Hennessy customer service?

:(:(I just called HH guess who is answering the Telephone these days? Mr Tom Hennessy himself!

I have a two year old Explorer Deluxe, zip. Only used a few times, I am very fussy about my gear, I like it in new condition even if it is old. I never put anything away wet, damaged or smelly.

Some how over a two week period, my Explorer developed a few issues, the rain fly backing has a line where the repellent part is not looking very good. Also some how over a two week period the rope has developed a soft spot. I am not sure if Willow sunk a tooth into the rope or what, just one .5 inch spot of damage, soft and frayed.

Mr. Hennessy was not very helpful when I enquired about the cost of having the rope repaired. He did not want to answer my question about if the fly was worth having repaired, the damaged area is .125 inches by about 6 inches long. If I did not buy it directly from him, they want nothing to do with it.

I am selling all of my Hennessy Junk, I will list photo's later today. Two hammocks, three rainflys, new never used Monsoon with two doors, Cub and rainfly. Oh yes and one of his XL Poncho/rainfly out of silnylon.

I guess be very careful about buying Hennessy, if he is only responsible for gear he sells directly from his company, I do not know why he puts his name on it if he is not interested in standing by his products.
I was willing to pay for the repairs, he just was not willing to do them.

Eagles Nest may be a beginner, but they were great when I had a problem, they took care of my issue right-a-way, I would have paid them, they just took care of the problem for me. That earns loyality.

I looked at lots of Hammocks last weekend, I even won a DO IT YOURSELFER, that I am looking forward to finishing with in the next day or two. There are lots of Start-Up-Companies that are going to stand behind their products. I am going to switch to them. Sometimes companies along with people get too big, and forget where they come from. Reputations are the difference between win and loose in this economy!

I am not unreasonable, but I expect to go back to the marketer and say I have need of a simple repair, I want your company to repair your gear, I will pay for the service and the shipping. Then I expect to be treated in a respectful manner, and either be told we will repair, or we do not repair. The hammock is out of warrantee, I expected to pay, not have a debate on where it was purchased. If Hennessy is not going to repair anything except what he has sold from his Web Site, that should be stated in his terms of purchase!

hard to judge without more details. I can't believe they won't back the products they sell regardless of where they were manufactured. Haven't needed to go back to them on anything but frankly are you saying this was a defect you only noticed recently after having/using his product for how long?

Gideon

That's sad to hear -
I've never really had any issues dealing with him personally - I've had to deal with him directly on some mods that I needed to address some physical limitations I have - I didn't buy my kit from him directly, and he knew this from the start.

He's told me on many occasions that he doesn't want me to ship it back to him so he can do the work because its going to cost me $40 just to get across customs - and that could get very expensive for me everytime I would have to ship it back and forth to have any tweaks done to the mods -

But he never really just 'left it there' like that - he would always follow up with, "but we can do 'xyz' and I could ship that to you, then you could try installing that yourself"

Who know, maybe it was Keltie or Stephen's day off and the other was sick, he's not had to do the job of answering phones (all day) in a really long time, maybe it was just getting to him...

I'd say give 'em a second chance, maybe even follow up with an email and see if there are any other resolutions available.

........ but, on the other hand, I really like his products, so if you really do plan on selling everything out... PM me, I'll probably be willing to buy some of it off of you straight away....... :D

wow, this is in stark contrast to the customer service i received from them, they went WAY above and beyond what i ever expected from them to make my experience in dealing with hennessy just great

boot

I got great customer service too.

Sounds atypical, all my interactions with HH (purchases, post-purchase fixes, etc) have been nothing less than excellent. Did you buy the hammock used? From a different retailer? I'd like to hear some more details. Also let us know when you're putting all your gear up in the For Sale forum.

I'm waiting for the sale posting.....

I've had nothing but excellent response to any issue that I've ever had with any Hennessy product. I've been using Tom's hammocks since he first started marketing them.

Maybe you just caught him on a bad day ... we all have them. I've been dealing with him off and on since 2001 and seriously I've not had a single issue that hasn't been addressed or they've tried to give me an option on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HURTHEART

:
Mr. Hennessy was not very helpful when I enquired about the cost of having the rope repaired. He did not want to answer my question about if the fly was worth having repaired, the damaged area is .125 inches by about 6 inches long. If I did not buy it directly from him, they want nothing to do with it.

I am not unreasonable, but I expect to go back to the marketer and say I have need of a simple repair, I want your company to repair your gear, I will pay for the service and the shipping. Then I expect to be treated in a respectful manner, and either be told we will repair, or we do not repair. The hammock is out of warrantee, I expected to pay, not have a debate on where it was purchased. If Hennessy is not going to repair anything except what he has sold from his Web Site, that should be stated in his terms of purchase!

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I'm awfully curious as to how the phone conversation actually went.

A large part of my job is customer service and I've seen examples of poor communication on either side of the conversation leading to an unsatisfied customer.

I've also seen the service provider do everything they could to satisfy the customer, and that customer was just determined to be upset, and went on to do their best to discredit the person they had spoken with.

I am at a loss of comprehension. If you spoke to the business owner, told them you were aware that the item was out of warranty but you're pleased with their product so much that when you encountered a problem, that you wanted it repaired. Not only did you want it repaired, that you trusted the company that manufactured the product to such a degree, you decided to check with them first to see what it would cost to have them repair it.

I don't understand, how if this is what was expressed by you, why the man at the other end of the phone couldn't give you a clear answer. That in fact his answer left you feeling so offended, you needed to come here and express your displeasure to the point of offering to sell off all of their products that you own. Products that up until you made the phone call you were very pleased with, enough you were willing to pay for repairs, and now you're labeling as "junk".

I think everyone should wait until Tom has input and a resolution has been reached before anyone judges or suggests anything.

There was a lot of noise, banter and general negativity going here. I started hanging out here (pun intended) 2+ years ago due to the respectful, non-flaming nature of this community. Let's keep it this way.

Please keep the posts on topic, and avoid personal attacks.

I just got on Hammock Forums to post an update on a HH tarp problem I came to the forum with a week or so ago. http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=58167

I came to post that I had a terrific resolution in dealing with Ann (and indirectly with Tom) in the past few days. So, my experience in this past week is that they were very happy to work with me to replace a defective tarp.

Moreover, they knew from the start that I did not buy the tarp directly from them (I used an online only retailer because they had the best price), and that the tarp was about 3 months out of warranty. Nonetheless, they're replacing the tarp for free.

I can't comment on what happened with the original poster, but I can say without hesitation that I was impressed with the customer service I received, and specifically with my interactions with Ann.