Park Tool Failure, or How To Stick It To The Man

last week, matt (baddesigner) lent me his pocket-sized park ct-6 chain breaker which, ironically, got broken by the chain; i literally torqued the connecting pin straight through (tho it is pretty dinky). slightly let down by this, matt went ahead and emailed park... although its a bit cheeky of me to be posting the response here, it thought it was such a great story, it needs some love...

***"From: baddesigner[a]hotmail[dot]com
To: info[at]parktool[dot]com
Subject: Folding chain tool CT-6 failure...
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:23:37 +0000

Hi,
i've been using your tools for home bike maintenance and recently bought the CT-6 from my local Evans bike store in london. after a few uses on my KMC Z chain, one of the bolts failed. i was both suprised and dissapointed, i have attached a couple of photos for you to show the failure. while i understand this is a compact tool, perhaps not a workshop tool, i felt pretty let down by the quality.

in future versions of a folding chain tool, i hope stronger bolts will be used. it seems a very narrow bolt to resist against strong leverage and twisting forces.

yours, dissapointedly,

matt bibby"***

to which the following reply came:

Subject: CT-6

Dear Matt,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding your CT-6. I certainly apologize
for the flaw in your tool and would be more than happy to replace it.
Please send your address and I will send one to you immediately via air
post.
Thanks for using our products and I will do my best to rectify your issue.
Roger
Export Sales Director***

Can't complain at that.

I did the same with a pair of Gore gloves though they required I sent them the trashed ones first.
It's only fair, especially when paying a premium for 'well respected' brands. That's how they earn this respect.

i'm such a dweeb. hahahaha!

damn, i just ripped the threads outta my park tools chain tool and threw it in the bin last week. then bought a £25 workshop jobbie. damn!!

well done park tools for being good sports

You ain't really sticking it to the man but.

Cost[no vat] probably £7.50
Means the true cost of material/labour/production/distribution after profits to distributor/producer:
around £2.00 or less.

That's how the system works, I guess...

It's still good of them to sort it out so quickly. Some brands would have told Carlitos it was his fault.

This way Park have a happy - and probably returning - customer.

True, good customer service.

although probably evans fault the dodgy bastard hey ma3k ;) :p

Yeah, they unloosen every 12th bolt as a store policy.