Just so you know, I am in no way affiliated with Austin Canoe and Kayak (ACK). I am just a very satisfied customer that wanted to share my experience.

A little over two weeks ago I bought a Hobie Outback from ACK in San Antonio. I picked it up during my lunch break on a Friday.



That evening I flipped it over to do a depth finder install. Unfortunately, I found this on the bottom (quarter used for scale)


I finished the install because I could not wait to get on the water and took the kayak out the next morning.



Last week I decided to contact ACK to email them the photo of the damage above and see what they suggested I do. Now, I had taken the boat out, so it had obviously been used. Had it been a big box store, I'm pretty sure they would have told me to get lost. But, ACK instead suggested I bring the kayak back and they would send it back under warranty. Originally their supplier told them the damage appeared to happen in shipping or storage, and it sounded like they were not going to replace it, but ACK still honored their offer and replaced the kayak. I'm not sure if they got it replaced under warranty or not, but the person I spoke to at the store agreed with me that it looked like something was done at the factory - it did not appear to be a scrape. Either something very hot was pressed into it, the boat itself was hot and something pressed into it (maybe fresh off out of the mold?) or something with a thousand pounds of force pressed into it (forklift tine perhaps).

Not only did they replace it, but I brought it in on Wednesday at lunch, they got the boat in on Thursday, and they moved all of my accessories over for me by Friday when I picked it up. Now that's service!



So for anyone who wants to be treated right and is in the market for a good kayak, I cannot recommend ACK enough. They earned a life-long customer from this guy.