Great Customer Service Is a Thing to be Shared . . .

I am a creature of habit – once I get used to something, I don’t want to change.  I bought a new gym bag in 2005 – at the time, I did a lot of research until I found exactly what I wanted.  It’s a High Sierra Water Bottle Sport Duffel, and it has worked very well (though I never used the water bottle).

Two weeks ago, the shoulder strap broke.

It was fine when I went into the YMCA that morning.  But when I pulled it out of my locker, the right side of the strap had come loose from the clip – I don’t know how, and I couldn’t figure out how to put it back together.  I carried it by the handles for two days, and that loose strap flapping around was driving me nuts – so I decided to take it off.  I barely moved the remaining clip when it snapped off.  So the strap was now worthless.

Those two days of “handle carrying” convinced me that I needed a shoulder strap – I kept switching hands so I could open the door, get my ID card out of my wallet, and such.  It was a pain.  I did a little searching for a new one online and in a couple of stores, but I didn’t find what I wanted – what I wanted was my old gym bag.

So I decided to take a shot at contacting High Sierra.  I got on their website (http://www.hssc.com) and sent them an e-mail asking if I could buy some new clips to repair my strap. They did much better than that – they sent me a whole new strap in the mail and didn’t charge me a dime.  And this was more than six years after I bought the bag.

The strap arrived today, and I just finished putting it on my bag.  Now I’m all set for my next trip to the Y on Monday.  And of course, my favorite canine had to wander in while I was taking pictures to see what was going on.

So if you ever need a new gym bag, computer bag (I have one of those from High Sierra, too), piece of luggage, and probably more similar items that I haven’t noticed, I can recommend a company that truly stands behind their products.