Comment from Samurai.com

Dan's experience with Apex USA is almost as bad as mine. 
I have an Apex A10 Lite inflatable that had the outer layer
of rubber start to peel off of the tubes at less that 4
years of age.  Since there is supposed to be a 5 year
warranty on the fabric, I started working with my dealer
on a warranty claim.  He tried for several months to get
Apex to do something with no results.  I finally met
Georges Dherlin, president of Apex, at the Miami Boat Show
in Feb., 2005, and discussed the problem with him.  After
my dealer sent pictures of the problem, Georges agreed to
replace the dinghy.  I would have to ship the old dinghy
to Apex USA in Annapolis at my expense, however. 
I shipped the boat to Annapolis and the story suddenly
changed - Apex would not replace the boat, but they
offered to sell me a new one at a discount which was more
than I paid for the boat when it was new.  So I was out
the cost of shipping and without my dinghy for 3 months
while this was going on.  My experience with Apex USA was
very similar to Dan's throughout this entire process. 
They were not at all helpful.  Apex USA is owned by
Intercoastal, Inc. which is owned by Apex Inflatables in
Costa Rica.  Georges Dherlin is the president and co-owner
 with his brother Roger.  Georges has not returned numerous
 phone calls or answered any of my emails.  The manager of
Apex USA will only say that Georges is "out of the country"
 and that he "only works here". 

I finally got my dinghy shipped back to me at Apex's
expense (it cost me over $200 to ship it to Annapolis), 
but it had a tear in one of the tubes from shipping. 
It was hard to tell if it was a packing or handling
problem, but I reported it to Apex USA within several
hours of receiving the boat.  Their attitude was lack of
interest and that it was my problem.  My dealer fixed the
tear at no charge to me. 

My local dealer, Suncoast Inflatables, has tried to help,
but there isn't a lot they can do short of eating the boat.
The warranty is with the Apex factory.  The function of
Apex USA seems to be simply to sell boats in the USA and
insulate the Apex factory from their customers. 
They certainly weren't any help in my warranty claim. 
I finally have my boat back after 3 months, but I'm still
out more than $200 in shipping and have a dinghy that has
the outer layer of rubber peeling off of the tubes and an
additional patch.   

Bottom line:  I think Dan is right on with his evaluation
of Apex.  I certainly would not buy Apex again.

Terry Clark
Carolina - Mainship 34
Punta Gorda, FL