It is too bad this is not a new subject.I am yet another victim of karl and thane Pope.There have been many before but hopefully we can put enought pressure on them to behave more responsibly.In pursuit of that I am requesting information to bring them to small claims court.I have seen on the google results for “thane pope” and “pope bisect” several refrences to the popes being brought to court…If anyone has any relevant info. such as an address where they can be served a notice to appear,or your personal experience in court-please contact me .I belive I have exausted every means up to this point.They have repeatedly dodged my calls and not responded to my emails-and I know for a fact that they were dodging my calls for i posed as an interested customer and had a callback from thane in 15 min… I do not relish the idea of taking anyone to court,but they wont play fair and for all i know continue in their ways.
P.S. I will be happy to share all my information with anybody in a similar position or who (unwisely) considers doing busness with the Popes.The details of my experience are fairly lenghty and prefered to keep this post a reasonable lenght-but for the whole saga please email me.
thanks for the interest in my post regarding Pope Bisect surfboards-Thane and Karl Pope.In my original post I said for the sake of brevity I would leave out most of the details but now I am posting a more complete account of my saga with the Popes with the hope it may help Prevent others experiencing the problems I have had.Again if anyone out there has had any experience in court with the Popes(or any experience such as mine) t would help my case to hear of your actions(posted here or emailed to me) as well as possibly inspire others to take them to court…Let us together try to weed out shady operators in the surf world. Hope this is not too tedious.
Subject: pope bisect surfboards-Karl or thane pope-warning defective
products-deceptive busness practices
my name is Brian Bennett and
I am writing to warn others about pope bisect surfboards and the
busness practices of Karl and Thane Pope.I am also requesting
information to bring them to small claims court.An address where they
can be served(busness address no good) or your experiences with the
popes would be appriciated.
I bought a bisect board for 995$
(discounted as it had been returned by another customer)The popes
promised delivery via grethound bus whithin a week.My friend went to
pick up the board as arranged(60mile round trip) and no board
arrived.After several unreturned calls I finally contacted the popes and
they said they were sorry and would definitly send the board.I drove 7
hours from the Sierra to santa cruz
to get the board-no board arrived.I called and emailed frantically for
TWO WEEKS with no response.Finally thane returned my call(he had been in mexico
attending to one of his rentals(-google Thane Pope to see the complaints
about him re; his rentals)Again he said he was sorry and he would make
it up with some extra parts included for free.When the board finally
arrived i found an extra clamp(40$ value)This was some how to make up
for two weeks of my vacation blown waiting for the board and a 14hour
round trip drive…The total time from my payment for the board to its final delivery was over 2 months,Delivery was initially promised in one week.
I only had one chance to test the board -a brief
paddle arround in 1 foot chop before commiting to a 6 month trip
volunteering in the galapagos.On the first day of surf about a month or
so later I noticed a seperation where the clamp box meets the epoxy
shell of the board.I repaired this but soon after the board began to
flex and feel heavier.I tried to use the spare clamp bolts but the bolts
bent upon instalation( karl claims to have never heard of customers having problems with the clamp bolts but others have posted similar complaints on the internet predating my experience) .I had a welder reinforce the bolts but the board
still flexed.Closer inspection revealed that the clamp seatings had
cracked in many place-the plastic seat of the clamp boxes eventually cracked all the way arround.All repair attempts failed-it semed the plastic was just too fragile…The board was now leaking from almost the entire
area of the the joining system on both halves of the board In addition
the plastic of the fin box broke 3 times(again the fragile plastic) loosing 2 of my 3 fins in the
process…I had emailed the popes several times pleading for advice on
how to repair my board.It took about 3 weeks to get a response and this
was not very useful.
I ended up with an unsurfable board after about a
month of fitful service.I had to buy another board-not easy in the
Galapagos-and the had to drag arroung the bisect as well when I moved.Do not t belive the pope claims that you do not have to pay oversize when flying with thier boards- I had to pay oversize on all flights for the
board.
Upon my return to the USA again after many unreturned calls and emails I spoke to
Thane and he said to send the board back and he would get me on another
board for -in his words"next to nothing"When I went to the shop in Ojai
to pick up the board"next to nothing" ment 675$! I was furious(not only
because I had to wait a hour and a half for Karl to show up)Karl called
thane and he denied that he made any such promise.After a heated
discussion with karl in which I called Thane a liar and a cheat,things
calmed down and I told Karl that I felt I had acted in felt like I was
sold a lemmon and that thane implied that He would remedy the situation.
Karl
then gave me his word and shook my hand promising to get me on a
similar board at no additonal cost when one became available.I heard
nothing from the popes for most of a year despite repeated emails and
phone calls.I finally posed as an interested customer and had a reply
back from thane in 15 minnutes!!!
Karl seemed quite suprised to find
me on the other end of the phone when he called me back.He told me he
had repaired and sold the board and that my proceeds were 157$!!!. I
emailed saying that this was not the deal and since the I have been
unable to get the Popes
to respond.
I see no other choice than to bring then to small claims court.
The
Popes have lied to me,flagrantly ducked my attempts to contact
them,inconvienced me greatly and cost me no small amount of money.
From
my experience and that of others I belive this to be a consistant theme
in dealings with the popes.It seems that they sell a faulty product and
are dishonest about it and refuse to act responsibly when customers
complain.I strongly advise EXTREAM caution in any dealings with Pope
bisect/Karl Pope/Thane Pope.
Thank you for you attenion.Please feel
free to contact me (or post your experiences here)and share information in pursuit of small claims
action-hopefully together we can presure the Popes to behave responsibly or at least warn off potential victims.
yours,sincerly.Brian Bennett
P.S. Should Karl or thane
read this i invite them to respond-I stand by what I have said here.
Jeez Brian, with your on going horror story, how the helm am I going to sell mine ?!?! I’ve had WAY better luck than you…better luck than lots of folk, it seems. Bought mine(second generation, Harbour ) maybe 5+ years ago, to go to Cuba with. Never made it; did run it at 38 th Ave./Pleasure Point a few times…a heavy, floaty beast…but no problems. Could your problem be worse ? Imagine a lawsuite with your neighber that is still going on for over 2 years…lawyers at $300+ an hour…wish I had made it to Cuba. Good luck
Hi i am the author of the posts Re. being ripped off by the Popes.I have a court date in august and am hoping to get some more info.for my court date.First can someone tell me who usally does the repairs on the boards for the popes-I think they are near ventura .Second: if you have taken the Popes to court can you tell me about your experience.Third if you bought a 9 foot harbor bisect sometime in the last year can you let me know .Thanks - I will be happy to share my experience in court with others that may wish to persue the Popes and would like suggestions.
maybe you can order parts from the Austrailian bisect company: Don't know if it is run by Pope but you can use your credit card and if anything happen the CC company will refund you the $ and go after the aus company themself.
I agree other customers' stories might be useful, but not as evidence, I may be wrong, but I think the court will not want to hear about anyone elses experiences.
For anyone that has been deceived by thane pope and wishes to “get ahold of him” he is operating and selling surfboards out a storage facility in Carlsbad, Ca called Carlsbad self storage located at 2235 palomar airport rd Carlsbad,ca 92011. His unit is located the the far north end of their c building on floor 2. He seems to be selling boards out of this unit in which he has atleast 30 or so more left in and has not received shipments of more boards in. This leads me to believe that he is aiming to wipe his hands of these boards which by my understanding of this post are all of shitty quality. Im am a conserved citizen and would be more that just pist if some one walked away with a 1000 dollars or more of my money for a product that is not what it is mocked up to be. Good luck and I hope this helps those of you who are still pursuing him
Maybe a sways posse should be made, to sort this shady sounding dude out. Could be research too.
3 baseball bats could be used in the beating, a hollow wooden bat, and standard PUPE hand lay up bat, and then a vac bagged carbon fibre/innegra bat. We'll see how they perform in regards to lightness, performance, durability, "feel", and if they get blood stained or not.
Maybe a sways posse should be made, to sort this shady sounding dude out. Could be research too.
3 baseball bats could be used in the beating, a hollow wooden bat, and standard PUPE hand lay up bat, and then a vac bagged carbon fibre/innegra bat. We'll see how they perform in regards to lightness, performance, durability, "feel", and if they get blood stained or not.
:) :) :)
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Thats what I like about you Beerfan, always thinkin !
well i wouldnt waste my time with court over a shitty board that craped out . all boards crap out
you are pretty naive in thinking it would be anything else but a dog. i mean the whole concept is pretty laughable
get over it and buy a real board or shape one yourself and stop whining to the world as no one really cares
the idea of moaning/complaining to the world ( to garner their suport as a means to justify your pointless vendetta) and then suing someone for your OWN stupidity is completely pointless as you dont learn anything from that
admit you did something stupid. learn from that and move on.
And who bought into the idea that a 2 pcs surfboard with a metal rod shoved in its a$$, held together with plastic clamps and glue would be a good idea?
not condoning theft but the guy that leaves his car window open is an easy target. there will always be thieves and people that dont learn to protect themselves are at the mercy of the sharks. the only way for them to learn is to accept they left the car window open and take responsibility for there own carelessness. not stand on a soapbox crying poor me.