I know that this issue has been discussed a while back and people said it was a storage issue - like maybe the cap wasn't all the way on or the temps got too hot. Well, I'm not sure I believe that now because I went into my detailing closet this past weekend and out of my 4 bottles of ZFX I found 1 bottle crystalized into some hard substance, 1 gelled (I guess it was heading in the same direction) and 1 that seemed to be heading toward becoming 'gelled' as it was noticably thickened up.

But here's the deal, two of those three bottles were brand new... never opened to date (yes I backstock supplies, I just don't like running out). The third one had been used before but I always close them up tightly (Especially since I read that thread on this subject a few months back)

But here's the kicker - the one ZFX bottle that seemed to be completely unharmed was by far the oldest. Somewhere around 18-20 months old by my guess. The bottles affected were no more than 8 months old. They were all stored in the same location in the same manner (all inside of the bigger bottles, inside of the little 'box' they come in).

I can only conclude that at some point the formula for ZFX changed or was possibly temporarily compromised (a 'bad batch') that caused the newer stuff I have to be more susceptible to 'gelling' than the old stuff.

Any thoughts on this?

Anyhow... I'm not bad mouthing Zaino products.... they've always been great. I've used them for about 8 years now actually. I don't consider them the best finish and durability on the market but I do consider them the best for the least amount of effort required.
And this is fortunately the first time I've ever even contacted them for a product issue. So I guess that says a lot.

 

Sal took some measures to make ZFX more stable. Email him and he'll fix you up.

 

Well I emailed him and he emailed me back with a number to call - I called that guy and he said he couldn't help me unless I'd bought it from the website and to call Sal, so I called Sal and Sal didn't really sound as friendly/personable as I'd imagined from all the positive stories I'd heard about him - he at first was telling me I was supposed to contact the rep I bought it from. I explained to him that was fine and I was sorry for the inconenience but the reason I'd called him instead of my rep (who happens to be the moderator of this forum) is because I'm used to, for example, if I buy something at a store, if 8 months later something goes wrong with it - well, I'm long outside of the normal return period, so I contact the manufacturer since it's more of a manufacturer defect. I don't know whether this made sense to him or if he just decided to save me the hassle but he said he'd call his warehouse guy with an approval and then asked me to call his warehouse guy (same guy I'd just got done talking to before) to give him my info. I called him back and he was very helpful - he's shipping me 3 bottles to replace all my defective and 'starting to become defective' ZFX and also let me know what ZaneO did in this thread... that the formula has changed to become more stable since I last bought it.

Anyhow... so I'm very happy with Zaino and their customer service. And don't get me wrong... sal was not rude... he just wasn't quite the cheerful happy to help sounding guy I always imagined he would be as many years as I've been using Zaino and hearing positive things about him. He took care of me in a great way - I dunno, maybe he was just having a rough day. I can imagine in his business that's very easy to do and if I was in his shoes I'd probably be pissed at customers all the time!

 

Glad to hear you got it worked out.

Sal's "phone personality" is due in part to being extremely busy everyday (and also because he's a dang Yankee ), but he never fails to please his customers.

 

Contact your distributor, they will replace it. ZFX has an 18 month shelf life, having said that I still have some of the original testing samples of ZFX, and it's still good. One thing that will help is keeping the temp of the ZFX around room temp, move it inside in the real hot and cold months. I talk to Sal almost everyday, and this time of the year is our most busy.