TUMI Customer Service Horror Story
Nov 28, 2016, 10:23 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: LON, PDX
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Posts: 2,064
TUMI Customer Service Horror Story
Sorry for the length here, any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.
I've always enjoyed TUMI products. I know that many on here find them slightly ostentatious, but I've been especially drawn to their functionally designed backpacks as I prefer to travel with only a backpack on sub-2 week trips unless I need formal wear. The great blue colors they have don't hurt either.
This horror story begins when I brought my TUMI Alpha Bravo Cannon backpack to my Portland, OR TUMI company store for a small fray in the lining less than a year after purchase. The staff, which are always great there, told me that it looked to them like it could easily be fixed and that it would take about four weeks to be shipped to TUMI service and repaired. Great! No offer of a loaner and so I purchased a TUMI Alpha Bravo Brief Pack for $500 as I wanted a larger backpack anyway. I figured once the Cannon was back I could use them for different things.
Fast forward ten and a half weeks, I receive an email from TUMI telling me that my bag is unrepairable and that they can't replace it as the Cannon is out of production. I'm slightly saddened as I loved the Cannon design, but they offer a full retail credit towards a replacement. I take them up on the offer and ordered an Alpha Bravo Dover as a replacement. I had to prepay a portion of the retail price difference, although they were nice enough to cut it down a bit upon request.
Before the bag arrives I move to Germany for academic research.
The bag arrives at my parents and they plan to bring it with them when they visit me in Germany soon. Once they arrive, with the backpack, I realize that TUMI has not sent me the Alpha Bravo Dover that I requested and paid for, but rather an Alpha Bravo Brief Pack absolutely identical to the one I already have.
Immediately I called the repair center in the US and spoke to a CSR (which is a PITA from Germany btw). She was extremely concerned as to whether the bag was used or not, and I honestly described the small amount of usage (just on the plane) that it had received. She told me that therefore she should not guarantee an exchange, as it may not be returnable.
I explained that regardless I did not feel that I should be responsible for TUMI’s mistake and asked to speak to a supervisor. After being on hold for about 40 minutes, I was told that a supervisor would call me by the end of the day. I never received that call.
I called back the following day and spoke to another CSR. I was assured that I would receive a prompt call from somebody in Germany about my situation.
It took at least a week before I was called by a rep in Germany. He simply asked for my email address and said that I should expect an email within 30 minutes. I received his email two days later, offering to send a courier to pick up the bag over a two day period with continuous availability required between 9am-5pm.
I immediately emailed him back and inquired as to whether I was really required to spend two days away from work for the collection. Six days later I received his response. He offered that I should leave the bag with a neighbor or have it collected from my work.
Nobody has been able to explain to me why TUMI cannot issue a prepaid shipping label for the bag rather than have me take it all the way to a TUMI company store or have it picked up by courier across an impractical time window. The focus through this entire experience has seemed to be on TUMI recovering the error bag and making sure that it is unharmed, rather than an attitude of “let’s fix this right away”. It feels as if I was trying to return something I had bought, used, and changed my mind about, when in fact I only have the bag because of TUMI’s error.
So far I’ve spent hours making international phone calls, talked and emailed with the German rep, and I still don’t have the bag that I paid for. In addition to the quality of the products themselves, one reason I have been a long time TUMI customer is the customer service, which at least at the retail level has always been superb for me until now. I always assumed that if there was a service issue, it would be similarly superb. Color me deeply disappointed.
I still have the bag sent in error. I would still like to get my replacement. I also need to send my purchased Brief Pack in for service, and am terrified of a repeat experience.
I've always enjoyed TUMI products. I know that many on here find them slightly ostentatious, but I've been especially drawn to their functionally designed backpacks as I prefer to travel with only a backpack on sub-2 week trips unless I need formal wear. The great blue colors they have don't hurt either.
This horror story begins when I brought my TUMI Alpha Bravo Cannon backpack to my Portland, OR TUMI company store for a small fray in the lining less than a year after purchase. The staff, which are always great there, told me that it looked to them like it could easily be fixed and that it would take about four weeks to be shipped to TUMI service and repaired. Great! No offer of a loaner and so I purchased a TUMI Alpha Bravo Brief Pack for $500 as I wanted a larger backpack anyway. I figured once the Cannon was back I could use them for different things.
Fast forward ten and a half weeks, I receive an email from TUMI telling me that my bag is unrepairable and that they can't replace it as the Cannon is out of production. I'm slightly saddened as I loved the Cannon design, but they offer a full retail credit towards a replacement. I take them up on the offer and ordered an Alpha Bravo Dover as a replacement. I had to prepay a portion of the retail price difference, although they were nice enough to cut it down a bit upon request.
Before the bag arrives I move to Germany for academic research.
The bag arrives at my parents and they plan to bring it with them when they visit me in Germany soon. Once they arrive, with the backpack, I realize that TUMI has not sent me the Alpha Bravo Dover that I requested and paid for, but rather an Alpha Bravo Brief Pack absolutely identical to the one I already have.
Immediately I called the repair center in the US and spoke to a CSR (which is a PITA from Germany btw). She was extremely concerned as to whether the bag was used or not, and I honestly described the small amount of usage (just on the plane) that it had received. She told me that therefore she should not guarantee an exchange, as it may not be returnable.
I explained that regardless I did not feel that I should be responsible for TUMI’s mistake and asked to speak to a supervisor. After being on hold for about 40 minutes, I was told that a supervisor would call me by the end of the day. I never received that call.
I called back the following day and spoke to another CSR. I was assured that I would receive a prompt call from somebody in Germany about my situation.
It took at least a week before I was called by a rep in Germany. He simply asked for my email address and said that I should expect an email within 30 minutes. I received his email two days later, offering to send a courier to pick up the bag over a two day period with continuous availability required between 9am-5pm.
I immediately emailed him back and inquired as to whether I was really required to spend two days away from work for the collection. Six days later I received his response. He offered that I should leave the bag with a neighbor or have it collected from my work.
Nobody has been able to explain to me why TUMI cannot issue a prepaid shipping label for the bag rather than have me take it all the way to a TUMI company store or have it picked up by courier across an impractical time window. The focus through this entire experience has seemed to be on TUMI recovering the error bag and making sure that it is unharmed, rather than an attitude of “let’s fix this right away”. It feels as if I was trying to return something I had bought, used, and changed my mind about, when in fact I only have the bag because of TUMI’s error.
So far I’ve spent hours making international phone calls, talked and emailed with the German rep, and I still don’t have the bag that I paid for. In addition to the quality of the products themselves, one reason I have been a long time TUMI customer is the customer service, which at least at the retail level has always been superb for me until now. I always assumed that if there was a service issue, it would be similarly superb. Color me deeply disappointed.
I still have the bag sent in error. I would still like to get my replacement. I also need to send my purchased Brief Pack in for service, and am terrified of a repeat experience.
