Alpinestars - Low quality, lousy customer service, failure to honor warranty

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White13Pani

White13Pani

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Alpinestars - Low quality, lousy customer service, failure to honor warranty

Bought an Alpinestars Atem Jacket February 8 2014. $700 jacket.

Didn't end up wearing it until Late May/June for a few street rides then out of nowhere I noticed while riding the left side of my neck became itchy/irritated. Haven't worn the jacket since October.

The left side mesh on the upper portion of the neck is unacceptably peeling apart.

I contacted Alpinestars and of course their immediate reply is "thats normal wear and tear" we cant fix it, and wont replace it." Basically .... off.

I ride with a full face Ducati Performance Balaclava as well as a compression shirt, so as the ride goes on the balaclava creeps up a little bit exposing my neck to this defective portion of the jacket.

It was only the second day wearing this jacket and it gets more and more irritating with each ride.

Quite disappointing even Alpinestars $700 model jacket is garbage made in China.

So I ask:

Do you own Alpinestars or other brand race protection jackets?

Have any of these jackets fallen apart prematurely?

How did the company handle the matter?

Any brand recommendation for a replacement jacket? Because I plan on dumping all my A-stars .... as soon as possible.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Alpinestars attire. They constantly avoid warrantying defective merchandise stating "wear and tear." Even though the god damn item doesnt even have a full 24 hour day of riding on it. Unreal.
 
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I had a pair of Alpinestars gloves tear open at the thumb but my dealer I bought them from exchanged them. No idea on the jackets I had the Ducati Dainese jacket. Sad they won't warrant it for 24 hours.
 
I have a bunch of A* stuff and to me its all perfect..no issues at all....
 
sorry to hear that.. its disappointing..
not to redirect.. I had an Astar leather jacket that I bought second hand. start to unravel at the elbow (the stitching was separating the 2 leather pieces ) called Astars(about 2 years ago) and they didn't hesitate... I sent it in on my dime.($20ish?). they repaired and sent It back.. didn't even ask me if I was the original owner..

Knox android gloves the finger stitching was coming undone.. same thing sent it in they sent me new ones
 
You get what you pay for.
Alpinestars is known for middle of the road pricing and quality.
I own SVX boots and Alpinestars pants that did well surviving a crash.
My Dainese jacket on the other hand had issues with the zipper as well as the suit by the same manufacturer.
Having a zipper fail while doing 150 mph can be rather scary. :mad:
 
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White13Pani said:
Alpinestars - Low quality, lousy customer service, failure to honor warranty

Bought an Alpinestars Atem Jacket February 8 2014. $700 jacket.

Didn't end up wearing it until Late May/June for a few street rides then out of nowhere I noticed while riding the left side of my neck became itchy/irritated. Haven't worn the jacket since October.

The left side mesh on the upper portion of the neck is unacceptably peeling apart.

I contacted Alpinestars and of course their immediate reply is "thats normal wear and tear" we cant fix it, and wont replace it." Basically .... off.

I ride with a full face Ducati Performance Balaclava as well as a compression shirt, so as the ride goes on the balaclava creeps up a little bit exposing my neck to this defective portion of the jacket.

It was only the second day wearing this jacket and it gets more and more irritating with each ride.

Quite disappointing even Alpinestars $700 model jacket is garbage made in China.

So I ask:

Do you own Alpinestars or other brand race protection jackets?

Have any of these jackets fallen apart prematurely?

How did the company handle the matter?

Any brand recommendation for a replacement jacket? Because I plan on dumping all my A-stars .... as soon as possible.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Alpinestars attire. They constantly avoid warrantying defective merchandise stating "wear and tear." Even though the god damn item doesnt even have a full 24 hour day of riding on it. Unreal.
Click to expand...

Yep Never again will I own Retail A*'s. Gloves, Jacket, Suits, Shoes came apart prematurely. Ever since they moved the manufacturing to a specific country where 90% of riding gear is made the Quality Assurance of A*'s went down hill most of their stuff isn't even double stitched anymore. I stick with Dainese where its still designed and manufactured in Italy. Never had a problem with their gear. You will heard people complain about the Full metal pro gloves coming apart but its the layer of kevlar that protrudes and people mistake it as it is coming apart.
 
All my A* gear (jacket, gloves, boots) held up great in my one and only gear test. At least until the medic decided to cut the jacket off of me.
 
This fall I had the pocket on my Black Hades jacket coming apart, contacted ASTARS and they fixed it and took care of shipping both ways.
 
Stitching came apart along two of the fingers of my Astar GP pro gloves through wearing only. The gloves had not much use at all at the time of failure. Stitched them back up myself. But wont be buying them again. My Astars jacket seems ok and that has had a fair amount of use though....
 
zaster said:
You get what you pay for.
Alpinestars is known for middle of the road pricing and quality.
I own SVX boots and Alpinestars pants that did well surviving a crash.
My Dainese jacket on the other hand had issues with the zipper as well as the suit by the same manufacturer.
Having a zipper fail while doing 150 mph can be rather scary. :mad:
Click to expand...

My Dianese pants cheap plastic crotch zipper failed almost immediately, I going to replace it with a steel one.
 
I find A-stars horrible. Dainese better but seen plenty fail on the track. Saw Dainese's top of the line race suit fail in a crash - zipper on the chest blew open. Only trust Helimot for race suits, Daytona Kevlar boots, and RS Taichi for street riding. OP, check out the Taichi GMX Motion jacket. And research Taichi leather, dyeing techniques, and manufacture quality compared to others.
 
I use Alpinestars 365 leather Goretex combo for touring. Jacket and pants are great, but gloves are far from waterproof. I had destroyed a one piece drystar suit in a crash which was totalled but it did the job (hit a deer).
 
Alpinestars

I've worn both Alpinestars and Dianese for 16 yrs. As for Astars, product quality and service have been impeccable. To say it's junk is an ridiculous statement. The repair on your atom jacket should be straight forward. Generally if you contact them and email pictures, the repair should go smoothly.

Alpinestars, Dianese, AGV, Nolan and others have all have products produced outside of Italy. They have to do so in order to be price competitive, the industry simply demands it. If not, we wouldn't use this forum for product advice because everyone would gladly purchase all their Ducati products from local dealers and be happy to pay full retail.

Unfortunately products fail regardless of brand and we are a very impatient society. My experience with any customer service issues in any industry is explain your problem, your goal to resolve that problem and be respectful and patient with company you're working with.
 
I had a A* GP-M perforated leather jacket that I tore the waist adjustment strap on one side. The buckle got caught on the hand rail of the chair as I was sitting down and tore 3/4 of the way through the strap.

Since I had bought it locally I stopped by and asked the Sales Manager if he could warranty it. He sent it in to A* and they gave me a credit for the jacket. Since it was a credit, rather than choose the same jacket, I chose to upgrade to their Celer model. Very satisfied with A*'s quality and service.
 
I've worn A* in one form or another for many years and have never had an issue with quality.

Currently wearing jacket, gloves and boots.
 
I'll upload pictures and a screenshot of their reply shortly.


Please and simple there is no wear and tear here. I haven't had the jacket, nor worn it anywhere near enough for wear and tear to occur.


This reply "No replacement or repairs can be made." from their customer service is unacceptable.
 
You have a few options

bring it back to the store you bought it from and just get them to deal with it.

Drop it into a store and get it restiched it should only cost a few $$ and problem solved.

keep on dealing with A* and drive yourself crazy..

I had the same issue with Dainese i just got it fixed locally and it cost may $40 for trousers and jacket, it seems to be a fairly common theme with Dainese and A*.

good luck
 
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