As part of an ongoing reviews and general consumer info portion of our blog I found a couple good ones regarding Kokatat service. This comes from a couple posts Sandra and Mike B made on a local kayak chat group (used with their permission) .
Thanks Sandra and Mike!
john
Sandra wrote:
I just had a wonderful, easy experience with my Kokatat Meridian repair.
My gortex booties suffered tears in them from packing my suit in my
paddlebag and flying. It looked like someone had taken razorblades
and sliced through one bootie several times. I fixed it with duct tape and
used it once before biting the bullet and calling in repairs. I was quoted
two weeks when I received the RD number with full disclosure that the rips
happened while packed and traveling..
I didn't expect the bootie repair to be under warranty, however, when they
called me during the repairs and testing for leaks, they informed me that
they would replace both for free and they noticed a crack in my wrist gasket
and wanted to know if I wanted to spend the $27 to replace the gasket. My
whole expense for countless patches, wrist gasket replacement and gortex
bootie replacement was $40. It was done within a week, however I had sent
it in with a friend's suit and so I asked them to wait and send it back with
his. Exactly two weeks for the turnaround including my friend's repairs.
Fantastic job for customer service and worth every cent.
A wonderful persuasion for expedited customer service: A thank you note
and candy bars in the box expressing our gratitude for their help in getting
the suit back lickity split. Brett, you're a genius.
Mike Wrote:
You get what you pay for with Kokatat - no question. I sent mine in
for some holes in the rear that originated from falling into a thorn
bush, and they leak tested it and patched and taped an absolutely
staggering number of pin holes that I've obviously poked in it after
many years of bush-whacking. The holes must have bubbled air during
the test, because the suit stayed dry until the thorn incident (I
like to "field test" my drysuit in rapids at least a couple times per
winter to make sure its dry). They also noticed a marginal gasket
and replaced it by removing the 2 layers of old gasket, adhering,
stitching, and seam taping in a new one. I have had gaskets replaced
at other places, and they simply cut off the free area of the old
gasket and glued a new one on top. Very ghetto when compared to
Kokatat's workmanship, and I'll never use anyone else for repairs
from this point on. I was charged $47 including shipping for the
leak test, neck gasket, and an unbelievable number of small
patches. I had it in about a week round trip, but I did it in the
off season. Of course, I didn't think to include candy bars, which
obviously explains why my repairs were $7 more than S's.
Yes, buying Kokatat is tough to take when handing over the credit
card, but you don't need to do it very often due to the quality and
you can rely on great ongoing service by the same people who actually
make the product.
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