I would be depressed!!!

We had a good long thread a wile ago on a notorious kayak store claming that that the Ocean Kayak brand has gone cheap. Adventure sports is not the only one to state this to its potential customers.

Yesterday my wife and I were at the mall in Santa Rosa, and we went into Sonoma Outfitters. My wife and I will browse through any kayak store we come across. The sales lady was nice and knew her stuff. I let her know that we both had O.K Drifters, she replied, "have you taken a look at the Powlers?" Yes, actually a P13 could very well be our next boat. Do you have any?, I asked. "No, um.... no, we dont have any Prowlers," was her reply. She then continued the sales pitch on the Native's. Then she said that she wouldn't recommend a sit on top kayak over 12 feet. WTF, lady??? You just asked us if we have looked at the Prowlers. Needless to say I was starting to feel car sales-itus.

My wife and I continued to browse, checking out the boats along with the $200+ paddles that we will never own. On the way out of the store the lady said to us, ''Have a nice day, by the way Ocean kayaks have gotten cheap..." Her tone was very petty, and the coment came out of the blue.

Feeling defensive I said,  ''Yeah, I know they closed down their plant in WA. and moved over....."  Not remembering where they are made on the east coast, she gladly finished my sentence... "In CHINA." 

Is this true?  Or is this just a sales tactic? Sonoma Outfitters is the second kayak store to claim that OK's have gotten cheap on this board in the last month.

there are a lot of things i do like about o.k.s but the one thing i have never liked about o.k.s is that their hulls are too soft and lack rigidity.

Sounds like more sales slander...

Here's the original thread. Any of the reps/retailers should be able to confirm manufacturing is now in Old Town, ME, as mentioned before.

My bet, Sonoma Outfitters has a bunch of Native Kayaks in stock they are trying to push out the door so they don't have to sit on them all winter. Maine is a LONG way from China.

For the record,
I spent the better half of last week at the Johnson Watercraft (Ocean Kayak) conference in Bellingham Wa.
It is true that they have moved their Manufacturing to Maine however they are not going out of business but rather streamlining their production with a new state of the art facility being built next to the Old Town plant.
This new move was designed to help the Co. grow and they have even come up with a few incentives for the west coast dealers.
Oh yeah!  I even picked up a nice trinket while i was there.

I gotta say that it was a big step down, customer relations-wise, when the outboard company bought them up.  You used to be able to call them up like they were one of your friends or something.

Sorry to here your feelings as the customer service dept was unchanged and the same great staff will continue to answer your calls in the same offices (in Wa.). Only the production facility has moved which means the only diff. a consumer would notice would be a day or so on a special order.

Oh yeah!  I even picked up a nice trinket while i was there.

Congrats Eric!

Yeah babby, way to go Hopper!!!
thanx for the 411
Respect the Hoppers authoritaay 

Sorry to here your feelings as the customer service dept was unchanged and the same great staff will continue to answer your calls in the same offices (in Wa.). Only the production facility has moved which means the only diff. a consumer would notice would be a day or so on a special order.

It could be me.  It just seemed a lot more "corporate" after the change.  Perceptions are weird, and now that I think about it, maybe my remark was uncalled for.  if it was - my apologies.