UKC

Still awaiting replacement of my recalled Superlight Rocks despite receiving email in October from Wild Country stating that replacements would be delivered no later than mid-November. I emailed Wild Country a month ago for update but no reply.

Anyone in the same position, or with any useful info?

In my experience, communication from Wild Country has been hopeless. After much prompting I had an email on the 12th December saying:

I am not sure what happened, but your replacement rocks were not sent. I am very sorry for that. At the moment we don't have any more Superlights left, so the options are as follows:

I can send you a new full set of Superlight Rocks at the end of February, when we get the new batch.

I can send you now a set of Classic Rocks [link to classic rocks].

We might get something in February??

Since most modern climbing gear is at least very good, with minimal differences in price and performance between the major brands, choices are strongly informed by issues like place of manufacture and customer service. The occasional recall is probably inevitable with complex safety equipment but Wild Country are handling this one spectacularity badly and this has put me off ever buying from them again. 

I seem to remember Euan stating this is the first recall they have done after they closed the Tideswell site down so this is likely playing a significant role in the issues.

Thanks, Very helpful if a bit disappointing. Fingers crossed for February.

I'm sorry you feel they're handling this badly. I will feed that back to Oberalp.

Personally I feel that they have done well with this just stumbling at the last hurdle to get the goods out of the warehouse quick enough. I appreciate they clearly didn't order enough stock but it happens and they're looking after the entire world not just the UK. I haven't got any Superlights into the Beta warehouse either otherwise I'd of sent everyone a set from our stock.

Again, I apologise and will see what can be done to hasten the process.

I've been back and forth with my return.  I had three sets in all being replaced with the new superlights.  Two sets were mailed together, and finally did come back together after a bit of bother with the courier.  The third was meant to have been sent at the same time, but has gone missing in transit.  I'm now waiting for a February ish timeframe for more stock to be available for them to resend.

How did you email wildcountry?  I sent emails through the oberalp service portal, and got a reply to let me know what was going on.

I received an email from Wild Country on 13 October which I was able to reply to. Whether it went to a monitored Inbox I have no idea. I have  just emailed the Oberalp service portal (thanks for the prompt) as well.

Thanks Euan. I'm holding on to mine till stock is flowing more readily. Any updated info posted on UKC is much appreciated.

Hi, Messaging here as I've left a couple of phone messages, but no joy.

I got myself a return label back in the autumn, but have only just got round to packing up the wires. Will my label from September be OK, or should I generate a new one?

If you could let me know, that'd be great 

Tom

Like Dave Baker, I've got multiple sets. I've yet to send any off, biding my time until the process is ironed out. Will it be possible to send different sets at different times? Or will I have to submit all at the same time? I'd hate to be without the superlights in the spring.

Hi Tom and Jon,

The recall process is currently active until December 2026 so you have heaps to time to get it all sorted etc,

Currently out of stock until end of February but if you start the process now I've been informed there will be a ton of stock arriving into Italy next month so enough for everyone.

Hope this helps

Hi Euan

Can you tell me how to overcome the issues of the Oberalp claim system not recognising my address, particularly the State/County and declaring an error has occurred. It is odd as the address is correct and the County is a non mandatory field in the form. I have tried leaving the field black but its still not happy.

Thanks 

Same here. We'd have been without them for nearly a year if we'd have sent them off straight away!

Hi Paul,

Unsure as I don't have any access to Oberalp systems. I will ask now.

If they're safe to climb on in Spring then why replace them? I don't get it. 

Can't speak for Jon (or the various others mentioning similar thoughts), but it made sense to me on the basis of balancing risk vs reward. The flawed nuts evidently aren't particularly likely to fail, so an extra few months of climbing on them isn't super risky. If that extra few months of use means you only have to do without them for a week or two rather than waiting months, that could be a worthwhile tradeoff. Equally, the flawed nuts clearly do have real risks, so getting them replaced at some point does seem sensible. "Safe" is almost always about relative risk rather than binary absolutes, especially in climbing.

The recall issue IIRC is relating to hidden corrosion/weakening, particularly in maritime environments. If you have one used set and one brand new set in your gear box, then you might reasonably plan to send back the used set, crack open the new set for some non-maritime cragging, then send the newer set back once your first set is returned by WC. Does it make sense now?

Yeah I do get it, maybe just speaking from my own risk-aversion. If I wanted something replacing for safety reasons, I wouldn't go anywhere near using it. 

You've not seen my nut placements  

I am in the same position having had the ‘due in November’ email and complete radio silence since.

Finally going to get around to doing this this week! Have had three Superlights sitting around unused for months now.

I have also got broken or failed kit from another 7! different companies that I'm finally doing something about today. Stuff I either need to return under warranty, complain to the company about, try to repair, sell for spares or just chuck in the bin. Some are the normal suspects but other stuff is surprising and annoying. Also that's not including soft shell clothing that's delaminated.

Hi duncan, what email address did you use? Iv had a complete nightmare trying to make any contact with them too, i sent almost 2 full sets back almost a year ago and still nothing, last contact from them was october

"We understand your anticipation for the replacement of your recalled Superlight Rocks and want to ensure you're well-informed. Rest assured, your replacement is in progress, and we are committed to delivering it to you no later than mid-November."

Ho ho ho

Im not even convinced theyve got my correct postal address but my attempts to check this and make sure they do have a correct one  have fallen into a howling void

I got the following, rather peremptory reply last week:

Dear Customer,
we would like to inform you that we have given instructions for the delivery of the replacement item/items you have chosen.

And that was it!

I tried various ways of communicating but the reply I got was from: 

support_int[ remove this bit ]@wildcountry.com. (Remove the square brackets and everything inside them)

Good luck.

Thanks

Ill try that

Mine have finally arrived! 

(Not on the day the courier company told me they would be delivering, requiring me to be needlessly at home the whole time, but this seemed a fitting end to the saga) 

Good news - gives me hope...

I had an email a month ago saying my replacements were being dispatched, but nothing has arrived. Reading this thread, seems like this is normal. Not very impressed.

Hi,

Once I got the slightly odd "Item dispatched" email, nothing happened other than I got a couple of  missed calls from a seemingly random number (in Cannock) within about a week. Obviously I ignored these, because who answers unknown, unexpected numbers these days 🙄 

Turns out that those calls were the international shipping people calling to arrange a date for delivery.

So just thought I'd flag that you need to keep an eye (ear?) on your phone as I wasn't expecting the call, and apparently things grind to a halt if you don't talk to the agents (who are clearly used to delivering bigger things to businesses).

Anyhoo, once I talked to them everything went smoothly and the rocks arrived.

Fingers crossed for your delivery

Tom

Good point about not answering unknown numbers, thanks. Still waiting...

Please cut that out. There is no feeling there, they have handled Duncan's return badly, there is absolutely no need whatsoever to gloss over mistakes when they happen, because mistakes will always happen.

I got a phone call last week to confirm someone would be available and agree the delivery date, and we received all our replacement Superlight Rocks today. 

Just need some decent weather now.

Trying now to send a second set back.

Despite having managed the proceedure once before, not without frustration I would add , I seem unable to repeat.

Cannot get past the " open new recall claim " button.  

Is it just the wc website or me ? Any advice welcome.

After several attempts since my last post, the       " open new claim button"  worked today  and allowed me to progress.

Hi Euan,

Any update on when outstanding replacement Superlights will be issued? I understood that it was likely to be February as there would be plenty of new stock by then, but I'm still waiting. And I would like to get them before I'm too old to use them!

I can't believe this is still going on. This is the most shambolic display of "customer service" I think I've ever seen. 

I had  some replacements a few weeks ago.

Just tried to dpd drop off another set but the label would not scan.

Yay my replacements finally arrived! 

Thanks Duncan, once I started using this email address instead, I got to talk to an actual human being who was lovely and helpful. Still took a long time, but she was clearly doing her best. Now I just need the weather to get them scratched up!