The Travel Hammock = Horrible company

[Chief Hammock Officer]

The ATHH was the subject of an extensive field test by members of this forum. In fact I was one of the testers. The reviews of the field tests are compiled in the Grand Trunk sub-forum I believe.

If I understand correctly, the name change was to represent a shift in market positioning and the inclusion of goods beyond the typical hammock products. They recently acquired Trip to the Moon Hammocks according to a posting in the sub-forum.

Rev,

You are correct, this is why the change was made.

Thanks for your support.
Jon

[T-BACK]

CHO,

Thank you for posting and clearing the air on this matter. I am impressed by your business ethics and the fact that you are still willing to take care of a customer even after all that has transpired. I tip my hat to you Sir.

[DuctTape]

I, too, had a problem with my SB Pro. I brought a friend hammocking who had never hanged before. After that one night of use, the zipper was tearing from the hammock. I received the hammock as a gift and thus had no receipt. I emailed the company directly and explained the problem, I offered to return the hammock so their QA people could examine the hammock. I received a reply within 48 hours asking for my address and they sent me a brand new replacement and said to keep the other as they are already aware of the problem. My experience with the company was nothing but positive and professional; the complete opposite experience of the original poster.

[Narwhalin]

When I was testing the ATHH, my hammock had some really bad splotches where the waterproofing was warped. I told Cheif Hammock Officer about it, and they replaced it very quickly. Also, the hammock that they sent to replace it was the new version. I was very impressed by the customer service of this company...

[te-wa]

CHO, I had the same problem with the Skeeter Beeter (reg, not pro) that you sent to me. The zipper tore away from the netting on the second use. Since it was a free product, I was not going to complain but because of the failed fabric I chose not to make a public review of that specific model. I had no idea you were replacing them with the "improved" version. I would be curious to see what that one looks/feels like. Mike

[fjl307]

My name is Jon and i am the owner of Grand Trunk and i think it's only fair that we offer a rebuttle from our end. First of all, this guy bought his hammock from a 3rd party that purchased the product from one of our distributors, that DID NOT adhere to our MAP pricing. The website that he purchased this from tells his customers to contact the vendor directly, so he did. He did not have a receipt, nor did he act in a semi decent manner.

Even though this is not our policy, but our partners that he purchased his product from, we sent him a replacement and as sometimes happen with a thriving business, we sent him the wrong product. As a token of good faith, we let him keep the incorrect product because of our mistake, with plans to send another. During this time of confusion, we were contacted by this guy who proceeded to act like the jerk that he is, calling my employees names and acting completely unprofessional.

It's unfortunate that this guy jumped to writing a letter to the better business bureau and flew off the handle and as the title of this message says, you're the first. We try very hard at Grand Trunk/The Travel Hammock to maintain a positive relationship with all customers, even guys like this, but sometimes you just can't win.

This being said, we are putting ANOTHER hammock in the mail for him today, which we can only hope he receives. We work too hard to have one vindictive guy with nothing else to do, but go after a small business in his spare time, smear our name and make a website that is bordering on slander....and we do have a good lawyer.

I wish i had known he was a website creator, blogger, and writer, we would have offered him a job and he could have had FREE products whenever he wanted.

To you Sir i say, Good Day and Happy Hammocking.

First of all Jon, we need to clear a few things up - I do not know how much of this you are truly aware of and your sources. I did have a receipt, and it was sent to one of your employees. Nor did I act in a decent matter? That's a lie, and if you would read the email dialogues you would see that I was very kind and patient right up until the last email. Towards the end I felt like I was being scammed due to the lack of response and simply being left off the hook regarding the last few emails. The sending me the incorrect tracking number and then not replying to my emails pushed me over the edge. I apologize for calling your employees "IDIOTS" (again, not that bad of an "insult"), but seriously, like I said before, I'm sure these people have been called worse names in their lives. I've been called worse names at some of my jobs for making mistakes and I always looked at it as an opportunity to makes things right and strive to do better. It may feel like a slap in the face but heck, most people don't just explode for no reason, me included.
This is the first time I have heard anything about MAP pricing from your company, Kevin only said that the vendor was selling the hammock for far below MSRP and they were going to get shut down over it. And again, Kevin was nothing more than completely unprofessional to me. Almost anybody else would be disgusted with the way he treated me that day.

"And we do have a good lawyer?" I don't think you can sue me for freedom of speech. Sorry, it's not slander. Basically when I get screwed over, I set out to warn customers. If/when/hopefully this is fully resolved, I'll be more than happy to amend these details to the website.

In the end I do appreciate the fact that you are trying to makes things right Jon, it's really a step up from Kevin and his "we don't have time for this person" and "we've already lost too much money on you" and the horrible treatment I received from him. I'll be looking out in my mailbox. One thing, and I suggested this to Michelle, is there any way you can send tracking numbers as you send the shipments? There has apparently already been one "lost hammock in the mail", I think it's the least you can do to ensure that I know you are really sending out a hammock and so that you know that I actually receive it.
In the future, if anybody mentions issues around the web, I'll simply say to email or call you company and ask directly for you.

2.) Sometimes there are just products that are defective and that is why we offer the warranty that we do. 99% of the time when a customer calls us with a problem we send them an upgraded replacement immediately, without question.

So in that case Jon, Michelle shouldn't have even given me any troubles after she received the receipt that I sent saying I bought it from Outdoors4Less?

[Chief Hammock Officer]

Are we done?

Your replacement hammock is in the mail and a tracking # has been sent to you through the USPS shipping site and has also been emailed to you.

Typically when you purchase something through a 3rd party vendor it is their job to replace a defective product, not the manufacturers. You call them, they replace the product, they contact us and we send them a new one. When you sell products to a distributor it is IMPOSSIBLE to have complete control and as most things in life, it is a work in progress.

I have no desire to fight with you about this issue any longer. Yes, you do have freedom of speech, but some of the things you have posted on random websites and blogs are just not true. I have a great bunch of people that i work with and calling somebody an idiot is not appreciated by any of us, we're loyal and we respect each other. I'm sorry to hear you've been brought up in an environment where calling people nasty names and degrading them only to make them "strive for better" is the norm, it's not for us and never will be. As i said, your replacement product is on the way and at this point i am through discussing this with you. Feel free to read what other people have written back to you and about us....there might just be a valuable lesson hidden in one of the messages.

Hope you enjoy your hammock and best of luck.

CHO

[fjl307]

I just received an email with the tracking number. The least I could do was reply with an apology for the mistreatment and misunderstandings. Despite the fact that I feel like this company has a few issues, primarily with Kevin, It seems the issue is well on its way to being properly resolved. I do not recall if I have indicated this previously or not but I will send back the torn hammock and the included hanging ropes.

[angrysparrow]

I think this thread has run the length of it's normal course. Let's close it until there is further info.

CHO, fjl307 - If/when you have further info to add, let me know and I'll reopen it for you.

[fjl307]

Good news, I received the hammock yesterday and I am happy to state that me and everybody at Grand Trunk have this whole ordeal resolved. Jon (here on the forums) along with Michelle did a great job in getting everything resolved. I actually received the hammock last week but it was only the regular Skeeter Beeter. It was no big deal really since that's something easy to confuse, they sent the Pro out this week and I sent my old Pro and the regular Skeeter Beeter back on the 13th. Michelle also packed in a few extras such as some of the Eco Travel bags which I really like alot and if anybody is interested in them, order a few, they are very practical. Other than that, I think we're good, unless Jon wants to make another post, the moderators can close this thread again.