SmithFly Designs

In March of 2019, I purchased a SmithFly Big Shoals Raft from SmithFLy Designs LLC based in Troy, Ohio. The owner of the company is ***. The Price of the Raft including shipping to me in Oklahoma was $4017. ( Received Raft Mid April) The raft has a 3 year manufacturers warranty as stated on the SmithFly Website. Upon receiving the Raft, I noticed a place in the foam floor that was not adhered properly. I reported this to the company and they said they did not have any floors in stock but would swap mine out when they received some. So, about a month or so later, I received a new floor. The first time I put the raft in the water to float after receiving the new floor, the guy floating with me noticed a leaking sound coming from the valve in the floor. We continued with our 4 hour float trip and at the end of it, I checked the pressure in the floor and sure enough, the floor had lost a little over 2 lbs. of air. This is significant as the dropped stitched floor is designed to hold 5-10 psi of air. If it gets too soft, you end up with water in your floor and can be a safety issue concerning footing in the raft. When I arrived home, I Sprayed the valve with a soap/water solution and sure enough it was leaking around the valve. I took pictures and sent them to SmithFly and followed up with *** and *** I was instructed to try and tighten valve with the included valve wrench but valve would not fully tighten indicating a problem with the valve based which is not replaceable without cutting into the raft to remove it. I told them I was not able to tighten it so they agreed to send me another floor and said they would leak test the next floor. I received the 2nd replacement floor on Jan. 29th 2020 and on Saturday 2/1/2020, I placed it in the raft and inflated it to 5 psi.; I then dropped the pressure a bit and put the raft back in my garage/shop; After a few hours, I went to check the pressure in the floor just to be sure it wasn't leaking as I had had a history of leaks with this product. Sure enough, the raft had lost almost 2 lbs. of pressure in the course of a few hours. I the used the soap/water solution to spray the valve and as with the previous one, it was leaking. I contact SmithFly via Email and Facebook Messenger over the weekend, and on Monday was informed by *** that the Floor valve wasn't leaking when it left Ohio and then he blamed me for the leak. He said the extent of my warranty stopped right there. I told him that I had not done anything but placed the floor in raft and inflate using my NRS Pump with the same valve adaptor I use on the other 4 valves in my raft which I have had no issues with. He stopped communicating with me and I have sent numerous emails and have even called to try and resolve this. The receptionist *** told me They could send me another floor if I was willing to pay $399 plus shipping. I told her that was unacceptable since I was still in the first year of my 3 year warranty and have not received a floor yet that was without issues. I told them that their lack of quality control was not my fault and that I was just a customer trying to get what I paid for. She hung up on me and now they will not take my phone calls or respond to any of my emails. I told them I may have to speak with an attorney if they did not honor the warranty that they represent at the point of sale. They are in breach of the 3 year warranty and apparently do not care as they have my money. So, the 3 year warranty is just what they state on their website but if you actually use it on their defect products, they void it even if it is in the first year. BUYER BEWARE. Very unprofessional company.
Product_Or_Service: SmithFly Big Shoals Raft
Order_Number: INVOICE XX-XXX