How to file a warranty claim

If something's wrong with your Cajo — a defect, a missing part, freight damage — file at the Claims Form: caminojourney.com/pages/claims-form. One form covers hulls, drives, parts, and freight damage, and it goes straight to the CAJO Claims Team, who typically respond same-day or the next business day. If you're not sure your situation is covered, file anyway — we'd rather review and tell you than have you assume "no" and miss something we'd have covered. (For exactly what's covered, for how long, and what's excluded, see the Cajo warranty overview — this article is about filing, not terms.)

What to have ready before you open the form

Gathering these first is the single biggest thing you can do to speed up your claim:

1. Your HIN (Hull Identification Number) — the 12-character serial etched (not stickered) into the hull. On a rigid Outpost or Terra it's on the starboard side of the stern — the back-right corner when you're standing behind the boat looking forward. On a Highlander inflatable it's printed on the manufacturer panel near the valve. Can't find or read it? Take a photo of where you looked and note that in the form — we can usually pull it from the dealer record.
2. Date of delivery — when the boat or accessory actually arrived, not the order date. (The form itself also asks for an approximate date of purchase — either way, approximate is fine.)
3. Your shipping address and phone number — where the replacement should go. The phone number is for FedEx, the carrier for parts shipments from our warehouse.
4. Your dealer info, if you bought through a dealer — dealer name and approximate purchase date. For hull replacements we coordinate through the dealer, so this is the field that starts that process.
5. 3–4 clear photos from different angles — close-up, wide, and from a distance for context. Good lighting (daylight or bright indoor) helps, and if you can stage one photo with the HIN visible, even better. By issue type:

• Hull crack or defect — a wide shot showing where on the hull, plus a close-up of the crack with a coin or finger for scale.
• Steering handle binding or cable fraying — close-up of the cable at the handle and at the U-connector.
• Prop sitting at 45° instead of vertical when the indexer locks — photo from directly behind the boat, drive engaged.
• Pedal arm cross-threaded / won't seat — close-up of the threads on both the arm and the head.
• Missing parts — photo of what came in the box laid out, with the kit's expected contents annotated.
• Freight damage — photo of the crate (outer packaging), the damage in context, and a close-up.

1. A short video (10–30 seconds) for anything mechanical or moving — a binding steering handle, a misaligned prop, a cable that won't move freely. This tells us more than five photos.
2. A short description of the issue — one paragraph is enough: what's happening, when it first appeared (out of the box, third paddle, after a saltwater day), and what you were doing when you noticed it. The "when" helps our QA team trace the root cause.

Filling out the form

Field by field, what to expect:

What happens after you submit

• Within 24 hours — the CAJO Claims Team receives your submission; initial response is usually same-day or next business day by chat or email.
• Within 1–3 business days — review and decision. Common covered parts (steering handle, prop alignment, missing parts, cross-thread) get a replacement order placed immediately, with a confirmation email and tracking once the label is generated. Hull or drive replacements get coordinated with the dealer and a confirmed swap path. If more information is needed, the claims team tells you exactly what's missing — a clearer photo, a video, more context.
• Within 3–7 business days — parts in your hands for direct-ship items from our warehouse. Hulls and freight items take longer (LTL transit plus dealer coordination).
• If we need the defective part back — for most covered part swaps, we don't need it; keep it or dispose of it. For full drive swaps and a few other specific cases, we include a return shipping label with the replacement, and you ship the old part back at our cost.

More than one issue? File once, not several

If you've got more than one thing wrong — say a missing rudder, a misaligned drive prop, and a binding steering handle — don't open three separate claims. One submission with everything on it is faster every time. Submit a single claim through the Claims Form with your HIN, plus photos and a short video for each issue. From there the CAJO Claims Team can ship a CAJO Spare Parts Kit to cover common hardware in one go, add specific replacement parts on top of that based on what you described, and send it all in one batch instead of several staggered shipments. That gets you back on the water faster and gives our product team a cleaner picture for QC.

For each separate issue, include: a short label (e.g. "steering handle binding," "drive prop sits at 45°," "missing rudder"), 3–4 photos, a short video if anything moves or doesn't move the way it should, and a short note on when it first appeared. You'll hear back from the Claims Team within a few business days with what's shipping and the timeline — common part swaps usually need little back-and-forth.

You don't have to drive back to a distant dealer

Most warranty issues don't require a trip back to the dealer. Parts replacements — steering handle, rudder, drive, hardware, seat parts, drain plug, anything that fits a standard parcel — ship from our Tennessee warehouse straight to your door, whether your dealer is 15 minutes away or 6 hours away.

Full hull replacements are the exception: because a hull moves on a freight truck, not parcel, the swap does have to go through a dealer. But we coordinate with your dealer behind the scenes — they receive the replacement, contact you to schedule pickup, and process the old hull back through our channel. You don't drive 6 hours, don't arrange a freight return, and don't manage two separate threads. Once your claim is approved we loop the dealer in, and you'll usually hear from them within a few days to schedule the local hand-off. Include the dealer you purchased from when you file — that's the field that starts dealer coordination.

Filing doesn't affect your return window

Filing a warranty claim does not void your return options. Cajo handles warranty claims (defects, missing parts, manufacturing issues); dealers handle returns, because the dealer is who you actually purchased from and they own the 30-day return window on that sale. A warranty claim with us doesn't touch the dealer's return clock — for example, if you discover a missing rudder out of the box and we ship a replacement direct, your dealer's return window is unaffected, and if you later decide the boat isn't for you, any warranty fix we already shipped doesn't disqualify you from returning it under the dealer's policy.

If something major is wrong on arrival — a hull-level defect, freight damage beyond a simple part swap — file the claim with us first so it's documented, and contact the dealer immediately too. Both teams work in parallel; don't wait on one side for the other.

Freight damage: move fast

For freight damage on a fresh delivery, file the Claims Form the same day if possible. Mention in the description whether you noted the damage on the BOL, whether you have the carrier name and tracking number, and whether you refused delivery or accepted it with a notation. Freight damage claim windows with the carrier are tighter than warranty windows, so speed matters here.

Commonly covered at $0

These are the issues we know and fix fast, at no cost:

• Traverse Rudder Steering Handle (full handle, $0)
• Missing rudder + steering handle from Terra / Outpost kits
• Missing rudder locking bolts (M5 × 12mm, 316 stainless)
• Cross-threaded Traverse Drive pedal arm (full arm assembly)
• Mis-angled (45°) Traverse Drive prop (full drive swap, with a return label)
• Hull manufacturing defects (coordinated through the dealer)

If your situation matches any of these, file with confidence — we'll get it handled.

Common reasons claims get delayed

• No HIN — we can usually work around this, but it takes longer
• No photos — almost impossible to process without them
• Photos that don't show the issue clearly — blurry, dark, too zoomed in or out, or only of the box/packaging
• Dealer info missing on a hull claim — slows the dealer-coordination step
• A vague description — "kayak broken" is hard to act on; "starboard scupper has a 2-inch crack starting from the drain plug area" is clear

Spending an extra two minutes on the form saves an extra two days on the back end.

A note on the old "create an account" instructions

If you've seen older instructions to create an account at account.caminojourney.com and add a shipping address to start a warranty case, that flow is outdated — the Claims Form replaces it. Account creation is only needed when you're buying a paid spare part directly (for example, an extra Quad Rail), not when you're filing a warranty claim.