superior build. Rome's customer service gets lauded big time on here and props to them for having a great team but perhaps if they designed or improved the materials of their bindings a little better they wouldn't have to put so much effort into keeping annoyed customers happy.

onefutui2e

I'm not sure of your business acumen but it's always a cost/benefit thing (Google Ford Pinto memo if you're curious; its truthfulness is suspect but it's the most blatant example of what I'm trying to get at). In Rome's case, it's probably the case that it's cheaper for them to deal with customer complaints and send replacement parts than it is to invest in processes to ensure it doesn't happen in the first place, at least in the near-term.

Of course, this is purely an economic scenario. You can argue that if they just build superior products, then they'll have stronger legs to stand on and attract more customers so that investment might actually be worth it. But I'm not well-versed in their board room meetings enough to know what went into this decision, or if there was ever any discussion at all.

TL;DR - Investing in manufacturing processes to eliminate defects is not always cheaper than just dealing with the defects as they come.

scottb7

A warranty may or may not be a sign of a well made product. Maybe just a marketing strategy for a bad product, with a willingness to deal with problems later after sale is made. I don't think it is possible to generalize.

scotty100

I am fairly well-versed in the trade-offs some companies make to ensure profit margins are sustained in manufacturing. But there comes a tipping point where inferior design / materials becomes a risk to overall brand value if/when enough customers perceive quality of a product to be inferior due to continually having to contact customer service due to early breakdown of parts etc. Especially if the cost of the product to begin with warrants a higher level of quality in the eyes of the consumer. That applies not only to Rome, but all companies.