just wanted to let everyone out there know that i bought a pair of Saltic vampires,supplied buy rammountain,used the for a 45min boulder session and noticed the heel had started to peel off. YES, after only one use. took the back and was told that they not gonna do anything about it till the heel completly comes off. sounded as if it would be to much of a fuss for them to send them back to the manufacturer.this is absolute bs. if you bought a new car and drove it home from the showroom and saw that the bumber had started to sag off when you got home, they wouldnt tell you to wait for it to fall off till they would do something about it.so beware when buying saltic or any other products supplied by them. let me know what you think about this and what you would do if it happened to you. finally, a big **** YOU to rammountain you *****

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mat

Hmm, you sound super angry. If you're in JHB, or can get the shoes to me, I'll put some of my black gunk on for you. Won't charge if you promise to try keep future postings a little cleaner.

But who did you take them back to? I wasn't aware that one could deal directly with the supplier. Don't you have to go through a retailer?

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You have an opinion, so do I. When these differ, please don't confuse your opinion with the truth, nothing is absolute.

I bought a pair of saltics and returned them to be fixed at the store where they were bought. (An indoor climbing gym in CT) After dealing with one of the managers, it took a week of listning to his take on what he though the problem was. (Telling me I had bad technique and dragging my feet off the end of a bakkie) I then decided to go straight to ram.
My experiences dealing with ram directly where very good, having them solve the problem in the same day. Many thanks to Simon from Ram.

Hi All

I'm sorry to see the Mat feels the need to vent his frustrations on a public
forum. However I'm pretty sure that most folk reading his tirade realise
that there is another side to the story. Ram Mountaineering would like to
offer our point of view.

Foot wear returns are always difficult due to two facts :
1. the manufacturing process is not a perfect art. Defects do occur &
products do sometimes require replacement
2. foot wear - particularly mountain boots & climbing shoes - are used in
very tough environments which are good at creating damage

These two issues always have to be balanced when assessing a return.

In the case of rock boots it is very common - as most experienced climbers
will attest - that a small gap can develop between the sole & the rand. This
occurs simply because the gluing is not an exact science & the extreme
pressure on the edging may weaken the bond right at the edge. In the vast
majority of cases this gap will not progress - it will remain a small
opening which has no impact on the performance of the shoes. As mentioned
this is very common & does not constitute a manufacturing defect.

However occasionally the gap will continue to develop & the sole will
gradually peel. In such a case the customer is obviously due some recourse.

In Mat's case the sole lift on the Vampirs is really small - approximately
1cm long and 2mm deep. The \"peeling\" is positioned on the back of the heel
where the sole meets the sling shot rand. When I picked up the shoes for the
first time I failed to even see it. With such a small problem we are not
able to determine whether in fact it is a defect or damage as a result of
pulling really hard on a heel hook.

We explained our difficulty to Mat & asked him to continue to use the shoes
& return them to us if - indeed - the sole lift does develop into peeling.
We did not say that we will not replace the shoes. We did say that we could
not determine where the lift was due to manufacture defect or use.

If it gets worse of course we will replace the shoes.

I hope this settles this topic!
Thanks
Lee

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Lee

apolagies fot the bad language but i am understandably fed up.thanx to danny p for the offer but i from the cape.you offered more than rammountain could,thanx.
as for lee,manufacturing defects do occur but then its your responsability to sort them out. im a boulderer so my heel is often yous'd in comparison with sport climbing so thefore it will become a problem and rather sort it out now than later.its my money being spent travelling back and forth to return them and my time.as for my \"need to post this on a public forum\", its to let people know whats going on with you guys.its unacceptable and hopefully this has had a negative affect on your company.as i said i've owned plenty of shoes and this has'nt happened b4 so mayb its just the saltic shoes.first and last time i'll by that brand
sorry again to all for the language.

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mat