Ironclad Guarantee...

Delicious. We went back to Tacos Por Favor the other night. I have had some requests for more pictures of said food...so here you go ST!




Nicole and I found alternate modes of transportation on the way home. I'm totally going to win with my race car...which by the way I could barely get out of!




Yesterday Nicole and I picked out and bought her luggage for Thailand. We didn't have a "proper" set since we always just travel with backpacks small enough for overhead carry on. Three months working in a foreign country warrants a little more space in the baggage area.

Warning...here comes my version of a rant. After selecting the luggage at the unnamed store, I found two dress shirts to try on. When I went to the dressing room the attendant informed me that I would need to go elsewhere to get the security tags removed. Okay, so I went to customer service and waited in line. When I finally got to the front and asked if the tags could be removed so that I could try the shirts on, the conversation went a little something like this:

"You want to try on both these shirts?"
"Yes, I do."
"They're the same size."
"Yes, I know."
"I can only take the tag off one at a time since it's the same size."
"Really?"
"Yes, if you want to try two on, you have to come back to get the other tag removed."
(What?) Now for the visual of the shirts. One was all black with a subtle line pattern and the other was light blue with pin stripes. Ah yes, besides being totally different colors and styles they were also made by different companies or people or whoever that designed the shirts. Am I alone in thinking this is a weird policy? It wasn't a rack of $500 shirts, it was two shirts that were on sale. The shirts happen to be the same size...because well, I know my shirt size. How about that? And so I walked away in disbelief with two shirts...one with a security tag, and one that had been released under my careful watch to be tried on in the dressing room...maybe even purchased...if they let me.

Aftermath:
It was the blue shirt that got the tag removed. It fit good. I bought it. I never tried on the second shirt. I'm not a big fan of shopping in the first place, and when it becomes that big a challenge and frustration forget it. Rant complete.

If you are still reading this post after that, I had an awesome customer service experience at Patagonia. No sarcasm involved there. The story in brief - last year Nicole got me a great pair of running shorts at a fantastic discount. Shortly after wearing them, stitching around one of the pockets came a little unraveled. No big deal and nothing that affected performance or was going to get worse. She went to return them for me and they told her that new styles of these shorts would be out in the spring and that we could get a store credit for the return now, or keep wearing them until the new shorts came out, then get them replaced. What?


Yes, true to their word, after 6 months and at least 500 trail miles in the shorts, Patagonia replaced the shorts no questions asked. They call it their Ironclad guarantee. I call it building great customer relationships. This is not uncommon among serious companies in the outdoor industry. REI is another amazing example of a satisfaction guarantee being a real thing, not a tactic with no substance to get you to buy stuff. Bravo.

I break in the shorts tomorrow. I am excited. Strange? Maybe.