Complaint Review: US Wings Inc.

Poor customer service rude communication .....

I have never had such poor, unfriendly, slow, customer service from a company in my life.

Last year, I purchased 2 leather "bomber-style" jackets from US Wings, one for my wife and one for myself. When I initially received the jackets, I noticed that the zipper on my jacket was very difficult to latch, and zip, compared to the other US Wings jacket. In addition, I have owned many leather jackets and none have had such a flimsy, weak-looking, zipper as the ones on the US Wings Jackets.

I immediately e-mailed US wings about the defect. Two days later, I received a response, from the owner (Mr. David Hack), advising me to rub a bar of soap on the zipper and to contact him if this didn't fix the problem. I tried that and it seemed to help but was still not as easy to zip as the other jacket. The weather became warmer and I forgot about the defect because I wasn't wearing the jacket

I've only worn the jacket a few times since I received it. In October of this year, when I attempted to zip the zipper, the latch busted. It was no longer possible to zip the jacket.

At this time I e-mailed and received an unsatisfactory, nasty, response from Mr. Hack. I replied to the e-mail asking for the steps that I needed to take to return my jacket for repair.

Instead of sending me the Return Information that I requested, US Wings sent a second, shorter and nastier, e-mail. At this point I attempted to contact the company by phone via the customer-service hotline. The hotline is not manned by a live representative but is an answering machine. The machine states to leave your information, "or for faster service", goto the US Wings website and contact them by e-mail. I left my name, two phone numbers, and my complaint.

After two weeks of no phone or e-mail contact, from US Wings, I decided it was time to contact the Better Business Bureau. I filed a complaint via an online form and submitted it.

The next day I received a response from the BBB rep. saying that US Wings would be willing to repair my jacket and that I would be receiving an authorization number shortly. In addition, there was an official response, from US Wings, regarding the case. I'm including it below because it contains lies and is a great example of the short, rude, responses that I've received from this company. I assume that this is from the owner, Mr. Hack, himself.

"A month after the consumer made his purchase, he contacted our office and requested a repair. We authorized Billings to return the item for repair. Billing never returned the item. He then requested we put in writing he would not have this problem with
the zipper. I can not guarantee a zipper. However, we are willing to do the repair on the zipper."

The falsehoods in this response are as follows: First of all, I never requested a repair until October 2002. My first e-mail was merely to ask if the jacket's zipper is normally difficult to zip. Secondly, I never sent a response requesting something in writing regarding the longevity of the zipper.

To continue, it took the company one week, after I received the official BBB response, to send my repair authorization number. In addition, they advised me that I was responsible for the return shipping expense.

I shipped the jacket on November 9th 2002 by UPS Second-Day Air. According to the UPS Website, US Wings received my jacket on November 11th 2002. It is now December 2 2002 and I am still waiting to receive my repaired jacket. In the past 2 weeks I've sent two e-mails, to US Wings, requesting the status of my repair. I have received no replies from the company.

I will never purchase anything from US Wings again and I would warn anyone considering a purchase to be very wary of dealing with US Wings.

Tony
Cincinnati, Ohio