No help when out of US

[Akapeterc]

I am in Australia and have 3 large fenders made by Taylor Made which have very bad leaking valves. I sent an email to the company asking if I could purchase and pay for the freight for 3 new valves and I was told that they would not send the parts outside of the US. So much for there life time warranty if you want to travel around the world.

[hellosailor]

I guess you never read the warranty?
"All potentially defective products must receive a Return Goods Authorization (RGA) # before they are returned to Taylor Made Products. ... Freight on defective products is the responsibility of the consumer...Repaired or replacement products will be shipped back to the consumer freight prepaid."
They say they'll fix things--they don't say they'll send out repair parts. You might try to speak to a manager and explain that shipping three fenders might cost you $100? out of pocket, AND IT WILL COST THEM just as much to ship the new ones back to you. SO shipping you some parts would be much more reasonable. (Although, thinking about the way valves are heat fused into fenders, I can't see that there's anything you could repair unless you had a vinyl factory.)
If they intend to just replace the fenders, and they have any authorized distribution in Oz, the best solution might be to just have a dealer swap them out, since the old one would probably just he thrown away in any case.

[JPA Cate]

Akapeterc,

Investigate re-shippers within the US. The one we have used is My USA. You can have them ship to an address or to a post office in Australia, "Poste Restante" if you are traveling. You will have to have them put not only "Please Hold For Yacht In Transit" and the boat's name, but the names of whoever will pick up the mail. And they should bring their passports for their identification.

If it's the fill hole that's leaking, rather than the outside of the plug, try plugging it with one of the round toothpicks, for a temporary fix. Leave enough sticking out so you can remove it. If it's the outside, maybe extract it entirely, and put it back in with Sikaflex? Worth a try, for a short term fix. May not work, I've never tried it.



Ann