Follow-up Porta-bote Review and Aftermath
February 23rd, 2007 by: cheyenneWe had held out posting our 1.3-year dinghy review until we heard back from Porta-bote on our inquiry regarding warranties (so we could include at least one piece of useful information for our “used porta-bote”-Googling friends). Since they didn’t respond, we just posted the review anyway and mentioned that Porta-bote was not being expedient about getting back to us (with a palpable note of irritation). We again emailed Porta-bote, this time to ask about outboards since we were looking to possibly buy a 9.8 Tohatsu and the company used to deal Tohatsu outboards, and we got a fantastically prompt response. So Joshua responded once more asking if they had received our previous email regarding the Porta-bote and if there was a warranty; again, no response. A couple days later, Joshua responded with an irritated ‘curious-you-respond-so-fast-to-a-potential-sales-lead -but-not-to-a-warranty-inquiry’ and gave the URL for the bote review blog post, in case they were interested. Within one hour, a lengthy rebuttal was posted to the blog by Sandy, the president of Porta-bote. Of course, I had to type out my lengthy response to his very defensive response, and well you know how it goes. And he still hadn’t answered our question as to whether there was a warranty.
But at last Sandy has responded to my response to his initial response and has confirmed that yes, there is a one-year warranty on the plastic seats and transom. He also added: “if you treated an aluminum or fiberglass or inflatable dinghy the way you described treating your poor porta-bote so vividly in your blog, you wouldn’t have a dinghy left to say nasty things about. 59,989 owners can’t be wrong! Yeah for Porta-Bote!” Which, for one: I have to say I’m surprised to hear he read so extensively in my blog because I only described one incident where the bote took a wave that trashed the transom. Another: what makes him think we treated our bote poorly? By exposing it to the harsh sun? By using the rowing set-up? By actually taking it in the ocean? That an inflatable or hard dinghy of another material would have survived the abuse we supposedly lash upon our poor bote is false, as any owner of such a dinghy could verify. And did I really say anything nasty? I feel I wrote a fair and constructive review.
But back to the warranty; our bote is 1.3 years old (although the seats broke at around 9ish months and the transom at 11 months), yet Sandy has generously offered to replace our seats and transom at no cost. We sent a reply asking to have the seats and transom shipped to my mom’s house so we could pick them up next time we visited but never got a response. Two weeks later and about when we had given up of every hearing from Porta-bote again, Mom sends me an email saying that a tall box full of some weird black plastic things just arrived!
So there you have it: all you broken transom/seat bote owners (provided you are in the US) can get replacements if it’s been less than a year. If it’s been more than that, well, I guess you have to assert yourself as a major pain in the ass to get any response.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
Based on reports from the people who contacted me, a common source of failure seems to be when the Porta-Bote is decelerated quickly from wide open throttle. The weight and momentum from the outboard under these circumstances is greater the the transom is designed to withstand.
March 4th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Well—all I can say is the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Glad you bugged them about this. We will keep the new seats and transom safe and dry in the garage. –Mom
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:30 pm
So are you happy with your porta-bote
i have a new 14 foot.
open seas are not goood for this bote??
Jeff
have fun
March 30th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Your 14 footer is probably a lot more seaworthy than our 10 foot model. However, seaworthiness is a matter of opinion. I wouldn’t go out in any real weather in it. For example we just came across the bay here at Isla Guanaja, Honduras. It’s blowing 25+ and there is a mile or two of fetch. It’s pretty hairy. If we took a wave it would be almost impossible to self rescue. It depends on your own comfort level. It will never compare to a 14 foot inflatable as far as seaworthiness is concerned. The coast guard uses those for a reason.
We’re happy with it because it meets our expectations for performance. It rows well and we don’t like to put the motor on it all the time. A majority of cruisers always moter anyway. If you fall into this catagory an inflatable would probably be a better choice.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
I have an 8 footer I bought about 6 years ago. I started out with an electric trolling motor and it worked just fine. Until one day……I was about a half mile offshore spearfishing, some weather came in and my battery was dead. To my surprise rowing the portabote in 4 to 6 ft waves was difficult but not unbearable. It handled well for such a small and light weight craft. Unfortunatly the pressure on the seat placed by my body from rowing broke the middle support. I never bothered to get it replaced. The seat still holds my weight and keeps the boat open, even with a broken support. I know eventually this will cause other problems, but I am still holding out. Now I have a 3.5 Tohatsu which I purchased from Portabote, and still run a mile or two offshore on calm days. Overall, for the price, this is a pretty damn good little bote.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:59 am
[...] So, fine. We requested information on warranty once upon a time. Sandy replied saying although our seats were out of warranty, we pissed him off enough that Porta-Bote would send replacement seats/transom anyway, just to make us feel bad happy. So we gave an address and a few weeks later they appear, unannounced (that is, until after they arrived), but appreciated. We sent a thank you email. AND we posted a follow-up to our blog explaining what Porta-bote offers as seat/transom warranty and what they were doing for us. Done. Everyone’s happy. Whatever! [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Update: Replacement seats and transom arrived but there was NO transom. Only seats. I am assuming this was unintentional but I’m still pretty bummed out since the transom was the really badly broken part and the piece that prompted us in the first place to contact Porta-Bote about possible warranty.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:46 am
[...] is a follow up to older stories: 1.3-Year Porta-Bote and Kayak Review Follow-up Porta-bote Review and Aftermath Porta-bote Redux [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I had a similar problem with my transom, transom where the motor mounted cracked after I use it couple times with a small gas motor. I contacted Porta Bote and was told that it was my fault because I used a wrong (older) motor. I was told that out of 70,000+ Bote sold I was the only one that have a transom problem. I finally talked to the manufacturer and was told that a reinforement bracket was added to the transom since I bought it. They finally COD me a scratch-up transom after I bugged them long enough.
By the way, I think the reinforcement bracket helps but not enough because it is in the wrong place (at the bottom instead of at the top). Transom should be redesigned with a different manufacturing process if they really want to fix the problem.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
how is the port a bote now
i still have my 14 thinking about selling it
Jeff
August 28th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Sounds to me like you might be better off making your own transom from marine plywood. A couple 3/4 inch pieces glued together and drilled to mount in the plastic transoms stead would probably solve this for good. I know they’re heavier, but weight and strength are sometimes tradeoffs. Short of building a transon using carbon fiber or kevlar…
September 6th, 2007 at 9:24 am
[...] Follow-up Porta-bote Review and Aftermath Porta-bote Redux Redux Porta-bote again [...]
September 28th, 2007 at 1:50 am
I have a different problem, and am looking to see if others have had that. I had a wooden transom, so no problem there, but the so-called “bladder” (the folding bit that keeps the water out)has split virtually from top to bottom on one diagonal fold. It has had only light use and never been stressed out(I only used a Min-Kota electric motor, and mostly just rowed), so the only possibility is that it was unfit for the purpose. It is my belief that it was never properly “hinged”, so that each folding operation stressed it out further until it failed from fatigue. There is a ten-year warranty on the hull, but (based on the details of that), the only deal Sandy would give me (the boat is only 5 years old) would cost me about £650, which is too much. Additionally, he suggested “somthing may have slammed into that area”; this is nonsense because it would have left visible stress marks (white on the green)and becaause I know that did not happen. Please contact bote.miller@ntlworld.com if you have any relevant information.
August 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I am fishing the rivers and inlets here in Alaska and saw the Porta-Bote as a practical boat for my purpose. But having read the above comments I’m left with the feeling that the company doesn’t give a damn about its customers or its warranty. Considering the cost of these things one would hope the company was more prompt to satisfy a sold customer. I’ve always had good performance from AVON Inflatables….
August 6th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I have been researching this boat because of it being so portable. I was interested in getting the 14′ model but after reading about how the company handles their customers in this review, I am definitely changing my mind and will be letting my friends know as well who were also interested in this boat.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I am looking at the 12ft porta for fishing (standing up flicking lures) with 1 or 2 in the boat. Mainly river mouths and generally sheltered water. On a good day some open ocean stuff. Probably use a 6hp 4 stroke.
Interested in any comments about the stability of the craft and ease of fishing/ maneuverability
Thanks
September 18th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Hello Porta-Bote friends,
I have read the comments above and this is my reaction. We are the Porta-Bote distributor
for the Netherlands, Belgium and France for over 15 years now. Of course during this time we have had also a few customers with a warranty case. Just as it will be with any other product.
But I can say that we have had no troubles at all with Porta-Bote USA regarding the warranty. We always could satisfy our customers again.
It is always so pity that only the customers with a bad experiance show their problems and all the customers who are satisfied you never hear. As you can read above it is also always that the negative people are often to believed more than all the positive and happy one’s.
Therefore,..happy owners. Please identify yourself. It must be more than 95%!!
Many happy watersport and fishing time wishes to all Porta-Bote owners.
GB trading - The Netherlands
October 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Well, I’m not sure where to begin . . .
First of all, I would like to thank Cheyenne & Joshua for this blog . . . without it I would not have “squeaked my wheel” so loudly in defense of the Porta-bote that my husband and I own.
We recently discovered a crack in the fold of the bladder and contacted Sandy to find out what we should do. Shipping from Texas to California and back to Texas would be quite expensive–we both agreed. So, he suggested something called Scotch Weld . . . but I wasn’t sure . . . so I did a little research and that’s when I found this blog and a group on Yahoo called PortabotersWorldWide –http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PortaBotersWorldWide/. I started a post on this Yahoo Group to see what others thought and told everyone that Sandy said this is not a problem he’s heard of before–just like he told me on the phone when we first spoke. He of course denied this on the Group and tried to turn it all around on me: I never sent the pictures of the damage like I said I would, I refused to ship the boat back, etc., etc., etc.
The moral of the story is: Sandy is sending us a new hull . . . even though he doesn’t think we deserve it. Basically he wants me to hush up and in turn he looks like a respectable business man who went above and beyond to make the ungrateful customer happy. ((And he did in this instance–just like he did for Cheyenne and Joshua–but I believe it was solely because he was being held accountable in a semi-public setting where others would know the outcome.)) I’ve received some flack from other Porta-Bote owners for being a whiner and disrespectful, etc., etc., etc. You know that saying, “when you walk a mile in my shoes”? What a painful walk this has been! All in all, I think everything turned out okay. And I feel good knowing I didn’t lie or cheat to get justice!
I love the Porta-Bote and don’t intend on tarnishing its name. And for the record, thank you Sandy for sending us a new hull. We are truly appreciative.