I will try to keep the basic situation short. Highroller (Dan) is a complete shyster, liar, and does piss poor composite work at a snail’s pace. As many of you know, I defended this guy through many posts of flaming from members having no personal experience with the guy. I defended him because I believe that everyone deserves a chance to prove their product. I was repeatedly thanked by Dan for my defense but the bottom line was, his thanks and apologies are apparently good enough. The hull I got almost 4 months later was the worst attempt at hull construction that has ever been made public. It was dripping wet with 5200, the lines appeared to be cut with a 7” angle grinder, the hull was full of fiberglass dust and metal shavings, epoxy resin was dripped on everything, and the fiberglass edges were mangled so bad that they would stab you any time you got close to the hull. He will not refund your money and the excuses are always the same. If you care to know more, please read my story and hopefully all the others that this guy has screwed will come forward and share their stories to keep this guy from ruining anyone else’s jetskiing experience.
Highroller (AKA Highroller Customs)
- Thread starter Waternut
- Start date
- Location
- Raleigh NC\Lake Jordan
Im like my hull (because it wasnt assembled by him:jester
but Im disappointed in all the stories ive heard from everyone. Im also disappointed in my pole bracket even though I didnt pay for it. Why make a product specifically for one hull, and it wont even work in the end? Just a waste of materials...
but Im disappointed in all the stories ive heard from everyone. Im also disappointed in my pole bracket even though I didnt pay for it. Why make a product specifically for one hull, and it wont even work in the end? Just a waste of materials...As many of you know, I was one of the first to jump on the Highroller stunt hull. I placed my down payment on the hull on Nov. 7th 2009 for a complete ready to ride hull. This was before the kit hull was available for sale. At the time, I loved the new concept and Dan (Highroller) was very cool and answered all the questions I had promptly. He also only had positive feedback on here so I felt I could trust him. I knew that the gel coat wasn’t really pretty from the pictures provided. I didn’t care what the gel coat looked like since I had every intention of scuff sanding the gel coat and painting it. This was the one and only flaw that was known at the time.
At the time I put my down payment down, the phrases I was getting from Dan were things along the lines of “As soon as I get your down payment, I can start laying up your hull”. This implies that the hull will be made very quickly and in turn would be delivered very quickly. A few weeks go by and I was expecting to get a call or email asking for the remainder of the money I owe him. I don’t hear anything so I contact Dan only to find out that my hull hasn’t been laid up yet but he should start on it in another day or two. Not what I wanted to hear but no big deal, it’s late November and I’m not riding anyway.
Fast forward to early December and he’s asking where the closest Forward Air terminal to me is so he can get a shipping quote. I take this to mean that the hull is finished and it’s ready to ship out. I then find out through the “grape vine” on this forum that a hood doesn’t even exist. In addition to the hood being nonexistent, I find out from another stunt hull owner that a GP800 midshaft is going to be required even though the advertisement for the stunt hull was “everything in a SJ including a Factory B pipe will fit in this hull but a kart tank will be necessary”. A GP800 shaft isn’t really a SJ part or at least last time I looked. Dan doesn’t have a normal midshaft so I have to send him mine so he can align the engine with it. Dan got the midshaft on Dec. 12th.
Fast forward again to early January just before Daytona, my ski was completely stripped in expectation of the stunt hull back in early December. Knowing that there is no way I can receive the new hull and get it built before Daytona, I have to beg Dan to send my midshaft back to me so I can ride at Daytona in my old hull. Dan then says my hull should be ready to ship Jan 8th. I get an email Jan 5th saying, he will be laying up your hull today… WHAT?!?! Other members who placed an order for the kit after me had already received their hull and mine wasn’t even laid up yet. That’s pretty F-ed up! I get my midshaft back one day before I leave for Daytona but I have to send the midshaft back to him again as soon as I get back.
I’ll skip a lot of the emails continuously asking for updates for the next month since they didn’t get answered anyway. Instead I’ll fast forward to late February when I pick up the hull from Forward Air. Dan tells me that everything is still curing and I can’t remove the midshaft for 6-7 days and that he’s including a tube of 5200 so I can finish filling the bond line that he didn’t get around to. Yes, I have to finish building my “complete ready to ride hull” and I have to clean off all the oozing 5200 that got on the hull because he shipped it out with uncured 5200 in the bondline and on all the fittings.
At this point, I’m so sick of dealing with this guy that I’m just working on the hull trying to forget that I ever made the mistake of ordering through him. I start laying the pump shoe in place… doesn’t fit. A little while later, I went to set the engine in place to align everything… Doesn’t fit. Dan swears everything was aligned perfectly when it left his shop but the engine didn’t even physically bolt into the hull. Forget alignment, the motor mount holes didn’t line up with the bed plates on the engine. Shortening the story a bit, I had to rework the pump shoe area, removed and redrilled the motor mount plates to accommodate a normal engine, reworked the pump tunnel, finished bonding the halves halves together, fixed heat warping in the hull itself where it was wavey, and filled and reglassed the hood together because it wasn’t put together well and had huge holes in it.
After all was said and done, I sent pictures of all the crap I had to deal with to Dan expecting some kind of compensation. Now I will admit, Dan came to me and offered me the hull for $2000 provided I help promote his new hull, ran his stickers on the hull, and put his company in my signature on the boards. I agreed to his terms. When I asked for compensation for all the screw ups, he felt that because he offered the hull to me at a lower price, that all his screw ups were worth it. I could agree that if he came to me and offered me a screwed up hull for $2000, I might accept his terms knowing the circumstances, but this was not the original deal. I fulfilled my end of the bargain and I’m sure there are quite a few people out there that own or have ordered stunt hulls because of me (I’m sorry guys).
To try and keep from having to bash the guy on the boards and give him a chance to make the situation right, I tried to offer a compromise for my troubles. Originally I asked to be refunded the difference between my $2000 and the $1500 kit price since I basically had to reassemble the hull. He claimed he didn’t have the money but he would send me $100 for my troubles or provide me with parts. I figured I’ve already lost on the deal but something is better than nothing so I asked for the $100, a carbon b pipe chamber, and a chin pad that I could potentially sell to hopefully make up the $500 difference. He happily agreed and sent me $100 and said he would get the parts out soon. That was 2 months ago. I’ve reminded him about our agreement, he refuses to respond to me and I’m sick of protecting him.
If you’re still reading, I’m sorry for the long story but I wanted to put the truth out there and I encourage others who have been screwed by this guy to come forward and share your story. Though he still owes a lot of people parts so they may not come forward hopelessly waiting to receive parts that they paid for.
At the time I put my down payment down, the phrases I was getting from Dan were things along the lines of “As soon as I get your down payment, I can start laying up your hull”. This implies that the hull will be made very quickly and in turn would be delivered very quickly. A few weeks go by and I was expecting to get a call or email asking for the remainder of the money I owe him. I don’t hear anything so I contact Dan only to find out that my hull hasn’t been laid up yet but he should start on it in another day or two. Not what I wanted to hear but no big deal, it’s late November and I’m not riding anyway.
Fast forward to early December and he’s asking where the closest Forward Air terminal to me is so he can get a shipping quote. I take this to mean that the hull is finished and it’s ready to ship out. I then find out through the “grape vine” on this forum that a hood doesn’t even exist. In addition to the hood being nonexistent, I find out from another stunt hull owner that a GP800 midshaft is going to be required even though the advertisement for the stunt hull was “everything in a SJ including a Factory B pipe will fit in this hull but a kart tank will be necessary”. A GP800 shaft isn’t really a SJ part or at least last time I looked. Dan doesn’t have a normal midshaft so I have to send him mine so he can align the engine with it. Dan got the midshaft on Dec. 12th.
Fast forward again to early January just before Daytona, my ski was completely stripped in expectation of the stunt hull back in early December. Knowing that there is no way I can receive the new hull and get it built before Daytona, I have to beg Dan to send my midshaft back to me so I can ride at Daytona in my old hull. Dan then says my hull should be ready to ship Jan 8th. I get an email Jan 5th saying, he will be laying up your hull today… WHAT?!?! Other members who placed an order for the kit after me had already received their hull and mine wasn’t even laid up yet. That’s pretty F-ed up! I get my midshaft back one day before I leave for Daytona but I have to send the midshaft back to him again as soon as I get back.
I’ll skip a lot of the emails continuously asking for updates for the next month since they didn’t get answered anyway. Instead I’ll fast forward to late February when I pick up the hull from Forward Air. Dan tells me that everything is still curing and I can’t remove the midshaft for 6-7 days and that he’s including a tube of 5200 so I can finish filling the bond line that he didn’t get around to. Yes, I have to finish building my “complete ready to ride hull” and I have to clean off all the oozing 5200 that got on the hull because he shipped it out with uncured 5200 in the bondline and on all the fittings.
At this point, I’m so sick of dealing with this guy that I’m just working on the hull trying to forget that I ever made the mistake of ordering through him. I start laying the pump shoe in place… doesn’t fit. A little while later, I went to set the engine in place to align everything… Doesn’t fit. Dan swears everything was aligned perfectly when it left his shop but the engine didn’t even physically bolt into the hull. Forget alignment, the motor mount holes didn’t line up with the bed plates on the engine. Shortening the story a bit, I had to rework the pump shoe area, removed and redrilled the motor mount plates to accommodate a normal engine, reworked the pump tunnel, finished bonding the halves halves together, fixed heat warping in the hull itself where it was wavey, and filled and reglassed the hood together because it wasn’t put together well and had huge holes in it.
After all was said and done, I sent pictures of all the crap I had to deal with to Dan expecting some kind of compensation. Now I will admit, Dan came to me and offered me the hull for $2000 provided I help promote his new hull, ran his stickers on the hull, and put his company in my signature on the boards. I agreed to his terms. When I asked for compensation for all the screw ups, he felt that because he offered the hull to me at a lower price, that all his screw ups were worth it. I could agree that if he came to me and offered me a screwed up hull for $2000, I might accept his terms knowing the circumstances, but this was not the original deal. I fulfilled my end of the bargain and I’m sure there are quite a few people out there that own or have ordered stunt hulls because of me (I’m sorry guys).
To try and keep from having to bash the guy on the boards and give him a chance to make the situation right, I tried to offer a compromise for my troubles. Originally I asked to be refunded the difference between my $2000 and the $1500 kit price since I basically had to reassemble the hull. He claimed he didn’t have the money but he would send me $100 for my troubles or provide me with parts. I figured I’ve already lost on the deal but something is better than nothing so I asked for the $100, a carbon b pipe chamber, and a chin pad that I could potentially sell to hopefully make up the $500 difference. He happily agreed and sent me $100 and said he would get the parts out soon. That was 2 months ago. I’ve reminded him about our agreement, he refuses to respond to me and I’m sick of protecting him.
If you’re still reading, I’m sorry for the long story but I wanted to put the truth out there and I encourage others who have been screwed by this guy to come forward and share your story. Though he still owes a lot of people parts so they may not come forward hopelessly waiting to receive parts that they paid for.