Problem with Trixie Surf/Real Surf Shop custom board

[cynamynt]

Has anybody had trouble with Trixie Surf ("surfboards for women" aka Real Surf Shop, Shawn Ambrose) in Oceanside? I had a board made there, but when I went to pick it up in December, there was severe delamination on the bottom. I think they were hoping I wouldn't notice it; they sure didn't point it out. Turns out they messed up when they glassed a design into the board, but they won't take responsibility for it. They demanded $100-$200 from me to repair the board, which of course I left there. After this problem happened, they even added a section to their terms and conditions that attempts to absolve them of liability for delamination during manufacture, and told me I was bound by this newly-added term. I'm trying to get my money back through Visa, but Trixie is fighting it. I ended up buying another board from a more reputable shop, but it cost me more because of the Clark Foam closure. I was just wondering if anyone else has had problems with these people?

[surf patrol]

Sorry to hear you are having problems. Selling a new board that has delamination is just plain wrong. If this is the case you should get your money back no problems.

[s.a.]

There are two side to every story --

don't know about this lobster person , but is doesn’t surprise me, I do have some very loyal friends and customers who would do pretty much ,ANYTHING, for me.

I am the a**hole who shaped the board in question. Sometimes i think people mistake my niceness for weakness. I made the mistake of accepting a laminate from this "customer" and sent it off to the glasser with said shaped blank,several weeks later the glasser called and said he was having problems with the laminate. It seems that the laminate was refusing to bond with the resin in places causing areas of delamination. I called the maker of said lam ( a company who has had some recent press and seemed reputable) of course they said they havn’t had any problems , but upon further questioning admitted that they used plastisol inks, which are the same as used on t-shirts, and yes a petrolium based ink. Ever paint a surfboard? I have painted thousands, guess what ,we always use water based inks because oil or petrol base inks are not compatible and can cause crystalization ( also found on the board in question) as well as other bonding issues.
The glasser informed me that they were able to repair with much additional work most of the questionable areas. They delivered the board to the shop in question while I was out of town ( good year in mammoth I might add), apparently the shop assistant manger noticed the crystalization and called me to tell me that some delam was also returning, and the decision was made to wait on any further repair as I did not want to incur undue charges for a customer supplied laminate.
the customer then showed up while I was out of town and of course wasn’t happy with her board. When we returned she was notified that we were going to attempt to recoup our additional charges ( hopefully from the laminate maker) instead of working with us we were informed that she was an attorney in the state of california, and that we made inferior products ect.
Now I can't speak for any of you ,but I don't like to be threatend or disrespected, so at this point there was no being nice or the customer is allways right. We actually won the first arbitration with paypal , then subsequently lost as visa representing her has more clout.
The board is still sitting in my basement, I had our PROFESSIONAL ding repair guy Joe Hendig ( best guy in oceanside) look at the board and give his PROFESSIONAL opinion, he said , and I quote, " it apears that the laminate is of a material that will not bond with resin, when I opened up the board the resin in contact with the lam was gooey and apeared to have eaten into the laminates ink,preventing the resin from fully hardening. In my professional opinion the delam and crystalization problems were caused by the faulty laminate material"
I have taken many boards in the shorts ( I've made over 12000)
a few sand throughs , faulty fin instalations, airbrush cryst -alizations, even a few miscommunications on dimensions.
Usually I will take the guilty party to task , heck it's been me a few times and sure I've redone a few boards, but in this case I could not grind my glasser when it was not his fault.
Maybe if this person was reasonable with us in dealing with this unfortunate situation we could have worked it out and both of us could have went our seperate ways happily, now she got her money back , I've got an opened up ,crystalized board in my basement and I have to here about someone slandering me on the internet.
even worse , people are hearing one side of the story and making up their minds,
Threatening to burn my shop down, buy the way that is is terrorism.
Now after hearing me out if you choose to believe the other side ,thats your choice , but if you continue to offer to burn me out you , and the operator of this site, may hear from my lawyer ( I ASSURE you he's much more powerful that the accuser)
If you really feel the need to run your mouth, just show up at my store and see how far that gets with me

That sums up my level of frustration, there, now I feel better




have a nice day ---------- sa

[SDCali]

The original author of this thread also posted on another site, that seems to be where s.a. got the threat re: burning the shop down. I would suggest that s.a. post what is posted here on that forum as well.

[livngthedream]

The devil has landed here at the forums around San Diego. Some lawyer ........not surfer has threatned a small shop over a surfboard glass job. This is such bad surfing karma for this bitch.

I want to also add that I have been into the shop and gotten custom boards made by this shaper. To everyone out there............THIS IS A GREAT SURF SHOP AND AN AMAZING SHAPER. do not listen to this lawyer cry about her glass job.

The shaper shapes the board. The glasser glasses the board. The laminate didnt stick. so you stuck it to the shaper.

pretty lame.

[livngthedream]

[ YOUR AN EVIL LAWYER! quote="cynamynt"]Has anybody had trouble with Trixie Surf ("surfboards for women" aka Real Surf Shop, Shawn Ambrose) in Oceanside? I had a board made there, but when I went to pick it up in December, there was severe delamination on the bottom. I think they were hoping I wouldn't notice it; they sure didn't point it out. Turns out they messed up when they glassed a design into the board, but they won't take responsibility for it. They demanded $100-$200 from me to repair the board, which of course I left there. After this problem happened, they even added a section to their terms and conditions that attempts to absolve them of liability for delamination during manufacture, and told me I was bound by this newly-added term. I'm trying to get my money back through Visa, but Trixie is fighting it. I ended up buying another board from a more reputable shop, but it cost me more because of the Clark Foam closure. I was just wondering if anyone else has had problems with these people?[/quote]

[grub]

s.a., when I first read the original post I was wondering about the laminate and thinking something was a bit fishy... my first thought was that you had a new batch of laminates done out of an inferior material; that issue is sorted as it was a customers laminate that was requested to be glassed in. Well, I guess that you wont be accepting any customer made laminates in the future with out some kind of agreement first. Sorry to here about the problem between you and the the lady and more that it couldn't have been worked out as a win/win...

As for degrading your name as a shaper on the internet; hopfully there is no long term damage ... don't know how others feel but Kevin Bloody Wilson says "half of what you read is bull, the other half's all sh#t". Good luck to you both.
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