willglynn

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Posts posted by willglynn

  1. I just sent a reply to Chris. I'm re-posting here because it's of general interest.

    Quote

    I'm genuinely sorry it took as long as it did. Never in my life has I faced so many hurdles to getting things done. After tons of hard work from everyone, double shifts for months on end we are finally catching up on the cue. A few other suits are late but we are rapidly catching up on clearing out the entire cue.

    Thank you for your patience as we sorted out the growing pains.


    That's great. I hope you can deliver your product at your price with an acceptable level of service – you could actually force the jumpsuit industry to compete. Your success would benefit everyone.

    However: I have stopped caring. I want to be done.

    Every single opportunity Freefall Suits has had to impress me has resulted in disappointment.

    I placed an order; you could impress me by filling it promptly. Then there was a problem with materials and production was halted: all right, so impress me with how you handle that by keeping me in the loop with how things are unfolding. Then I wrote an email concerned by the lack of communication: you could impress me by telling me what's going on and instilling confidence in your ability to handle things going forward. Then I wrote another email annoyed that no one replied: you could impress me by taking control of the customer service situation. On and on and on, weeks and weeks and weeks.

    You did impress me at one point after making the sale:

    Quote

    I am heading back to the office this week and will ensure your suit gets built asap, even if I sit down and sew it myself.


    …and then disappointed me further as my order continued to sit unfilled.

    At one point, I told you what I need as directly as possible:

    Quote

    Look: I need to know if you’re going to make that jumpsuit and camera jacket. I placed the order on September 21, 2013 — that's 20 weeks ago tomorrow. Safety Day is 4 weeks away, the start of my skydiving season is 7 weeks away, and the local iFLY tunnel should have its grand opening around then as well. If you’re not going to fill my order, I need to get someone else working on it now.


    You replied:

    Quote

    Your suit will be ready later next week.


    That was 12 weeks ago today.

    The reasons don't matter, the apologies don't help, and my understanding doesn't change anything. Ultimately, "disappointed" doesn't begin to capture my experience.

    I went public when the frustration of dealing with your company was too much to bear. It took a lot to get me to that place. I've been disappointed by plenty of companies, even in skydiving: just three weeks ago, a canopy I ordered over the winter missed its delivery date, at which point we all found out that the factory hadn't even started production. They offered me a reason to wait a second time and gave me the information I needed to make a decision. I ended up ordering a competing product instead, but I'm not even upset. I'll happily talk to them again next time I need a canopy.

    Freefall Suits, on the other hand, has taken "ordeal" to a whole new level. I believe I've accurately chronicled my entire customer experience, I believe it speaks for itself, and I believe people ought to know that this happened September 2013 through May 2014.

    I want to receive that camera jacket. I want it to fit, I want it to be in the correct colors, and I want it to have the correct options. That's it. I want to be done.

    --Will

  2. willglynn

    Now, it's been three days and I don't have a tracking number, but still – this was the first ever unprompted email I've received from Freefall Suits, and it happened right after post #37.

    …and now, a few hours after posting this, I received a tracking number.

    willglynn

    Customers shouldn't have to resort to public shaming.

    Seems like it works.

  3. raveninca

    I am just going to start posting my correspondence with this company in this thread, since your blog seems to have gotten you results maybe this will help.

    Posting here seems to get attention too.

    I had no contact with Freefall Suits since an April 14 email exchange. I posted here two weeks later, and within hours Chris emailed me saying my camera jacket is complete, promising a tracking number. Now, it's been three days and I don't have a tracking number, but still – this was the first ever unprompted email I've received from Freefall Suits, and it happened right after post #37.

    Customers shouldn't have to resort to public shaming.

  4. willglynn

    ***We are currently processing the orders from the very end of Dec. Within the next 5 weeks we will be caught up on all the orders from January, February and March bringing us back to a 6.5 week delivery time.


    If that's true then you're not processing orders chronologically. I ordered on September 21, and as of my fifth delivery date (today), I haven't received anything.
    To their credit, Freefall Suits filled half my order – I did, in fact, receive a freefly suit. That said, my camera jacket (ordered that same day in September, now 31 weeks ago) is still outstanding. Freefall Suits seems to have stopped providing me ETAs; I've heard nothing about my camera jacket since an April 3 email which seemed to imply that production hadn't started.

  5. Chris_K

    Will - your suit was shipped and the tracking number was sent to your email.

    That's true; I have a tracking number. I've been keeping my post up-to-date. If I receive the freefly suit, and it fits, and it's the correct colors, and it has the correct options, it will have been a 29-week ordeal -- and if there's a problem, it will end up being an even longer ordeal.

    Either way, my Freefall Suits camera jacket is still in week 29 with no ETA.

  7. Quote

    I jump in eloy and Chris was out there at the Halloween Boogie. … My suit came in February. … He took the suit that day and reenginered it . 2 Weeks later I had my suit back.


    I ordered in September -- 29 weeks ago tomorrow -- and still have received nothing. According to Chris, my freefly suit was completed at least 8 days ago, but I haven't received a shipment or a shipment notification. Maybe he's waiting to finish my camera jacket too in order to save on postage...

    Quote

    But Freefall Suit makes unbelievable skydiving suits.

    I hope so.

  8. weaverd

    We are currently processing the orders from the very end of Dec. Within the next 5 weeks we will be caught up on all the orders from January, February and March bringing us back to a 6.5 week delivery time.


    If that's true then you're not processing orders chronologically. I ordered on September 21, and as of my fifth delivery date (today), I haven't received anything.

    weaverd

    For perspective other suit companies have had a 24 week delivery time before when they were newer and learning lessons


    Maybe so, but I'd guess those other companies don't make a habit of promising and failing to deliver. Again, I'm at five delivery dates blown -- delivery dates set by Freefall Suits. If you had quoted me a 24-week lead time, I probably would have been okay with that, but instead I was told I'd have my order in 8 weeks, 4 weeks, next week, 4 weeks, and 2 weeks.

    As of now, my order is 27 weeks old and I don't even have an ETA.

  9. I ordered and paid in September and have gotten nothing but emails -- and I even had to fight to get those.

    My four delivery dates:

  10. As of September 21: about 8 weeks
  11. As of December 12: "week of 13 January"
  12. As of February 7: "later next week"
  13. As of February 24: "The order WILL be completed and delivered before the season"

    14. As of March 19, 2014, I have received nothing. My season starts next Friday.

    I posted the whole story at http://www.willglynn.com/2014/03/19/free-fall-suits-malice-or-incompetence/