Huss asks court to dismiss Dollywood suit over Timber Tower

Huss is 100% responsible for this ride. Is it any coincidence that the same ride "operating" at Marineland took a dump last year and has pernamently closed due to structural damage? They [the Tower Toppler @ Marineland] only opened up a few years ago and has had a lot of down time as well, but at least it seemed to fare a little better than Dollywod's version.

However, with that in mind it's still Huss' responsibility and shouldn't be blamed or even attempted to try to pass the buck on to HPA and HPS.

Yeah, but let's be real here... The new Huss units are reorgs to compensate for bankruptcy. I don't see how it's fundamentally different than the new Six Flags being rooted in the old Six Flags. I don't know the Tennessee law they refer to, but the distinction between buying a company and buying its assets in this case seem pretty thin to me. Besides, if the new contract were to fix the ride, then why haven't they fixed the ride?

Very bad for customer service. Its a small world in the industry, and Herschend has the clout to grow, expand, pay 100% upfront, and so on. Thats the last company I would thumb my nose at. They are on the rise, and Huss is not.

Especially a chain that has been investing in flats as of recent.

Has Huss sold a new flat ride in the US to anyone (Park or Carnival) since the Topple Tower debacles? (I can't think of any).

Not that I recall.

I have to agree with A.J. on this too, it still looks like bad customer service in a very small industry, even with the restructuring. If they would at least just credit the $500,000 towards something new and remove the ride for them, that might win them back as a customer.

As far new HUSS rides, Sea World California just put in an Airboat flat ride this year which is like a small version of the Troika Troika Troika.

How can Huss expect to continue to get customers if they treat them this badly? They won't even do well in China, because if most other Chinese products on the market are an indicator, then they probably can make all their own dangerous low quality rides and don't need to import them from Germany.

What a complete embarrassment, I expect they'll go bankrupt for good sometime soon.

I don't think there is going to be an easy answer here, but I think the resolution will come from the last agreement between DW and HPA/HPS in 2008. I wonder what the parameters for this "rebuilding" agreement were? Did HPA/HPS guarantee that Timber Tower would remain funtional for a certain amount of time (i.e. a warranty), or just that it would fix the previous problems. If they indeed corrected the previous problems, but the ride later had other problems or they didn't give a warranty on the repairs, then I feel that HPA/HPS may be in the clear on this.

All that said, I think its a safe (and common) assumption that these things were lemons from the get-go....