My first rig at last...

[rocketford 0]

I write this post in the hope of being heard by right people and maybe get advice from more experience skydivers.

Here is my little story.

I bought my very first equipment in May 2013. Man I feel proud now! It look so great and smell great as well. The time of renting gear is now OVER! Not so fast!

I have a Mirage M1 with a Pilot 150 ZPX. The canopy was manufactured December 11th last year. I did five jumps with it and then noticed it had a built-in left turn. My dropzone owner jumped it as well and noticed the exact same thing. Great!

I returned the canopy and asked for a demonstrator while my canopy would be repaired. Aerodyne refused stating they were on a tour and they can't afford loosing a 150ZPX for a long period of time.

I decided to look at a direct competitor to get a demonstrator (Icarus not to name them). Even if they were on a tour, they were more than open to send me a canopy. Unfortunately the canopy size that would fit my container was too small for my jumping experience.

While I am writing this review a month and half past. Trying to reach them for feedback about the repair has been unsuccessful.

I really feel frustrated and disappointed. I fully understand I am a little drop in an ocean of Aerodyne customer. Still I paid a fair amount of money for that product and I can't get the appropriate support for it. I am back to square one renting gear hoping I can get my canopy back before the end of the season.

Being part of a large skydiving community I tell my story to whoever want to hear it. I have worked with customers within different industries and I can tell you one unhappy customer make a company reputation faster than 10 happy customers.

I hope this post will reach the ear of people at Aerodyne and again I am always open for suggestion of what next step should be.

Regards,
An unhappy customer...
Patrice

[excaza 1]

Just to clarify, did you buy the canopy new?

[GooniesKid 0]

rocketford

I write this post in the hope of being heard by right people and maybe get advice from more experience skydivers.

Here is my little story.

I bought my very first equipment in May 2013. Man I feel proud now! It look so great and smell great as well. The time of renting gear is now OVER! Not so fast!

I have a Mirage M1 with a Pilot 150 ZPX. The canopy was manufactured December 11th last year. I did five jumps with it and then noticed it had a built-in left turn. My dropzone owner jumped it as well and noticed the exact same thing. Great!

I returned the canopy and asked for a demonstrator while my canopy would be repaired. Aerodyne refused stating they were on a tour and they can't afford loosing a 150ZPX for a long period of time.

I decided to look at a direct competitor to get a demonstrator (Icarus not to name them). Even if they were on a tour, they were more than open to send me a canopy. Unfortunately the canopy size that would fit my container was too small for my jumping experience.

While I am writing this review a month and half past. Trying to reach them for feedback about the repair has been unsuccessful.

I really feel frustrated and disappointed. I fully understand I am a little drop in an ocean of Aerodyne customer. Still I paid a fair amount of money for that product and I can't get the appropriate support for it. I am back to square one renting gear hoping I can get my canopy back before the end of the season.

Being part of a large skydiving community I tell my story to whoever want to hear it. I have worked with customers within different industries and I can tell you one unhappy customer make a company reputation faster than 10 happy customers.

I hope this post will reach the ear of people at Aerodyne and again I am always open for suggestion of what next step should be.

Regards,
An unhappy customer...
Patrice

Man that sucks..renting gear is the probably one of the reason why most young ones quite the sport before their 100th dive.
Good to hear about your Aerodyne experience. Now i know which company to avoid. But bad to hear about your experience. If Aerodyne was business savvy, they would have accommodated you with a demo. But instead they choose to play the "oh we are on tour" card..it's not like they DON"T have anyone at the main office overseeing other operations, right?
And you're certainly right,,,1 unhappy customer does make a company's reputation.
Anyone from Aerodyne want to comment and provide this loyal customer with a demo before I add fuel to the fire and go on a campaign to smear your reputation?

[faulk04 0]

it sucks that you are having an issue. I've been jumping aerodyne canopies for 2 1/2 years and have had no problems with their customer service. One question, did you ask for a demo free of charge or were you ok with their price to get a demo?

[Avikus 0]

Keep up updated man!

Avikus - Packer and Jumper - Hate landing with the plane!

[rocketford 0]

The canopy has never been jumped. I have to be honest they offered the repair free of charge.

Maybe I am completely wrong but I believe such problem does not happen often. That is why I am requesting a demo.

If I had taken Icarus demo I would have paid for it. At first I was hoping a demo for free. If I need to pay as long as it is cheaper than renting a gear. Looking at their website Aerodyne doesn't mention demo pricing.

Thank you all for your reply.

[Scrumpot 1]

Where are you located? There is nothing in your profile.

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[rocketford 0]

Quebec, Canada

Updated my profile. Thank you for the comment.

[-ftp- 0]

GooniesKid

Man that sucks..renting gear is the probably one of the reason why most young ones quite the sport before their 100th dive.

May I ask what the hell you are talking about? Where do you get this information? Out of your ass doesn't count either.

Quote

Good to hear about your Aerodyne experience. Now i know which company to avoid. But bad to hear about your experience. If Aerodyne was business savvy, they would have accommodated you with a demo. But instead they choose to play the "oh we are on tour" card..it's not like they DON"T have anyone at the main office overseeing other operations, right?
And you're certainly right,,,1 unhappy customer does make a company's reputation.
Anyone from Aerodyne want to comment and provide this loyal customer with a demo before I add fuel to the fire and go on a campaign to smear your reputation?

Are you also serious with this? You're just going to start "adding fuel" before you even have half a clue what the whole story is? Good on you...

To the OP:

Where did you buy the canopy? Was it from a retailer? You might have channels through them to get some attention, possibly even get a loaner from them. If you bought through your rigger/DZO, have you tried asking them for a loaner to put in your container? Maybe rent one at a cheaper price than an entire kit. Just a thought...

[DougH 270]

Have you called them instead of just sending emails?

I have always had great service for Aerodyne, and with any company you almost always get a hold of someone when you pick up the phone. This is lost on some people in the internet era.

As far as the loaner canopy goes, they may not have a whole bunch of 150 zpx, they may only have one, and they can't send you another canopy if they had a regular pilot 150 available, since it sounds like your ordered a canopy that just barely fit in the zpx trim.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[grue 1]

This might come off as a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway:

Have you tried the canopy in a different container to make sure the harness isn't the issue? I thought I had a built in turn on my first canopy years ago and we eventually worked out that my kicking leg (soccer player) was bigger around so the way I was doing up the leg straps was actually causing a built-in harness turn because I was loading it unevenly. Not saying that's the specific issue here, but just that it mightn't be the canopy at fault.

cavete terrae.

[rocketford 0]

Grue:
Your question is not stupid at all. The canopy was jump by my dropzone owner and inspected by Aerodyne rigger as well. So the problem exist.

DougH:
You are right these days we rely too much on internet and emails. I called them today and the rigger said the canopy should be shipped back to me today.

Problem is solved. Probably I wrote this post way too soon my apologize to Aerodyne. Still I felt frustrated after paying over 2000$ I couldn't get more from them compared to other competitors.

I want to thank you all for your help and comments. Was really appreciated!

[Southern_Man 0]

Glad the problem was worked out to your satisfaction.

Would also add that if you bought through a gear dealer (most do) they are often helpful in getting service.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[rocketford 0]

Quick update...

On July 24th I called them and told me they received the canopy from their factory. They had the good idea to jump test it again despite the fact factory did it. Found the problem was still there.

Now they will do everything in their power to ship me a demo while mine is redone completely.

The people I spoke to were very nice and courteous. Everything will be done free of charge which is great but I would have appreciated a demo way earlier even though they are on a tour.