Esperienze di noleggio

Ciao Marco. Grazie per la dritta su Spin-Out di Hyeres. Magari potrà servire per qualche amico al seguito. Io, in genere, vado in Francia con il mio materiale.

Per chiudere su Whitchcraft, mi ha mandato un'ulteriore mail, a cui non ho risposto, e che non vi sto qui a riportare. Continua a girare intorno alle questioni...
Mi limito a riportare questo breve passaggio, purtroppo, non credibile: "What I forgot, at Rene Egli, you do not get harness lines with the rental equipment, so if you do not know this and do not bring your own, you can buy them there for 40€. I sell harness lines for 22€."

E' impossibile che il centro di noleggio più grande del mondo dia i boma senza cimette del trapezio.... Del resto, la circostanza è smentita dal sito di Renè Egli:  www.rene-egli.com/it/windsurfing/windsur...-prezzi/gama-di-vele

Peccato, avevo lasciato Fuerte con un impressione nel complesso positiva di Whitchcraft, anche perché tavole e vele sono performanti. Ma questo seguito di mail, con affermazioni di volta in volta diverse sullo stesso punto (es. sulla protezione del piede d'albero), o addirittura non veritiere, non depongono a suo favore. 

Ciao.
 

Ciao,
a parte le prime esperienze di noleggio sul lago di Como (Tabo) e Garda (Segnana) che reputo complessivamente positive, anche se relative a materiale per principianti, la mia unica vera esperienza di noleggio è stata a Hyeres, nell'estate 2018.
Durante una vacanza in costa azzurra ha fatto una bella giornata di Maestrale e, non avevo con me l'attrezzatura, ho cercato un noleggio in uno spot buono per la condizione.
Mi sono rivolto a Spin-out, sulla spiaggia del Camping International a la Madrague (di cui credo ci sia la recensione qui su Waterwind). Devo dire che ho trovato un centro molto organizzato, con materiale JP e Neil Pryde molto recente ed in ottimo stato, considerato anche che era fine agosto e la stagione era probabilmente nella sua fase conclusiva. Addirittura, per accontentare un rider leggero, gli avevano aperto un 3.4 nuova di pacca per poi dargliela a noleggio. Se non sbaglio avevo speso 50 € per un paio d'ore (abbondanti) di noleggio comprensivo di tutto (anche muta e trapezio), con possibilità di cambio dell'attrezzatura. Logisticamente il centro è in posizione ideale, con accesso diretto alla spiaggia ed offre tutti i servizi necesari.
Se capitate da quelle paerti, ve lo consiglio.

Marco
 

Ciao Fabio,
ho letto con piacere la vostra corrispondenza,ed anche io, che non sono un "fussy guy"  gli avrei dato 4 stelle.... anzi gliela hai spiegata anche molto bene.

Magari tutti i clienti fossero come te.

Un saluto
Grit

ha scritto:

Ciao Fabio,
hai sottoscritto una assicurazione danni presso il noleggio o ne avevi una tua ?

Ho quella della vdws. Costa 39 euro l'anno, e la rinnovo da anni. Copre anche nel caso di danni a terzi, ed un minimo di spese sanitarie.
Pertanto, non stipulo quelle che mi propongono nei noleggi.

Ciao. Fabio
 

Ciao Fabio,
hai sottoscritto una assicurazione danni presso il noleggio o ne avevi una tua ?

Ciao. Vorrei condividere la mia esperienza di noleggio dell'attrezzatura da windsurf, nella recente vacanza a Fuerte, per sapere cosa ne pensate, ed avere feedback su altre esperienze.

Ho noleggiato da Whitchraft, e mi sono trovato tutto sommato bene. Ho, tuttavia, dato 4 e non 5 stelle nella mia recensione su Google, in quanto alcuni dettagli mi sono sembrati poco curati. Non la faccio lunga, e vi riporto il testo delle mail scambiate sinora con Bouke Becker, il proprietario, peraltro simpatico e disponibile, che si è chiesto perché, a differenza degli altri 14 recensori (comunque, non una grande base), non gli abbia dato 5/5.

Fatemi sapere le vostre opinioni.

Mia prima mail di risposta:

Hi Bouke! You are, probably, wondering why I didn't give you five stars....So, I want to help you to make it perfect, and this will be the spirit of my reply.I can confirm that I have been satisfied with your equipment. I mean board and rig performances were very good, even if I used them for few hours in the water to express a complete judgement. That's a first reason why I did not give you five stars, as I told you.When I will be back in Fuerte, I will rent from you again, and suggest my friend to come to your shop.But there's something more.Five stars, according to me, mean perfection in the service, and to reach five stars you should pay more attention to some details. I don't like to give untrue reviews.Downhaul rope was a little bit worn out, and didn't let me feel completely safe, if I had gone through demanding conditions.Uphaul line was not good as well. Yes, probably, on a 90 liters board it would be not much useful; but in case of wind drop during my session, I couldn't give any try anyway. And that was not nice to see, too....You  forgot giving me a mast foot protection which my feet would have appreciated...The 5.2 sail had a hole in the mast sleeve, which I didn't realize when you gave me the equipment. And when I saw the hole while rigging for the first time, I was afraid that you could consider me responsible for the damage (as a new customer, I haven't known you in a long time). The hole didn't affect the sail performance, but repairing would avoid any questions.So, these were minor problems indeed, which didn't prevent me from enjoying the equipment, and I didn't complain openly.But, my suggestion, if you want to get five stars, is to pay attention to these details, to give the best service of all. It would take few minutes and money to solve the problems I highlighted, but it would be worth of doing, to get the customer completely satisfied.All the best. Fabio

Risposta di Bouke:

 Thank you for your feedback.I have to explain a few things:First of all, you can´t judge Witchcraft for the conditions you had. There is nothing we can do about that.Secondly, when you rent, most of the time you get used equipment. What matters is functionality and performance. The rope you mention is 4mm Dyneema rope with a breaking load of 1300kg. So even with a bit of wear of say 10%, it still lasts 1170kg for each single rope, x 6 it can hold 7000kg. So, there was absolutely no risk.The elastic on the up haul was indeed not very elastic anymore. That does not mean you can´t uphaul anymore. But when you uphaul, you quickly stretch the elastic to it´s max and will quickly lose its elasticity. Normally I do not give out an uphaul unless people want one. Most people do not use one so they take it off and ends up in the car and often is forgotten to be returned. For this same reason I do not give out mast foot protections unless people ask for it, most people do not use it, take it off and throw it in the car or forget it in their apartment. If you lose 20-30 uphauls or mast foot protections in a season, you learn not to give it out if the customer will not use it.For the hole in the mast sleeve, we have very demanding conditions and the mast sleeve is especially at risk of being damaged on the rocks (Bouke allega alla mail le foto qui riportate). Already with Ezzy sails which have very thick mast sleeves, within one season all mast sleeves were ripped, some with rips up to 1,5m and some will have needed to be repaired 4-5 time. You can repair a mast sleeve and the customer goes on the rocks the next day and it needs to be repaired again. And as these damages happen often in our conditions, I do not want to charge customers for every little damage. But for those reasons I will not repair a sail as long as it does not harm performance or functionality. Mast sleeve repairs are a lot more work than it seems as you need to take the mast sleeve off to be able to repair it. So we normally wait until there are more damages and do them all together.The Slayer has a Dyneema mast sleeve for this purpose. It is 15 times as cut resistant and 40% lighter than normal mast sleeve material. Still, as you noticed, it can happen it gets damaged, rocks are still harder. However a board or sail made out of rock would end up being on the heavy side.I also do not charge for little paint damages on the boards. The bottoms of the boards are white for a purpose, it does not heat up in sunlight as much and it is easy to repaint after a few seasons when there are more paint chips. At the TWS in Tenerife they have a sandy beach but they put bean bags on the beach for their customers to put the boards on as the paint of these boards is very fragile and hard to repaint. If you do not do so, you may get charged for paint damage.On the other hand, you had very well performing equipment, a board without repairs and a sail where you can still see through the window. Even at Egli in Sotavento where they just have sand and no or small waves, it is hard to get a board without a repair or a sail where you can still see through the window. And they charge 310€ for 6 days rental.In summery: either we replace uphauls every 1-2 weeks, we repair each little damage and replace rope that is a bit worn even if it is still fully functional and safe. We will then have to increase pricing and/or charge customers for each little damage or item missing. I do not want to do either. I want to offer customers the best quality/price ratio and the way to do it is like this.Best regards.


Mia ulteriore risposta:

Hi Bouke.
I agree with many of your considerations, but not all of them.

Of course, you are not responsible for the windsurfing conditions I found during my stay, but without enough hours in the water I could not perform a complete test of the equipment.

If people lose part of your equipment (uphaul line, or mast foot protection, ecc.), you should charge them for that. It is not a good reason to give less to other customers.

I can understand your point of view about the uphaul line, which is pretty unuseful on small boards among waves (and that's probably why you do not use it at Fuerte). 

As for the mast foot protection, for me, it is almost obvious to use it, since I like to ride barefoot, every time it is warm enough not to wear surf shoes, and so I did even at Fuerte, and in rocky spots too, since I love the feeling and control I get with bare foot on the board.

I know and have been using for a long time Formuline by Marlow (which seems to have slightly lower breakloads than you reported:  www.marlowropes.com/product/formuline ). It's difficult to say when a worn out rope is going to break or not. I broke one suddenly some years ago, and since then I prefer to have the one that I use as a downhaul always in very good conditions. I am a fussy guy.

As for the mast sleeve hole, or other evident damages, you should explain your reasoning to the customer, immediately, when giving the equipment, in order to avoid misunderstandings. I don't say you should write down all the equipment damages, which are already present, in an appropriate form, as car rentals do. But some talking to explain equipment conditions would be useful.

Obviously, I am not speaking about the many scratches on the board hull, since it was clear I could not be considered responsible for them all.

I don't know about Renè Egli, since I have never rent with them. But I had many rentals experiences, both in Italy and abroad. Sometimes stuff is good or very good, sometimes it isn't (regardless of performances).

Your prices are good, indeed. No question about that. But, it's not the only thing that matters to me.

Anyway, I hope that you will understand the meaning of my feedback, which also took some of my time to share. I do not mean to complain, but only to point out some aspects, which, according to me, could be managed a little better.

Regards. 

Fabio