The Catamaran Adventures of Noel and Ceu
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Viking Life Raft Review – A Sad Story

We have not actually used the life raft, so cannot comment on how well it works as a life raft. But we do have some experience with their customer service and service centers – and those have been far from satisfactory…

We bought Life Part 2 in 2009. It came with a Viking RescYou 8 life raft which, according to the stickers, was bought in 2004 and had not been serviced since then.

In 2011, in preparation for our Atlantic crossing, we decided to have the life raft serviced in St. Martin. Much to our surprise, when we took it out of the boat it was full of water. The service center advised us that much of the contents had been corroded by salt water, and so there were various bits that needed replacing. Since we knew it was overdue for a service we did not think too much of it.

They assured us that it would not fill with water like that again, and that the problem would not recur.

In the Spring of 2013 we wanted to do some work on the liferaft compartment, so had to remove the life raft. Much to our surprise it was, once again, full of water.

I emailed Viking, who then responded quickly and with much concern. From the photos I sent them they determined that the drainage plugs had never been removed and thus the water that got in could not get out. These plugs should have been removed when first sold and then, again, should have been removed in 2011 when the problem should have been identified by the service center. They said they would put in a complaint about that service center.

They also said that I needed to get it serviced again, and that I should arrange to take it to the nearest service center. Well, when you are cruising that is not a convenient thing to do, but eventually we were able to hire a car and take it from our anchorage in Teos, Turkey to Izmir. This was in August 2013, four months after we identified the problem.

Note that they did not offer any apology, nor any pro-active solution such as “We are terribly sorry this has happened. Tell us where the life raft can be picked up and we will immediately arrange to get it repaired at no cost to you.”

In fact, they wanted me to pay for all the servicing and repairs. I did however get them to agree to a 100 euro reduction since I was in fact getting it serviced a year sooner than necessary. They told me the service would cost 400 euro. But, onto that they added all sorts of additional expenses for replacements parts and supplies. Now, since many of these are routinely replaced at each service, why was their cost not included in the original quote?

I went with the raft to see it being serviced. It was a mess. Everything was waterlogged. The safety manuals were unreadable. The tent was all rust stained. Several items where corroded such that it is likely that it would have failed to deploy had it been needed in an emergency. Several items had to be replaced not because they were out of date, but because they were water damaged.

Now, get this – they even wanted to charge me 100 euro for hosing down the filthy raft! It took them 10 minutes to do this and it shouldn’t have been necessary anyway. After all, the raft should look like it is brand new when it comes out of the box for a service. Ours looks like it has been left inflated and neglected in the back yard exposed to the elements for a few years.

Even with refusing to pay for the water damaged item replacements, and the hosing down, it still came to 700 euros. And still no apology.

But it doesn’t end there.

This spring, 2014, we looked at the raft again. Bear in mind that it was serviced in August, and then sat in a marina from October to April.

Yet, as you can see from the photo below, it was all opening up. Clearly it had not been packed securely.

The liferaft has opened up, despite the banding still being in place

The liferaft has opened up, despite the banding still being in place

We emailed Viking again.

Again, a quick response, but no apology or proactive response, other than I needed to get it to the service center again. Well, we were just about to start cruising again, so that was NOT convenient. However, we said we would soon be in Marmaris, and if they could arrange for a courier to pick it up, we would wait for it to be returned. We had to ask TWICE before they confirmed that they would pay for the courier. The also agreed to do the repacking free. But they said there might be a charge if there was any damage!! Damage from what? From it being exposed because they hadn’t packed it right last time?

Fortunately there was no further damage, and it was returned within two days, though we had to drive around Marmaris in a taxi to deliver it to the courier and then to pick it up again (cost of 35 euro), however they have agreed to reimburse me for that, once I asked. And we had to wait in Marmaris longer than we wanted while this was being done.

One relies on a life raft to be in full working order should one ever need it. This one was not. That potentially put us at risk of lose of life. Yet, apart from expressing concern that their service center had failed to open the drain holes, there was a lot of reluctance to acknowledge any responsibility or to put in place immediate reparation.

In fact, their service centers screwed up THREE times:

  1. When the raft was bought, the drainage plugs should have been opened up
  2. When it was serviced in 2011, and there was clearly a problem, the drainage plugs should have been opened up
  3. When doing the service in 2013, the raft was inadequately packed

Viking Life Rafts look like they are good rafts. But their customer service stinks. Yet all it would have taken was a bit more empathy, and a bit more concern about making it right for the customer.

I have heard about problems with other life raft companies as well (accounts even of the life raft being replaced by phone books when sent for servicing!). This is not a piece of equipment to take chances with. Be very careful about which brand of life raft you buy – get lots of feedback from other users first. And thenmake sure you regularly check your raft yourself to make sure it looks intact and not full of water. Check that the drainage holes are clear, and are at the lowest point depending on how your raft is stored. When you get it serviced, go with the raft and see the whole procedure for yourself to make sure the correct items are in there.

Don’t just take their word for it.

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