ZPACKS Customer Service

[Anthony O]

Good evening all,

Has anyone had issues with ZPacks customer service?

I’ve been trying to get information on receiving replacement stays for an Arc Haul/Zip (I own both). Yet, emails are unresponsive. It’s been almost a week now.

Is there a number to call?

This isn’t the service I expected from a cottage company. Hope this is due to COVID and not the norm with ZPacks.

[Anonymous]

I’ve sent two emails asking about some stuff but no reply.  Dunno

[Christopher Gilmore]

It’s more likely Joe is on a trip and doesn’t have cell coverage.

[Anthony O]

They don’t have other employees?

[Christopher Gilmore]

They might but I have never gotten an email from anyone else.

[Pedestrian]

I sent them an email more than a week back and finally heard back after nearly 10 days.

I was able to figure out a solution without their help…..

I’d guess they are a victim of their own success…..fast growth….inability to scale the business.

Unfortunately you just can’t clone Joe, not yet…..

 

 

[Ryan Jordan]

I know that at least Matt is out on a hike right now, he’s hiking the High Sierra Trail until the 9th. Not sure about Joe.

[Packman Pete]

Zpacks has more employees than just Matt and Joe. I finally heard back about an issue I had, but it took about a week. They are super busy, but have always been very courteous with me.

Patience, young padawan. Patience.

[Ken Larson]

Had a friend that was also looking for replies on the Arc Haul/Zip he ordered. Had him email Joe and he immediately received reply and notification that the pack is being prepared for shipment. Hard time for them in the middle of the virus increase I betting.

[Kevin Babione]

About two months ago I had emailed with some questions about the Nero and heard back within a day (and had my new Nero a couple of days later).  I’m hoping this is just temporary.

[Brett A]

Tens days ago I ordered several items for which I’m in no dire need of (cord, biners, DCF stuff sack, etc).  Received acknowledgement of the order but have received no notification of shipping.  Under normal circumstances I would have expected these to be stock items and shipped by now but considering the times I figured I would wait a bit before inquiring.  In the past they have always been prompt with shipping and any inquiries I may have had.  We’ll see.

[Anthony O]

We will see what happens. Still no response.

Kind of hard to have faith in products (although I assume these are top notch) when CS is lacking. Once I lose faith I kind of just sell off what I have and try another brand.

[Opogobalus]

ZPacks have a good number of employees – at least 35 according to LinkedIn. According l comments from claimed former staff members, the number of employees is higher at just under 100 (they laid off 30 people to be allowed to stay open during covid).

 
<p style=”text-align: center;”>In any case, poor customer service seems to have become the norm at ZPacks. There are several dozen questions a week at r/ultralight asking “how do I get in touch with ZPacks, they haven’t replied for 16 days” for the last few months. It’s not just Joe in his garage anymore.</p>

[Anonymous]

I placed an order with them.  Fingers crossed I guess for a timely transaction

[BH]

They’ve been unresponsive and borderline rude to me when I’ve contacted them. I’m done with zpacks.

[Eric Blanche]

Lately at least, they don’t seem to be sending out shipping notifications. Both myself and a friend experienced this within the last several months on different orders. I questioned it but my order was simply some lowly cordage and I quickly forgot about it.

 

Is this also what others are experiencing from zpacks?

[Anthony O]

It’s very surprising to have a cottage company with top tier priced products have such an inferior customer service support channel.

They’re gear is priced similar to other manufacturers, however, they’re customer service isn’t anywhere near their competitors.

I don’t want to sell off my zpacks gear but it’s beginning to come to that.

Love my arc haul and duplex, along with all other accessories but I would prefer better CS.

[Anonymous]

Hard to weight the odds of them vs the times we’re in at the moment.  I’m having trouble with other vendors as well, be it on line or even the local stores being low on stock.

[Todd T]

Not Zpacks specific, but the advantages of a cottage operation come with the disadvantages of a cottage operation.  For the most part I’ve found the tradeoff to tip in my favor.

[Dan]

I haven’t contacted them this year, but they were always responsive, polite, and helpful when I contacted them in the past, mainly about broken peak support rods in my Plexamid. They sent replacements, which also broke. And then over the winter they sent me the upgraded titanium rods unsolicited, but by then I had become accustomed to pitching the tent without the stays and decided I didn’t need them. I haven’t had any problems with my Arc Blast.

[Adrian Griffin]

Response was fine when I emailed them a year or two ago with a question about the fit of an Arc Blast I’d recently bought.

[Brett A]

Hmmm…

They just announced a new pack but still no word about the order I placed two weeks ago.  Go figure.

[Nick Gatel]

I’ve bought a few things from zPacks, most were about 8-10 years ago when they were smaller. Never had a problem. In fact, they were one of the better cottage companies when it came to communication. But they’ve gotten pretty big since then and we probably can’t say they are a “cottage” company any longer.

One thing has bothered my about BPL members here — they are often willing to put up with poor service — rationalizing that they are supporting a small business. But if we think about it, small companies should be able to communicate better. If you take your car to a small shop with 3 technicians, the communication will almost always be better than a big dealership with 100 technicians.

Nowadays many of the big companies make quality UL gear, which ups the competition of the smaller companies. Time to change!

This has bugged me so much, I wrote this on my blog over 7 years ago:

http://popupbackpacker.com/open-letter-to-the-backpacking-cottage-industry/

How difficult is it to create an auto-reply email if you won’t be able to respond in person right away? How difficult is it to post a message on a website if your company has delays due to some disaster like COVID or a hurricane?

Or better yet, why not communicate delays and work really hard to over-deliver?

I recently had this experience with a leaking NeoAir. I sent it in 3 days after their repair department re-opened after a 2 month closure:

I received a brand new NeoAir 9 days after I shipped my old one, which included the 4+ days it took for shipping each way.

http://popupbackpacker.com/is-your-neoair-mattress-leaking/

http://popupbackpacker.com/cascade-designs-therm-a-rest-neoair-for-the-win/

[Brett A]

Nick,

I had a similar experience with Exped, though it was before Covid.  Purchased an early model of the Duo and several baffles failed.  I called, explained the problem, they asked for a lot # off the pad and a replacement arrived in a few days.  Apparently a faulty lot in early models and they wasted no time it setting things right.  Excellent!

Reviewed my current order with Zpacks and forgot that I did order one item that was quoted as 2-3 weeks lead time.  Still within the window so I really can’t fault them at this point.

[Opogobalus]

Not Zpacks specific, but the advantages of a cottage operation come with the disadvantages of a cottage operation.  For the most part I’ve found the tradeoff to tip in my favor.

They’re not really a cottage anymore, though. They have a factory, have at least 30 employees and up to 100 (according to some folks claiming to work there, but that’s hard to verify).

Yeah, I’d give small business a bit of slack, especially in times like this. But ZPacks isn’t 3 friends working in a garage anymore, and from employee comments (see the reddit thread and their indeed reviews) they’re not very friendly to their staff either – so I don’t give ZPacks that extension.

Tarptent and Gossamer Gear presumably have scaled similarly – the latter having to move to overseas manufacturing. But the service and communication is still great.

[Author]

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