Canoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness StoreCanoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness Store
Buying Sight Unseen
Q. I am interested in your Souris River canoes. We currently have an old Grumman lightweight but I am looking to upgrade, and, as I am not getting younger need a light canoe that I can continue to use in my"golden" years. While searching on the web I found you and what sound like wonderful canoes. I checked your website to see if you would be in the Twin Cities so I could see a Souris River canoe in person. I was excited to see you would be at the Sportsman's Show. However this also poses a dilemma as I noticed that if I pre-order a canoe I can get an additional savings and avoid shipping costs. How do I decide if I should buy a canoe unseen? They sound wonderful, but it's a major investment in a canoe. Any suggestions? Thanks, Terry
A. Here's how we usually
treat this situation. We sell lots of Souris River Quetico 17's in kevlar to our customers, many
of whom buy them sight unseen. They buy them in the winter with the intention of picking up the
canoe on the way to a sprin/summer BWCA canoe trip they've planned. Other customers just come up in
the spring to pick up the canoe. Our standing policy is this: If, when our customer comes to pick
up the canoe and isn't happy with it for some reason, we will do one of two things: 1. We'll either
apply the entire paid balance to another canoe (model, color, in-stock or ordered) OR, 2. We'll
refund our customer in full , no questions asked with no pressure to stick with the purchase. If
our customer is not happy, it doesn't do us a lick of good.
In all honesty, I can't remember when we've ever needed to refund a purchase after having sold a
Souris River Quetico 17 (or any model for that matter if we recommend the model). We've only
switched models for a customer once in the last 5 years from a Wilderness 18 to a Quetico 17 (which
was my suggestion initially but the he felt the canoe had to be 18 feet long because of all the
baloney spread out there by other kevlar canoe mfgrs.). The SR Quetico 17 in tiger kevlar (AKA Le
Tigre) is our #1 selling canoe. It is equal to, or greater than a Grumman in stability, 30% faster
on the water, has a payload of 1100 lbs (400 lbs. more than Grumman) and weighs only 43 lb. This
same model in Carbon Tec is also ver popular because it is lighter still (39-40 lbs.) and looks
really cool. Costs more though due to the expense of carbon fiber which is pretty exotic stuff.
Durability is about the same as Souris River's kevlar which is substantial.
Last season we sold a large number of canoes and shipped over 100 of them to the 4 corners of the
US, sight-unseen. The vast majority sold were Quetico 17's in Le Tigre kevlar (people like the look
in real life far better than I can show it on our website - it's not as stark in real life). Since
we do so many sight-unseen canoe sales, it is our constant goal to be frank about the canoe that we
are shipping out because I, personally, build the crates for each canoe and it's a pain in the neck
getting canoes ready for out of state shipment, not to mention, costly as well. Our integrity is at
stake and we conduct our business accordingly. Our annual retail sales volume continues to grow at
about 15-20% per year, which I feel reflects a lot of consumer confidence in Red Rock.
If you have any additional questions, email me or give us a call at 1-800-280-1078.
I hope this info helps. Thanks!
Joe
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