So not too long ago I got this item called the Hedgehog Umbrella where it seemed rather pricey compared to others. However, they state everywhere that they back up their products with a lifetime warranty. Unfortunately, not too long after some usage during heavy winds and rain in Vancouver it seems like the umbrella collapses on its own.
So disappointed for an expensive umbrella. However, they said lifetime warranty and so I guess this was a test. I sent in a warranty claim where I first actually sent a video to show that there was an issue. It seemed they wanted more details such as a picture of a particular area fully opened and so I sent that. Afterwards, I guess the picture wasn’t exactly what they wanted so I took it again. To be safe I took an actual video of opening up the umbrella filly as well.
Oddly enough, I haven’t heard back in pretty much a month. So recently I sent the person another e-mail to request what was going on. From the sounds of it too, the agent I was dealing with was named Kevin Truong who I believe is the actual founder. Now I was expecting ahead of time that I was dealing with a small company and so you can’t expect them necessarily to have the same resources as a large business.
But in this case since it has been so long it almost feels like those situations where someone creates a business as a side venture where they don’t pay too much attention to it. Example, imagine someone running a web hosting company by themselves where since it doesn’t have their full attention they won’t be able to handle issues that come up immediately.
That’s the unfortunate thing when dealing with a smaller business even though it’s nice to help local people per se. I’ll give it a few more weeks before making a conclusion. But it goes to show, if you are going to charge premium prices for your products with advertisements of lifetime warranties and all you kind of have to provide premium support as well.