Warranty Nightmares

demand a refund. you are entitled to one and the shop is responsible regardless. thays why i dont sell appliances to my clients.

The same thing happened to two of us that bought the maui sails carbon wave booms from the auction, after one sail all the boom grip released and fell away as if it hadnt been glued properly, I hope warranty sorts your problems Russ unfortunately we didnt have that option. New grip with kwik grip and careful rolling on sorted the other one with good results Im just waiting to see that it stays on and I'll do the same!

I had a problem with the same brand - they took me for a ride a couple of years ago: one party was saying "the 5 year WTY for the structural parts (downhaul corner of 1.5 y.o. sail got ripped off while rigging) of the sail is only in Europe", another party was saying "It is worldwide", Head company webpage just forwarded my problem back to distributor. At the end I had no options but split the costs of repair with the shop. Since then I am 2 x very careful with WTY issues. I can understand the frustrations caused.
I have also heard that the problem with the boom grip is not a new one - the glue was wrong or something like that.

Unfortunately I believe Windsurfing & Warranty are mutually exclusive terms.

Companies need to learn that consumers have realtime and honest (albeit sometimes subjective) peer reviews of gear at their finger tips. A search for "Gold series boom" quickly takes you to this thread, which had I been contemplating buying one would now be rethinking my purchase options. That's what's so incredible at the internet and the very specific information it can provide.

As Russ' problem only involves the grip not being applied correctly (it wasn't damaged in a catapult, surf etc) I find it incredibly frustrating and somewhat of a constant theme that the original importer want's to wipe their hands of "his" problem. Yes not theirs but his! I know it's a painful process but contacting Consumer Affairs as Mark has suggested may just be what is needed to get some action.
Rant over

this is a bit off the thread but I had an issue with a 2nd hand but new Starboard Isonic that completely "unlaminated" the whole 2/3rds of the board's bottom after about 15-20x of use..since it was out of warranty and with the prodding of a different brand importer decided to file a claim to see what could be done and to the man himself Mr. Rasmussen with pics, serial numbers and a follow-up letter from a friend who found it "unbelievable"..Svein answers back to email everything to him and cc: their customer service..since then the board was picked up by their man and sent to Thailand..up to this date after several emails back and forth describing the same thing and remailing the pics and all to the same group of person's nothing has happened.. For a company this big it's a shame there is no definite answer..am even contemplating on just getting the footstraps and board bag back at least what they could do is just repair the damn thing or replace it with a test board of the same specs..our importer supposedly had it as a gift from the Co. and wasn't allowed to sell it in principle...nice really nice!

As has been said before, go back to the shop you bought it from and demand a refund. They are obliged by State and National law to give you a refund.

http://australia.gov.au/topics/economy-money-and-tax/consumer-protection

www.treasury.gov.au/documents/1586/PDF/Issues_paper_20090726.pdf (page 4)

There are three criteria:
Fit for purpose - it has to do the job it is made for. If you can reasonably use the boom for sailing then it is fit for purpose. If you cannot use it then it is not.

Of merchantable quality - it can't fall apart in normal use and it must last a reasonable time. Yours didn't. Demand a refund.

Perform as described - if they tell you how great and robust and reliable it is, and you find that it is not, then get a refund.

Most States have a Small Claims Tribunal where you can take the shop to get arbitration. Of course you don;t want to go there but if you politely point out the actual situation, the legal requirement and the option of a visit to the tribunal the shop should see sense.

PS. You have to be sure that your claim is reasonable and fair. You can't wade in like a bush lawyer with a cannon for a minor scratch or something silly like that.

As suggested nik baker is a good option. I tried and tried to get in touch with the north global team and got nowhere, one email to nik baker and got a new harness 2 weeks later, very impressive support from him.

a good customer service worth's more than actual quality of the product...in field I work in, sometimes the customers contact me directly, if they run into deaf ears of the distributors or even dealers...since they pay even 3x more than they would for competition products we are aware we cannot afford to leave the customer with a faulty product...

Publish a video on youtube with a title North sails boom or something....and show what the issue is...send a link to their direct contact mail....

Buy Loft booms

Sounds like North are going South

Few years ago, I tried to buy a North Boom in the UK, the 'Brand New Shape' ones (in alloy), cause I'm a sucker for that stuff.. I was refused sale cause they were all breaking, shop said they were only prepared to sell them to 'elderly lake sailors'..

After they had been on the market for a couple of months they became known as 'Cheese Booms', and whatever that means, it's real bad. The iFront was dubbed the CheeseFront.. Comedy geniuses, those English..

North's carbon booms are have an even worse reputation, the previous model was a disaster..

While having a bad batch of glue is not the end of the world, it should be pushed through the warranty process ASAP, but I guess the North warranty department must be pretty busy with all those Power-XT extensions..

I don't know how North can let through such **ty quality products into production.. Power-XT, Booms that fall apart, and Sails can't be rolled up..

^^ I'm sure they are good for that, but anybody who would dish out for a Gold North, clearly is after a top quality, sturdy product. So Loft is instantly out of the question..

I imagine Loft are fully aware their booms will not be bought by a large proportion of the windsurfing public..

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I just remembered a mate of mine is sponsored by a distributer in the UK and he was given a Streamlined carbon boom, which was an ex warranty job because it had a nick in the grip!.. The nick was half the size of a 5c piece!..

I always get annoyed at the waste of good gear by warranty jobs, a carbon North boom could be re-gripped easily and be donated to someone needy.. Same with boards, they get sawn in half, when most repairs are fixable..