Burton's "48 hour return" warranty is BS
 

I will let my sequence of emails speak for themselves...please note the date on each:

Sent 2/11/08:
Hello,
My name is Kyle and I bought some custom bindings back in dec. On my fifth day on the mtn, one of the rachets on a toe strap broke (it looks like the black plastic piece that locks into the ridges of the strap broke). Anyway, I was at a real small place, and the guy in the shop pointed out that it was only the buckle and so he put a non-matching one on so I could finish the day. So I was wondering if I had to send everything in, or if you could just send me a new buckle (I'm a bit worried because I have a trip coming up next week). Thanks for your help.

Kyle


Replied FINALLY on 2/25/08:
Check out this link to find an authorized service center near you… that’s the best way to get whatever replacement parts you need. Burton.com If you look underneath where you enter your zip code you will see the service center link. Or you can try calling local shops to see if they can order the part you need.

If that doesn’t work, try calling our rider service line at the number below to see if you can order from us directly. Please try the other two options first, because whoever you talk to here will probably try and point you in the same direction.

Thanks,

Chris Marzi
Rider Service Representative
(800) 881-3138 Fax (802) 660-3250

(This advice never worked BTW, no place had it, and when I finally did get the part from Burton it took another two weeks because the part was out of stock)

My reply sent tonight:
yeah i sent that about 2 weeks before you responded. my trip has come and gone and i already bought new bindings from Rome to take on my trip because their customer service took care of me when i needed stuff sent out fast, AND when i realized that i needed a conversion disc to be able to use my sweet new bindings on my burton board, because of your 3 hole pattern that is really an attempt at market control.

thx


Ok so my point is obvious here, but let me also say how awsome rome is. i called them two days before i was leaving on a trip and they overnighted me two sets of convert discs (so i could stay color coordinated). i offered to pay for the shipping because it was my bad, but the guy wouldn't have it and said he would take care of it. i f...ing love rome now. ps the targas are sick.

what color targas did u get?

black and white...they look way punk rock. the materials on them are pretty cool too. were most companies put that foam crap, rome puts leather. plus they did their toe strap the way it ought to be. but yeah black and white lol

that 'ish is f-in' sick! :thumbsup: favorite color combo. nice.

I'm sorry, but I really don't think you're wholly right here. When you send out an email to a huge manufacturer like that, you can't expect immediate reply. I've had that happen to me with big Computer Hardware Manufacturers.
My question is, if this was so urgent... why didnt you just call them? You would have gotten a rep immediately, and would probably have gotten a shipping box at your door, expenses paid, by next day.

Heck, I work at a midsized company, 200-300 people, and deal only with about 20 people max at any given time. If I want something done immediately, I call. Cause there is a good chance, that although it's only 20 people that I communicate with, that I won't get a reply for another day or two.
You can only expect a much greater email delay from a huge corporation's customer service.

Sorry, just my 2 cents.

I completely agree. A phone call gets a whole lot more done than an email, especially if it's urgent.

Rome is pretty awesome no doubt, I have had very quick service and response from them on everything. They are a good company to support.

Thats why a smaller rider oriented company is leaps and bounds better than a burton. I dont care what company you are, but if you delay on emails, you lose business. burton is a huge company, order some damn people JUST to read emails. they just lost another customer because they didnt and thats the way it works. thats the way it SHOULD work.

time wise, well i have no opinion there. you dont know that if you called a tech if they would have done anything different. unless you have experience. you go off of what you know and we know that burton took forever.

natural selection has run its toll and rome picked up a new cutomer. good for them :thumbsup:

I disagree that you shouldn't expect an immediate/quick reply via email. Burton is a huge company now. They need to boost their customer service resources if they've grown too much to handle the inflow of questions. It's not acceptable just to say they can't get to it. I don't care what kind of company it is, computer, sporting goods, cell phone, whatever.

While I agree that calling has more potential for an immediate response, my experience with Burton customer service has been terrible also. I sent an email a month ago asking a compatibility question between an older r.e.d.(burton owned) helmet with current audex earpads. Just got a response back this week basically telling me to visit a local Burton dealer to answer this question.

I called them as well and when I finally got a rep on the phone, he said he didn't know. So, I'm supposed to accept that a "local Burton dealer" knows more about an older model helmet (which they probably don't even sell anymore) than the actual manufacturer? That's what they want to communicate? Really? You don't know basic details regarding your own products? Ridiculous.

This has nothing to do with techsupport, and your and the OPs comparisons are WAY off.
OP says burton was emailed, whereas Rome was called. HUGE differences already. How do you know the same service would not have been provided by burton if OP wasn't too lazy to pick up the phone.
2nd, this isn't about tech support. You can't compare apples (customer service) to oranges (tech support) and expect the same result.

The end fact, is that we DON'T know that burton would have taken forever, if the same set of actions was taken by the OP.

I have no problem admitting fault if I'm wrong, but judging from what the OP has said in the 1st post....