willglynn

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

…and now, a few hours after posting this, I received a tracking number. Seems like it works.

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.

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.

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.

Apparently you do a stock sale, solicit more new orders, and delete any negative feedback. Chris indicated that my freefly suit was done a week and a half ago. I asked him to ship it on Monday even if the camera jacket I ordered is still outstanding. Let's see what happens next.

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... I hope so.

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. 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.

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