Very bad business from SLO Sail and Canvas

Thanks Rick,
I had heard only GREAT things about SLO. thats why i went with him (that and the $200) price tag. And you are probably correct that had i ordered through you, he would probably fullfilled that order as you send him business more often, although he has killed any chance of business from my fleet of mysteres

a few others are coming out of the wood-work after hearing about my issies with the same experience:

Despite 3 people fron this site/thread contacting him (and my continued attempts) no one from SLO has contacted me in any way to handle this situation

I have also had speedy service from Karl at SLO Sail as well of course, great service from Sunrise. No customer complaints so far.

Sorry you're having these problems.

Rick Bliss
New England Catamarans

Still nothing

Letter of final demand being drafted

Yea, sorry you’re having such trouble with Karl. He seems to fall off the face of the planet the moment things don’t go his way. I think he puts his head in the sand as soon as he gets nervous about anything. I ended up using a pretty torn up set of sails for the Leukemia cup last January because after numerous attempts at giving him business, he wouldn’t return emails, phone calls. I talked to Karl just before Thanksgiving and he said he could get me a new main and jib just after the first of the year. I called him every couple of days after Thanksgiving to give him some measurements and solid up the deal, Hell, I offered to send him a check and luckily he didn’t get back to me, or I would have been in the same predicament as you!
Also, A friends Main (built by Karl), needed to be re stitched after about 9 months of use. Also, the batten pocket protector screws were too long and were poking through the nut on the other side, began wearing holes in the main when it was rolled up. Not much attention to detail.
To anyone out there looking at SLO for tramps or sails, be very careful.
To his credit, the first time I did business with him, he built me a nice main for a N5.7.
Since then he's failed on all levels.

Just to update, despite a few people from here contacting SLO... still nothing.

CA State attorney has sent me a letter, they are looking into if any laws were broken and if so, what course of action should be taken.

Want to send out a big thank you to Karl and Slo Sail and Canvas. They truly care about their customers and will do anything to make things right. I ordered a trampoline from them for my Prindle 19 and upon receiving it, there was a slight stitching issue I had. Was not a big deal, just something that bugged me. I called Karl and he didn't hesitate! He advised he wanted me to be 100% satisfied and that he would ship another tramp that same day, and have it

overnighted.

They also covered the return shipping. Exellent customer service! This is the way every company should operate! The tramp was very well made and looks great! Thanks Karl!!!

I don't have a dog in this fight, but the previous post sounds a lot like ad copy from a professional marketer. And, why did they respond to a two year old post? Damage control??? It will be interesting to see if this new Stranger (as of now only 2 postings),continues to post in the future. Did the original problem ever get resolved?

I also have had great service with slosails. I have used them 4 or 5 times. Never a problem. I am not a pro marketer just a retired guy who rebuilds some old beach cats to help with my retirement.

I am a dealer for SLO and have nothing but good service from them. I ama dealer for about 6 tramp mfgs and SLO is one of the fastest at fulfilling orders
Rick

I don't have any experience with Slo but I do know who Morris is and know that he truely does exhist. Why posting to such an old post is beyond me though.

RE: Jeff Peterson

Jeff, I'm just another cat sailor, been sailing Prindles for 20 years. I am not affiliated with Slo Sail and Canvas in any way. I discovered them from two other catamaran sailors at the Texas City Dike that have Slo tramps and I liked what I saw. So, I ordered one for my P-19 and am very happy with it. I can send you a copy of the invoice, a photo of my boat, etc. I only wanted to give credit where credit is due. Karl treated me well, as far as I'm concerned he runs his business as it should be. I know there are times when things go wrong and people are unhappy with a company but from most of the posts I've seen Slo Sails and Canvas is a quality and professionally run operation!

As for posting on an old thread? I had an excellent experience dealing with Slo Sails and that's what forums are all about, INFORMATION....I just ordered the tramp this past week. I thought other sailors would like to know peoples various experiences with companies, mine happened to be positive.

Maybe I'll regret posting this but I heard through the grapevine that if the complaining party wasn't such a d!ck to SLO in the first place and slamming him on every forum possible, things would have been much different.

Good old grapevine. Right every time. Isn't nice to know that slo talks to the grapevine but ignores the customer.

Does it say on their site place your order and send us your pattern and don't try and contact us again. If you do we will ignore you and keep your pattern ( in this case the pattern was a friends tramp ) and then laugh it off to the grapevine saying the guy is a dick because he sent a email or made a phone call. Really??

slo uses the Internet to gain business when they don't fulfill their end the Internet can and should be used to inform others.

I am not sure that the person who started these posts knows how much positive advertising he has created for slosails. It appears to be about 98% positive 2% negative. I would take those numbers any day.

the probably would want to have started a thread with a different title, though.

No. the (borrowed) tramp that was sent to Karl as a template was never returned (despite him telling J from Surf City he would either complete the project or return the template) and my calls, emails, and voice mails were never returned

If you come into a contract with me , and I send you my friends trampoline to use as a template, then you fall off the face of the earth for 3 or 4 months, and don't return my friends tramp... i will never stop complaining and telling people my experience with your company and total lack of professionalism.

If it wasn't my friends tramp... i probably wouldn't care as much.

send this back up your

grapevine

... Be a adult and return a clients email or phone call, or complete the contract or return the customers materials and you wont have

dicks

posting how terrible your customer service was in this case on all the forums.

Since we're on the subject of bad service, here's one; In 2004, I ordered a main and jib (prepaid) for my H21SE from Calvert Sails. I think I placed the order in March and paid for it with the promis of around 4 weeks or less delivery. By the end of May I was a bit worried after no returned calls from Joe or Dave. When my sails came in, there was a spinnaker sent with them. I thought that was a bit strange. I just tossed it aside since I was just glad I got my sails finally. I had another main by Calvert that came with the boat and was changing over the battens and the top 3 were way too long. They made this one with the square top much smaller for some reason. Then when I got around to raising it, it would pull out of the track when it hit the comptip making it nearly impossible to raise it without laying the boat on it's side (which is a PIA to do with wings). This time it was the first of June and I was going to do the GT300 on this boat. I got a call from Dave Calvert wondering if I recieved a spinnaker. I said yes and he asked me to drop it off at UPS because they had a pissed off customer wanting his spinnaker. I asked him for the guy's address and I'd send it to him myself, which I did. I also told him about the main pulling out of the track. His response was that he was trying more luff curve in the sail to make it perform better. I asked about why the square top was so much smaller, his answer was

we think it will go to weather better

. I told him to do R &D on his own stuff, not what I;m paying full price for. I knew there wasn't enough time before the GT300 to send it back and told him that. He said try it, if I don't like, send it back and he'd change it. After the GT, I sent it back ....in July. September comes around and still no sail. Every time I called, Dave was out somewhere. October I get a call after I had an attorney send a letter demanding a refund. They said they sent it weeks ago. They sent it to the wrong address (sound familiar?) It gets better....Dave had the nerve to ask me to pay for a new sail since I had already used the first one once. His argument was that it had

depreciated

and wasn't a new sail when I sent it back. I finally got a new sail in November. I'm sure many people have had great experiences with Calvert but I didn't.
The funny thing was when we went to do the GT, I saw that spinn flying on a N6.0 in that race. It was unmistakable, black, purple and blue. I told my crew, look that's the chute that sat in my house in California that we were wondering about.

Have a friend that is a divorce attorney and her favorite saying is; “you have his story, you have her story, and somewhere in the middle lays the truth.”

It appears the MN3 is the only one with the problem. Sure would like to see SLO Sails response to MN3’s allegations.

I heard only good things too, but 4 months after i sent karl the tramp (template) and posted his

disappearing

a few others had somewhat similar experiences

I would LOVE to hear SLO (Karl's) response, and his excuses for stopping to communicate with a customer, failure to complete the work, and worst of all failure to return a customers property.

OR he could still return the template (or attempt to find another solution) and I this topic would be dead.

Remember J from Surf City contacted him ( 08/06/10 12:27 PM ) and spoke to Karl about it, ..."

This is comical. Really?? ....well we only screw two people per 100. Yup I'm good with that. Brilliant!

Do you have a business? Let me know cause I would NEVER call you.

So what you are saying Mike is that 100% of the people you deal with are satisfied 100% of the time.

Yes, I believe that to be 100% true.

There's another old saying, If your happy with your experience tell everyone, If your not tell me.

If I do something you don't like and you don't tell me then it's on you. Fair enough?