Comments for foilermoth

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Robert Green

Robert Green — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:10:06 +0000

Felix,

I understand your frustration, however I don’t think your post will help. Publishing private e-mails is a serious breech of confidentiality and almost certain to exacerbate the situation.

For the record, I ordered an Assassin in June 2009 for delivery in September. It didn’t arrive on time, I had a succession of delivery dates before making a final payment in December for a late December delivery. The boat was finally delivered on 20 March, 2010 so a 3 month wait turned into 9. The boat was generally well built and solid, however it had some leaks. The worst were inside the wing bar mounts so hard to find. I paid to get them fixed and have filed a warranty claim with Assassin.

I’m not a particularly good Moth sailor (yet) and have given my boat a tough time in breeze up to +20kn, it has stood up to everything and it’s still in great condition. There are no dings or dents in the hull, the foils are solid and nothing has broken other than the tiller extension (a Ronstan Battlestick so not Assassin’s fault). Moths are hi-tech, high maintenance boats. I expect to get it refurbished before the Worlds in Belmont, it will likely cost me around AUD1,000.

Fastcraft NZ are poor at communication and were possibly under capitalised when starting out. Getting a small export business up and running is a tough gig and they are not handling it well. While I sympathise with your feelings, you really needed to do your sums too before you got into being a reseller. It is a risky business, you should have expected difficulties and to have been able to support them during their startup phase.

I realise you think you’ve been let down and are owed money, however your best chance for making amends was to help Assassin to be successful. Publicly dumping on the brand only makes things worse.

Anyhow, all the best and I hope your get your issues sorted.

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Simon Propper

Simon Propper — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:25:48 +0000

Hi Felix
You are involved in a trade dispute and I respectfully suggest this is not the correct way to go about resolving it. Whatever your grievances, you do not have a right to seek to damage the business of another party as this post quite clearly does.
You certainly open yourself to legal action by so doing.
Ultimately what you put on your blog is your own business. But it is appalling that you are receiving publicity for your campaign from the official International Moth site.
I shall email Doug and the Committee now requesting your blog is delisted and prior posts removed. They bring the class into disrepute and exploit our web profile for personal gain.
Simon

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Homebuilds and the bigger picture

Homebuilds and the bigger picture — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:43:27 +0000

[...] though is that it isn’t just homebuilds that are prone to blowing up.. I of course refer to Felix’s blog post and the woes he encountered with a “production moth”. Yes it may be true that a [...]

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by foilermoth / the official Assassin reseller site / Blog

foilermoth / the official Assassin reseller site / Blog — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:57:44 +0000

[...] foilermoth / Blog « Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked [...]

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Felix

Felix — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:38:54 +0000

Hi Graham,

when I read your blogpost on assassin I agreed to all of it but kept quiet. This is no longer so. For me the story is not only about broken promises but about lies. Telling one that the boat is done and you should pay the full amount, then hearing two month later that it has been started is just unacceptable.
And yes, I would never buy a caravan from them

Felix

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Felix

Felix — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:37:10 +0000

Hi Ian,

firstofall my goal was never to make a lot of money. I am smart enough to know that this is hardly possible. Instead I wanted (as Niki and Paulo) to promote this cheap moth to a mass market audience to grow the class – something that is really important to me.
On the other hand it was never my intention to lose money on the matter. In addition I never did get a decent support from fastcraft. Lots of times we found stuff -like new offers- out by reading their blog. In addition I have been repeatedly lied to. Saying that the boat is done and then hearing 2 month later that it is started is just not acceptable.
I have kept quiet for nearly a year now and nothing happened. Believe me, I really tied to reach a solution. By now I just thought the mothosphere should know about all this so other people don’t get fooled too.
Personally I wouldn’t mind a legal battle over this. At least the issues would finally be solved…

Felix

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Graham Simmonds

Graham Simmonds — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:59:45 +0000

Felix – I am sorry to hear of your woes. It is basically a tale of broken promises. Unfortunately it involves others apart from yourself and I very much hope that Fastcraft either refund the money of those still waiting or deliver a boat that holds together for more than a week.

I presume you wont be investing in FastCraft Caravans then!?

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by olivier vidal

olivier vidal — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:08:11 +0000

Felix, sorry to hear your woes with Assasin.

I looked very briefly at the idea of being a UK distributor, but I found their attitude to business and money to be odd and overly forthright / demanding for payments asap.

Good luck with your Moth..

See everyone in Switzerland this summer

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Ian Andrewes

Ian Andrewes — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:56:43 +0000

Not smart mate, I have an Assassin too and yeah it’s been a bit frustrating trying to communicate with Fastcraft(ie. still waiting on new foils…) but posting what you have on the internet like that has lost you any ground you might of had. I believe in freedom of speech but when your dealing with what could be a legal matter like this then you shouldnt be ranting about it on your blog and making an extreme effort to shoo business away from them. Also did you expect it to be an automatic money maker for you? You invested in something you thought would pay off within a year and when it didnt you cry wolf. I see their error in communication but does that require jumping sides before you have a chance to sort things out properly? Also you spent 4,000 euros on advertising? That seems a bit excessive, was this proposed by Holly and Darren? or did you go spend all that on your own? If its the latter then it seems irrational to complain about it. Well anyways I hope both sides can sort this out fairly and with out litigation as that always makes matters worse.

Ian

Comment on Never, ever buy an Assassin moth. The story of how I got fucked by Phil

Phil — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:36:18 +0000

Hey Felix,

I am really sorry to hear about everything that has happened. I hope you are able to recover some costs and your customers don’t blame you for the late deliveries. I guess it’s the curse of the “production moth”.

I suppose there are too many people involved for this to remain a silent affair and sooner or later it was bound to reach the public domain with loads of angry customers (I know there a few here in the UK)

Anyway I’ve known you for a good year now (via all the web project stuff) and think you did really well to keep your feelings to yourself for so long (you never even told me!)

Good luck and lets hope you return to moth sailing and don’t give up because of all this! Life is too short!

Cheers,

Phil