Epic Kites 3rd Generation. 3G II

[Westozzy]

Hey back to the kite...that looks a weird shaped canopy hey? Interesting to see how she flies.Real wide and fat at the back and narrows considerably to the front. Interesting.

[L0KI]

That's precisely what we've been talking about for the last 10 pages or so!!!

Dimitri, you seem to be forgetting - or you just plain don't know it, but nowadays it takes a lot less unhappy customers to turn some company's reputation into ash, than it takes happy customers to improve some company's reputation even by one tiny bit.

Threatening warnings....super classy.

I will trade any bar I have, for Alexey's in the pic.

Parts wear out and kite companies sell replacement parts.
I've bought replacements for broken/worn out parts for a handful of my bars over the years,
....not one company talked to me about free parts.
Last week I bought two Ocean Rodeo adjustable stoppers (bar stopper) from Windance Hood River because the red tension adjuster part broke off on mine.
Why did I get them from Windance?..because Ocean Rodeo sent me to that dealer to BUY THE PARTS and PAY FOR SHIPPING.
Not a warranty issue....just a used part that broke.

[L0KI]

As far as Caesar's kite goes, as a team rider (kites not bought at retail) he clearly needs to have a very detailed private dialog with Dimitri about what in the world is going on with his kite, and keep it offline regardless of the outcome.
The kite is obviously beaten up, ...the question of why, is still unclear.
Nothing conclusive at all came from posting a pic of that kite, without lots more information, which nobody here has any idea to confirm or deny.
Team riders get pissed when that status changes, this much I know.

[L0KI]

Hey back to the kite...that looks a weird shaped canopy hey? Interesting to see how she flies.Real wide and fat at the back and narrows considerably to the front. Interesting.

Yes, strangest shaped LEI I've ever seen.
Gonna have to handle great to beat the Renegades!

[NicoFr]

A few shot from the Kitaddict Slider Party a few weeks ago in france.
Epic sessions

[Dimitri M]

Hey back to the kite...that looks a weird shaped canopy hey? Interesting to see how she flies.Real wide and fat at the back and narrows considerably to the front. Interesting.

Westozzy,
I presume you are talking about the SURF kite correct? If so "Yes" it is a weird shape and it works very well. We are still working on few more prototypes because I am not very happy with the turning speed of the SURF yet. I want the SURF 12m to turn like a 9m. I want the SURF 8m to turn like a 6m. And I want the SURF 5 to turn like a 5m. So right now the SURF 5m has a great turning speed, but I am not happy with the 12 and 8 meter yet. Everything else works incredibly well. I have few surfers that have been demoing the SURF kite and they are already very impressed with its performance.

[soul19]

More light that is shed into these complaints! Funny how certain information seems to be neglected to be shared when they first started complaining! Dimitri I have to say that you showed a lot of class in biting your tongue this long when you could have stated these facts at the beginning. You gave him what appears to be a resolution that he has accepted and now is claiming foul. Caesar did you get the 9M screamer? If you have than why are you throwing stones? If you took the kite than you agreed to a resolution and dimitri has provided you with good customer support. Not being happy now seems like there is more to this story than just a kite with warranty issues! Also how many sessions has that kite seen? Shouldn't you have stated that you received these kites under a team rider program?

James

Once again I have never used, owned or for that matter even seen an Epic kite. I have no affiliation to this brand but enjoy that a company owner takes the time to interact with his customers and others that don't even ride his products. Sure he has his flaws but so do I and everyone else. What can't be disputed is that he truly wants to share his love for the sport and the products that he has brought to the market. One day I will stumble upon an Epic kite and will have to give it a demo. It just isn't a popular brand out here but it probably stems to that there is no presence of any team riders or reps (which are essentially the same thing). For the time being I am going to enjoy what I am using and go kiting... Wind is up and the sun is shining....good fun!

[alexeyga]

Really, all nice noise for a buckle!?!?

Why don't you tell me - is all that noise just for a buckle?

Threatening warnings....super classy.

Not any classier than switching a plastic buckle for a metal one while pretending that there is no problem at all. And b.t.w. there was not threatening or warnings - nothing but an ascertainment of the fact.

Parts wear out and kite companies sell replacement parts.
I've bought replacements for broken/worn out parts for a handful of my bars over the years,
....not one company talked to me about free parts.
Last week I bought two Ocean Rodeo adjustable stoppers (bar stopper) from Windance Hood River because the red tension adjuster part broke off on mine.
Why did I get them from Windance?..because Ocean Rodeo sent me to that dealer to BUY THE PARTS and PAY FOR SHIPPING.
Not a warranty issue....just a used part that broke.

Totally agree with you, parts wear out - these are called "consumables". Best example being the main depower line on the bar, or the grey segments of the bridle. But please, be kind, show me any other bar with a pull-pull trimmer where the trimmer it-self is a consumable part that you're supposed to replace after less than 40 not-even-half-day sessions? Seriously?

And while we're at it, you seem very knowledgeable about kites in general, so you might also tell us what one must do to a kite, even if he/she is a team rider, to make the struts fail in a way how it failed on the Ceasar's kite? Better yet, show us some examples of other beaten up kites that have failed in a similar way! I honestly hope that we're not at a point yet where kite's struts are a consumable part too...

Dimitri,
Speaking of consumables - it might be wise to change these grey segments of the bridle from having a loop on one end and a knot on the other one into having knots on both ends. This way it's possible to invert the piece every once in a while to distribute the wear over two "hot-spots" instead of only one.

[Caesar]

Caesar,
I wish I could share all our correspondence with every body on this forum in order to show them exactly what was going on so they have a better understanding of this situation but I can't do that.
The bottom line is that it was not a warranty issue, but I did agree to pay for the repairs and asked you to use AIRTIME because that is who we use for all our repairs. But since you are in Brazil you decided to use one of your local store for the repair which is also good. After all that was done we decided to give you a credit for your next purchase since you wanted to buy a SCREAMER 9 because that was easier then sending you a payment. And you told me as a Team Rider that you were going to keep and eye on those struts and try to find out what might cause this extensive wearing which we still don't know because we never had any one else with this issue on the struts. So you bought a SCREAMER 9 and wanted us to ship it to Germany to save on shipping and duties so one of your friends could bring it to you in Brazil.
So once again I did everything I could to help you and I am sorry you feel that way.

Dimitri,

Here are the facts and tell people if anything is wrong what I wrote. You are obviously very good in twisting things around to your advantage!

- In 03/12 I wanted to buy a 10m LTD and contacted your Dutch dealer who was listed on your website. Since I traveled to Europe, I would take that kite with me from there.
- The Dutch dealer referred me to you, to buy it from you directly.
- I was offered a "Teamrider Cat B" price (I did not ask for that whopping discount of 22% off the retail price that was involved in that Teamrider offer, but I agreed to it. I was asked to write reports and post photos in exchange to that offer and which I would have done anyway here on KF).
- In 04/12 I came back from Europe with the kite.
- After some days of kiting, I wrote to you that you should change the bar grip material since it was dented already when I received the kite and to replace the bridle rings with something different since the bridle lines showed excessive wearing already.
- At the end of April 2012 I ordered the next 10m LTD as a backup kite since I frequently kite in remote coastal areas and like to have a backup kite with me in case things go wrong. You charged me $32.40 extra for 2 sets of those sliders. I wrote to you that I would not have expected to charge me for that design flaw and you argued that the rings are the same as the sliders. I bit my tongue...!
- In 07/12 I told you that both of those kites inflate valves peeled off after 2 months and I had to get them repaired. That would not be a warranty issue as you wrote? You sent 2 offers to me to handle that issue:
1) peel the INFLATE VALVE off and glue it back with some Vinyl glue. This is what I did on my 2 kites.
2) I can send you some stick on VALVE
You offered no credit for those repairs Mr. Dimitri! I asked you to sent the 2 valves if issues occur again.
- A week later I had an accident when the QR of the Epic bar failed to open when the kite dead-looped because a line went underneath the bar when a sudden wind lull occurred. The kite stopped in a tree after dragging me around the beach for 100 meters. I needed to stay one night in hospital because of this and asked you to send me a "working" replacement QR. All you did was saying sorry and that failure never happened before. I even offered you to pay for working QRs but you put the Blade boss in CC and he said he would send me a working QR which I never received. I sold that kite very cheaply since it was torn into pieces and was stitched everywhere.
- In the beginning of September when I was fit for kiting again after the accident I bought a 9m Screamer to replace the 10m LTD which I sold. I bought that 9m Screamer without a bar since you did not have any other bars and I was very unsatisfied with that bar.
- 2 weeks later I saw a ripped strut on my 10m LTD which I purchased in 04/12 and which was my back-up kite so far. I sent you photos. You offered me to get it repaired at my local store and offered me $25.00 off my next kite purchase with you to which it never came. Over time I emailed you that the strut saga continued with other struts too. You repeated yourself that it never happened before and that was your great customer service story!
I then decided to switch to a another kite company.

[Caesar]

As far as Caesar's kite goes, as a team rider (kites not bought at retail) he clearly needs to have a very detailed private dialog with Dimitri about what in the world is going on with his kite, and keep it offline regardless of the outcome.
The kite is obviously beaten up, ...the question of why, is still unclear.
Nothing conclusive at all came from posting a pic of that kite, without lots more information, which nobody here has any idea to confirm or deny.
Team riders get pissed when that status changes, this much I know.

Mr. OnB,

This is another of your blatant and stupid responses. How do you explain that 6 struts broke and there is no hole or even a scratch in the canopy? Weird, isn't it?!

Did my "Teamrider" status change? You must know more than me because I never received any such notification that I would not receive that whopping 22% discount on Epic purchases anymore. But to tell you the truth so you can sleep well next night- I bought a kite from another kite company and never ordered anything from Epic again. So get your facts straight and stop posting such bullshit!

On another note- if you are a Teamrider, wouldn't you expect to get replacement when things fail?
Read my response to your boss.