Custom Subsonic Century 40" Issues x2

[leadBreather]

Please go watch a video of a board being pressed.

[rosco]

The defects that are an issue are from carelessness in applying the clear coat and CF. No suggestion from any of the images that they have any impact on the deck itself.

[kook]

I respect this chik…

she deserves to get what she paid for simple as that

if this is subsonics best effort, she deserves her money back.

and this is coming from someone who absolutely love his century 40 deck
and would buy again… but I’d certainly send it back 100% if it was not as advertised

the second effort is worse than the first…

and the whole… “yeah the technician scratched the board” upon assembly bullshit, yet the product was shipped, is completely untenable

[leadBreather]

She hasn’t stated that they aren’t accepting a return, has she? If so, I missed that.

Just return it.

[kook]

double negatives are a bozo no-no

[GlitterSpitter]

@bwahl602

Sorry about your experience. The first one was not great, especially the scratches

Hey bwahl602, thank you for your comment. I agree with you words!

@bwahl602

I’d say the small dings in the second one could be overlooked but if the clear coat is truly hazy you’ve got a problem you shouldn’t settle with. If they repaired the deck by just adding a layer of clear without prepping properly that’s not gonna come out

Yeah, its hazy and those dust and dirt particles really stick out. I laid the deck by a window for these photos posted above, and wow does the blanket of bumpy particles really stand out. To put it another way, they not only stand out, those thousands of dust particles take away from the gloss and the visual clarity of the carbon fiber. All that pretty carbon fiber, with its rational grid system, totally borked by crappy dust and dirt filled clear coat, it really takes away from the materiality of the board.

@bwahl602

TBH, I recently built a sub century for a local friend and there were a few finish issues with the top coat over the CF and the top of the deck. There’s definitely some QC improvement needed there at the price point.

I agree, there should definitely be Quality Control improvements at Subsonic’s price point for custom decks. What is even more concerning is the evidence of seemingly no Quality Control at Subsonic for my boards I received. The questions I have are:

Deck iteration 1:

Shouldn’t the persons involved with skinning with carbon fiber have caught these glaring and very recessed indentions?

Shouldn’t the persons involved with the enclosure fitting have caught these glaring and very visible series of scratches on the tail on nose of the top of the deck?

Shouldn’t the persons involved with packaging and shipping the deck have caught these glaring deficiencies?

Deck iteration 2:

Shouldn’t the persons involved with repairing the 2nd clear coat have caught these very visible recessed indentions in the carbon fiber skinning, and fixed those issues before the applied clear-coat over the defects?

Shouldn’t the persons involved with repairing the 2nd clear-coat have caught these very visible dust and dirt particles, and stopped to wipe it down before re-applying clear-coat?

Shouldn’t the persons involved with repairing the 2nd clear-coat have caught these very visible dust and dirt particles now perfectly sealed in hazy clear-coat?

Shouldn’t the persons involved with packaging and shipping the 2nd iteration of my deck have caught all of these glaring deficiencies?

A big disappointment lies in the fact that I clearly communicated the 1st deck iteration’s deficiencies to Anne @ Subsonic via email. I even asked her to please discuss my email to her with the Subsonic team so that they could all be on the same page and use my 1st board experience as a learning lesson so they could improve. Clearly they did not learn from that experience or attempt to do better, overall.

@bwahl602

We didn’t bulk at the few small imperfections, mostly because it’s a skateboard. But they weren’t as significant

Totally reasonable, and also totally subjective, to be fair. I wish I could look over all of these defects, but it’s just really careless work.

[GlitterSpitter]

@leadBreather

How many things came with that $415?

Deck, enclosure, inserts, drilling, shipping. $415.00 is sufficient for quality work, or else I would believe that Subsonic would not be asking for that price.

@leadBreather

Isn’t performance more important to you than aesthetics?

I would rather not fall into a baited question of an either or scenario, as I care for the quality of my board along with the fabrication and aesthetics. It is 1 board, not 2 different boards I can choose between.

@leadBreather

They are only repairs to the aesthetics- 100% psychological.

Oof, we possibly have difference in opinions and expectations of quality. I am comfortable that you have different expectations regarding quality craftsmanship if you would be happy with your board in a state like mine is, however I am not comfortable with my board in the state it is in. 100% psychological, yeah, possibly. But this is my purchase, it is my board, so who is to say my “psychological” perspective is no better than yours?

[rosco]

Have they agreed to fix the second one?
Or refund you (part/all)?

[kook]

@rosco

Have they agreed to fix the second one?

hopefully this entire wall of txt went to subsonic prior to posting this on a public forum

EDIT:

but perhaps she’s looking at us as a sounding board of which direction to turn…

[rosco]

Better yet if it all went to Subsonic and then posted here after all was resolved and everyone happy (or made whole again).

[rosco]

@kook

EDIT:

but perhaps she’s looking at us as a sounding board of which direction to turn…

Fair call. She should stick up for herself. It looks crap and that is terrible service. (But it’s not worth a witch-hunt or FBI investigation - unless it gets left as is, then I’m grabbing my pitchfork)

[Tamatoa]

I just thought about it, an eboosted enclosure runs for what? 150-200$?

[ahrav]

Most expensive is $150 DS 44 enclosure

EDIT: subsonic 40 SS enclosure is $125

[kook]

I totally agree…

I’d give subsonic every chance (really 2 should be enuff, but I’d probably agree to try 3 but in that case, I’d negotiate a price reduction, or not…)

if she got into logger-heads with the vendor (which I doubt) I’d go for my credit card to charge back

THEN
I’d air my dirty laundry for everyone to see…

EDIT:

I don’t know how the rest of the retail universe deal with this shit…
but if I was basing my reputation on making quality product, and lil Timmy came up to me and told me he send out a defective product that was 100% his fault…

all his shit would be under review, and whatever qa/qc these boards go thru would triple on his work… rev. 2 would have never-ever-never hit the post office

[GlitterSpitter]

@leadBreather

I’m sorry your board wasn’t perfect, Glitter, as you obviously care quite a bit, and I’m doing my best to explain to you why I believe it’s only aesthetic.

For sure! And I am thankful for your words and efforts to communicate with me here. I believe it is important to stand up for what I believe in, which is perfectly evident by other examples of Century 40’s I have either seen or seen photos of. To me, aesthetic matters. Why else would I pay for carbon fiber skinning? Why do you think Subsonic agreed with my assessment and offered to ship it back for repair the 1st time? The aesthetic matters, quality craftsmanship matters, attention to detail, and the obvious matter. In my heart I also believe my voice and opinion matter, hence my couple hours reading and replying to all of these helpful posts. I am appreciative! I also believe I am doing the right thing by bringing this up in the forum, to have this community see this and voice their opinion. Aesthetic or not, I am one unhappy customer.

@leadBreather

The carbon fiber layer gets wrapped around the board long after it has been pressed and cut out- they are two different processes that happen at different times. So, whatever the top layer looks like, is no indication of what the other laminates look like. Not even close.

Ok, thank you for that information. I do not understand the time between placing glue on the top maple ply, and laying carbon fiber skin over that glue. That is the more pertinent question, in regards to a possible “at the time” manipulation of the glue and/or carbon fiber, as to possibly immediately rectify the recessed indentations. For example, If I laid carbon fiber over a glue covered maple ply, and that carbon fiber surface value was of poor and inconsistent quality - without direct knowledge of this manufacturing procedure or the timing involved - I would like to think I had options to fix the issue. Pulling the carbon fiber off quickly, re-skinning the top ply, or reconstructing the top ply & glue & carbon fiber, or just starting from scratch, I would hope Subsonic had options.

@leadBreather

One process literally uses a mold and in excess of 40,000 lb’s of pressure, where as the other is just a simple hand layup. There’s absolutely no chance that there is no epoxy under those dimples- they would be at least partially dry if so. The hand layup portion of the process is the most dynamic part of the entire thing, and it’s where you’re most likely to see any minor defects.

Ok thank you for this clarity, so in that case Subsonic possibly could have altered the top carbon fiber skin. I am still dismayed that they did nothing to resolve the defects.

[Tamatoa]

Is that shipped?

[ahrav]

No sir… shipped to LA is approx $20… so let’s call it max $150 fer the enclosure

[GlitterSpitter]

@BillGordon

@GlitterSpitter has every right to expect better from Subsonic, and Subsonic should have done better for themselves.

Hey Bill! Thank you so much for your input and support, I appreciate your words and gesture.

@BillGordon

If someone sends back an imperfect deck, they should have made sure that the second one sent was a far better example of what they can do. Whether you agree with her expectations or not, it’s not the standard that anyone has every right to expect.

Thank you, I totally agree.

[GlitterSpitter]

@leadBreather

My only concern is- what if they are going out of business behind the scenes. These are the kinds of things you might see in a product if a company was about to go.

Trying to determine a halfway point between the vendor and the purchaser is nigh impossible.

I’m a pragmatist at heart. If it works, it works.

Gosh, your words sure do ring an alarm bell, I sure hope that Subsonic is not going out of business, they generally make real cool stuff, I was super stoked reading and seeing and riding my friends Century 40’s.

[GlitterSpitter]

@rosco

Have they agreed to fix the second one?
Or refund you (part/all)?

Good question. I emailed Anne @Subsonic at 3pm PST today, no reply yet. I will keep this post updated to future resolution.