Frameless Inflatables: Looking 4 nitty gritty on NFO & Watermaster

I just stepped back in the door from an 18 day 4000 mile road trip along with 2 NFO renegades with my buddy. My evaluation is at the Renegade overall is a nice handling craft but has it's problems and limitations. We floated the Henry's Fork and Bitteroot rivers under highwater with no problems/controllability issues. Fished a few high mountain lakes with excellent success!!! (absolutely love the boat!) the drawbacks have been with the accessories, 3 out of our 4 sidebags have ripped at the seams (we tool delivery in May), the foot bar supports on my friends raft have broken, my foot bar bent(not an issue for me because I'm tall.) l, and lastly customer service has not been the greatest with NFO. If you're to purchase an NFO boat I would probably upgrade the oars and customize them myself to
Give you more reach, that being said, I do like my Renegade but their are a couple of issues that have come up.

So the boat was fine, the side bags ripped at the seams, your buddy's footbar supports broke and you bent yours. Seems like operator error to me. Not the manufacturer's.
Of course I could be wrong.

I've noticed lately in reading this and other threads that contain posts that are occasionally critical of NFO's products and service, it seems like Dave's staunchest defenders (and the people who claim to get the best customer service) are you folks who live in the SLC area. Maybe that's because Dave finds that it's more tempting to ignore customers who live a time zone or two away than someone who can drive over and deal with him belly to belly.

But I'm sure that's just a coincidence and I could very well be wrong.

K

You are. There has been other supporters that are out of state.

I figured I probably was. But since you seem to be keeping track, how many have you found from Utah that don't like his products or customer service?

K

None, talking to Dave a while back however and he did mention that Washington was his biggest support.

I will add, the struts on the back of my seat came through the cloth this weekend. I sent him a picture and he said, ship it back or drop it off and he will make good. Thing is, he doesn't make them, but buys them and to be honest, I think my client sat too much on the back rest and pushed them out.
Not NFO's fault, but still covered.

I think you could be wrong too. 15 years of the products with very little to no problems whatsoever on the manufacturing end could have something to do with it to. Phone calls, e-mails and patience go a long way. Just because I live close and know Dave, doesn't give me precedence over people that live across the country. In this day and age of computers everyone wants instant gratifaction. You remember when it would take 6 to 8 weeks just to get snail mail answered?
The poster that just got back from an 1800 mile trip and his bitches were side bags coming apart at the seams (overstuffing comes to mind), bent foot bar ( ok I give on that one) and broken footbar support (another ????).
So all in all, how does that equate to the preformance of the product?
Dave once told me that Washington and California make up a big majority of his sales in the U.S.
Now with thousands of boats sold a year, you will have some that bitch online first before trying to call. Once it's in cyberspace thousands read it.
Have you had problems with Scadden? How was it resolved?

I'll give you the overtorquing on the footbar supports and the bent bar (for the record it doesn't affect performance with the bent bar) as operator error.

Edited!!!

Then why bring up the bag problems, footbar and support problem online before contacting NFO?

Dave scadden is a dam joke if he lived closer to ny id ring his dam neck .I bought one in may and ittook a month to get here and half the stuff was on backorder and it dosent hold air i told the company they can stick there boat but he wants to send me a new one instead i Would never deal with him again Imo it is the worst 2 grand i have ever spent .

Artie, no offense, you are a great guy, but I don't think you are telling the whole story. I am not defending that NFO has issues, but I know some of the issues are NOT NFO's fault.
The Valves are new and different, and you are not the first to not know to push the center button to CLOSE them. Plus you can still pump them up in the close position. I guess I take for granted that people can figure that out.

Plus, I understand him not shipping till he is paid, not saying this is your case, but has happened, and people get mad about that.

Sorry you are not happy with the boat, hope the leaders are cool....;-)

Jonie you are right there is more to the story i will not bore you with the details on here you have my number if want to hear the whole story give me a shout . The boat in itself is great the company is what will sink this craft . Oh your leader are great wil be getting more before steelhead season .

Well, my highly durable, frameless inflatable man (errr...boat, yeah! I mean BOAT) has arrived earlier than expected. Must make room in home prior to opening the box (motivation to clean), but we're in the midst of a 'heat bubble' & I must head out of town for a few days this wkend, so I probably won't get to try it out until next week. ): Hope to post a review here or on my f.fishing blog. (a 5' tall box?! what, did he send me 2 boats cuz I'm such a f.fishing freak?!)
Lisa
Strip-n-Twitch.blogspot.com