How to approach North for Warranties

[Sake]

http://www.kitehigh.nl/yabbse/index.php ... eadid=2725

It's in dutch. Picture says a lot though.

Summery:
2 Cabrinha's (CO2 and Nitro) "snapped and 1 Rhino4.
All warranty.
Shows that your dealer is most important and should arrange a new one.
By law there's a year warranty on products bought in the Netherlands.

[Windwench]

For all you disgruntled Rhino owners, I will bump a post titled Exploding Rhinos!!! @ Dwight dated April 22, 2003. I quoted this forum and emailed it to North and was vigilant about following up on this issue and got my kite warranteed. Needless to say, I sold it and bought a Flexi Storm II. I believe in that post Ken Winner even invited anyone that had a problem to contact him personally. Good luck!

WW

[Freddy B]

I have had two warranty cliams one for a North kite via Daniel in Siapan, and one for a North Board via Hunter in Wilmintogn N.C.

Both were handelded quickly and professionally. In the case of Hunter, he forwarded me a new board at no charge even before I had completred all the documentation required for the warranty claim. I'd say your dealer makes all the difference.

I agree! Having a good shop with a good relationship with the distributer can really help in Warranty issues. Remember that is part of the retailers job is to provide service and give feedback to the manufacturer. North kites don't have the service personel to judge warranty issues all over the globe. They let the retailers do the footwork and put their personell into R&D to fix the problem.

Personally I think having a good dealer is worth a hundred bucks or so a kite. I'm getting one of the last quivers of R4s from BITW and could probably pick up an excellent set of used for a couple hundred less. But I know that I'll have great service and support from BITW and they'll go to bat for me if I really need warranty service. Sometimes they even incurr the cost.

[jhodgesatmb]

Three weeks ago I had a Rhino 04 14m strut seam come loose because the stitching had worn through. I contacted my dealer, they sent me to North Sports. North Sports asked for photographs which I provided, and then send photographs to North in Europe, saying they expected North would probably opt to replace the kite. In the meantime, North Sports approved emergency repair of the kite. By the time the answer from North in Europe came back denying my claim, the damage had been repaired, additional damage had occured, and the kite had exploded near the tip.

So I received both excellent and awful treatment, depending on where you stand. My dealer backed me up and North Sports seems to be doing their best, but to me this looks like an international recall and North Kites is clearly liable for product manufacturing problems.

Incidentally, my kite is still within the warranty period and has only about 30 days on it.

It is very clear where the problem arose on the 04 Rhino. North removed the snakeskin protectors from the leading edge seams. Now the seams are directly exposed to whatever they come in contact with, eventually wearing right through. Having a 3rd seam isn't going to resolve the problem, it will only postpone it. Until North puts the seam protection back on the strut/LE intersections this is going to happen to every kite that comes in contact with the ground (not sand or grass but real ground).

Jack