Anyone else receive a damaged UL-1?

[VKGT]

Bought my UL-1 brand new from eBay to take advantage of the free shipping... So I was all excited today to come home knowing that it would be here just in time for me to install the upgraded water jacket and tweaks in time for some weekend boating until......... See the pics :(

I won't name the seller/hobby shop as a replacement is pending but I hope that nobody else has the luck that I have since I've had a streak of stuff like this lately. Really no damage to the boxes so what to chalk this up to?

[Grimracer]

Please contact Hobby Services as soon as you can.. they will fix you right up

Grimracer

Man O man.. sorry to see that.. Keep us posted

[Steven Vaccaro]

UPS, USPS and Fedex treat packages like crap. I have literally received boxes with items hanging out of the cracks. A piece of tape could have saved some of the stuff inside. But that's to easy! :-(

[Meniscus]

As best I can figure it, your boat will see upwards of 30 G's on the water...and 120 G's with Fedex and UPS. 130 G's with USPS. LMAO!

Sorry to see you're have a streak of bad luck. I hope it gets better :)

[Capt. Crash]

I agree with the poor manhandling statement above...lord knows I've had my share of damaged merchandise arrive at my door, but the UL-1 comes well packed and with the addition of another box over that with NO apparent damage to either one...you have to wonder if it didn't leave the factory that way. This is just one of numerous damaged UL-1s I've read about being delivered, but this one looks the worse so far.

That really sucks man. :cursing:

[VKGT]

Please contact Hobby Services as soon as you can.. they will fix you right up

Grimracer

Man O man.. sorry to see that.. Keep us posted


Sounds good, thanks for the info! I will give them a call if the hobby shop can't help me out.. I'm bummed about not having it for this weekend..

[VKGT]

I agree with the poor manhandling statement above...lord knows I've had my share of damaged merchandise arrive at my door, but the UL-1 comes well packed and with the addition of another box over that with NO apparent damage to either one...you have to wonder if it didn't leave the factory that way. This is just one of numerous damaged UL-1s I've read about being delivered, but this one looks the worse so far.

That really sucks man. :cursing:




You guys are right, it makes you wonder if a UPS handler in the line was having a bad day and decided to take it out on the first box he saw that was stamped with fragile! But at the same time, the boxes seem to be in near perfect shape so we definitely have to wonder if this was a slip-up in the QA process at the factory.

Definitely sucks when you see all of the other materials that are supposed to protect the boat in tact and the boat looking like it's been dropped or something!

[Steven Vaccaro]

I agree with the poor manhandling statement above...lord knows I've had my share of damaged merchandise arrive at my door, but the UL-1 comes well packed and with the addition of another box over that with NO apparent damage to either one...you have to wonder if it didn't leave the factory that way. This is just one of numerous damaged UL-1s I've read about being delivered, but this one looks the worse so far.

That really sucks man. :cursing:

Its damaged if its crushed from the side. The sponsons are about 1/4" away from the box side. I've sent back two that got damaged that way. No apparent damage on the outside box. Now we check them all before shipping them out.

[WaterWalker]

First I would like to say by experience 'Lisa' at Hobby Services is Awesome... She helped me with a damaged Tug, sent me a new one and emailed a p/up order when the new one was delivered... Not often one see's that type of service or trust anymore... Aquacraft - Service = 11...
AND
Sure am glad I bought my UL-1 from Steven and they do the little extra and check it...
THANKS...

Luke

[Raydee]

My friend bought one that has the sponson cracked with no damage on the box at all.

[VKGT]

I called and left a message for Lisa.. Hope I can get a new one soon! Sucks to hear about more of these boats getting damaged like this, I hope the packaging get's a revamp soon!

[Jeff Wohlt]

I'm never to fast to blame the carrier when you see no damage on the boxes. QA issues but they should replace it for you with S&H included. I even ask for them to send a label to send back at their cost. I already paid once for S&H and will not pay to ship their flaws back. Just me but they always take care of it.

[Steven Vaccaro]

I'm never to fast to blame the carrier when you see no damage on the boxes. QA issues but they should replace it for you with S&H included. I even ask for them to send a label to send back at their cost. I already paid once for S&H and will not pay to ship their flaws back. Just me but they always take care of it.


I have to repeat. These can be damaged with no apparent outside box damage. If anyone would like to pay for one I will video the proccess and post a damaged boat with no damage to the outside box. :w00t: :just-kidding:

[Flying Scotsman]

I have been involved with the packaging machinery business most of my life. That type of damage can happen with no apparent crushing to the box. No manufacturer would send out a boat in that condition. It costs them a lot of money to rectify the problem. The UL-1 I received from OSE had no damage...Ebay that is another matter.

My take on this particular situation. The Ebay seller received a damaged boat and rather than go through the lengthy process of a claim with the carrier he/she repacked the damaged boat in a another original box with no visible damage. That company would not be OSE but as you state a hobby shop or ? The reason I say this is, there is a lot of pressure sensitive tape on the shipping box.

Douggie

[Steven Vaccaro]

One thing I would add. No matter where you buy a item of this size from, ask them to open the box and do a basic look of the contents. I don’t mean to completely take it out and go over it with a fine tooth comb, but a quick inspection may save both parties time and money.

[VKGT]

Just a little update.... The Hobby Shop that I purchased this from has been no help at all. They steered me in the direction of Lisa or Diane at Great Planes which only forwarded my call to Hobby Services. Hobby Services advised me to ship the UL-1 to them (on my dime) and they would determine if it is a warranty item or not and then ship a new one to me if they think the damage is covered. So right now, here we are a month later and I still don't have a functional UL-1.

No thanks to the Hobby Shop, they haven't even reimbursed me for shipping.

[VKGT]

My take on this particular situation. The Ebay seller received a damaged boat and rather than go through the lengthy process of a claim with the carrier he/she repacked the damaged boat in a another original box with no visible damage. That company would not be OSE but as you state a hobby shop or ? The reason I say this is, there is a lot of pressure sensitive tape on the shipping box.

Douggie



FWIW, the eBay seller in question here is a supposedly "reputable" Hobby Shop on the west coast. My frustration is their "hands off" approach to helping me get a new boat and pointing the finger at the distributer.

[Jeff Wohlt]

So are these not packed well? Do they not have a molded area of foam so the boat does not bang around?

You don't break inside areas when they are struck. Your packing should tell it all if the sponson tips smacked the end of the box etc.

Seems to be plenty of these is all I was saying...packing may be the issue.

[skibo2]

So are these not packed well? Do they not have a molded area of foam so the boat does not bang around?

You don't break inside areas when they are struck. Your packing should tell it all if the sponson tips smacked the end of the box etc.

Seems to be plenty of these is all I was saying...packing may be the issue.

I spent 26 years as Traffic Manager for a major international manufacturing company and my job was all aspects of transportation and packaging of our products. Is the packaging for the UL-1 adaquate? Yes, but it could be better to prevent transportation damage. However, I believe that much of the damage has happened at the manufacturing plant even before packaging and was the old cover up routine and get it out the door. I know that my first UL-1 happened that way for sure. If you look back in my posts you will see a post from me about damage around the turn fin. Well, when I removed the turn fin to check the extent of the damage I discovered a piece of the fiberglass was missing and the factory had put in some kind of filler and had repainted the area and replaced the turn fin over the repair. The boat had also been dropped on the tip of the sponson and a piece was broken out there as well and the same thing, filler and repaint. Now no transportation company did that repair that for sure happened at the manufacturer. Aquacraft has since replaced that boat to me. My second boat came with a hole in the box that was caused by transportation but there was NO damage to the boat. Transportation should only amount to about 1 to 2% of damage to a product. But from what I am hearing from many owners is that the figure is a whole lot higher than that. I hate to say this but the manufacturing facility is in a country that seems to be having a major quality control issue and has been accused many times of not following specs. Hopefully, those companies will learn that to compete in the world market they have to produce a qauality product.

Just my two cents worth on the situation.

[VKGT]

It's just a shame that these things are having problems and showing up damaged. I bought this UL-1 over a month ago and still don't have one... The batteries showed up from Hong Kong two weeks faster than it is taking to get a replacement. I talked to GP Hobby Services who didn't seem to want to speed up the process of just looking at my boat and sending a new one out even though they had the damn thing for at least 2 days.

Supposedly a new one from Great Planes is on the way...we'll see I guess

[Ub Hauled]

if it's coming from Great Planes then you should be able to track it... ask for a tracking number.

[VKGT]

Got a tracking number...hope this finally works out soon

[sailr]

I absolutely refuse to let UPS touch anything! FedEx ground has been really good and are much faster than UPS at a much lower cost.

USPS has been fairly good with their handling but their costs have shot through the roof for anything of size. Fedex is about 1/4th the cost of the post office!