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Tethrd Skeletor Sticks

THill202 said:
With all due respect, every auto maker that's ever released a new car/feature/whatever is using customers as testers but for a whole lot more $. There's a reason people don't buy Gen 1 anything and it's because there's usually a few problems that arise. I think I paid $202 w/ tax and shipping for the sticks and with some upgrades they have got to be hands down the best stick in the price range. I added bevels, stealth strips, retractable Aiders plus a removable 2 step to make the bottom a 3 step aider. All in I'm still under $250 and these things are pretty stinkin slick in my opinion. They say you get what you pay for and in the world of sticks the next step up is essential twice the cost. I can live with it as long as I don't die from it.
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with all due respect nothing you said really justifies or addresses the issue here. The Sticks and stand offs have been completely redesigned. Tethrd is shipping out old inventory of a product that has issues instead of replacing the standoffs. And if you request the parts they won’t replace them until you brake them….. so regardless how nice you think the sticks are it’s pretty hard to get behind a company sending out a product with known design flaws. When they are not willing to address the issue.
 
The novix are a more simple design. They're not a step up, they're in the same market. EWO, beast, timber ninja, etc are all at least double the cost. Again, these are budget sticks and advertised as such. Perhaps I didn't say it explicitly but what I was getting at is you get what you pay for. Right or wrong, like it or not that's how commerce works. Typically with budget anything the best you're going to get is a replacement of the thing that just broke, at least they're sending a better component if it brakes. If these were $120 a stick your damned right they better be perfect. These are not, they were just on sale for less than $50/ stick. That's my justification. If it doesn't work for you then buy another stick and avoid Tetherd products, that's also how commerce works.
 
THill202 said:
The novix are a more simple design. They're not a step up, they're in the same market. EWO, beast, timber ninja, etc are all at least double the cost. Again, these are budget sticks and advertised as such. Perhaps I didn't say it explicitly but what I was getting at is you get what you pay for. Right or wrong, like it or not that's how commerce works. Typically with budget anything the best you're going to get is a replacement of the thing that just broke, at least they're sending a better component if it brakes. If these were $120 a stick your damned right they better be perfect. These are not, they were just on sale for less than $50/ stick. That's my justification. If it doesn't work for you then buy another stick and avoid Tetherd products, that's also how commerce works.
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I returned the Skeletor sticks. There were several things I didn’t like right away. After hearing all the issues I’m glad I did. TETHRD has lost my confidence as a consumer. They seem like good guys but I won’t be buying anything else from them.

I think I’m going to go with the Novix sticks as well. Bang for Buck they are hard to beat. They also offer a first responder discount as well!
 
Niagarahunter said:
with all due respect nothing you said really justifies or addresses the issue here. The Sticks and stand offs have been completely redesigned. Tethrd is shipping out old inventory of a product that has issues instead of replacing the standoffs. And if you request the parts they won’t replace them until you brake them….. so regardless how nice you think the sticks are it’s pretty hard to get behind a company sending out a product with known design flaws. When they are not willing to address the issue.
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“Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Reference an earlier post on this thread......
https://saddlehunter.com/community/...hrd-skeletor-sticks.43199/page-18#post-619134
 
Tethrd could avoid a lot of their problems if they built their sticks in-house. Spend more on that and less on advertising. I think they would sell just as good or better in the long run. They are gaining new customers to the scene but losing guys who would stay with them. Aerohunter and OoAL would blow them out if they advertised a little better. Tethrd are obviously making enough money that they wont change anytime soon unfortunately. "If it aint broke dont fix it" should be for the products and not their marketing strategy
 
Man after reading these comments I feel like Tethrd has been made to be the most irressponsible, cut-throat, devious saddle company to ever come into business. And maybe they are, I'm not here to defend them. However, I got into saddle hunting recently and bought most of my stuff from them. Why? Well because I read enough good things and quite frankly they offer a discount to military/first responder. When I got my items (saddle, some ropes, platform) I inspected them and thought they were good quality. I join this site, start reading some things, and question if I made the right purchase. I read about bad customer service, cease and desist letters, and faulty products. My experience has been nothing but good customer service because when I wrote about a problem it was fixed, no questions asked. Who cares about cease and desist lettes, it happens more than anyone probably realizes every day in every industry and doesn't do anything to help or hurt me kill deer. Also, the more I thought about my bent step off, the more I realize it was probably my fault. I'll bet money that most of the bent step offs are user error. If you don't cinch those things tight to the tree and step on them, you will bend them. The bite is that aggressive. I recall, although I can't find it, a post on this forum where someone did the exact same thing to an EWO stick. Made me think it's the application not the design, or maybe both. Either way, I emailed Tethrd and they sent new stand offs, even thought it was probably my fault they bent in the first place. Got me thinking they probably knew that too, but gave no argument and just sent them. So I guess it sounds like I'm defending them, but damn. I'd be willing to bet plently more people bought those sticks and are satisfied. I am one of those. There's no defending sending out steps without new step offs if it truly is a safety issues. At the very least they could send the new standoffs with a new purchase if the consumer desires to change them. When I went ot the great american outdoor show this year I looked at steps from every single company there. Not one was as good as the Skeletor in that price range ($$/stick) and there were a fair amount of steps there.
 
PEEJAY said:
Tethrd could avoid a lot of their problems if they built their sticks in-house. Spend more on that and less on advertising. I think they would sell just as good or better in the long run. They are gaining new customers to the scene but losing guys who would stay with them. Aerohunter and OoAL would blow them out if they advertised a little better. Tethrd are obviously making enough money that they wont change anytime soon unfortunately. "If it aint broke dont fix it" should be for the products and not their marketing strategy
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I agree. I saw something about “the plan” for their upcoming pack to made in the US. I realize it probably won’t happen, but it got me thinking how much the last two years of Covid logistics may have made some companies rethink their overseas manufacturing. At what point does the ability to stock the shelves sufficiently affect your overseas manufacturing strategy?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
C.J.M. said:
Man after reading these comments I feel like Tethrd has been made to be the most irressponsible, cut-throat, devious saddle company to ever come into business. And maybe they are, I'm not here to defend them. However, I got into saddle hunting recently and bought most of my stuff from them. Why? Well because I read enough good things and quite frankly they offer a discount to military/first responder. When I got my items (saddle, some ropes, platform) I inspected them and thought they were good quality. I join this site, start reading some things, and question if I made the right purchase. I read about bad customer service, cease and desist letters, and faulty products. My experience has been nothing but good customer service because when I wrote about a problem it was fixed, no questions asked. Who cares about cease and desist lettes, it happens more than anyone probably realizes every day in every industry and doesn't do anything to help or hurt me kill deer. Also, the more I thought about my bent step off, the more I realize it was probably my fault. I'll bet money that most of the bent step offs are user error. If you don't cinch those things tight to the tree and step on them, you will bend them. The bite is that aggressive. I recall, although I can't find it, a post on this forum where someone did the exact same thing to an EWO stick. Made me think it's the application not the design, or maybe both. Either way, I emailed Tethrd and they sent new stand offs, even thought it was probably my fault they bent in the first place. Got me thinking they probably knew that too, but gave no argument and just sent them. So I guess it sounds like I'm defending them, but damn. I'd be willing to bet plently more people bought those sticks and are satisfied. I am one of those. There's no defending sending out steps without new step offs if it truly is a safety issues. At the very least they could send the new standoffs with a new purchase if the consumer desires to change them. When I went ot the great american outdoor show this year I looked at steps from every single company there. Not one was as good as the Skeletor in that price range ($$/stick) and there were a fair amount of steps there.
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The bent EWO standoff was the ultra light stand off, not the normal one, and if I am not mistaken it was on a one stick set up. I read (not sure if it’s true but believe it is) that they won’t be selling those stand offs with the one stick set up due to this happening. As far as Tethrd, they are a great company with the most aggressive marketing strategy in the industry, a strategy that includes sponsoring the biggest most successful you tube hunting influencers in the game. From outdoor Allie, to the hunting public, are all sporting their gear. It’s very effective and great for sales. In fact, You probably found out about saddle hunting because of them. I’m not knocking or defending anyone. I got to try the skeletors out last month at a meet up, they were nice. The rope connection is cool, they are essentially the hawk minis but angled which increases step distance. However I’d stop short of user error claims because I’ve set many sticks in my day and the only standoff that ever bent on me was one of my hawk minis. My muddy’s never bent, my cheap academy sports brand sticks never bent, and the EWO sticks I used never bent. The hawk minis, 4th time I ever used them one of the standoffs bent and caused me to have a short fall onto my linesman rope. I had set them that morning, climbed up used them, came down at 10:30 am, to go get lunch, left them and my platform set up, came back and climbed up used them that afternoon. It wasn’t until my second climb down while I was taking the top stick off the tree that my second highest stick just cut out (bent standoff). I had climbed up and down on them multiple times and they were set and working great until that happened. Luckily, I wasn’t badly hurt but if I had been I can promise you user error was not the issue that caused that to happen. I cannot speak for your experience or anyone else’s experience with them, but we bought a couple of predator platforms, mine cracked below the adjuster screw, my wife’s did not. She still uses her predator and loves it, I switched to Ooal ridge runner instead. I think the skeletors are great sticks for the price bracket but personally I would recall the stand offs and fix them if I knew there was a portion of them bending because it’s a liability issue and someone will end up getting hurt. I’d never want that on my conscience.
 
iamcorey said:
I agree. I saw something about “the plan” for their upcoming pack to made in the US. I realize it probably won’t happen, but it got me thinking how much the last two years of Covid logistics may have made some companies rethink their overseas manufacturing. At what point does the ability to stock the shelves sufficiently affect your overseas manufacturing strategy?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

That’s what you would think; however, I work in logistics (international logistics for the last 3 years) dealing with Fortune 500 companies and we’ve had very few that have started putting any “serious” plans in place to near-shore or bring certain products back to the US completely. Seems that they plan to remain very reliant on Asia-based manufacturers. The most common strategy we saw was companies front-loading their importation of inventory in 2022 versus shipping throughout the year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
There isn’t a lot in life that is certain. But these things are:

1) The sun will rise.
2) The sun will set.
3) Tethrd hate on SH.com

These things are immovable. Iron clad. Certain.
 
CP3 said:
There isn’t a lot in life that is certain. But these things are:

1) The sun will rise.
2) The sun will set.
3) Tethrd hate on SH.com

These things are immovable. Iron clad. Certain.
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I shake my head. Those dudes are legends in my book. They have taken massive risks in starting a company and they are some of the OG DIY’ers from this site and we just cast shade. Props to them for continuing to innovate even though we may not agree with every decision they make. IMO they are still figuring out how to be businessman, because at their core they are outdoorsman. They keep bringing cool innovative stuff to the table and I salute them for that.

My 2 cents!
 
Geez. I thought we were actually talking about hunting gear.

Haters and winners, give me a break.

Yeah, like other hunting gear companies didn't / don't take massive risks. Tethrd got in when the market was nearly guaranteed...largely due to this site. Not that it wasn't a big step. But I think there's a bigger picture too.

The sticks are a nifty repackaging of old ideas with some smart Tethrd touches. They have some manufacturing problems that Tethrd could/can fix/are fixing.

Criticism and praise, both warranted. Yay!

This is the best they've done at resolving issues. Had I bought them, would I feel it's enough, personally, no.

If "you" feel differently, that's great too. Doesn't change the fact that they came to market with issues, it just points to the fact that you are willing to live with that, which says more about you than Tethrd. Facts are facts.
 
Plebe said:
Geez. I thought we were actually talking about hunting gear.

Haters and winners, give me a break.

Yeah, like other hunting gear companies didn't / don't take massive risks. Tethrd got in when the market was nearly guaranteed...largely due to this site. Not that it wasn't a big step. But I think there's a bigger picture too.

The sticks are a nifty repackaging of old ideas with some smart Tethrd touches. They have some manufacturing problems that Tethrd could/can fix/are fixing.

Criticism and praise, both warranted. Yay!

This is the best they've done at resolving issues. Had I bought them, would I feel it's enough, personally, no.

If "you" feel differently, that's great too. Doesn't change the fact that they came to market with issues, it just points to the fact that you are willing to live with that, which says more about you than Tethrd. Facts are facts.
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“That says more about you than Tethrd”…what does that even mean?
 
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