How do I recommend this board?
“Check out the Defiant: one”
Sounds like maybe a description of something else
Got a smooth sounding phrase? Possibly 3 phrases
“The board from Defiant” is my current guess.
THE ONE FROM DEFIANT
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practice.
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Very nice
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Alright I’ve been silent on this issue publicly for a while, but I think I’ve hit my limit. I’ve had constant back and forth with both @defiantboardsociety people and @longhairedboy . I’ve been EXTREMELY amicable to solutions and very patient with everyone involved but we’ve now passed another promised date of a solution and I’m done being silent. So, strap in.
So my experience with Defiant started on 12/22/22 doing a preorder for the Defiant One.
I had been looking at building or buying a thane board so I thought supporting our boy @longhairedboy in his new endeavors would be a sick option. The board was basically everything I wanted in a nutshell.
12/22/22. I put my preorder. I received email stating the boards would be launching in early January.
Unknown dates Possibly end of January?.. Lost these emails. After some back-and-forth emails with someone at Defiant they finally told me my board would be shipping in April.
4/21/23. I got a tracking number
4/23/23. Board arrives Devga doing devga things. Buttons are loose no big deal.
The trucks were too loose for me, so I order some different bushings and waited for those to arrive. I only did short rides around my block.
5/5/23. Got the new bushing from Riptide and finally had some good weather to ride. Went on my first ride for about 13 miles everything felt good, and board performed well. Did some general inspection after the first real ride and I immediately noticed the drop down was cracking on both ends and de-laminating. Emailed Defiant.
5/7/23. Damon emails back stating based of the photos I sent the board isn’t safe to ride. Set it aside and wait until they have a plan for me.
5/7/23. Defiant support emails stating they’ve been informed of Manufacturing defect from one of their suppliers and wants the board returned to them to replace the deck. They would provide a label for me to ship it back.
5/8/23. Shipping label provided and I dropped the board off.
5/8/23. Damon wants to send me some merch before my board returns. Tbh i don’t really care nice gesture but not needed.
5/11/23. Board arrived at Defiant ( Damon’s shop)
5/12/23. Damon asks some follow up questions. (Guess i wasn’t the only person having some issues)
5/15/23. Board is ready to come back I asked them to hold on shipping because I was out of town.
5/23/23. Board Shipped back.
5/25/23. Board arrived back to me with the deck replaced.
5/27/23. Did another short ride like 10 miles and I checked the deck for signs of cracking again. Nothing seems good.
5/28/23. Another small ride to corner store like 2 or 3 miles. No cracking great! Everything seems to be good to go. The next two weeks I have to travel for work so I wont get to ride and then I’m going on vacation for two week so no riding then.
7/5/23. Getting ready to go for my first ride back from vacation and I step on the board and immediately I hear cracking. Flip the board more layer’s delaminating and cracks in both drop downs again. So I email @longhairedboy
7/6/23 @longhairedboy responds saying their manufacturer basically didn’t build the decks to spec and they’ve fired that one and have another and are working to get new decks ready. They’d be replacing all decks free of charge. No biggy earlier adopter tax I’m not too worried. I offer to hold on to my board and when they get the new decks let me know and just ship me a replacement and I’ll do the swap.
No updates for a month so I email.
8/8/23 Send a follow up email asking for an update. I’m told they are getting production samples “next week” and they might move to production in a few weeks.
No more updates for for another month So I email.
9/10/23 I get a response @longhairedboy with some good and bad news on production of the decks and they are expecting production samples “Soon”
Another month goes and shockingly @longhairedboy reached out to me first.
10/12/23 LHB emails an update stating they’ve gotten 2 different samples of production decks and are happy with the quality and will be moving forward with full orders of replacements. ETA is “Early November”
11/22/23 November is basically over with no news so I reach out asking for any updates. At this point i’m pretty much done and kinda pissed off. @longhairedboy responds stating he’s working on an update for customers. The decks would be shipped to Defiant on December 18th.
12/18/23 Last email i’ve gotten and sent.
So here we are over 1 year later since I initially ordered the board and its still sitting without any replacement deck. Less than 45 miles (from me) and maybe 5 rides short rides on the board.
I’m fully aware and fully understand new companies coming into this scene have a HUGE uphill battle to fight to make a functional, cost effective and safe product. Being a lurker on the forms since early 2019 I really wanted to support a company that had someone so close to the scene/forum. I was willing to take the risks of the growing pains involved here. Not only to show my support for this small community but to pay back to the people involved in helping me in this hobby. We can call that naive, but it felt right to me. Now it’s just gone on too long at this point. Between the constant back and forth with dates moving on when the decks would be ready, lack of updates and constant marketing spam and price drops while I don’t have a product I can even ride… Really really just sucks. In all reality I’ve given Defiant a 3,000$ loan to QA check a board for them. With how quick these decks broke both times it should have been very clear early on there was something very wrong before these were sold. I truly do not believe ANY production board was fully tested and vetted.
So @defiantboardsociety and @longhairedboy and anyone else involved I really do hope you folks succeed in coming to a solution for anyone involved in this mess but its been over 1 year for me now and I’d like to walk away from this. Do you intend to offer a refund, partial or all at this point? Is it acceptable take someone’s money for over 1 year and for them to have a “functional” product for less than 3 weeks? What are your solutions going forward? How do you intened to make right not just for me but for anyone else involved in this? What changes have you guys made to your product testing going forward? How many people are affected? Why are you still continuing to market a product that isn’t safe and that you can’t even replace for current customers… Including your very first one.
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This issue has been known for a LONG time. I’m wondering what buyers have been receiving over the last X amount of months.
Have they been shipped known faulty product?
Have they been shipped anything?
Has anyone else actually bought one?
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I couldn’t agree more. I think @defiantboardsociety and @longhairedboy owe some clarity on exactly whats going on. How are you guys accepting orders for boards when you don’t have safe decks to sell?
I do feel guilty for not bringing this to light sooner but I didn’t feel like this was my place to and I felt that since nobody else was saying anything really I had to be the only one. And in some respects I still feel that way with the constant marketing spam they are doing on Instagram with seemingly nobody saying anything negatively otherwise.
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Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience. I hope Damon and Defiant do the right thing here.
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Wow this sucks, Good on you for bringing this to light for everyone. This is NOT cool.
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Gotta keep that money rolling so they can hopefully dig themselves out of this mess. Shitty you’re dealing with this.
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I placed my order on July 5th. 6 months and waiting. Better price come and gone. Would like to get it before ESK8con.
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So to be clear prior to posting this I never formally asked or was offered a refund of any kind. Not faulting anyone involved Damon or DBS on that.
But today I decided to ask for some kind of refund. Full or partial via my very long email chain with Damon.
I’ll keep you guys updated I suppose.
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Ah sweet, if you get a refund you can get one of the 8 in stock
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If they’re taking care of the Max dude, you should get the same treatment as the first buyer. Kudos to Damon and Defiant for quality customer care.
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Id agree but i think that person never had a board in hand. I do and its not brand new out of box. The silver trucks / white wheel combo definitely makes it look way more used than it has been lol…
I can’t believe that you’d pay a single cent for what sounds like less than 25 miles of riding. That would be an insult in my book for being the first one to support the brand.
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Just got a promo email from them… and it says right there that they are all ears, Ive linked @PghSkate’s post with all the information above.
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Are Chris and Alex their only customers?