Adventures in Customer Service

By Edward Wilson, Day -157 | January 21, 2009 |

The trip down to Portland this last weekend was primarily to pick up our mystery ranch bags. Well, that and to give us as test run on what it’s actually like for us to travel together. A resounding success on both accounts.

The CBMR back packs are, of course, the central components of our travel gear and our research had already convinced us that these were the bags for us. What I hadn’t known before hand was how pleasant the company was to deal with but that requires a little context.

Originally Jon and I were getting them from a tactical supply company, botach tactical, for a sum total savings of $100. We even went so far as to place our order with them. Then we heard nothing for longer than a week. The company didn’t answer their phones or reply to emails. This wasn’t going to work for us. When you drop four figures on gear you absolutely need, you want some assurances that you are getting what you pay for and promptly.

An evening walk on the Sea Wall and we decided we’d have to cancel the order somehow and buy direct from mystery ranch. A call to my credit company confirmed that the payment was pending but not posted. We were left in this bizarre limbo where we didn’t have our purchase or the money to buy else where. You can’t even dispute the charges until they are posted, when they are pending the money is just stuck.

I emailed botach again, this time asking for them to cancel the order rather than explain the delay. I kept phoning. Mainly I got a voice mail telling me to call back during their business hours, during their business hours. The next day instead of a machine I got, “Hold please,” and left on the line in a soundless void indefinitely.

After the second or third hold hell, I phoned my credit card company to take more agressive action and I discovered that the pending charge had vanished like it never existed. Good enough for me. Botach didn’t even inform us of this order cancellation until several days later. I would never ever order anything through Botach again.

Buying direct from Mystery Ranch was an utterly different experience. Their website was well designed and using their online checkout was simple. It even included a comment box that we filled with special requests, like getting the Manticore in black. We placed the order with the cheapest and slowest shipping possible.

In the middle of the night the next night while walking the Sea Wall, we decided to go down to Portland that weekend and that we’d need to expedite the shipping. I fired off an email. The next day I followed up with a phone call. I didn’t even finish telling him my name and he listed off my order, told me that they had made the bags in black, thrown in some extras and were bumping up the shipping so that we would get it when we needed it. The speed with which our order was made and shipped still boggles me.

Ed checks out his pack for the first time

I was so flabbergasted after the botach hell that I stuttered out a thanks and dropped off the phone, promptly forgetting the name of the person who assisted me. When we pulled into our friend Klint’s place we discovered that our bags were pretty much custom creations with significant upgrades, most of which we didn’t ask for, at no extra cost.

The service was good enough that I’ll be looking for excuses to deal with them again. That reminds me, I should phone them and tell them how pleased I am with the service and the product.

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