I’m real funny about clothes. Hell, most of my shit is over 20 years old and up until a couple of years ago anything I had bought new amounted to the same style jeans I have been wearing forever and t-shirts from vacation spots which have taken the place of t-shirts from concerts. I guess a lot of guys are pretty much the same way, with a few exceptions. I guess we are the same about hair styles as well.
Anyway, a couple of years ago I started noticing that there were a couple of companies that are manufacturing some pretty cool clothing. Roar and Affliction are a couple of them. I took a liking to quite a bit of the stuff that Affliction makes and sells. It’s up to date but still sort of ‘80s metal, which of course is when I came of age and my brain will always be partially stuck there. Never mind that I’m 44 and supposed to be past that crap.
So I started purchasing Affliction. Not a shitload but considering how much they charge for their stuff I probably have a couple grand invested. Since I am not a rock star or anything like that (except to my children) that’s quite a bit. Most of it I buy locally from the Buckle or occasionally online.
About a year ago I purchased a pair of jeans and almost immediately a button fell off the back pocket. WTF? No huge deal but I tried to get in touch with someone from the company and my emails went ignored. I never pursued it after that.
This past December I purchased myself a $600 leather jacket from Affliction through Buckle’s online store as a birthday gift to myself. Never mind that I got it during a great pre-Christmas sale, the going price was $600. As a matter of fact it was the same jacket I gave my son as a 21st birthday present last year. I liked it so much that I wanted it for myself and considering that my current jacket had finally started falling apart it was time to get a new one.
Anyway, flash forward to the end of January. The jacket has metal studs on the back and epaulets and three of them had already fallen off. Christ, as I mentioned I am 44. It’s not like I’m moshing in a pit or running through the woods or other stupid shit. I wear it to work and then come home. So I started emailing Affliction, asking how I could get it repaired or where I could find some replacement studs for the damned thing. No answer. So I emailed them again. And again. Still no fucking answer. At that point I posted to their Facebook page. I figured someone would see it, shit, they have something like 70,000 likes on their page and they post daily, usually several times.
Still no answer. Not only that but I think maybe they deleted the fucking message off their wall. Their wasn’t even any cussing in it. I was fairly polite as I always am until someone really pisses me off and I feel that I have no resort.
So I waited another week and finally emailed Buckle, which as I mentioned is who I purchased it through. The director of their Internet merchandising responded within 24 hours, recommending that I take it into the local store and show it to the manager. Since I am on vacation this week I stopped by a couple of days ago. While they don’t carry any replacement studs or anything like that the manager graciously took my jacket and apologized for the lack of customer service on Affliction’s part and they ordered me a brand new one, shipped straight to my house. I just tracked it a short while ago and it’s supposed to be here tomorrow. That’s pretty fucking expedited and nice on their part. Perhaps whoever is running the PR show for Affliction, who are so fucking worried about clothing Rock Stars and MMA fighters on my dime, should take a fucking lesson from Buckle. Of course the folks at Buckle realize that without consumers on their side they won’t have anyone to sell their stuff to. I guess Affliction doesn’t have to worry about that shit.
I was going to file a BBB complaint but since the company I actually did business with was Buckle I won’t but I did look up Affliction Clothing on the Better Business Bureau and guess what? They got an “F”. That figures. “F” doesn’t stand for fabulous or fucking awesome at the Better Business Bureau. What it does stand for though is this:
“We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.”
Damn, that’s harsh but it’s exactly what I have dealt with as well.
As much as I like the clothing and will probably continue to wear what I already own, I highly doubt I will ever spend another fucking red cent on anything manufactured by them again. There are plenty of folks who make quality stuff that will be more than willing to take my money and then answer any questions I have without making me kiss their fucking ass or jump through hoops to do it.