bigway

You also want to be able to pack at LEAST 4 tandems an hour, more like 6. You need to be efficent and very fit, very fit.. Packing can be one of the hardest most physical jobs in the skydiving industry. Good luck though, being a packer usually means you have a decent foot in the door and it is a good way to move up through the ranks, like camera-tandem and aff. Just be prepared. If you are on of the packers that a dropzone fully relies on you make sure you can pack! .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

You dont have to be a rigger to pack tandems. You should try going to Taupo, NZ for the summers there. Good money to be earned, over 100 tandems a day to pack .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Thanks for that Karl. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Well, Aerodyne and PDF have their gear made in south africa so it affects them, cypres are made in germany so it affects them as well. This is why they would need the prices to go up to survive seeing they are made in other countries. When i said it does not affect the skydivers i was reffering to the US skydivers and it was also in reference to them not being unlucky that the rest of the world got cheaper gear cause of the dollar being so low,,,,, someone said they were unlucky, i said it did not affect them and that the reason they were not unlucky in my books that they missed out on the benefit we had is because they are the country that have always been able to have cheaper gear than the rest of the world. Sure, a price rise would affect them but it would also mean that the UK and europeans time is up for all the purchases made over the past 12 months cause the dollar was so low. Does that answer what you were asking me? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

I cant see how it concerns US skydivers. As i say though, gear prices are going up. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Just a friendly note to anyone looking at purchasing gear. If you are looking at buying gear over the next couple of months I would highly suggest to go down to your local gear shop and place the orders before the month is out. If prices have not already gone up be sure that come Febuary Price rises will be in place. I have watched closely over the past 3 years the USD steadily get weaker, over the past 12 months that dollar has been very low steadily. I am sure all the europeans have been well aware how cheap the states as been over the past year and are probably saving up to purchase gear while the USD is so low. Start saving faster because manufacturers are going to have to put their prices up soon if they want to survive much longer. I have heard rumours of prices going up so just thought the community should also be prepared if they are not already thinking that prices will be going up. Last year must have been the manufacturers biggest year for overseas orders, especially from EU countries. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

YEah, I read about it in another thread that was a sticky. For some reason i dont get any of your guys emails apart from direct emails. Must be something with my server. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

I have been speaking to the reseller. The distributor gave the customer an answer. The answer was that they were having a meeting with PDF this weekend and going to find out exactly what is going and when it will start rolling off the production line. The OP knew this before starting this thread but i guess he is just excited and wants to find out for himself what is going on. As i guess you would when you have investyed so much mney into this. Come tuesday the OP will knwo what is happening and so will the distributor. I can assure you that the distributor is at the top of his/her game and always keeps customers happy. It sounds like PDF is having a hard time with 1500+ orders over a period of a week. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

And just as often someone will start a thread how they got excellent service from a company. Should both sides be equally represented? I think that it's good that people can come here and comment on either. YEah but the only people that have rubbed a manufacturers name in the mud on this forum in the past year are people who have jumped to conclusions and then later withdrawn their remarks and apologised. People that praise them only praise them when they have finished dealing with them and had results. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

I was wrong. I apoligise. I have spoken to this user and helped him out through PM. It just feels like people now use this website to settle issues. Kind of as if they threaten if they dont hear something they like that they will come here and tell the world. Kind of makes me think of little children telling on each other. People can do what they want, and i can have an opinion to what i want as well. I feel very sorry for anyone who is expecting their rig anytime soon because from what i have found out it does not sound like the word 'soon' is a word that can be used in this situation. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Hey there, I have not had an email or PM from you. I think the last time we spoke that i was waiting for you to send me out some contracts. Is this Proggramme your little project then? I would love it if you could translate the essentials for me. I am very interested in a programme of such proportions, I am actually workign on something similar on my website. Also still keen on seeing those contracts. Cheers. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

They had a service bulletin out. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

So let me get this right.... The offer is.... You buy a complete system for a certain amount of money ...(how much)? You then after a year send in your main canopy and they then make you a new smaller canopy for free. So they make such and such a profit over a weeks time and then a year later they get back all the mains and send out new mains to replace them and are left with a massive profit and then left with a ton of second hand canopies with lots of low jumps and they are also the noobs sizes that are very popular and probably easy to resell and recoup the costs of making the second new canopy.? If we anyone could tell me the price that these cost and how you heard about it, where it was advertised etc.. I would love to know. I am going to look into offering the same deal and see if it is viable. For PDF to get 500 orders in one week at retail price, dam, they must have made a profit of half a million pounds in one week! Looks like a years worth of business for them though. IF anyone has full details please. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Wow, that sounds like an offer i might start offering with my aerodyne sales. Good idea actually. You see, the thing is if a customer was to buy a kit brand new as a first rig they would buy a 190 or maybe a 170 pilot. These things after a year on 80% of first timers will have around 100 jumps. They are the most sought after sizes and would be easy to resell it. Not a bad idea at all, something to look into i think. Do you know how much the complete kit was anyone? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Yeah mate, I would be bunkering up and waiting the long road. Saying that though, The deal was a free canopy so i guess they should just be happy to get a free canopy. I feel sorry for the ones who's first rig it is or those who dont have a rig as that kind of sucks for them. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

I have heard that PDF received over 400 orders in one week because of the free main that comes with it. I would expect to be waiting a long time. 400 rigs is a massive amount of rigs, probably a years worth of sales in one week. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Good. From your PM it sounds like everything is being taken care for you then. You have the best ( my mentor) workign on it and seeing that distributor is meeting them in person at the end of this week i am positive you will have one very straight answer. All the best, I have sent your distributor a email askign about if her and i together can come up with a solution for kit hire while you wait. If your distributor is not able to then i have a rig in the uk that is not being used and i have a few different sized canopies that you could put in it and borrow until your rig arrives. Just give me a week to figure it all out. Just know, that the distributor you have bought from is the best in the uk at what they do and the most popular and have faith in them as i know they will have a answer for you on monday. If you have to wait much longer one way or the other we will help with a rig for you. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Well, you will actually get a straighter answer from your distributor. It is your distributors repuatation on the line if they lie to you. You ask what i would have done, well i would be pissed off like you probably are, i have no pataience... however i would not make it public because the community is so small and it will come back and haunt you, i believe anyway. Saying that though, i have written you a private message guaranteeing you my help with this. Just read the message and answer what needs to answered. I would liek to help you. At least give you a second opinion. If your distributor is who i think it is, that person is a good friend of mine, If it is not then maybe i can still help you out. I am a distributor and this is how it works..... Manufacturers have distributors to do ALL the customer service for you. That is why they get a cut., Manufacturers do not want to hear that their distributors anre not handling their customers and distributors dont want to hear that their customers are going straight to the distributor. This makes them not look like they are doing their jobs in keeping you happy. Ask your distributor the following for exact questions that can not be exagerated or lied to you, then maybe if you dont understand i can help you understand and if i need to write a letter for you, I will at no charge, just to help you out. 1. What date was the order placed by your distributor? 2. When the order was recieved, what was the distributors verification number? 3. What is the date that the manufacturer told the distributor it will be ready? Ask your distributor the above and you will get exact answers. Alot of times, the gear will all be made and then will sit in the offices of the manufacturer for processing, inspection and then will be sent off maybe to be assembled. Quite often this takes an extra 1-2 weeks after the date you were quoted would be. Then shipping of about 3 days. However, with the holidays they have probably been closed and dont re open until today, so this time needs to be allowed for as well. Anyway, it is not you i was pissy at, it is the fact that far too many people are bringing their dirty laundry to the public forums when your distributor should be answering everything for you. It is not for you to contact the manufacturer directly, you have paid the distributor to do this and they should be doing this. If they are not then their customer service stinks. Anyway, i hope i can help you and am sure that if you are not getting answers then i will get them for you. I started the Kkrew to help students and not to stand by and watch them struggle with gear purcahases and pay over the top prices. Let me know the above via PM and we will get this sorted for you. IF they promised you 4 months and it still has 4 months to be ready then it is likely that they have not even started on your rig. If this is the case i suggest we get your order cancelled and sort you out with a complete aerodyne kit for my special price. I am not trying to get your business, but if they have not started it yet i suggest we get your money back for you. If your dealer is Maddy, then i will get some straight answers from her for you. Maddy is a fantastic distribuotr so i cant imagine you are having trouble with her. Over to you. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

You say you emailed the shop you ordered it from. The distributor is your key to the manufacturer. The distributor is the only person who should be answering you as to where your rig is. You have been given an answer by your distributor have you not? The only person you should be contacting is the distributor. Here are some questions to ask the distributor. What date did the distributor place the order? How was the order placed, Phone, email fax or ordering software. What day did the order confirmation come back from the manufacturer. How long over the xmas period was the manufacturer closed for? How long has the factory where the gear is made been closed for? Have they reopened yet? What is the date of delivery expected? 12 weeks is very standard for gear, if it is ever shorter than 12 weeks then you are usually lucky that you ordered at the right time. You say it is 12 weeks now. Have you considered that they may have been closed for the past 2 weeks and only re open today, so really you would need to add 2 weeks to the order. How long were you quoted on delivery time and was that By the distributor before you ordered the gear or after you ordered the gear? Once4 the distributor ordered the gear, on the confirmation they got from the manufacturer how londg did the manufacturer say until the gear would be ready. If you do not know the answers to these questions then you should before you slag off the manufacturer. It sounds like maye your distributor is feeding you bullshit on delivery times or maybe your distributor did not place the order as soon as you thought they did or maybe your communication with the distributor is not very good. When all my customers ask me a question they get an answer within 12 hours. This means I speak to the manufacturer and then get them to answer the question, i then write back to my customer and tell them what i know to the question they have asked. My customers always know what is going on. The reason you will not know what is going on is because your distributor is keeping you in the dark. Not the manufacturer. If your question was ever asked to the manufacturer by your distributor then the manufacturer would send an answer to the distributor who would then answer you. It sounds like your distributor who is the one keeping you in the dark. Phone up the distributor and ask for an exact date that they have for delivery. Seriously, going by your first poost sounds like your distributor is not giving you the answers you seek and that is because they have not directly passed on your concerns. Ask your distributor the questions, it sounds like you should be bad mouthing them rather than the manufacturer. A distributor only ever needs 24 hours max to be able to answer any question of the manufacturer that you may have. Tell me what your question is, and then please tell me the answer that the distributor gave you. If it sounds mickey mouse, then i will let you know. The distributor sounds like they fucked up and are blaming it on the manufacturer. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

After they have spoken to the company they are complaining about. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

I just think people need to give manufactueres a chance before coming and slagging them off world wide. People are doing it far too often here. Every week there is someone who comes here and rubs a manufacturers name in the mud. It is like it is becoming standard practice to threaten manufacturers that if they are late people will come here and make threads to put their name through the mud. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Everyone just needs to learn to be more patient. HEll, these people are building a piece of equipment that you entrust your lives in. Some where along the line something may have happened, someone might have died or a friend in the sport may have died and slowed things up for a week, they may have had a black out, we dont fucking know but we need to be patient. If you ever order anything in the skydiving weorld, the people taking those orders are just like the rest of us, they are mainly skydivers who love the sport and love everybody in it and give the best possible time quote they have but things change. Dont biotch and moan about it cause there will be a day that they will be on a load with you and you were the asshole who bitched and moaned about them. You would feel stink. We are a family who are trying to keep this sport alive, if you want to bring manufacturers down then you are brining the sport down. You need to support skydiving manufacturers cause we are lucky people are building rigs for this vbery small minority of 200,000 members worldwide. If it was not for them we would be truly fucked. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

this can be true but also the reverse can be true. I am a Wings dealer and I often have rigs arrive early from them for my customers. I guess it is just one of those things. As do most wings distributors and from many other manufacturers. They are very careful and usually quote a week or two longer so that they dont get caught out in these sort of bullshit threads. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Sounds like you picked a winner of a company. You are correct. He did. They are a brilliant company and very popular. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

Another person bringing their personal BUSINESS with another manufacturer to bitch and moan about se4rvice. The thing that i find FUCKIN hillarious about it is that they have entrusted this person to make them a rig that will alst a kifetime and save their lives countless times but they still have the ordasity to bring their complaint to a public forum to bitch and moan about them because they have waited the STANDARD 12 weeks. So lucky it is not 26 weeks like other manufacturers can be and they come here and complain to try and make a stink. Do people now ring up manufacturers and threaten them on the phone " If you dont have my rig ready by the end of the day i am going to go and make a public post on dropzone.com, so there ". Grow the fuck up. Never would i ever dare to buy a life saving/sport rig off a company and then go to skydivings biggest website in the sport and moan about them and air any personal business problems when i am waiting for them to finish building it. JEsus christ, some people are so nast6y, selfish and mean spirited to others. Learn how to be patient. You must have been b ought up spoilt, just cause you have to wait a bit longer you come here and bad mouth a company who are workign their ass off to build you a quality rig. If you have a problem take it directly to them, dont go and make a p[ublic stink about it. What a nasty nasty person. Far too many people come think that just because they bitch and moan and make their issues known worldwide that the company should drop to their knees. Getting way out of hand. By the way, if you phoned them you would get an answer, if that answer was not good enough for you why the fuck would you come to these forums and ask the question? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .