Our official comment:
I, Arnie Wolfe, CEO of DCN, am the inventor and lead designer for the project Tow-N-Stow. I am extremely sorry for the lack of action taken by our former product licensee who is responsible for producing our product with so many problems and for failing to resolve the many end user customer and dealer complaints.
Our product was licensed for manufacturer to Lippert Components Inc (LCI) in Goshen Indiana, and who were to be co-developers of a final, marketable product. We report that Lippert Components failed to manufacture the product according to our specifications or to follow DCN's improvement recommendations. LCI's management and engineering team largely ignored almost all of our mandated list of improvements (that proved to be critical for this consumer product) in favor pushing them out the door for sales. True to DCN's prediction, many problems were soon reported and sales soon dropped like a rock. LCI response was to exercise to terminate their licensing agreement despite our best efforts to convince them to fix the issues and repair the damaged customer relationships. Unfortunately for all past Tow-N-Stow buyers, LCI is no longer providing warranty or spare parts in their efforts to abandon the product.
Here is a short list of a few major issues that we have identified:
- Water tightness improvement via improved gaskets, installation technique and material, and improved door latching mechanisms
- Lack of improved door hinge locking spring pin causing doors to fall off during vibration
- Defective axles causing tires to prematurely wear
- Defective cosmetic plastic body panels and steel frame coating defects
- Lack of basic quality assurance, reporting, or product testing and continuous improvement
- Inner sidewall problems causing shelving collapse - minor tooling change required, with thicker plastic wall thickness and reinforced sidewall truss.
- Excessive weight, factoring a higher conversion force to lift vertical and to convert back to trailer. Due to no final chassis engineering improvements slated.
- Many other small details too lengthy to mention
DCN Ltd has most contacts for the sales made to our unfortunate and unsuspecting buyers. It is our intention to remedy the product's defects once we find a suitable licensee/manufacturer that can assist us. If successful, we intend to finalize the product development and implement pre-sale product testing. If production does resume, we possibly may issue a product recall even though it is solely Lippert Component's responsibility to do so under their prior manufacturing license.
We encourage all buyers who have been unsuccessful with LCI's product warranty department, or who are seeking future resolution, to contact our office with their complaint which will be added to the many others who have defects to report. Please email directly to me at [email protected].
We extend our sincere apologies to all who had entrusted us, and our selected manufacturing partner, to provide them a quality product suitable for its intended use. It is very disappointing for us to field these types of comments and complaints that we have received for the past several years. Especially for a product that held so much promise and initial customer acceptance.
Sincerely,
Arnie Wolfe
CEO President CEO
Design Concepts of Niagara ltd
Here's a link to our original Product Review (May, 2010) of the Tow-N-Stow:
"Product Review: Tow-N-Stow™ - Ready, Willing, and Able"
http://salesbarriers.typepad.com/one_goal_revenue_generati/2010/05/product-review-townstow-ready-willing-and-able.html
Posted by: Peter | August 07, 2012 at 12:40 PM