Consumer Grumbling

[judecorp]

Dear Columbia Sportswear Company:

I hate you.

~//~

My brother was kind enough to buy me a gift certificate to the Columbia Sportswear Company for Christmas, because everyone and their mother know that what I wanted for Christmas was to finally have a new pair of hiking boots for the spring. My old boots are from back in the Philmont days and they got trashed through all of that good, good hiking, yet I have continued to use them. Since the late 90s. It's time.

I'm pretty sure he was told at the outlet mall where he purchased the gift certificate that I could redeem it on the Columbia website if I didn't have a store nearby. And that's 100% false, because Columbia doesn't sell their products directly. At all. And umm, my nearest outlet store? It's the one in South Carolina. There are lots of stores locally that sell Columbia products but of course they're not going to redeem a gift certificate from another store.

I called Columbia Sportswear headquarters in Oregon and a nice Consumer Services worker told me that they in essence have zero relationship with the outlet stores and the "retail division," and he gave me the number to the SC outlet store. I called that store and spoke with a manager who said that she would only refund my brother's money if he had his receipt. Are you kidding me??! It's a freaking /gift certificate/. You can clearly see how much he paid for it ON THE GIFT CERTIFICATE. Come on, people!

The idiot manager in SC called me "honey" a lot and told me that I should just come back and visit and use my gift certificate. If I /do/ go back to SC any time soon it will be to punch her in her smug, Southern face. Honey.

(Yet another reason why I love LL Bean.)

Comments

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Myrtle Beach area.

Problem is I would really have to try them on... and they don't even have the prices on their website so I don't even know where to start, especially since the stores are actually outlet stores and thus probably have older stuff. I'm cool with that, but I wouldn't even begin to know what they have.

Thanks, though!

[ntiva.livejournal.com]

Could you try them on elsewhere? Is there any local store that carries them? Or Zappos? You could figure out the right size at Zappos, then return them, then order them from the outlet store? What a mess! I'm mad for you!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Guh, that seems like a whole lot of work to make up for bad customer service!! I checked Zappos and they don't have any Columbia hiking boots. :( And I could go to a sporting goods store and try on some shoes, but there's no guarantee they sell the new stock from the stores in the outlet store. :(