Suntour forks demo program

What a great idea! Suntour has been trying hard to be taken seriously as a legit alternative for both oem and aftermarket. The reviews I’ve seen seem positive-nice incentive to get theses forks under more peeps.

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Oh man, the suntour warranty department was easily in my top 5 of shitiest people to deal with. Hope this works out for them.

Hmmm…this free demo fork could just be used as a loaner if I ever need to send my own fork away for service. :thinking:

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Decided to spend the $20 (shipping) and test out a Suntour shock while my Rockshox is away for service. I’ll post an update about my thoughts once I get some ride time in.

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I have an (unfortunate) update on this. Short response is don’t waste your time and money, or be fully aware that this ‘free’ demo will cost you much more in Canada.

I decided to demo a fork and shock together, as my shock was being sent out for service, and I need to service my fork, so it seemed like a good opportunity to try out some other suspension. For the fork, you put a $100US deposit down, and for the shock a $50US deposit. No big deal, as you get all that back when you return the fork and shock.

When Suntour shipped out the fork and shock I received a UPS tracking number. At first I thought ‘oh great, I’m going to get screwed here’, but then I thought since it is essentially a sample and I don’t own nor am I keeping the product that I wouldn’t be hit with UPS’s ridiculous brokerage/handling fees. I always avoid buying anything that will be shipped from the US thru UPS as they will charge you absolutely ludicrous fees to broker a package aka clear the package thru customs, usually totaling 50% or more of the actual products value.

Well, low and behold when the package cleared customs, there are fees due in order for me to receive the package. I immediately emailed Suntour explaining the situation to them and told them that I would be refusing the package unless something could be shorted out. They passed the buck blaming UPS, and said that they had put the ‘value’ lower at $133 (vs $150) so I didn’t have to pay as much money to receive the package. They told me that I could self clear the package myself to avoid UPS’s fees, but from what I read this seemed like a huge hassle, and I was not willing to take time off work to attempt to self-clear the package. While they did put down a lower value, I think that it should have been marked as a sample with a $1 value on it, which should have avoided all of these fees.

So, long story short, there was $20 due in taxes on the $133 ‘value’ which I would have been willing to suck up and pay, but there was no way I was willing to pay nearly $40 for the brokerage/handling fees charged by UPS. I’m now out the roughly ~$30 for shipping, but I’d rather that then have paid ~$90. If you genuinely are interested in the suspension and think you may buy it then this program is an excellent way to try before you buy, just know that if you want to try out a fork and shock, then you will be out nearly $100, slightly less if you only go with a fork or shock.

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