Mtuhockey33Bought a pair of ON3P skis back in August? Got a free shirt out of it. I was so stoked I went back to buy a hoodie! But wait... no hoodies... no shirts.... no stickers... I’ve been in constant emails with them about buying hoodies since they’re *literally* giving them away with a new pair of skis (if I had waited a week to buy skis I would’ve gotten a hoodie instead of a shirt) and it’s happened twice since I’ve bought my skis but nope, still no hoodies or anything for sale on their website. I just keep getting the “oh check our insta” or “sorry man, look on social media for when we have them”
It’s already halfway through the skis season and I haven’t mounted my skis and I definitely don’t plan on it. Sad because they seem like great skis but holy fuck does their customer service department need an overhaul.
Hey David,
Thanks for the message. Sorry to hear about your disappointment.
That said, given your comments, I must respond, as the assertion that you not getting a different
free items we occasionally give out during the season justifies the need to overhaul our "customer service department" seems like a stretch, to put it kindly.
First, we are a ski company. We build skis. That is what we do. Unlike other brands who outsource their skis and get to spend the year doing other things (marketing, softgoods, etc), we build skis everyday day, and as such, anything that is not critical to that is held as a lower priority task.
Do I know people want softgoods? Yes. Is it critical to our day to day? No. Do we, at this time, have the resources to bring on consistent softgoods stocking? At least at this time, no.
From a business end, your notes seem to suggest that we have piles of these hoodies around to give away. That is incorrect. I order these for specific events and they run out for each. That keeps our capital investment low, helps us to drive ski sales - again, what we actually do for a living - and gives customers a chance to get a product we don't have the time to roll out and stock 365 days per year.
We did several promos this fall.
1) Pre-Labor Day - Limited run of shirts + ski straps free with any purchase (what you ordered)
2) Week Post-Labor Day - Limited run of hoodies free with a purchase of a bindings
3) Black Friday - Free hoodie with stock ski purchase, multiple items with custom ski purchase
4) 12/29-New Years - Free random item with any stock ski purchase
You would not have gotten a free hoodie had you waited a week - as that was for customers that also bought bindings. Black Friday would have been the next time that statement would have been true - almost 90 days after you purchased.
I must also note that these skis were also purchased with a Proform discount.
So just to be 100% clear, we are talking about boycotting ON3P after you got a pair of skis on Proform, a free t-shirt, a free ski strap, and free shipping on your order.
As far as contact - for the record, we emailed:
1) August 13th - August 24th - to talk proform and get help with the purchase
2) August 26th - October 4th - where we talked swapping ski size, then we had to swap physical skis because we accidentally sent out the wrong size (sent the size for the original order, not the manually changed size).
We paid for those original skis to be shipped back, and got a new pair out of you.
Ending that conversation, there is two emails where we discuss a hoodie. You asking if we have any left, and we said no (which was the case).
For full transparency - our reply:
"Unfortunately we don't have any more hoodies available at the moment, but keep an eye on our social channels, we'll be putting out a blast there once we get more in-stock. Thanks again!"
I don't see any FB or IG messages - and just one IG post during the Black Friday sale stating: "been asking that question for a while now and I keep seeing these giveaways... kind of bummed I bought my skis when I did" in response to someone asking where softgoods can be bought.
Our conversation about hoodies was one single interaction, so statements like....
"I just keep getting the “oh check our insta” or “sorry man, look on social media for when we have them”
...are not true.
I don't revel in having to reply like this. It sucks. It's equally vexing to hear you might not even mount your skis because of it, as we do the best we can to be open and honest, while trying to make a low margin, high cost, high overhead, high labor intensive product here in America.
But I also need to defend our customer service, because if the standard of failure is giving you a Proform discount, a free shirt, free ski strap, and free shipping - when you could have had a free hoodie instead of the shirt three months later...it sets unrealistic standards and expectation of what customers should expect. We're not a charity.
For the record, I'm aware people want softgoods. I want softgoods too. But it isn't business critical, so it's on a list that will get done when we can. Like most small businesses, we do what we can with the resources we have.
I hope you mount and enjoy the skis, but obviously you should do what is best for you.
If you would like to talk about this, you can reach me direct by phone at the factory, or respond to our email conversation that ended in early October. I happy to hear out your concerns directly.
I hope you have a good rest of the season.
