RIPCURL worst experience, advice needed..

*edit: Ripcurl eventually decided to replace the wetsuit with a new one. Have to see if they follow up, should have the new one within 1 week.

18th of January, 2025, I bought a ripcurl wetsuit in Portugal.

The same day I went for a surf session, before entering I made a video of myself in the wetsuit. After the surfsession we noticed a hole around the stomach area. When reviewing the footage, we noticed it was already there before entering the water.

I went back to the store, telling my story and my believe that it was already damaged when bought. The manager just flipped a switch and became super passive aggressive, I did not feel safe at all. After going through a long time of discussion from his side (he wouldn't let me speak), the only option would be to send it for repair.

3 weeks fly by. Finally it's made right? No. The repair is terrible, taking a closer look at home we see that the glue will not be holding for that long, it's not fully closed... Besides that there are drops of glue on the sleeve... wtf?

I am not bothering going back to that same passive aggressive guy, and decide to call the main brand in Portugal. Completely different kind of customer service, no ego, very nice and helpfull. After sending all my photos and videos, he told me on email that I could go to the store and exchange it for a brand new one.

Good right? No...

I get immediately a call from the passive aggressive guy, the owner of that store. He again behaving like a crazy person. Mad at me for going behind his back.. I recorded this and might be uploading this on a different time.

But out of nowhere I got the message from the main brand in Portugal that it is now a high profile case or something, leading to that it needs to be investigated. Instead of just getting a new wetsuit. Wtf?

How can a passive aggressive guy like that have so much influence in a brand that big? I don't know what strings he pulled, but it's absolutely insane..

I drop off the wetsuit. After few days they tell me that the wetsuit does not look damaged, and that the repair was done well. Makes me wonder if they even send my wetsuit..?

Now the option is to replace the whole front panel or just take it how it was... Not sure what to do, because I don't trust this suit at all, 0 confidence. Will repairing the whole panel not lead to more problems? If they do it as poorly as the hole.

It's just a insane experience... terrible customer service. Especially for a wetsuit that was broken the same day it was bought and before using...

Any advice?