Other WTF is with the arrogance of builders and manufacturers of products for our sport

[WFO Speedracer]

I went through this with a steering setup on my X2, everyone said it was so great, it looked ok and I got it a a decent price, first thing I notice when I turn it over is the bearings are not stainless and are made in China, I had that part about a month, sold it for more than I paid for it, built my own steering setup and never looked back.

 

[SurferSmurf]

Here's the thing though guys: every time we tweak and grind and reinforce and bend the parts we are buying to make them fit/work, we are perpetuating the problem. A commercial transaction is about exchanging money for value. You make a judgement upfront about whether the price asked fits with the value you place on the item and then you buy one. If you have to rework it when you get it, then the value has reduced. That is something you should take up with the service provider. If I buy something from Best Buy and it doesn't work as advertized, I take it back for a replacement or a refund. If the service isn't good at dinner I don't leave much of a tip. If my rideplate holes don't line up on the hull I was promised it would fit, then I should send it back!

If the manufacturers start to get returns on poor quality items or sales start to drop then they will increase their quality. If they don't, they won't. Just like the waiter won't give you better service next time if you give him a great tip for lazy service - you're
sending the wrong message. You can't complain about poor quality if you don't complain about poor quality....

this is true... but i ultimately believe in doing things right. if i mess up a part at work i dont just pack it up and send it to be put in an airplane. i tell the boss and scrap the part and make a good one. the manufacturers need to understand that that is a part of overhead and they should scrap the bad stuff and make new. i dont think everything is all ways bad just a large percentage is.

 

[jetpilot08]

Ill name some names and call some people out......
First off thrust innovations. Its not what you think...you can unball your panties from your crevass..

I bought some parts from him and even though there was a hiccup Brian contacted me and sorted all out. His customer service is top notch and he sells some kick ass parts. Look forward to doing some buisness with thrust in the future.

Now...I should have known better but I decide to give rick Roy's parts another chance. I order a steering system with bearings. I ordered this particular steering plate because of the grease zerk to grease up the bearings without taking it apart. Well the parts show up and everything is there but the grease zerk and instructions.

I know I can figure out how to put it on but I have some questions about where to put the some washers and it would be nice to have some instructions to refer to. Also I am aware that I can get a grease zerk from the hardware store to solve that problem

Point is I shouldn't have have to go pick up extra parts to make it work. Look at the pictures on any site that sells the rrp turnplate. The grease zerk is clearly visible and talks about it in the product description. If your not going to throw one in say it will not be included. I would be fine with that. Again instructions for reference would be good. And yes I checked the rrp website and there are no instructions to be found.

Rant over

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[jMike]

I liked my CDI-9R that came with only Japanese instructions..

Now I dont advocate the distribution of sub par quality products but I can see how some of the companies could miss stuff. For the most part these parts are made in the USA and to keep the cost competitive they need to hire cheaper somewhat less experienced labor or the owners own sweat in their shops. Now to manufacture the items they build in house, on their own gear and make in limited quantities, or make them after their day jobs or send out to local shops that use inexperienced labor to again keep cost down. The parts get made and sent back to the shop and then the owner would have to inspect each part on top of answering sales calls, troubleshooting calls, Setup question calls, do other shop business and run the back office stuff. I can see how one might miss a one or two manufacturing flawed parts. Still it sucks when you drop big bucks and all you get for your $$$ is a few new colorful words to say in the 2hrs you spend fighting with the part. my 2c is this is prob going to be like this until the industry grows again where the manufacturers can afford to have QA/QC departments dedicated to ensuring each part is 100%.. Sucky but thems the breaks in our little sport. I'm grateful there are companies like Thrust, Blowsion, Xscream, RRP, etc making parts for such a niche market that rides hopped up skis. Lets hope they keep it up and if we all support the shops that do have a good attention to detail we'll weed out the duds.. Don't forget to tell the shop when there is a problem cause the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

 

[SurferSmurf]

i too have so far only seen good quality stuff come out of thrust innovations. but some of the companies he distributes for... not so much. some of those companies need to step up and take responsibility for what they are letting go out the door and if they dont at some point thrust is gonna end up takin heat for being their distrubutor (and that would not be fair).

 

[B3IS]

Last year I bought another beach cart when it got to me the welds were nasty and looked like a 12 year olds first welds. $600.00 after shipping, yes I called them waited for a return tag shipped it back. After all was said and done I am happy with the product still kind of tweaked about the extra few weeks of shipping drama. A couple of weeks ago I bought a double bilge bracket from one of the big boys in the industry and ALL of the holes needed to be redrilled to work with the rivots they sent. It would seem to be a simple case of ANYBODY paying attention to what is getting shipped to the customers. I guess it comes down to the time you want to spend fixing it or waiting for a new one.

 

[kraqus]

I think the "engineers" are smoking too much ganja when designing these aftermarket parts.....LOL!
Someone said it best....it is because we tolerate this from the manufacturers that keeps the bad parts coming.

I bought a Handlepole Mount Reinforcing Plate for my RN.
Can you ing believe that although it fit where the bolts were supposed to go, it was too big and covered the holes for the hood hooks? I was laughing hysterically when I saw that. I mean c'mon "Mr. Engineer", did you not see that the oversized plate you cut from the machine was a bit too big and will cover those holes? They sent it like that anyways because "we are supposed to tweak these parts to make them fit", right?.....WRONG!

I had to bring out the grinding wheel and grind about half inch on each side in order to clear the holes.....

Ah! My friend ordered the same part from the same manufacturer months later and guess what.......SAME ING THING!

I believe they have corrected that problem by now.

Benny

 

[sjetrider]

I.E.

Chin pad for an A/C pole. Where do you buy one that fits a HAND MADE pole perfectly? The pole varies so how can any one chin pad fit all A/C poles? They Cannot.
Chin pad for an X-metal pole? everyone trims the ears or drills the pad in different places so how can you make a part that is bolt on ready with NO drilling or trimming required in everyones case?

You want a chin pad for your RRP pole, OK no problem. OH, you are running riser bars and so and so style dump lever (entirely new ball game now).

If everyone ran the same parts in conjunction then YES no problem, perfect fit everytime. Rid plates are different, tough to get perfect but they should be the same IF ON AND OEM HULL right? NOPE, I had a Worx casted plate that had to be tweaked to get on one SJ OEM hull but went in like a hot dog down a hallway on another????????????

IN ANY sport or hobby that involves aftermarket parts there will ALWAYS be a certain amount of (some modification may be required) expected IMO.

A HIGH DOLLAR B pipe that has been in production since at least 1991 can have issues where you have to bash it in with a hammer to go in over the bed plate or next to the hull (especially if you reinforced it IN YOUR OWN WAY).

If your gonna buy HIGH DOLLAR parts then do your homework and ask questions first. Otherwise buy nice products at a reduced cost and expect a little modification to be needed. Either way there is always a little hastle expected in aftermarket parts IMO, either HIGH DOLAR and you had to do some homework to check em out before shelling out BIG $$$$ and still might get a surpeise durring instal. OR by a decent part and make it work at a reasonable cost from someone reputable involved in the sport. Just my experience in the last 15 years of messing with these things.

 

[sjetrider]

WFO, So you sold that subpar part for a profit??????? Did you inform the person buying it as to the reason you were selling it?

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

I think the "engineers" are smoking too much ganja when designing these aftermarket parts.....LOL!
Someone said it best....it is because we tolerate this from the manufacturers that keeps the bad parts coming.

I bought a Handlepole Mount Reinforcing Plate for my RN.
Can you ing believe that although it fit where the bolts were supposed to go, it was too big and covered the holes for the hood hooks? I was laughing hysterically when I saw that. I mean c'mon "Mr. Engineer", did you not see that the oversized plate you cut from the machine was a bit too big and will cover those holes? They sent it like that anyways because "we are supposed to tweak these parts to make them fit", right?.....WRONG!

I had to bring out the grinding wheel and grind about half inch on each side in order to clear the holes.....

Ah! My friend ordered the same part from the same manufacturer months later and guess what.......SAME ING THING!

I believe they have corrected that problem by now.

Benny

I would be surprised to hear that any of the aftermarket parts companies have 'engineers' designing these parts.

 

[smoofers]

I would be surprised to hear that any of the aftermarket parts companies have 'engineers' designing these parts.

But they are smoking the green when they design them.

 

[masterblaster]

Most of their stuff has been spot on over the years but some of their stuff just doesn't cut it. They refunded my money each time no questions asked, but it's very frustrating to see what you want online, order it, expect it to be perfect since it is from a reputable company, then find out some of their stuff is sub-standard. But i've noticed in other peoples posts that if you say anything negative about this particular company, you get half a dozen guys telling you there's nothing wrong and that said company supports events, riders, etc. like the rest of us are just supposed to ignore the poor quality because a company is huge in the industry.

Right there is why this whole thread is happening right now.Its worthless without callouts and pics. "most" of the time parts being good enough isnt what we need! There are so many coverups going on right now,cause "some" guys are either getting parts refunded or replaced free,but this is the minority,the rest just get screwed and say nothing cause they get bandwagoners,nutswingers of the accused company bashing them cause "nothing" could ever be wrong with said companys parts because they may have got a good one themselves.I applaud anyone for being forthright.The few parts that are out there right now that are quality,even though no one will say it are crazy overpriced.There is at least one quality small parts/performance company coming to this market with dare I say a reasonable price because of the issues in this thread. You can do hours of research on a product here and find nothing bad said about it in some cases that has KNOWN issues amongst many of us......so whats the point of this thread again I already forgot?

 

[Rickster]

I.E.

Chin pad for an A/C pole. Where do you buy one that fits a HAND MADE pole perfectly? The pole varies so how can any one chin pad fit all A/C poles? They Cannot.
Chin pad for an X-metal pole? everyone trims the ears or drills the pad in different places so how can you make a part that is bolt on ready with NO drilling or trimming required in everyones case?

You want a chin pad for your RRP pole, OK no problem. OH, you are running riser bars and so and so style dump lever (entirely new ball game now).

If everyone ran the same parts in conjunction then YES no problem, perfect fit everytime. Rid plates are different, tough to get perfect but they should be the same IF ON AND OEM HULL right? NOPE, I had a Worx casted plate that had to be tweaked to get on one SJ OEM hull but went in like a hot dog down a hallway on another????????????

IN ANY sport or hobby that involves aftermarket parts there will ALWAYS be a certain amount of (some modification may be required) expected IMO.

A HIGH DOLLAR B pipe that has been in production since at least 1991 can have issues where you have to bash it in with a hammer to go in over the bed plate or next to the hull (especially if you reinforced it IN YOUR OWN WAY).

If your gonna buy HIGH DOLLAR parts then do your homework and ask questions first. Otherwise buy nice products at a reduced cost and expect a little modification to be needed. Either way there is always a little hastle expected in aftermarket parts IMO, either HIGH DOLAR and you had to do some homework to check em out before shelling out BIG $$$$ and still might get a surpeise durring instal. OR by a decent part and make it work at a reasonable cost from someone reputable involved in the sport. Just my experience in the last 15 years of messing with these things.

Finally, some common sense brought into this thread!

 

[sjetrider]

Forthright is one thing, mad bashing another bro. Posting feedback on part or service is something I personally think is awesome. But tell the entire story or none of it at all IMO. This thread was posted as IN GENERAl REALLY so its not of any benifit except to give us a place to vent really. We dont know who he bought this part from or what he is putting it on or what is wrong (in his mind) with the part. Hell he coulda paid $10 for a ride plate and mad as hell that it didnt improve his backflips for all we know.
Good reading though.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

It was an almost brand new UMI setup, I sold it as used, I did sell it for a profit because I like you buy parts at wholesale and sell them at retail, its called Business 101. Did I disclose it had Chinese bearings, nope, all you have to do is look or do a search, its common knowledge that UMI poop is made in China now, bottom line is this, the customer was happy with the purchase , I was happy with the sale, that's really all that matters here.What I find really sad is that some of the smallest vendors sell some of the nicest parts I have seen.

 

[kawasakit2me]

WFO, So you sold that subpar part for a profit??????? Did you inform the person buying it as to the reason you were selling it?

Was thinking the same thing.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Yeah my bad I should have sold it below dealer cost, shipped next day air and paid for the shipping. Let me ask you this do you tell your customers that buy Waterdawg hoods from you that Jeff has repeatedly ripped off customers, failed to send product, failed to honor certificates given away at freerides and flat out lied to his customers?

 

[motobehrens]

IN ANY sport or hobby that involves aftermarket parts there will ALWAYS be a certain amount of (some modification may be required) expected IMO.

I think that's the mentality that lets manufacturer's get away with poor quality. When buying stuff for a motocross bike I've never had to really drill stuff out, or hack on it to get it to fit. You just buy it and bolt it on. Aftermarket plastics, gas tanks, and some handguards being the only exception.

For a jet ski, if you have a custom ski then of course things will need figured out. But for a virtually stock superjet you shouldn't have to drill, tap, die, cut, or mangle parts that are intended to fit a superjet.

In just the last 3 weeks I've gotten a new crank that i could'nt run a die down the coupler threads because the threads were too tight and couplers that I couldn't thread the proper size tap into. Only after I paid 25$ to have crankworks figure out why my coupler wouldn't fit my crank and run a tap through my new coupler was I able to install my new coupler on my new crank. I also have new flame arrestors that had dangling bits of wire bouncing around inside them. Thank God I inspected them after taking them out of the box. What about hood hooks that put less tension on the hood than the stock hooks? Good thing I caught that too. Intake grate that had the holes so far off i had to have them welded and redrilled. etc, etc.

I'm not ripping on you at all and I fully agree some massaging is necesary at times, especially for one-off or custom situations, but I just think stuff that's labeled as "bolt on" should actually be "bolt on". Otherwise just label it a "grind on" part.

 

[2XLR8]

If a 1500.00 crank wont fit your coupler is it the crank builders fault ? If it fits the oem coupler then it should be fine. The problem is sometimes we want to use bran X couplers with brand y crankshaft. True once they know the problem exists it should be corrected.


I dont know what is worse overcharging for your parts or overcharging for your work because you say it's worth it. I recently heard someone say 1000.00 for a top level port job on billet cylinder . How can you charge that ? I guess 10 hours at 100.00 dollars an hour = 1000.00 . If you look at it correctly it really isn't that bad. I am sure for a meticulous job done right to get the max it has to be at least 8 hours if not 10. If a shop charges 72.00 an hour for normal wrenching then 100.00 an hour for the knowledge and expertise and having the correct tools is a bargain.

 

[kevbo]

A service is also low quality if its benefit is not stated or measurement of not provided. Speed and weight are the only metric that everyone can easily verify. Everything else is subjective and thats where the prettiest face and best line of BS always win.