My Rev’it saga came to its finish line today’s morning when I finally got a hold of my new replacement Airforce jacket in all black color. I took exactly one month to accomplish something that was pitched as a couple of days affair. Here is how the saga concluded.

On Tuesday, Jul 1 when the Rev’it team supposedly got back from their Holland trip I called Ally. She’d said that they did receive the shipment of the new jackets however they are super busy with emails and stuff. So they probably won’t get around to send me the jacket till later that week. Besides it would still take some time to “unpack” their new shipment etc. In any event I should see the tracking number in my inbox either at the end of that week or on Mon, Jul 7 at the latest.

Predictably enough came Mon and I still did not see the tracking number in my inbox. After getting a hold of Ally first thing she asked me was “Did you receive your jacket?”. I did not know if I should laugh or scream in agony. Obviously I did not receive the jacket. She took my contact phone number (for the 3rd time) and had told me she’d call me back with the update. Two hours later an email arrived. All it had was a forwarded email from UPS with the tracking number. No apologies in the forward email body. Actually no text at all. Just a forward. The original UPS email had the time stamp later than the time of my call. What that meant was exactly this - had I not called I would not have had the jacket shipped to me that day.

Again predictably enough Rev’it screwed up my delivery address and failed to provide my unit number. So when the UPS delivery truck came by they could not properly deliver the item. So they left it on hold for me at the UPS facility last night. And tomorrow morning after a tedious 40 minute wait I FINALLY had my jacket.

Now, lets review the complete time line of what should have been an easy transaction:

• Jun 11 - first contact made, replacement requested.
• Jun 17- prepaid UPS label received from Rev’it
• Jun 19 - my jacket shipped to Rev’it, replacement requested per agreement with Aron Ahlstrom
• Jun 20 - notification of my shipment is promptly ignored, replacement jacket not shipped
• Jun 23 - silver jackets are backordered, per Ally black Airforce jacket is to be shipped the same day or the next day at the latest with UPS tracking be emailed to me
• Jun 24 - after me calling Rev’it turns out that all Airforce jackets are backordered till Jun 30 at least as that is when they EXPECT them to come in. They are back from their trip to head office in Holland on Jul 1 which is when Ally had promised to call me with an update.
• Jul 1 - per Rev’it the jackets are there, and will be shipped out in a couple of days
• Jul 7 - after me calling Rev’it again and reminding of my dire need the jacket is sent to me with UPS 2nd day delivery, delivery address is not provided correctly
• Jul 9 - UPS fails to deliver as my address is incomplete courtesy Rev’it USA.
• Jul 10 - I pick up the jacket at the UPS facility.

Here are my thoughts on that - this type of customer service is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable to begin with. Rev’it is a new, unknown and up and coming brand in the US. Outside of Motodisiac and myself we must have seen a couple of riders wear Rev’it gear. With that said the way they handled my business should have been quite the opposite. If a company tries to win the market that is clearly not the strategy. After enduring this battle I doubt I’d want to buy more gear from Rev’it ever again. That is very unfortunate as their gear is really good all around - quality, reliability and looks. But the customer service totally blows. Some of you might object by saying that a corporate office does not have to deal with end consumers like myself. Their local dealers should. I totally understand. If that’s the case all Rev’it had to do was refer me to a dealer and not get themselves into something they could not properly take care of.

Very frustrating as I am or rather was one of a very few Rev’it enthusiasts over here in the states.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Riding, Gear, Life, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.