2015 LUNOCET PRO

[neurodoc]

Ichthys, I'm glad you've finally gotten your fin. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine! I have been using Specialized shoes for my Lunocet fins, and have had great luck. Different model; mine has carbon sole and two velcro/one ratchet strap. Not very hydro but it has held up wonderfully for over two years now, swimming 2-3x/week in pool and occasionally in lake. Good luck to you!

 

[Fondueset]

Ichthys, I'm glad you've finally gotten your fin. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine! I have been using Specialized shoes for my Lunocet fins, and have had great luck. Different model; mine has carbon sole and two velcro/one ratchet strap. Not very hydro but it has held up wonderfully for over two years now, swimming 2-3x/week in pool and occasionally in lake. Good luck to you!

Neurodoc, - since there is a dearth of reliable info on the lunette's durability - I'm wondering if you've seen any repairs/degradation in performance in the two years you've had yours (assuming you've been using the same one for that period of time.

 

[alastair]

Well, folks, I'm not too thrilled with the lack of information being put out by Jeff (@Apneaddict ). I'd have to say I don't totally agree with his approach. On the other hand after getting in touch with him and waiting about a month I do now have my Lunocet 2015 Pro. Still being a little reserved about it until I see less negatives and more positives coming out, and that's one of the reasons you haven't seen an announcement or a review from me yet. I'm continuing to follow all of this, and expecting/hoping to be able to feel more comfortable putting "internet weight" behind this product in the future. Also I'm trying to get hold of a 47 Wide shoe. Apparently only little people ride bikes, for the greater part... As an aside, I've happened upon a brand called "Specialized", and tried a 47 in their "Expert Road" model... looks to be an amazing shoe for this application, IMO, providing the BOA fasteners would hold up. This particular model is incredibly stream-line, and the bolt pattern fits the Lunocet!

Anyway, I'll say it again. Anyone still waiting on a fin needs to get in touch with Jeff @Apneaddict Watson from ultimateswimfin.com. @alastair , @onemanarmyxx7 , et al, you might want to read back a few pages on this forum topic in order to get a good grasp on the dynamic of the Lunocet situation at this point. Basically, as I understand it, Ted is doing production and shipping and little else. UltimateSwimFin.com, as a separate enterprise, is handling not only all new sales and fulfillment (fins are shipped directly from Ted) for the Lunocet, but also working to clean up old, unfulfilled orders at the same time. Please get in contact with Jeff, give him a chance to pull some strings and work your order into fulfillment with Ted, and keep us updated on here.

Hey, thanks @Ichthys. Will try this approach. But I'm really, really frustrated. 14 months is outrageous. Why doesn't Ted just refer his customers to Jeff?
Al

 

[Marco_W]

Hi @ all, I´ll be back from Croatia, had a wonderfull time under the surface,
sad but truth... again some issues with waranty parts...
hope all involved people of this manufacturing and selling circle give me soon answer.
I overed Ted into the past to analyse the stiffnes of the spring to find out which Shore it has....
will se what hapend

 

[onemanarmyxx7]

Hi Pan,

Thank you for you advice.
I tried, but apparently I was late with my claim. Kinda looks like Ted was delaying me, so I could not use Paypal claim. I guess I should have learned more about Paypal before.
Looks like contacting Jeff is my only chance now.

 

[Marco_W]

I use now shimano`s the stiffnes index down below is always usefull!
got now 10 of 13 and its fine

 

[finSailor]

It seems that Lunocet 2015 Pro is not that robust after all. Flukes in my Luno have started to show signs of structural problems. I've used mine 7 months now, which should be in my opinion very short period compared to what's been promised.

Newest thing are cracks in the flukes that appear to the very position where aluminum core ends and all-rubber area begins.

Quality product? I wouldn't say so. First I had problems with vertebrae delrin parts, which were uneven and had signs of sloppy quality - resulting excess movement while swimming. This I solved with my washer solution (see old post ). And I have not yet received the warranty replacement parts promised in April 2015!!!

And now this problem with flukes. I would have expected at least 4-5 yrs before this kind of signs appear. Can I get replacement part @Apneaddict? every 6 months to keep me going with current speed? Or has there been any improvement in the rubber formula that keeps people swimming longer that 7 months?

 

[Marco_W]

Ihad the same problems... after less as 4 month... ted told me that he reduce the thiickness on the outer ends of the core he send me new ones a half year later... till know they are holding, the rubber seems more thick

 

[Welshboy10001]

Haven't posted on this thread before. But I'm in the same boat as a lot of you. I ordered a lunocet in November 2013. Having not received anything by May 2014 I was persuaded to go for an upgrade (which I paid for) to the newly launched luno pro. It's now 20 months since my original order and 14 since the upgrade and I have received nothing but empty promises. I had hoped the intervention of Jeff@ultimateswimmfin might mean the tide had turned, but after the initial good experience (an actual email reply! already better than Ted!) It has gone downhill. Initially told by Jeff he was aiming to get everyone sorted in '3+ weeks'. After 3 weeks I emailed to see how it was getting along and was told he would try and get my fin in the next batch. After 6 weeks I emailed again - no response. After 9 weeks I sent another - no response. It's now 10 weeks after I first got in touch with him and it feels like its going the same way as Ted. I don't want to seem ungrateful to Jeff (aka @Apneaddict) as the fault in all this clearly lies with @Tedciamillo. Having said that, if you offer to help out by getting old fin orders sent out, please at least provide a response to an update request. I don't think that's unreasonable to ask. It's really frustrating with the lack of communication. Especially when I see on Facebook the luno being advertised on NBC or people who ordered their final way after me getting it beforehand (guy at my Freediving club got his after 9 months which is still ridiculously long but less than half my wait).

Sorry for the rant guys but I'm annoyed.

So has anyone heard anything from @Apneaddict or @Tedciamillo recently?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Marco_W]

nope...
Have to say i LOVE this fin!!! I`ll be almost every day inside the pool,........................................................................................................................................
;......................................................................................................

 

[Malte_B]

Same here - again, after some mails from Ted & DB responses from Jeff in March, silence now since then, and none of both cares to respond anymore. I'm sure they're busy tricking new fools into their ponzi scheme. I have asked for refund but of course no response and (guess what) no money.
Good fin or not - everyone thinking about ordering this must be warned - your chances of winning the lottery are higher than the chance of receiving this fin.

 

[finSailor]

I'm also starting to have second thoughts how 'good' this fin is after all. Like @Marco_W I love using it, but now all the troubles with poor design and quality starts to show (after only 7 months using it). Jeff promised several times warranty parts IF I give old parts away first! SERIOUSLY?!? I'd rather have this degrading fin rather than empty hands. At least I can excercise with it until it crumbles to pieces.. and show it to all freedivers I meet with a story how magnificient it could have been..and save money for a proper foil fin, like Dol-fin perhaps? Ps. I got Ted's Linkedin invitation too. Irritating..

 

[Philip Fennell]

Better service from Smith Aerospace, absolutely! For a stubborn mule like me, who is loathed to change his mind, I've never been more convinced that changing my mind and getting the DOL-Fin Pilot was the right move for me. I was just lucky that I did get my money back first.

As for the LinkedIn connection request, I got one of those too. Odd really, I mean if Ted was trying to reach out, for some reason, then he has my e-mail address, so I'm cynically minded to think it's an attempt to mine my LinkedIn connections for freediving fresh meat for some marketing campaign. Sorry but I'll not be giving him the time of day this side of a cold day in hell.

P.S. If a cheerful and sunny post pops up next, to knock these complaints down the list then please feel free to read back a bit to get the true balance of opinion on this thread. It's not a pretty read but it might save you money, time and the angst that the majority of contributors to this thread, and Ted's bank balance, have gone through in recent years (plural).

 

[Chipswim]

Reading this you likely know I've volunteered to be the last of the "lost boys" in the donut hole to receive a current fin. This gives me a little insight.

I know Lunocets continue to be produced and refined.

I believe AA through ultimateswimfin.com has been successful at his goal to keep keep everything new current since he stepped up to provide fulfillment.

He has also accepted the uncomfortable challenge of finding and getting fins to the lost boys like Malte B and me.

I remain optimistic and plan to return to "sunny" when my new ones arrive.

Hope this helps.

 

[alastair]

Hey Welshboy.

No, I'm in the same boat as you.

Lunocet, then Pro, then Pro 2015, then Jeff, then nothing.

I guess the time has come to go to the authorities. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Al

So has anyone heard anything from @Apneaddict or @Tedciamillo recently?

 

[Apneaddict]

Let me help clarify a few things:

The issues that people are expressing frustration with are regarding historical backorders that had been placed with Ted. I COMPLETELY understand the emotion that Ted's past customers are feeling. They are NOT new orders placed through UltimateSwimFin.com .

I am VERY proud of the work and service from UltimateSwimFin.com and proudly stand behind its track record 100%
Don't confuse your past order times or customer service through Ted with that of a new order through USF. They are unrelated and are two different companies.

Re: Ted's backorders... for certain the situation is improving weekly. There are no new backorders or customers that will ever have to go through Ted. He is good at design, product development and fingineering. That's it.

All new sales go through USF and insulate the public from Ted's "customer service".

I believe in the product so strongly, that I've dumped a lot of capital up front into securing inventory for myself, so that the Lunocet product and USF business can thrive... and because of this... Ted's backorder situation is improving weekly and it will shortly become a thing of the past... never to return again.

It is not a ponzi scheme... quite the opposite actually. The old orders that need to be fulfilled are decreasing...this in an inverse pyramid which will get to ZERO and them all customers will only deal me USF and never deal with Ted again. Ted is not handling any new customer $ at this point and hasn't for 6 mos, actually.

There is no conspiracy theory and no... equipment has not been repossessed... he wouldn't have shipped 3 fins this week and have another 10 in the works for next week...

I have also managed to get a list of ppl that are owed fins... and have handed it over to Ted for fulfilment.

Like it or not, the reality is that new sales are providing Ted the capital to catch-up on backorders. Without them... the business would have shut the doors (without fulfilling ANY backorders). This would also be an end to the Lunocet and it is an amazing fin.

Re: durability, there have been some product improvements since the 2015 Pro was first launched that improve the spring durability, spring action and also the case of the core tip poking through the fluke.

Marco has been shipped a new spring with the new Torlon spring bearings which will improve the action and reduce any binding and undue wear. In my case, as I ALSO had an early 2015 Lunocet Pro (Marco was the first), I noticed a substantial improvement when I made these changes and my # of kick-cycles went from 4 to 3 / 25m length!

Finsailor: you know how to get your warranty parts from Ted. I am not involved in that. Your call. I DO know that they will be shipped out as soon as received and the new parts will make your fin perform MUCH better... it is a surprising improvement.

One thing that you will see is that I will not speak badly of competitors publicly, nor make up negative stories. I hold myself and USF to a higher standard.

I stand behind my customers and the products that I sell and have never had a warranty issue.

Fins are shipping (both new orders and backorders). Here is a sample list of fins that have shipped recently:

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=CV035215174US
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=9405503699300067188344
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=CW883571835US
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=CJ198312351US
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=CJ198764847US

I will not continue to engage on the forum for customer service issues, but this one time I needed to set the record straight, since people were seemingly confusing past backorders through Ted and new orders and current customer service through UltimateSwimFin.com

If you have a question / inquiry / re-inquiry, PLEASE email Sales@UltimateSwimFin.com as it is the best way of being able to track issues and respond to inquiries. I will not be monitoring forum PM's regularly for these matters.

Ted is fulfilling backorders... and while I can not put a specific time frame on its completion (as it is largely out of my control) I am confident that this will not carry on into the fall season...

For Ted's customers that are pissed off and fed-up... I get it. Your situation sucks.
The fin itself is awesome and IMHO, since you've waited this long... knowing it will only be a bit longer... is worth the wait, but that choice is yours.

 

[Marco_W]

any questions how it was down in Croatia - Iland RAB-???

 

[Marco_W]

swimming through shoals, was so funny.... when i turned on side to swim in circle, they followed me 4ft. behind....

 

[Chipswim]

Wow! Beautiful photos!

What was following you?

 

[Philip Fennell]

Let me help clarify a few things:

The issues that people are expressing frustration with are regarding historical backorders that had been placed with Ted. I COMPLETELY understand the emotion that Ted's past customers are feeling. They are NOT new orders placed through UltimateSwimFin.com ...

...The old orders that need to be fulfilled are decreasing...this in an inverse pyramid which will get to ZERO and them all customers will only deal me USF and never deal with Ted again. Ted is not handling any new customer $ at this point and hasn't for 6 mos, actually.

I have also managed to get a list of ppl that are owed fins... and have handed it over to Ted for fulfilment.

This is all good news and I'm glad to hear it.

Like it or not, the reality is that new sales are providing Ted the capital to catch-up on backorders. Without them... the business would have shut the doors (without fulfilling ANY backorders)...

...One thing that you will see is that I will not speak badly of competitors publicly, nor make up negative stories. I hold myself and USF to a higher standard...

I will not continue to engage on the forum for customer service issues, but this one time I needed to set the record straight, since people were seemingly confusing past backorders through Ted and new orders and current customer service through UltimateSwimFin.com

Ted is fulfilling backorders... and while I can not put a specific time frame on its completion (as it is largely out of my control) I am confident that this will not carry on into the fall season...

Well that's been half the problem; lack of communication, lack of response to communication and lack of clarity around the situation that has lead to the considerable frustration vented here that has in turn lead to speculation that has brought Ted's product/business into disrepute and in many ways some of it justified but has also, unfortunately for you @Apneaddict has cast an undeserved shadow on yours.

For Ted's customers that are pissed off and fed-up... I get it. Your situation sucks. The fin itself is awesome and IMHO, since you've waited this long... knowing it will only be a bit longer... is worth the wait, but that choice is yours.

Does that last statement 'but the choice is yours', imply that you @Ted Ciamillo will give refunds?