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Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever buy

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dandaka
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Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever buy

Postby dandaka » Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:14 am

This post summarize my experience with kites and service from KBA (kiteboardingasia). These guys sell defect kites, cheat on customers and not provide expected service. Its is advisable to avoid buying kites and other products from them.

1. Situation with my kite

Vegas 2011 12m² was still in very good condition. Kite began to fall on one side from zenith. Inspection shows significant change in shape of leading edge. It turns out, that kite has production defect and needs to be replaced by warranty.

Communication with North revealed another problem — serial number was cutted off before sale of kite.

Details are here

2. KBA response

2.1. This kite behavior is normal and happens to all brands. Since the kite was used for more than one month, it can lose its shape and become unbalanced.

Lie. Kite doctor in Boracay says, this is very rare situation and kite has serious flaws in production. Philippines distributor inspection confirmed errors in production. North confirmed warranty claim and added, that such behavior is unusual for a kite.

2.2. Warranty on all North kites is 3 month only.

Lie. You can check in kite User guide that warranty is 6 month. You can have +6 month extended warranty, but since SN was cutted off, that was not my case.

2.3. Kite comes with serial number cutted off from factory

Lie. All products from North are coming with serial number. If you don't have SN, you will never get warranty.

3. North response and final solution

We was in touch with guys from North since the beginning of this story. In the end they agreed to replace my broken kite with a new one. I want to thank Christian, Philipp, Dan, Normeth and Willem for this good solution! Nice move to keep customers happy and brand image solid.

4. Good summary from Dan-at-North
Also for the record, his kite was not admissible for warranty, and the resolution was done at the cost and through the goodwill of North international and several distributors. Thanks to everyone involved.

Please read the following before purchasing if you have reason to suspect that your dealer, like KBA, is not an authorized NKB dealer and is getting either factory second or full-on knock-off North gear.

Just to reiterate: KBA, in Thailand, is NOT an official North dealer. North does not sell them gear, and any North gear that they have is unauthorized, almost certainly flawed, and will not be approved for warranty repair or replacement. They have somehow found a way to get B and C grade factory rejects or knock-offs from a different factory. We do our best to control this kind of thing, and we are trying to track down how they are getting these, but even Apple, who spends millions on stopping this kind of leakage, suffers similar problems on occasion.

As it is, please do not purchase North items from anyone but an official authorized North dealer. If you do, realize that you do so at your own risk. Warranties require both a serial number and a receipt from an authorized dealer specifically for this reason. No matter what a dealer tells you, if you do not have a serial number and a receipt from an authorized dealer, North will not approve you for warranty. It should be fairly easy to tell an authorized dealer from a non, but you can always check http://www.northkites.com for a list of authorized dealers or you can even drop me a note with a specific dealer question. You should also use your brain. If there are two dealers in an area, and one is selling a North kite for significantly less than another, you may want to do a little additional research. I understand that you want to save money, but realize that if your cheaper kite does not come with a serial number and a receipt from an authorized dealer, it is not only un-warranteeable, but it is also most probably a factory second with some sort of flaw that will leave you with a costly or even, as in this case, impossible repair.
5. Prices from KBA are here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... lNRc0FYdkE

Most of the prices are only slightly cheaper, than price from authorized dealers in Asia. KBA are clearly trying to cheat on its customers, selling B-grade products with small discount to genuine products.

6. Share!
Please share this story, so people would avoid to buy anything from sellers like KBA.

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby chasinthewind » Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:44 pm

finally this news is out!

been going on for a long time already, its about time people knew about these crooks

cheapest FAKE kites in the world!

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby tony montana » Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:58 pm

chasinthewind wrote:finally this news is out!

been going on for a long time already, its about time people knew about these crooks

cheapest FAKE kites in the world!
dearest fake kites in the world TONY

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby chasinthewind » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:45 pm

i stand corrected :D they are the dearest!

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby Puetz » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:30 pm

... and they magically have 16m kites too, didn't know they made the 16m just for KBAsia!

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby dandaka » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:45 pm

16m kites are hilarious! No, really! :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby chasinthewind » Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:14 am

16m non existant kite for sale, completely fake, buy 1 get 2 free (as they only last a month) :thumb:

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby alexrider » Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:11 pm

Ha ha ha ha.
I don't think KBA is going even to bother responding. The more customers a company has, the more likely it is going to have the odd unhappy customer, which is often a "fake" customer made up by loser competition companies.
Statistically speaking, KBA has a lot more happy customers than any other company in Thailand. They have more customers than all the other kite companies in Asia combined; this just cannot happen if their policy is to cheat their customers.
The story doesn't sound right. They are talking about "flawed' and "reject" kites. Blame it on North in the first place for selling their rejects and thus allowing them to be on the grey market instead of destroying them.
Dandaka must have known, unless he didn't do his homework who the official North dealer was, why then did he go to the company who was pushing another well know brand? He is paying the price for the lesson: you are likely lose in the end playing cheap charlie.
:bye:
PS: The North importer during 5 years before the present one had quality issues of all kind, the major one being that every single kite which was delivered to him had bladder or valve problems. It is a shame for a kite with such a good design.

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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby alexrider » Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:25 pm

dandaka wrote: Most of the prices are only slightly cheaper, than price from authorized dealers in Asia. KBA are clearly trying to cheat on its customers, selling B-grade products with small discount to genuine products.
Please share this story, so people would avoid to buy anything from sellers like KBA.
So for just a small discount you decided to buy a B-grade product instead of the genuine one.
Either there is no such thing as a B-grade product, or every knows it, just like for Nike and Gucci fakes.
End of story.

KBA will be ever thankful to you because "There is no such thing as bad publicity".

Thaiki posted in your own other thread describing the problem:
When You fear, You will not achieve a lot, You are right. Because KBA is no North dealer, but there is one in Hua Hin. You decided to buy the Kite from KBA, because You saved around 150,-- Dollar compared to he price of the North Shop! Now You got the bill! When they tell You, North kites have just 3 months Garantie and they came without serialnumber from the factory, You could even without a Master Degree smell that it stinks. When I consider the problems of Your Vegas I could imagine that this kite came frome some dark channels in China!!!! Such a bad deformed kite will never come out from a North faktory !!! As soon as You recognised, that this kite has no Serialnumber You should know, that You didn´t buy a real Northkite. ( This is my hope!) :angryfire:

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dandaka
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Re: Kiteboardingasia (KBA) sells defect kites, don't ever bu

Postby dandaka » Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:31 pm

Which is often a "fake" customer made up by loser competition companies.
KBA could turn this story into good publicity. They didn't want to, so now everyone knows, who is loser here.

Also, you're welcome to check my kite, emails with North and conversations with KBA. Your post is looking "fake", since you're defending scam scheme from KBA.
KBA has a lot more happy customers than any other company in Thailand
One of this "happy" customers also wants to replace his 2012 2 month old kite from KBA by warranty. Good luck for him.

At least 5 customers will not buy anything from KBA with my recommendation. If other people will share this story, we could avoid other customers from feeling so "happy" with KBA. Community is interconnected and word of mouth is fast these days.
The story doesn't sound right. They are talking about "flawed' and "reject" kites.
I'm talking about no warranty policy and lies from KBA. You can't deny that. They sell you shit and say "its ok like this".
Blame it on North in the first place for selling their rejects and thus allowing them to be on the grey market instead of destroying them.
Sure, I blame it on North too. But since they agreed to replace my kite, which was no warranty case, I'm more than happy with North. And whole story is a clear sign, which company is reliable/open/trustworthy and which not.
So for just a small discount you decided to buy a B-grade product instead of the genuine one.
Clearly stated B-grade product with significant discount could be good honest deal from my point of view. Fooling customers with B-grade products with almost same price as genuine is 100% scam.
KBA will be ever thankful to you because "There is no such thing as bad publicity".
Sure, man! Share it with your friends than to make KBA even more thankful! :D


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