What you mean his hands on Approach, ?
With a post count in excess of 5,500 thousand on these forums, I felt it was fair to describe Alex as "hands on" mate. You will also notice that the moment the big fella himself is made aware of an issue he addresses it. And having watched the review again and based on my own experience I have absolutely nothing but praise for Gardiner Pole Systems.
As Mark points out in his video, the CL-X was almost 3 years old and had been used every day. I have a retired CL-X with the old screw top that I bought around the same time as Mark and, like Mark, I had a problem with a clamp that had come loose. I contact Gardiners at the time and it was explained to me that they'd had a bad batch and that I could either send to pole back for replacement or I could conduct the repair myself and they would put a credit against my account for future purchases, I chose the latter. And, like Mark
(as you can see from his video), I used way to much epoxy resin but the pole never failed again over the following 2 years of heavy daily use. I was so pleased with the pole I bought 2 more around 6 months ago and they're also used daily. The clamps are rock solid.
I'm also struggling seeing any issue with the end caps for the CL-X, which are glued by default. I replaced the end cap on the original CL-X once it had worn and it was as good as new once epoxied.
Granted my experience is limited to only 3 years in the industry but all in all I will tip my hat to Alex. His staff are always professional, amiable and helpful and I constantly see new innovation appearing on his website. His products are definitely the ones to beat but competition is healthy right?
The simple resolution for this is for us to send you a replacement quick release resi-neck which should have been offered when you rang to discuss the issue originally. A not very quick release (!) resi-neck can very occasionally happen from a production run, if the tolerances of the injection moulded resi-neck are slightly out.
Fantastic customer service Alex and thank you very much, email winging its way to you over t'internet as I type.
I never work without an end cap. I just wish the Gardiner ones were rubber.
I have one supplied by tekbook or whatever that idiot called his company. The cap however is superb, never wears out, can be stretched to fit and prevents damage to vehicles, windows and the pole itself.
The rubber cap does sound an excellent idea.
Duncan