Problems with Xcel wetsuit

[Lebowski]

I purchased an Xcel Drylock in September last year. It's Xcel's top of the range suit, and the first time I've had an Xcel product.

The suit was used for a two week holiday in Portugal (where I bought it), then not used until the beginning of 2016. I used it happily pretty much daily in New Zealand from the beginning of January until the beginning of May, so 4 months total. By this point, an area on the ass had basically worn away.

It's as though there is a thin skin on both the inside and outside of the suit, but the neoprene between has eroded away. Water leaks in through this area immediately when entering the ocean. Pics below.







I sent the suit to Xcels NZ representative, who advised that he could patch the area, but ideally I should contact Xcel International for a new suit, as a patch would not be a long lasting solution.

So, I contacted Xcel International. Their rep advised she'd look into it, speak to her managers and see if they can get me a suit. Great.

Except that was 13 weeks ago. Everytime I email her, she replies stating that she'll 'speak to her manager', and then never replies to me until I send another message a few weeks later. Again, 'I'll speak to my manager'.............The cycle continued.

I'm now in the UK, and I've been told that the manager says to send it for patching, and if I agree to this she'll give me the contact address. Apparently she's 'fighting my corner', which seems unlikely given the timescales involved. I don't think this is acceptable. A patch on an expensive suit that's only done 4 months. Plus I could've got it done 13 weeks ago in NZ.

I guess I'm just wondering what peoples opinion on this is, and what I could do. It's pretty abysmal customer service I feel....

[jaffa1949]

Tell her that you will be talking about poor quality and service and her personal response or lack thereof as comments on an international surf forum> See what happens. Send a letter and if you can get managers email use that. Telephone words unless you get a genuine secretary are usually wasted. Oops I forgot stuff!

[dtc]

Facebook and Twitter....and stop sitting down so much, surfing is a laying down and standing up sport

[Lebowski]

I did wonder if I'd been shuffling around whilst sitting, but my other (O'neill) suit which is three years old is fine, and I've never had this problem with any other brand of suit. Interestingly, this is the most expensive suit I've ever bought, and it's also turning out to be the most fragile by a long way.

I have asked for her managers email address so I can deal direct. She has apparently passed on my message today.

Regards Facebook and Twitter, I did have a look on Fb and the Xcel International page can't be written on by the general public. I have managed to avoid Twitter so far in my life. I'll see what happens over the next few days before making any statements.

[dtc]

The more expensive suits are usually more flexible and comfortable but... With flexibility comes some fragility. A $50 Costco wetsuit (if they sell them) will be thick and hard and will never wear out.

Not that it helps, even an expensive suit should last and not wear out like that. Unless you use sand as wax or spend a lot of time sitting on a rock like a mermaid

[waikikikichan]

The more expensive suits are usually more flexible and comfortable but... With flexibility comes some fragility. A $50 Costco wetsuit (if they sell them) will be thick and hard and will never wear out.

Agreed. The high-performance wetsuit are more about flexibility than longevity. Just like my race bike needed a total top end rebuild (rings, piston) every 3 races ( less if i wasn't on a budget ) while my street bike is 30 years old and never had rings or pistons replaced.

My wetsuits have the same Butt dings as yours. We both must have sharp butt bones.

[Lebowski]

Agree with all of the above, but the suit comes with a 1 year warranty and this one has done less than half that.

Hmm perhaps I do have a bony butt haha!

[RinkyDink]

The seams in the crotch area of my suit came apart as well. I sent my wetsuit manufacturer pics and they told me to send in my suit for repair. Apparently the butt area of wetsuits gets a lot of stress in surfing. That area also gets more wax into the fibers of the suit. I think one of the reason my suit ripped there is because I've been riding a 23" wide board for the past nine months and my wetsuit gets stretched there for long periods. Good luck on getting your wetsuit repaired. I'm still waiting for mine to come back before it starts getting really cold again.

[oldgrom22]

Sucks to hear you're struggling with Excel, that is some bad customer service. At this point, you have to hope she escalated it to the right person who can make things happen. Hopefully you have proof that she in fact forwarded your issue, I'd be a bit skeptical of anything that rep told me. You would think they have set policies of how product warranties should be handled so a rep wouldn't have to go through a manager for approval.

Me and a buddy had the exact same problem on our wetsuits as well. Couldn't really figure out the main cause, as they were both mid/top-tier suits from 2 different brands(Ripcurl/Quiksilver). We also concluded that it was an issue of flexibilty over durability in the material used(I had issues w/ fraying on the neck area(chest-zip) as well). Fortunately for me, I had a relatively easy warranty process with Quik and they made it right, got to keep the old suit too.

[Lebowski]

So, it's now a few weeks since I was told that my email would be 'forwarded to my manager', and surprise surprise, nothing but silence.

I have even since then sent another email asking for the contact details for an approved repair shop, but no, that is also being ignored.

It amazes me that a company as large and popular as Xcel can be so useless and nonchalant when dealing with warranty issues. I think they operate on the principle of 'if we ignore the problem, it will go away'. Or perhaps they think that if they take long enough, the warranty will expire and the problem disappears.

[RinkyDink]

Do some research and find out who the President and VP of the company are and send them some e-mails. Copy your letters to them here and give them a link to this thread. Maybe they'll get off their a$$es and give you some customer service.

In my 25 seconds of Google searching, I found this: http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/_8997/ You can probably find better. Go straight to the top I always say.