Posting this nearly two years after the fact because we found the unpublished draft. Sad! We could have had this warning on the internet years ago.
We were somewhere in the middle of our passage from Panama to the Marquesas when we started to notice grease drippings appearing at the base of the foresail.
By the time we were most of the way through the Society Islands, we were frequently finding greasy ball bearings around the same spot. The furler drum was staring to come apart (and the top wasn’t looking great either), but the timeline for getting a replacement shipped to us was beyond contemplation.
By Samoa, the furler was starting to turn less easily, and we realized we might not be able to wait until Australia.
So we found ourselves a dealer who could ship to Fiji: Kiwi Yachting, hereafter KYS for… Kiwi Yacht Service, because that makes us grimly grin. KYS could at least get it to Denerau in Fiji; from there, our arrival agent could arrange to get it to us at our port of landing, Savusavu. The timing would be tight, we emphasized to Richard, so it needed to ship ASAP. KYS put together a bill, including some nice-to-have extras (Richard: “All available ex stock so if you get this paid today I will start to pack.”) So we sent off a wire; current date, September 6th. Of course our luck was terrible and the wire took an absurd amount of time, but funds cleared on Sept 13th. Richard wrote “Funds received and we are just picking goods. Should go early next week”, and we left for Savai’i, and then Wallis.
The trip was a few days, and Wallis did not have a good internet situation (the island was “out of sim cards”), so it was Sept 22 before we were able to call and check in. At which point we found that our order had not yet shipped, because KYS was waiting for one of the nice-to-have items to come in. We reiterated that there was exactly one item that was urgent, that the whole situation was time-sensitive (because shipping is very slow and we were starting to see looming deadlines), and could you please ship what you have now please.
We arrived in Fiji Sept 26th, and received an email from the 22nd telling us that the shipment would go out on the 27th. We wrote to express our displeasure. At this point we’re going to start block quoting emails, because the specifics will come into play later. This is also, roughly, the point where we began to suspect that we were not working with smart people.
Richard
You advised a 3 week transit time. If the shipment leaves tomorrow you will be fine. I will ensure it does but knowing we had some time we were trying to do the right thing.
Yes, I advised three weeks when we first spoke, September 6th. That time has now passed, and I’m in Fiji where I was expecting to meet the shipment. You’d told me it would ship a day or two after my wire went through. The wire took longer than expected, but you said “early next week” in your email Sept 15, so I thought Sept 19 or 20; we were still going to make it. But it’s now the 27th; even if it ships today I’m going to have to change my plans. At this point by the time it gets to me, I’ll be nearly leaving for NZ, which makes shipping to Fiji a little ridiculous.
I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it at this point, besides getting it out today, but I wanted to register my displeasure. You should have let me know when you found out that some of the order wasn’t in stock.
Andrew
I do apologise as I made the call in good faith. Goods will ship today.
Richard, 9/26
The package shipped, according to Fedex, on the 28th, with estimated delivery in Denerau a week later. So we could either wait around Savusavu to collect it some days after that, or just continue on to Denerau. Acushnet was with us at this point and bombing west, so we elected to follow them and meet the package in Denerau.
We picked up the package in Denerau on October 13th. When we opened it, we discovered that it was missing a crucial piece: the “long link plates”. Andrew’s email to Richard went unanswered, so unfortunately the exchange that followed happened over the phone. We say “unfortunately” because this is the point at which KYS really dialed up the gaslighting, and we really wish we had a better record of this. We had been very clear, at the very beginning, that we would need these parts. Richard tried to blame the omission on us, as after all they were not listed on the invoice we approved! Whereas it hadn’t occurred to us that they would be a separate line item; why would it?
My current setup uses the long link plates. Can I reuse those, or do I need to order replacements for those as well?
Andrew, Sept 6
You will need the C320 link plates. Can you measure the length of the ones you have and we will match as close as we can.
Richard, Sept 6
The current link plates are 32cm, measured from the center of the cotter pin to the center of the bolt joining them to the furler.
Andrew, Sept 6
Long Link Plates as discussed. We will pay for the FEDEDX charge so you only need to pay for the plates which you acknowledge were not previously listed.
Richard, Oct 16; invoice attached
Did you catch that diction? “Which you acknowledge were not previously listed”? Cheeky! But also part of a pattern of blame-avoidance.
The link plates showed up, and we booked a mooring ball in the middle of Vuda marina, so we would have a nice calm place to put the new furler together. Getting the old one off was a bit of a project, but we got it done. But as we started to put the new one together, we realized that we had a defect: the pieces that link the extrusion sections together had their indentations mis-drilled. This meant that on one side, the set screws that held the sections together would have to hold by biting into the aluminum, rather than sitting in their little slots. On the other, they could fit the indents, but only by leaving a small gap between the sections.
We were not thrilled about this, but the prospect of putting the now-pretty-beaten-up old furler back on was horrifying; we decided to see if the sections would hold together anyway. We got the whole thing up and assembled, and it seemed to be OK.
Fast forward to hurricane preparation in New Zealand, when we took all our canvas down. The storm blew by, and Villa was fine, but when we went to put the sail back up, the extrusions started to separate. We were able to get the sail in, though we had to send Jazz up the mast to hold the segments in place.
The date is now Feb 20th. Clearly this was an issue that needed fixing; we reached out to KYS. Andrew called Richard, who passed him off to Matt. Matt turned out to be in the hospital.
Hi Matt, Richard,
Can you please confirm receipt of this email?
Andrew, Feb 27th, 10:55am
Matt was unexpectedly taken to Hospital last week however he has been discharged and is recovering. We are hopeful that he will be back in the office Wednesday and can catch up on emails.
Richard, Feb 27th, 4:25pm
I’m sorry to hear about Matt. In his absence, can you check up on this warranty issue?
Andrew, Feb 27, 4:30pm
Crickets.
At this point we editorialize: What American company owner would just… not answer? Just pass this off to a subordinate who isn’t there, and then not pick up the ball? Had our expression of displeasure at the end of September marked us as problem children? These people supposedly pride themselves on their customer service; we just don’t understand what sort of doublethink could…
Anyway, Matt got back on the 5th and we started to talk about this. They refused to send replacements without charging us for them, so we agreed to pay, and then they didn’t charge us and sent them… March 30th. We had them in hand by April 3rd, and discovered that they had sent one of the thing we needed, and one totally different and incompatible thing. (If that doesn’t seem obvious, look at the slot profile.)
At this point we determined that we were not going to be able to get the furler down and back up in one shot, so we went ahead and took it down. With all the parts taken apart, it was easy to see that we had three faulty sections, not one.
At this point we needed to give them the defective ones to get the warranty moving, and we figured that it would be easier just to go down to their office. The office manager looked at the pile above and straight up said to us “those look fine to me”. Looked us in the eye and everything. We politely but firmly disagreed, and asked to speak to either Richard or Matt. Richard, “in a meeting”, refused to come see us, but did send out a refusal to refund the sail tape he had included in our package, “because he sent it in good faith”. Marina put out a token effort to get replacement parts to us faster than the six to ten weeks that Profurl would take to process a warranty claim, but ultimately refused to make the order because KYS would have had to front money to another supplier. (And did we not already have an open warranty claim, from seven weeks ago when we made first contact about this?) We asked again to talk to Matt, who eventually came out and spoke to us… and then went in the back and brought out the exact parts we needed.
So we went home again, and put the now defect-free furler back up, and everything was good! We sold the boat, left the country, and would never have to think about these idiots again! Except here we are writing a long blog post about it, because they apparently get to live rent-free in our heads forever.
On May 16th, we got an email from Marina with an invoice for the joining kits we’d ordered. This prompted us to write our long-overdue review on Google Maps. Their reply is, we think, the ultimate example of their gaslighting. Apparently we were very scary! We said cruel and mean things like “these defective parts are clearly defective” and “I need replacement parts sooner than ten weeks.” So abusive! So threatening, how we sat calmly on the floor (there are no chairs) and waited for someone to help us. In fairness, we did say things like “Richard has handled this whole thing very badly” and “He won’t come talk to us? What a coward, I’m sorry he’s put you in the middle of this.” Anyway, we stand by this review as being harsh but fair, and invite you to smash that like button.