wuffo

I usually try to keep my mouth shut and just "grin and bear it" when I read so many assinine posts on dz.com, but Jeez, dude, you didn't EVEN begin to address this guy's question! There was nothing hard to understand about what information was requested, yet you went in a completely different direction and off on some sort of tangent about the way canopies are measured Why is it that so many people just want to make a post just to hear themselves talk (so to speak) ? If more people would (1) read questions carefully, (2) answer the question only if they have knowledge of the subject, and (3) not stray from the subject matter so as to create all this prevelant thread drift that happens in these forums, then... Maybe this website could be more of what was intended; that is, a concise, easy to search and use, source of information about skydiving and related issues.

Hey, I thought there was some sort of mandate out there about... schlomo no mo

Actually there really is not anything even similar about the two. 800 skydive is a telephone network that, based on the location of the originating call, is directed straight to the closest member drop zone. So there is no "booking agent" or service involved. The founders of the 800 skydive network invited all drop zones to join, but only takes one affiliate in each geographic region. I actually think the idea behind that was brilliant.

Dude, you're really the pot calling the kettle black. You sit there saying that dzo's are a bunch of whiners when they complain about skyride... and if I remember right not long ago YOU were the big whiner all bent out of shape about those mean people at Space Center. Get over yourself

The mayor of Houston Texas was very worried about a plague of pigeons in Houston. The mayor could not remove the pigeons from the city. All of Houston was full of pigeon poop. The people of Houston couldn't walk on the sidewalks or drive on the roads. It was costing a fortune to try to keep the streets and sidewalks clean. One day a man came to City Hall and offered the Mayor a proposition. "I can rid your beautiful city of its plague of pigeons without cost to the city. But, you must promise not to ask me any questions. Or, you can pay me five million dollars and ask one question." The mayor considered the offer briefly and accepted the free proposition. The next day the man climbed to the top of City Hall, opened his coat, and released a red pigeon. The red pigeon circled in the air and flew up into the bright blue Texas sky. All the pigeons in Houston saw the red pigeon. They gathered up behind the red pigeon. The Houston pigeons followed the red pigeon as she flew eastward out of the city. The next day the red pigeon returned completely alone to the man atop City Hall. The Mayor was very impressed. He thought the man and the red pigeon had performed a wonderful miraculous feat to rid Houston of the plague of pigeons. Even though the man with the pigeon had charged nothing, the mayor presented him with a check for 5 million dollars and told the man that, indeed, he did have a question to ask and even though they had agreed to no fee and the man had rid the city of pigeons, he decided to pay the 5 million just to get to ask ONE question. The man accepted the money and told the mayor to ask his question. The mayor asked: "Do you have any red Mexicans?"

I think there are a lot of people who would not agree with that description of their Sabre2 openings.

How about buh-TUGG-ly

Hey everybody, Chris, Dave, Ian, all you guys. I really wasn't trying to "slam" pd here. I didn't mean to get all the hair standing up on the back of everyone's neck here. My point was simply, and I'll restate it and then let's please drop this, my point is that I think the right thing to do if you really want to show outstanding cust. service, is to give the poor guy who got a defective canopy a new parachute. Take a demo of equal age out of the demo fleet and send it to the guy. Make it right, and not just sell a replacement. Over and out, sorry to have gotten a bunch of people pissed, that wasn't my intention. mmmkay?

This is where you are absolutely wrong. A company's comittment to standing behind the integrity and longevity of a product has NOTHING to do with the ownership, or transfer of ownership of that product. A Katana with 280 jumps is just that. It matters not if it is owned by the original purchaser or if it has changed hands 6 times. You make no point with that statement. You are sponsored by PD, you have an obligation to defend them and certainly are not expected to bite the hand that feeds you. I don't want to hear from sponsored athletes or gear sales people about this. You guys all have a vested interest in upholding PD's reputation. Let's see, didn't I already mention something about Lemmings? Although Ian since you don't jump in DeLand, I'll drop that part here. :-)

No, don't pat pd on the back "this incident aside". What if YOU had a canopy that had 280 jumps, and the manufacturer grounded it. Then, with lots of KY lube they try to sell you a replacement. I don't know about you, but I just don't think I'd be quite so anxious to bend over, KY or not! My attitude would be "ok, your little senoras in Honduras messed this one up, no problem; replacement is fine. Wait, wait, you said you want to "CHARGE ME?" Now, Dave forget putting this incident aside. I'm talking about THIS INCIDENT, nothing else. What would you see as the right thing for the mfr. to do?

Dude, you're missing my point. I am in no way saying that PD isn't a good equipment maker or a good company from a customer service standpoint. That's not it at all. What I was getting at is that the REASON they made the "good deal" for replacement was NOT what was indicated to the owner of the Katana. He was told they wanted to "keep it for R&D" or some such thing. BULL F#%*$NG SHIT! They want that canopy off the street. Period. They either have improper seam allowances, used poor fabric, loops attached poorly, whatever. And my point is that when a company builds a canopy (or whatever) that is deemed unairworthy at 280 jumps, the right thing to do is to replace it, not give somebody a line of crap and SELL them another one. Damn DeLand Lemmings, Jesus H Christ!

I call bullshit on that. Any skydiving equipment maker that discovered that they screwed up on manufacturing a product would do whatever it takes to keep that product from getting back out in circulation. PERIOD! And the natural response to the customer is to smooth it over and make it as though you're doing them a great big favor by cutting them a "deal" on a replacement. Instead of what PD has done, I'd venture to say that some manufacturers would have sent a replacement at NO CHARGE! Dude, you believe what you want, but I know better than to buy into this.

Sometimes people are so friggin' naive. Geez, they gave you a good deal on a new one for the simple reason that they built a bad canopy and wanted to get it out of circulation before it hurt somebody. That's nothing to do with customer service, it is everything to do with good business. good grief!

For those of you who are not aware, North Dakota and southwestern Montana got hit with their first blizzard of the season a couple of weeks ago. This text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the storm. WEATHER BULLETIN Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands. George Bush did not come.... FEMA staged nothing.... No one howled for the government... No one even uttered an expletive on TV... Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards..... No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.... No news anchors moved in. We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. Everybody is fine.

What the hell are you talking about? That is his reserve ripcord. Last time I checked, I pulled the reserve with my LEFT hand!