Check out Freefall Suits

[wolfriverjoe 1,339]

ssm

Has anyone heard front his clown lately?

Actually yes. My friend's tandem pants finally showed up last week. That is the third and final item he ordered.

The order was placed on Aug 3, 2013 at SDC Summerfest.

Chris had to ask for his shipping address. Apparently they lost it. WTF?

The pants were behind the camera jacket and the full belly suit because they were first made with a 46 waist, instead of his 36. 46 inch waist? the TI would be so heavy he'd need a tandem rig to do solo jumps.

And the pants came without booties, which were ordered (and paid for) as an option.

He's also jumped the belly suit. He said it gives lots of power for tracking, but seems to be sewn somewhat asymmetrically because he has to compensate for a "built in" turn when tracking (he knows how to track straight). The neck is also too small, so he can't close the top correctly.

The delivery times were a joke. The customer service was pathetic. The gear is not as ordered.
He isn't the only one. I've seen 3 other FFS products. A pair of FF pants, a FF suit and a wingsuit. The only one that fit properly was the FF suit. The other two were way off.

Anyone who recommends these guys...

I'm kind of wondering what the hell you are smoking.

I would never, ever, ever order anything from FreeFall Suits. Ever.

And in post 26, Chris makes a couple of claims that are complete and utter bullshit.

He never spoke to my friend. They exchanged texts and e-mails, never actual voice communication.

My friend never told Chris (or Weaverd for that matter) that he was "Happy" about the situation, even getting the camera jacket for free as compensation for the crap he had to put up with.
He texted that he was glad that Chris had gotten through his personal issues and was back with the company, but did not use the word "happy" or "glad" about the overall situation.

He wanted to know why I was posting such negative vibes.

It's because the community needs to know what kind of product and customer service these guys are providing.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[Chris_K 0]

Hi Everyone,

We did have issues. I will openly admit and discuss. Back in October some life events caused me to have to leave the company for a while. It’s easy to say that personal issues should interfere with work but that is not always the case. While I was away there were a number of issues that came up. While I was in the process of getting things back on track in January we had another large issue as we were in the process of moving to Arizona. What this meant was suddenly I was unable to produce at even a fraction of full capacity.

In the last three weeks we have produced and sent out over 131 pieces and will be able to fill all the orders within the next 4-5 weeks. We did have issues with approx 20 suits ordered between last August and November and unfortunately the delivery time for those suits did drag on. This further compounded the delivery time on other suits ordered in December. The entire time we worked nonstop between sewing and answer messages. The main issue was that we each had 140-160hrs of work to do with only 120hrs of possible work time to do it, so we struggled to communicate.

We are a newer company and there was a very steep learning curve, but we are making leaps and bounds with every lesson learnt. Look at our generation 4 models. We can literally tow a car with the jumpsuit as they are so strong. In essence, with each issue we took stock, improved our design or process and will only keep getting better. An example is wolfriverjoe’s last post. I have send off a few emails and a few face book messages as follow up to his friend but haven’t received a response. Now thanks to Joe I know that he was expecting bootie pants (the order form only shows regular pants and bootie pants is not mentioned in any of the email) so now I know to contact him.

If you look at any issue we’ve had the common theme is that the customer state that we have gone above and beyond to resolve. One of the unfortunate issues is that people are not telling us of any issues and we find out at the same time as you reading posts, usually a few weeks after they discuss locally. It’s a case of if we don’t know, we can’t help and fix.

The only thing I will state on the negative is semantics. You quote ‘He never spoke to my friend. They exchanged texts and e-mails, never actual voice communication.’ Speaking is a generic term for communication.

Unfortunately your friend had a negative experience and so did a few others. Because of that I know that Joe Becker and a few others will not order. Yes we have made mistakes. Know that we will work harder than anyone to correct the past mistakes. We have produced over 415 suits since September, most of which (while delayed) had no issues. My goal is to get so strong that those with negative opinions right now will order from us in the future.

The common issue posted on this forum was the time for delivery, once they received the suits they were able to see that quality and durability. In 4 weeks from now we will have delivered every suit in the cue and will have completely resolved the delivery delay issue.

If you’re curious about us, ask an actual owner of our suits, ask us or send me a message, I’ll happily send out demo suits so you can see what we are all about.

Downsizing is not the way to prove your manhood.

[JeffCa 0]

Chris, from one small-business owner to another (not a customer):

I checked your long explanation just now and did a search for the words, "sorry", "regret", "apologise/apologize", and did not find any of them. I only found an advertisement for your products and a sad story about yourself, without any regard for the experience of your customers. That's not good. Everybody who got hosed by this ordeal should have received their suits AND their money back. And you should stop trying to explain it away, STFU and build suits to satisfy your customers. This can probably be forgotten if you just concentrate on keeping your customers happy for the next few years. It's not reasonable to expect that anybody who is reading this thread, which is where your explanation is, would give you a chance any time in the near future, so you're wasting your time here.

"So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

[Chris_K 0]

I am sorry that this has happened. I have apologized to everyone affect by the delays in emails to each person. It was never my intent for there to be any issues and I am beyond apologetic that the delays happened.

I guess my own feelings didn't match the phrasing I used in that posts.

Downsizing is not the way to prove your manhood.

[BriZor 0]

RE: Freefall Suits Experience

Good Day Everyone!

Over the past few months I've been working hard to put together various pieces of equipment, getting prepared for the upcoming season. Generally it has been a good experience, I've learned quite a bit over the past while. All of the manufacturers have been very accommodating with my (endless) questions and given me quite a bit to think about. In dealing and speaking with the various vendors, I feel that there is one experience that I would like to share and unfortunately it's not that positive.

Needing a new jumpsuit, I started looking around at the various options out there. In the end I decided to go with Freefall Suits. Looking into them a bit further, it appeared that most agreed they have good build quality, exactly what I was looking for, a simple well-made suit. After inquiring further, Chris was very quick to get back by phone to discuss their options and what I was looking for. Overall I was impressed with the information received and decided on a suit / design.

I was able to get measured locally mid-January and submitted my order to Chris on January 28th. I did get the impression that they were quite busy as of late, but figured that even with the odd delay or two, they should have more than enough time before the start of my season.

Fast forward to March 30th. I received an email from Freefall Suits (Chris) indicating that they've been dealing with some "external influences" that contributed to delays and their expectation that my order would be completed sometime between April 16-30th. I sent back a quick message acknowledging the update.

As of May 6th I still haven't received a package or further updates. I replied to Chris' update email (from March 30th) just advising that in a few weeks I will be moving to a new address and provided the details. I also asked for a quick update on the order. Unfortunately I didn't receive any sort of reply. Being quite busy with work, I didn't have time to follow-up further at that particular moment.

Continuing forward to May 20th I sent Chris another message asking for an update on the order and a quick acknowledgement that my new address was received (as I was now out of my previous location and didn't want to cause an issue with the delivery). Unfortunately still no reply. Around this time I also dug up Chris' phone number from our previous discussions, when I called, it had been disconnected. Not looking good!

On May 26th I sent yet another email message to Chris and this time I also included his Hotmail address that he used in one of our previous messages. Once again, nothing back. Yesterday, I also sent Chris a PM on Dropzone.com just in case for some weird reason my messages were being blocked or he was not checking his mailbox. Again, nothing as of yet.

Now that I've painted the picture, I'll add some comments. Over the past many years I've dealt with all kinds of vendors (large and small, local and international) unfortunately this is probably one of the worst experiences that I've encountered thus far. I can completely understand delays in production especially in the event of external circumstances out of your control. Where I take exception is the lack of communication. As I write this message I have no idea where my order stands, is it in production, being shipped, ever going to come? In my professional life, I'm a consultant – I cannot imagine what would happen to my business if I discarded communications from my clients as witnessed here. Really, I'm at a loss for words on this one.

As I mentioned above, my experience started out quite well, but when it came time to deliver it completely fell apart. What bothers me the most about this whole situation is that due to this lack of communication I am now at a point where the season has begun and I am without my order. Most certainly had this degree of delay been disclosed at ordering, I would have gone elsewhere. Consider this my experience, please take it for whatever its worth. Sorry for the verbosity, but I wanted to give the full picture and provide an illustration for anyone considering placing an order with this firm.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reply or send a PM. Thanks and have a good evening!

[neilmcg 0]

I purchased a suit from Chris last year. I received it and returned it twice both times I had issues with the fit. The suit is extremely well made. I received my suit again today and it fit perfectly and it was the same quality as the original suit I had received. It took some time but Chris kept his word which really means a lot to me. It took less than a month to get the suit redone and sent to me.

[galda 0]

Chris has not returned any of my 5 emails over the past 6 weeks. I have no idea how to contact him at this point, still waiting for my suit ordered in December 2013 with the options I paid for. I did receive a temporary suit from him a couple of month ago but it's too small and is starting to fall apart.