Sobstad instead of North
Bruce
listers here for their assistance), I ordered a new main sail and genoa
for our Oceanis 300. With the in-mast furler and our sailing style
(daysails and some cruising), we opted for the Dacron sails, with
vertical battens in the main. Other sails companies gave us their
recommendations and quotes but the North Sails rep has an excellent
reputation and his quote and explanation of his product persuaded us to
go with North.
After we placed the order, the North Sails rep joined Quantum. I
called him and he assured me that he was still very much involved, that
North would be making the sails, and that he would continue to be my
sales guy for this order. I was very surprised however when the sails
were delivered to find that they were not North Sails, and not Quantum
sails, but were made by Sobstad. The logo on the sails were Sobstad
and the invoice to the dealer was from Sobstad. The rep was out of
town when the sails were delivered so I haven't talked with him yet.
How does Sobstad compare to North? Am I supposed to believe that are
all sails are made in the same sweatshop somewhere in the Far East with
only a different sticker affixed for North, Sobstad, or other
"manufacturers" and I just got the wrong logo?
- Bruce
David King
confident North Sails is not plugged into this and would be horrified
if they thought you'd ordered North and received anything else. Send
them back. - David
David
B393, #137
Jim Martin
Are you certain these sails are actually meant for your boat? Is there any kind of order or build sheet packed with the sails? If not, I would be inclined to suspect some kind of shipping error, and that you received someone else's sails.
If they were mistakenly built for your boat, no reasonable loft or rep could expect you to accept a less desirable substitute without substantial concessions. Did your rep actually measure your boat? If so and these sails are the ones made to those measurements, they won't have that much value to the loft. See if they'll let you keep them on approval, subject to a very substantial discount if you like them.
Sobstad may very well sell a fine product, but the North label and name comes at a premium. You would expect to see some sort of return on that premium at resale time.
Jim Martin
32s5 Aquila
Rick Donovan
I asked my local sail maker about this yesterday and didn’t really get a straight answer. I witnessed a big smile if that tells you anything when I told him of the situation. I was left with the “impression” that the big lofts like North, Sobstad, etc are using over seas labor to build their “lower end” sails regularly. It would be quite easy for the lofts, in Asia for example, to add the wrong builders label to the sails because they are building sails for several “name” lofts at the same location.
“Lower End” to us is not what you and I were thinking about when we get the quote, I suspect, but if you are not buying the latest technologies and the high end composite laminates, the emphasis on cruisers is definitely different with the “big guys” from my experience. The bigger sail lofts I have spoken with over the years just don’t seem to care about the cruising crowd. They don’t seem to put the emphasis on selling to us either unless times are tough for them.
As to the problem of what to do now, I guess the first thing is to make sure what you have in your hand has all of the correct dimensions for your boat. I think the original North rep should step up here to make sure what you have is what you need, ordered and paid for because he was the one that sold the sails and collected a commission on that sale. If he or she is not going to be involved, at the very least the new rep from North should be involved right now to get this straightened out. To me, it is in their best interest to clear this up quickly, but who knows what they are thinking until you ask for some help. If the sails are wrong altogether, then North has some quick work to do so that this can be cleared up with as little delay as possible to you with the end result being that they are trying to keep you as a customer. If they do anything less it will be a great indicator of where you stand with them.
I also agree with the others about putting your credit card company on notice about the problem, and in writing and including documentation might be appropriate for this situation. If you have real issues like the sail doesn’t fit your boat, they can apply added pressure to get this resolved.
It will be interesting to know what the out come is. Keep us informed on how it goes in the end.
Rick Donovan
Biddeford, Maine
Beneteau 473 #29
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Ted Weitz
Ted Weitz
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