Is this mount job acceptable?

[scoober]

Guy kept talking about how plastic parts in bindings are made in a cast and that irregularities in thickness were common and that that was as good a mount as I was going to get. Sounded like bullshit to me.

Well, if you needed more proof this guy is full of shit... there's no way binding plastic is cast, in fact I can't think of one truly 'cast' plastic product. The parts are injection molded, which is typically considered to be a pretty repeatable process able to hold decent tolerances if you want it to. (And I am just going out on a limb here to assume that most binding manufacturers want their plastic where it should be.)

[Dug]

The skis are the mojo 90. Anyway, I went to another shop today (guy didn't want to get named) to get a second opinion and he agreed it wasn't right. We unscrewed them, and checked the holes: one ski's holes are off by about 1mm or so while the other is off by about 1.5mm. Not too big a deal but the owner of the shop could tell by eye that one of bindings was crooked. What's worse is it turns out that they stripped out one of my screw holes too and never fixed it - the guy was pretty blown away by the fact that Sturtevants failed to inspect the ski after the mount and never even told me about the strip. I agree, that's pretty fucked up.

Anyway, we screwed them back on and it looks like the skis aren't quite as bad now, though the crooked one is still showing it somewhat, about 1-2mm off parallel. The guy reckoned that the problem with the crooked ski was that the tech mounted the bindings with the jig not completely flat on the ski, resulting in a slightly angled hole that caused the binding to pull over when screwed down. We both came to the conclusion that I'm probably not going to be able to notice it and the shop most likely won't do anything for me so he suggested that I just go back to them politely and ask for them to fix the stripped hole, and then just leave and not give them any of my business again.

I'm still pretty bummed, since that's pretty fucking unprofessional, but it sounds like I'm screwed. Going back now and complaining about 1-2 mm would be pretty lame even if it was more than that originally. I appreciate the fire in this thread, but do you guys still think I should make an issue out of it? I think I'll just go in and ask for a repair, or shit, I'll probably just take them to a different store for a repair. Fuck Sturtevants.

[Plakespear]

Bossass makes a good point- jigs are not always perfect. However 2-3 mm seems more like a case of user error, most likely the scenario Idris described. As a tech who has made a few similar mistakes, I think that the shop handled the situation wrong. If I were the tech who screwed up, here is how I would have handled the situation*:
1. Admit my mistake and apologize.
2. Offer to remount the ski in question 1 cm forward or behind the line.
3. Throw in some free tunes, swag, discounts on other gear etc.
4. Offer new skis as a last resort

*Unless they were Dex's ancient Rossis with the Derby plate, in which case I would have told him I drank the beer he gave me and did the mount drunk and tell himto get some gear that doesn't date back to the Albertville Olympics.

[uncle crud]

Bossass makes a good point- jigs are not always perfect. However 2-3 mm seems more like a case of user error, most likely the scenario Idris described. As a tech who has made a few similar mistakes, I think that the shop handled the situation wrong. If I were the tech who screwed up, here is how I would have handled the situation*:
1. Admit my mistake and apologize.
2. Offer to remount the ski in question 1 cm forward or behind the line.
3. Throw in some free tunes, swag, discounts on other gear etc.
4. Offer new skis as a last resort

with the right customer and the right shop guy in the mix, 1 through 3 will be plenty.

when I had my monster 88s mounted at a local shop, they accidentally drilled for the toe of one binding about 3cm too far rearward. the shop guy noticed his error on the midsole mark and went ahead with the proper mount, filling the holes with plugs. when I picked up the skis I told him it was no big deal as long as the bindings are correct now, which they are. the shop guy apologized profusely. I noted that a few plugged, unused holes aren't going to hurt my ski or my skiing, so I accepted his apology and told him I wasn't too concerned about the cosmetic issue or the structural integrity, as I wanted the skis for their performance, not appearance. they gave me a $35 gift cert and of course n/c for the mount. however, some yuppie gomers might flip out at the plugs and demand a new ski pair, and I recognized this and the fact that our town has too many such gomers... give the shop guy a break on an honest mistake. but I'm a former shop rat meself.

the big problem if the holes are 1-2mm off is that they probably don't allow for a proper mount because of drill bore closeness. this is what the shop should acknowledge as an error, and for this reason perhaps a new pair is in order.

[beb42000]

agreed, that is the real issue here...if your not centered, it's not right

[spindrift]

however, some yuppie gomers might flip out at the plugs and demand a new ski pair, and I recognized this and the fact that our town has too many such gomers... give the shop guy a break on an honest mistake. but I'm a former shop rat meself.

Nice way to rag on people who trust a shop to do competent work on their expensive gear + pay good money for professional service & then have their gear screwed up. It's the the shop that screwed up and they should make good on it. A hole 3cm forward drops the value and future utility of the ski. You can only drill em so many times. If I wanted to give it to my kid who currently has boots 2 mondo sizes bigger than I do, is that plug going to impact the future mount? If I want to sell them, does that plug make them less desirable? There is no excuse in the world for a shop being off 3 mm or 3cm. They are being paid to do the job correctly. If they screw up, they should make it 100% right. Normally I'd expect a replacement set of skis for that kind of mistake - although if the skis were still fully functional for my purposes I might take something else to comp for the reduced value (but I'd still expect them to make me 100% whole). And I sure would not knock anyone who absolutely demanded to get what they paid for -- a correct mount on skis of the type/size/condition they handed to the shop.

[beb42000]

boo yeah

[Skimeister]

Sturtevants are better that this. I would not give up to get something from them. As to stripped holes and moving holes 1 to 2 mm, this is where helicoils come in. A couple of years ago my the predrilled race skis for my son came drilled 2.5 mm off center. This was traced back to the rep's jig which was off. It involved eight pairs of skis (his and another teammate's)and my son spent the evening before the first race inserting helicoils on all eight pairs. Never had a problem all season long.

[summit]

more than 1mm to either side (in other words, visibly off center) is unacceptable. if both were 2mm forward or back of center that would be insignificant.

Side to side is BS.