As I’m looking at new boats, I called up Old Town today looking for information on the Appalachian, specifically rocker measurements. To my surprise, I had to be transferred three times to get this information as nobody seemed to know.
It shocked me that this information wouldn’t be able to be immediately provided by their customer service reps. Is it me or does anyone else find this funny too?
unfortunately I
have found too many people just don’t get into what they are selling or have the product knowledge. Doesn’t seem to matter what I am asking about ,good employees are few and far between as far as product knowledge. Good news is there is always 1 or 2 who know everything or darn near,just got to get the right 1.
Don’t even get
me started. Let me just say,some of us are getting darn good and sick of it and are complaining with our feet. We’re leaving and we are dealers!
My experiences with Old Town
were excellent. After placing an order with them, THEY made a mistake in billing my credit card, THEY called me before I even knew they had made a mistake, and THEY corrected the problem immediately. The guy who made the mistake called me personally and handled everything himself. My order arrived within a few days. I was VERY impressed with their customer service.
For what it’s worth…
…there is no universally accepted industry standard for how canoe rocker is measured. Each manufacturer seems to have their own system for measuring rocker specs – if they measure/list them at all. This seems like a basic issue that needs to be addressed, but until such time as the industry as a whole adopts a “universal rocker standard” there will be no hard and fast answer to such questions. Strange but true. This is not a problem that is at all unique to Old Town or their employees.
Old Town has excellent Service
in my experience. Maybe you had bad luck that day with folks not knowing or doing too many things at once? They sometimes take up to 2 days to respond to e-mails but they always get back to me with relevant info when I send questions. Great boats. Great Accessories. Great Service for the past 5 years I’ve dealt with them.
I’m sure
that OT knows what its talking about regarding its boats, I’m just saying that it surprised me that I had to be transferred three times to get a the answer to a relatively easy question. What really shocked me was when the first woman I spoke to said, “The Appalachian is the whitewater boat, right?”. That didn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
I’ve had good luck with OT…
They have a service that you can email them with questions and I’ve always gotten a replies…
Why?
What happened?
Funny
"Is it me or does anyone else find this funny too?" (From your original post.)
"the first woman I spoke to said, “The Appalachian is the whitewater boat, right?”. (From another one)
Could it be the first woman was the receptionist? Who’s probably paid to answer the phone rather than technical questions? What I find funny (not really) is that you’re publicly blasting the entire company because your call had to be transferred in order for them to give you the correct answer. If nobody knew the answer, that would be a problem. But they transferred you a few times to make sure you got the RIGHT answer. Is their taking the time to do that for you really poor customer service? As I said before, my experiences with Old Town were GREAT. I would definitely buy from them again. And their customer service is a big reason for that.
Wrong department
You should have asked for the marine architect not customer service.
pleasant experience for us
I was pleasantly surprised at how responsive they were to us on info about a 20 yr old boat that we bought used. I’m happy to talk to humans or get personal e-mails these days.
I think I heard that they are part of a larger company, now. Hopefully they won’t change for the worse. We have had excellent experiences with them at the ‘headquarters’ and with their reps at Canoecopia. We are customers and not dealers, but happy customers.
Arkay is right about rocker measurments. There are several variables that determine rocker and not everybody means the same exact thing or measures it the same way.
If I had made the phone all, I would have been very pleased that the first person to answer the phone didn’t give me bad info just to appear competent and get rid of me.
OTC
I’ve had very good customer service experiences with Old Town. I’ve used their email address in the past to send questions, and they have responded with good relevant info every time.
Old Town is owned by a company called Johnson Outdoors, which owns a long line of outdoor-related companies. Not sure how long they’ve owned OTC, but it’s been a while. Good to see the big company ownership hasn’t impacted their service to retail customers. Can’t speak for dealers though.
Good Luck for Me
The 2003 catalog I have doesn’t list rocker. So that information might be a little more detailed than you could expect out of front office staff of a large business like Old Town.
OT was very helpful both times I’ve contacted them by email. Once with a packet of information on a 25 year old canoe, including the name of the original purchaser, a livery. The second inquiry was about getting a big indentation out of a polylink 3 kayak hull.
That Appalachian looks like a fine downriver boat!
I guess they don’t want addition dealers
I have been trying to get info about becoming a dealer for 2 months. Still have no info from the rep. I guess they are doing so good they don’t need more dealers.
Old Town canoe Customer Service
I am very happy with Old Town Customer Service. The folks i’ve spoken with were knowledgeable about the 12 year old canoe that I’m reworking. They were actually more helpful than I could imagine. having also dealt with perception and som other vendors, they are a model of help IMHO.