Ffd Problem

[gary]

i was reading on another forum that a guy had purchased a box of decoys at a store that was sold out so they came from avery. the problem is that they were disfigured and missing on of the stands or something like that .don't know for sure all the details but what i do know is that when he tried to send them back they said he would have to pay the shipping himself if he wanted new ones. he then went to the sportsmans warehouse were they placed the order to avery who sent them from there store to his house all messed up. i was wondering if anyone new if this is how they handle themselves and affairs . if so , not to bash avery but i would be pissed if this happened to me and would be sure that everyone new thaat a company that is so big couldn't pay the shipping on there product that they sent defective . if anyone is curious to this issue it is on greatlakeswaterfowler.com . not trying to post spam for the site but i thought someone on here may have some pull to help this guy out. also i look down on the sportsmans warehouse for not sending them back for him or sending them from another store .i run alot of ghg's and have never had an issue with there products , but if this is how things are run i will never buy a avery or ghg product again . i'm a true beliver in customer service , i think it can make or break a company .

[mostek]

I am the person that Gary is talking about. This is the e-mail that I received from Avery president Tom Matthews.

Mr. Mostek,



My message exceeded the 5,000 character limit so I took the liberty of sending it to you via e-mail.



To begin with, I am very confused. Why would you have contacted Avery's Customer Service over a box of decoys you purchased from Sportsman's Warehouse? If you were not happy with your decoys, then the easiest and most reasonable thing to do would be to simply return them to the retailer. Sportsman's Warehouse purchased the decoys from Avery so Sportsman's Warehouse would simply send them back to us for credit at the end of the quarter just as they do every quarter. It is an accepted part of doing business. Now if you feel the need to go on multiple forums to tell everyone how bad you think Avery is, please feel free to do it because we can’t stop you nor do we even want to. Doing this might make you feel better or maybe it will make you feel like you “won” so please do whatever you believe is right. In the meantime, I simply want you to understand that Sportsman's Warehouse did not "cover your cost" or give you a new box "at their expense." What they did is what they and every other retailer in the world does every day: they took back a defective product and replaced it. For the life of me I cannot understand why you would have called us and asked us to pay to ship the decoys back to us rather than asking Sportsman's Warehouse to simply replace the defective product you had purchased from them. If anyone at Sportsman's Warehouse told you anything other than that, then they were wrong. I do not believe that anyone at Sportsman's Warehouse would have said anything other than bringing the decoys back to them for replacement was the appropriate thing to do. You did not say that anyone told you this so don't get me wrong - I am simply stating again that there is a very simple protocol that all consumers follow when they get home and find they have purchased a defective product: they take the product back to the retailer they bought if from to exchange it or get their money back. This goes for clothing, electronics, furniture, hardware and yes even decoys. Our Customer Service Department rarely, if ever, handles defective products that have never been used because consumers always return unused products to the retailer. Where our CS takes over is when a consumer has used the product and cannot return it to the original retailer. This is just the way it is done.



So I am very sorry if some consumers are unhappy with Avery's Customer Service, but it goes with the territory. We do everything we can to be helpful, but we can't win for losing. There is not another decoy manufacturer that makes itself available directly to consumers yet we are accused of being unfair when we tell consumers that they can either return a defective product to the retailer they bought the product from or ship the defective product back to us at their expense. Why would we pay to have a product shipped to Avery when Avery did not sell you the product directly? Please stick with me here because it is important that you understand what I am saying. Let's say you purchased a Benelli Super Black Eagle from Sportsman's Warehouse, but it would not cycle the first time you shot skeet with it. Would you call Benelli and ask them to pay to have the shotgun shipped back to their factory? Or would you take it straight back to Sportsman's Warehouse? If you are like 99% of consumers, you would take the gun back to Sportsman's Warehouse and either exchange it for a new one or get your money back. Please help me understand why Greenhead Gear decoys are different from Benelli shotguns. You bought the decoys from Sportsman's Warehouse yet you immediately came to Avery to fix the problem. Why? I appreciate the fact that you chose our brand, and I regret that you will not purchase our brand in the future but this, as I said earlier, goes with the territory. We do our best every day, but we come up short from time to time – we handle our shortcomings better than any other manufacturer in this industry regardless of what few chronically unhappy forum addicts on the Internet might say. Please consider their comments and advice carefully as many of them are simply dishonest and enjoy creating conflict. With that said, I am frustrated to hear about the poor quality of the decoys you received, and I want to personally apologize to you for the time and trouble it has caused you. There is no excuse for that, and I can only hope the carton of decoys you received was one of a kind. No matter how much I wish this had not happened to you, I cannot change our policy. What I can do is use your example with our factory and make sure they understand how every single carton of decoys is as important as if it were going to be shipped directly to me for my own personal use. Hopefully all of this will help us improve our quality, and I will have you to thank.



Mr. Mostek, my apology for the trouble our decoys have caused you is 100% sincere. I cannot, however, apologize for our Customer Service Department because they have a thankless job yet they do it professionally every day. There is not another manufacturer in the industry that makes itself as easy to contact as Avery does, and there is not another decoy company that has ever even offered a warranty in the first place. We know we have done great things for waterfowlers over the past 15 years, but we also know we cannot get everyone's business. Having said that, I want to tell you that Dave Smith makes awesome decoys that I can honestly recommend to you. Avery has never claimed to manufacture decoys that should be compared to DSDs, and we never will make this claim. We produce heavy-duty, realistic hunting decoys that are sold at very reasonable prices. What you might give up in DSD decoys' detail, you would more than make up in cost with GHG decoys - but many people don't care about the cost, and that is where we cannot compete with Dave's decoys. I have no experience with Dakota Decoys so I can't give you an informed opinion about them. Either of the brands you mentioned, however, will probably make you happier in the long run because of the bad experience you have had first with GHG decoys and then with Avery’s Customer Service. With all the problems with our economy and all the other horrible things going on in the world right now, it doesn't make much sense to me for a man to buy and use decoys that are going to make him unhappy. I hope you will have nothing but great hunts over the GHG decoys you bought.



Best regards,



Tom Matthews
__________________
Nick Mostek

[jamesmc]

I applaud Mr. Matthews with his response. I think he did a fantastic job and was very respectfull. I hope as well that you have better luck in the future with your future decoy purchases. Have a great season.

James

[BBB]

interesting response. the camo on my new benelli was chipping off way too easily after just a couple of hunts so i called them. they covered everything and my gun came back in perfect shape and has held up great ever since with just some minor wear from loading shells....bad example!

[mostek]

I thought the same thing. I bought a Beretta shotgun. I took it out and it jammed a few times. I called them. They sent a shipping sticker for their cost. It went to the factory, they fixed the problem and sent it back to me within the week. They didn't ask where I bought it or why I didn't bring it back to the store. They just fixed the problem.

[ksgoosekilr]

Yep ditto with the gun thing...in a heartbeat Benelli would send you a shipping label to send a defective gun back. No offense but sometimes half the people in retail stores don't really know what they are doing so I go straight to the manufacturer. Just because they bought it somewhere else does not mean that the company shouldn't cover it.

G&H decoys paid to have some defective decoys (yes paint on some newer ones) shipped back and gave us extra for our troubles. The owner ("Duck") even let us keep the decoys with the problems and hunt over them until the end of the season (prime time of duck season here). Bigfoot decoys don't care where they came from...they are THEIR decoys no matter what: not Cabelas, Sportsmans, Bass Pro, etc.

Just my .02

[Garrett Stites]

I thought the same thing. I bought a Beretta shotgun. I took it out and it jammed a few times. I called them. They sent a shipping sticker for their cost. It went to the factory, they fixed the problem and sent it back to me within the week. They didn't ask where I bought it or why I didn't bring it back to the store. They just fixed the problem.

I can vouch for that I had a benelli nova blow up on me last year. The scariest thing of my life, the malfunction wasnt even from the gun it was from the remington shell, benelli sent me a new gun even though it was remingtons problem. All remington did was send me a letter saying sorry for any inconvience that it cause me :mad:

[Hansen]

Based on the first paragraph from Mathews why does Avery have Customer Service at all? Why not have all your customers return their defective items to retailers like Cabelas, Macks, Sportsman et. al and have the retailers deal with Avery?

[Rick Frisch]

I think you are right in your post about having the customer handle any returns. It is something we are going to do in the future.

Up to this point, we were doing it to make it easier and faster for people with problems. Obviously, we can't make everybody happy with our policies. When they aren't happy with the result, they first thing they have to do is go on the Internet and stir up trouble. These policies are in place for reasons. Many of which we have been burned on more than one occasion before. I know there are going to be those of you that say there are exceptions. We tried to do our best to deal with them as they come up. I guess we need to stick to the policy as it is written.

The request by Nick Mostek is just not reasonable. Why did he not just call customer service and let them know what they problem was? To request a completely new box of decoys is just not smart economically because of the freight costs involved. I guess it is alright for us to incur the freight costs, but not for him. Had he called and explained his problems, he could have had the PARTS shipped to him at no cost and fixed the problems very easily. He had it in his mind that he should get a whole new box of decoys. Who among us would not have just requested the parts to fix the problems?

To me his rant on all these other forums is like a child that sits there and screams to get what he wants. Any parent knows that at some point, you have to let them be until they quit. His problem is that he just can't stop. For him to take Tom Matthews comments from a PERSONAL e-mail and post them on all these other forums is really uncalled for.

I have to wonder if there isn't something else motivating him to have to stir up trouble for a company that has done nothing but bring the latest and greatest products to the market at a cost that is second to none.

We just can't win.

[boos1906]

After reading all this I believe I will go with a different company other than avery. I was going to be spending several thousand dollars on avery decoys but I believe I will take my business to big foot or dakotas

[Zach Byron]

After reading all this I believe I will go with a different company other than avery. I was going to be spending several thousand dollars on avery decoys but I believe I will take my business to big foot or dakotas

Of course you were, and you obviously have NEVER worked retail either. People are ridiculous, thinking THEY are the only ones who ever have a problem and whine like children, just as Rick said, until they get their way. Yes, the customer does have the power, but come on, if they offer to ship you the parts to fix the problem, and you deny that, that is just being stubborn and unfair! A company can only do so much to help its customers. If they sent every person that had a flaw a new box of decoys, they wouldnt be in business!

[Josh Noble]

Nick,
After working for Sportsman's Warehouse for over seven years both in sales and purchasing I find it interesting that you'd go straight to a manufacture with an UNUSED factory defect. I dealt with returns on a daily basis while working for Sportsman's and more times than not the returned merchandise was swapped out instantly to keep the customer happy. These defective products were then sent back to their respective factories for credit. Again this happens everyday. Like others have said I'm truly sorry that you were disappointed with your GHG purchase and contrary to some of the other statements about our customer service while working for Sportsman's Avery's customer service was far and away the easiest and fastest to deal with.

On a different note I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to accomplish by posting Mr. Tom Matthews email on a public forum but in my view that's extremely questionable. To each there own however I'd hope that in the future when someone sends you a personnel email you keep it just that personal.

Sportsman's Warehouse is a great organization that sales some of the best outdoor gear made including Avery and Greenhead Gear. I'm glad to hear that Sportsman's Warehouse took care of the issue and I'm sure your future hunts with those decoys will be great ones.

Respectfully,
Josh

[Curt Wilson]

It would be my thinking to go back to the store that I purchased the decoys from. For one, it would be easier and 2 it would be quicker than getting parts or new decoys direct from the Avery office. I just don't understand the reason for posting an email like that unless you just wanted to stir things up even more. I am sorry for the inconvenience that you had with the decoys and I hope it does not happen again.

[Travis Mueller]

Boy after reading what Tom wrote, I cannot for the life of me see where there's a problem. What more can we do? I ask that sincerely. What more can a company do? We offer a forum where the president of the company is accesible, full time employees are always there to add a helping hand, and in many cases go way above and beyond when someone asks for a problem to be resolved in a professional matter. And we offer a true one year warranty that is abused daily. Guy's we will help as much as possible and apologize if it's not enough for some. It seems one oh sh-t wipes out 10 attaboys. And in this case I don't know if we could of done anything to please Mr. Mostek.
I wish we could post up all the good notes we get like Jiffy Lube on a bulletin board on here. Amazingly we get them daily.

[Christian Curtis]

The posting of Mr. Matthews personal email was over the top. He took the time to write a personal email respectfully stating the policy and procedure and the reason for those policies and he posted it. To me that is disrespectful and totally unnecessary. I think we provided the avenues to correct the gentleman's problems and he was obviously not interested in this but more interested in stirring the internet pot.

[calling4life]

Yes, but you are supposed to get things right, it's why we pay you.

We don't pay for a decoy that has paint flaking off while they are still new and in the plastic wrapping (the blue floaters), we don't pay to have the heads on our FFD lessers break while we are assembling them, yet another thread. Etc... Etc...

If you want to know what Avery can do, I say look no further than quality control before shipping the decoys out.

Your paint needs to hold, your head connections need to fit correctly, flocking cannot come off simply from a decoy getting wet (they are used outside).

We don't pay for flaws and you cannot expect people to be happy when that is what they get, posting problems on the internet is every bit of their right, and allows others to gain information on a product and company.

You can point fingers at unhappy customers all you want, but the fact is still that the decoys come from you.
You want these unhappy customer threads to stop, you need better quality control, otherwise it is just another one of lifes obstacles to put up with.
And yes we understand stuff happens, and we can grasp that sometimes it's the shipping, or abuse in the store. Quality control is still the issue.

Simple or not, that would fix it. Or just say F' it and hey that works too.:D

[BBB]

I totally agree callin4life. The term 'quality control' keeps coming to mind in all of these post but I guess all the avery puppets want to skirt the issue and wine about this guy posting an email from Tom Matthews.
The guy paid for:
"- RealMotion System for lifelike movement in the slightest breezes" but had decoys with out the realmotion cone or unable to move 'lifelike'
He also paid for:
"- Electrostatic flocking process yields amazing adhesion and durability" and the flocking was coming off out of the box?
In my mind, he should be able to take a picture and if cs sees a true defect, the number of defective decoys should be replaced for free and mailed on averys dime to his house. Unlike what tommy boy believes benelli does. I am pretty sure the customer didnt see an asterik on the display that said some decoys may be defective so keep your box and receipt so you can bring the defective ones back to the store at your inconvenience.
I bought a pack of motion cones from sw to convert my bigfoot snows to save space in the trailer and add motion. what i found was the nut wasn't installed in the cones or had fallen out along with a few that were not in correctly. Avery cs had me take a picture, and they promptly replaced them at their expense. it was a smooth process and handled very well. I know decoys are bulky and shipping can be high but this guy didnt get what he paid for or saw in the product description...plain and simple.
With all these threads about head connections, blue floaters, etc. customers might need to start doing their quality control on their own right in sportsmans warehouse or in the parking lot. i know it would be a mess pulling out all the decoys given the large qtys some of us buy, but it doesnt appear these are isolated cases.
my guess is there are going be some unhappy customers opening up blue floaters as guys start stocking up for spring hunting.

[j worrell]

This is exactly why I DON'T miss retail. Customers like you. You whine and complain and bad mouth NO MATTER what the retailer or company are willing to do for you. I've had a couple problems with Avery decoys I've purchased but the problems I've had have been taken care of promptly by Avery. I'm sure if I had been obnoxious and stubborn like yourself it may not have been so easy. Good luck to you.

Jamie

[Dirt_Bag]

Its a no Brainer....When you buy a car you dont take it back to "Deroit" You take it to the dealer where you bought it.

You get a gallon of bad milk, You dont take it back to the farmer

OK KIDS DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING.......

BUT PLEASE STOP BASHING.

I'm no Avery Wh**e, I will buy what fits me best, I Will not buy any GHG deeks this year. I feel Avery has let down the duck hunter this year with no new FB's (wigeon)hint hint. But I wont bash them for it.

[calling4life]

Hey now, I wasn't bashing, he asked what more Avery could do.

I agree he should have just brought it back to the store, but if the store is a long ways away, I would also like to be able to call avery and see what they can do for me.

If Avery wants the threads and talk about poor quality on forums to stop, look at quality control.

It's not bashing it's just an answer, people can't post problems if there are none.

You always have people that will find something to complain about, but heads breaking on new decoys, paint flaking off while still in the dang box, flocking peeling off, these are legitimate problems.

[jamesmc]

I just feel bad for that dang horse.

[Tony Vandemore]

Does anybody even have time to hunt anymore?!

[cottonwoodsman]

This is a hunting forum?

[OutForBlood87]

Does anybody even have time to hunt anymore?!
Dang Tony where have you been(probably hunting)? Hunting is SO 2007 and isnt cool anymore.

The new thing is to become so bored and irritated by little things and then make a big deal out of it. Get with the program Tony:p

[calling4life]

Does anybody even have time to hunt anymore?!

Does Avery have anytime to work on their products anymore???

You know we can say sh** like this too.

If you don't want to discuss problems, that's fine, but don't expect the people that have problems to stop with these threads.

It is simple. And it's hurting your company.

A thread such as this may just make Avery improve their quality control which will then affect your hunting, but no thanks is in order to the people that are attempting to help out.

If you read that gentleman's e-mail he did say he would take the quality control issue back and see what he can do, that is great, and well worth this effort.

The people that hurt threads like this are the people that say stupid crap just insulting instead of trying to create solutions to solve the problem.

The fact remains there was a problem here, if YOU don't care, then don't post. Meanwhile those of us that would like to try to get some stuff done will argue for the little guy, even though it seems to be a futile effort. :eek:

[jamesmc]

The fact remains there was a problem here, if YOU don't care, then don't post. Meanwhile those of us that would like to try to get some stuff done will argue for the little guy, even though it seems to be a futile effort. :eek:

You are right there was a problem here and it was answered in a respectfull way and the guy was given multiple avenues to have the problem solved but instead of getting the problem fixed and being done with it he chose to bash avery on every forum he is a member of. Here is a great saying that goes along with this.....
YOU CANT SQUEEZE BLOOD FROM A TURNIP.....
Every possible option has been offered to help him out and it's not good enough unless he has a completely new box of decoys. What more do you guys want....?? Do you want someones head to roll? Do you want a lynching? I mean shit fire just get your problems resolved and be done with it.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q272/jittermc/beating-a-dead-horse.gif

[calling4life]

NO

I am also referring to other problems, I just don't feel like started a whole "lets argue with avery thread":D

This guys problem was covered, it sounds like he may be the problem, so you guys can't do much about that.

It's just a good area to bring up quality control and try to, pray to have avery take a close look at what they can do here.

Don't lump me in with the guys that were just here to insult Avery either, I may argue for the little guy, but I am not here to insult or degrade Avery.

[Dirt_Bag]

You are right there was a problem here and it was answered in a respectfull way and the guy was given multiple avenues to have the problem solved but instead of getting the problem fixed and being done with it he chose to bash avery on every forum he is a member of. Here is a great saying that goes along with this.....
YOU CANT SQUEEZE BLOOD FROM A TURNIP.....
Every possible option has been offered to help him out and it's not good enough unless he has a completely new box of decoys. What more do you guys want....?? Do you want someones head to roll? Do you want a lynching? I mean shit fire just get your problems resolved and be done with it.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q272/jittermc/beating-a-dead-horse.gif

^^^^RIGHT ON THE MONEY JAMES^^^^O by the way do you need a cleanex hehehehe O well you know hahahaha

[Band Man1]

Does anybody even have time to hunt anymore?!


Sure, the poor guy just dont have any decoys to HUNT with :D

[Scott Turpen]

I try and stay celar of these things but has anyone thought about how many decoys Avery makes every year. Just like every other thing we buy that is mass produced, mistakes happen, things get messed up in shipping and unloading. Cars, TV's, appliances you see where I'm going just because a box of decoys was messed up people start saying the're going to use a different company. If everybody did that then nobody would buy anything from anybody simply because no one person or company much less a maunfacturing process is perfect. We don't live in perfect world.



I hear wings..................

[Buck Shot]

I purchased a ground force dog blind. I used it about 6 times and a seam along the bottom tore out of it. I took it back to the store where I purchased it, They were no longer selling Avery products. I got ahold of a customer service rep and he had me send him a copy of the reciept to him. After he got the copy he E-mailed me that i would need to ship the blind back to avery.
It would have cost me $17 to ship the blind back. I decided it would be cheaper for me to get it fixed locally for $6. If I would have had some kind of voucher i would have sent it back to avery.
Now I'm sure there are some that would say that I could have had a new blind for $17. But to me it would have cost the original purchase price plus $17 for a new blind.

[kwikone]

Understand these comments come from someone who absolutely lives the 'customer serivce' lifestyle everyday.

First let's forget the notion that the 'customer is always right'. Fact is, and I can say this with complete honesty, the customer isn't always right. MY customers range from parents, to teachers, to students, to bus drivers, to community members etc. etc. Quite frankly some of my customers, come to me with less than pure motives. I wish it weren't true but we're dealing with human beings bringing to the table human emotions. When a customer feels they have been wronged, cheated, mislead or whatever, they bring a personal history with them by which they view the ultimate solution should be to solve their problem. The best I can do as a recipient of this complaint is to listen and understand to the best of my ability what options exist for the best case scenario of "win win".

Companies, like schools, have policies for one and one reason only. Adopted policy gives us a best universal framework to help guide us when problems arise. Pure and simple. In short, policies are in place to assist those asked to enforce them, a means to ensure the best possible solution to a problem for consistent application across multiple settings and multiple scenarios.

Shifting gears to 'best practice' is the interpretation of a policy when all things are considered. Personally, I don't know Avery's return policy. Yes I buy lots of Avery products and most have been very good and some I wish were a little better (Like the neoprene thermos. :rolleyes: ) What I do know is that if I truly didn't want to keep my thermos I would bring it back to Scheels (Receipt needed.) for some sort of solution. A 'damaged' thermos the same thing. Scheels for example, as the vendor selling Avery products, would probably drop the Avery line of thermoses if THEY received enough complaints. It's not good business for them to associate their name with a line of products the consumer is no longer buying or unhappy with. That's business and I'm sure Avery understands this.

For one, I have had wonderful experiences with the Avery line of products. This situation may be a system issue that Avery may want to evaluate. I don't know. I would have to concur that I don't understand why Avery was contacted directly for some sort of resolution in this case. I personally have driven 150 miles to a Cabela's to return some decoys (Not GHG by the way and I didn't have a receipt.) I wasn't satisfied with. Cabela's customer service was exceptional. I certainly didn't expect the manufacturer to solve my problem UNLESS Cabela's wouldn't solve my problem. Get the point?

[Ramie Denzel]

You people that complain are pathetic!!! Not everyone and everything is perfect!!!

[Lorne]

I try and stay celar of these things but has anyone thought about how many decoys Avery makes every year. Just like every other thing we buy that is mass produced, mistakes happen, things get messed up in shipping and unloading. Cars, TV's, appliances you see where I'm going just because a box of decoys was messed up people start saying the're going to use a different company. If everybody did that then nobody would buy anything from anybody simply because no one person or company much less a maunfacturing process is perfect. We don't live in perfect world.



I hear wings..................

YOu have any idea on how many decys avery SELLS in a year? and lets not even count all the other stuff they sell. saying that paying some dudes shipping or 500 dudes shipping for that matter is going to drive up decoy prices is ridiculous. Btw, im not taking sides, i think the guy should bring them to the retailer but some comments from both sides are retarded

[weeberface]

I'm with the guy on this one. Avery should have paid the shipping back. Its the LEAST they could have done for even letting a defective decoy get out of their factory.

I work at a retail store and more and more companies are requesting customers send defective things back themselves, free of charge, simply to clear any hard feelings that may be lingering. Companies such as Nike, Adidas, Oakley, Under Armour, all want more interaction with their customers. It boggles my mind why Avery, which is obviously a multi-million dollar franchise, would not want the same. In retail theres a saying that goes around. 1 unhappy customer tells 2 or 3 friends, and they tell 2 or 3 friends, and soon enough you have 50 torqued off people because one person got a bad deal.

I garuntee you Avery lost a few customers over this deal, whether it be people reading this blog, or friends of the guy involved. It would be one thing if Avery was the only company that sold such products, but with more and more demand for hunting goods, more and more companies are putting out better products to catch up with Avery and FA.

Its just to bad for Avery in this deal, 20 dollars given to the consumer may have translated in to hundreds or even thousands of dollars in increased revenue back to their company. If the customer is happy they're going to come back, if they're unhappy, they will go somewhere else. There is always somewhere else.

Sure the guy could have taken them back to the retailer, but what alot of people fail to understand is that the retailer, was hours away from where he lived. I really don't like to take sides, and there is definatley light on both sides of the fence here, I am just explaining what this situation does for Avery. I really could care less about whether they do or don't fix them for free or whatever.

It's not going to stop me from buying Avery decoys, because they are the best out there, but it probably stopped this guy, and his hunting buddies, and probably more people that this guy talks to, or people who read this forum.

I personally too had a problem with some GHG decoys with the neck locking system. I didn't want to deal with any crap so i just used a 1 5/8'' sheet rock screw and screwed the head in. Looks fine, but obviously not what I payed for. Oh well, you can't win them all.

[jamesmc]

This should not have been an "AVERY" problem to begin with. All he had to do was take them back to the store that is right down the road from his house and PROBLEM SOLVED. Seems like you guys are missing the point. He had an easy fix and chose to stir up crap here and on other forums he is a member of.

[Rick Frisch]

Guys,

This bashing us for QC is way out of control. We will never admit that we are perfect, but we get better every year. Our QC department does spot check every production run before it leaves the factory. These few paint issues that hear about will not show up between when those decoys are finished being painted and boxed up ready to ship. It comes from a decoy or part of a decoy missing a step in the paint process. Granted that our first year in the decoy business we had a big issue with the Hot Buy decoys. It was mainly isolated to the first two containers and we fixed the problem from there on. You guys would not believe the returns we took that first year. They filled up 1/4 of our Memphis Warehouse. We had decoys returned to us because paint was coming off the size of a pin head. I am not even kidding on this one. We had other manufactures decoys return to us. Again, not kidding. It was unbelievable the stuff returned just because they heard that GHG had a paint problem. Most of you would have looked at the decoys and been in awe over it.

I was in Memphis last week and our return area was only about six pallets and a lot of that was stuff used on media hunts or photo shoots. We have improved our quality every year and will continue to improve it.

I just want to address a some of the problems that I have been hearing about.

Problem - Lesser heads break. We purposely changed the head connection and made it tighter because of all the complaints that we got about the heads falling off. There is going to be give and take by doing this. A - we have less complaints about heads falling off, but B - we have some complaints about the heads breaking. The B complaints are way less than what we had for A complaints. Did we make the right move?

Problem - NeoBottle. What can possibly be wrong with a NeoBottle? These things are darn near bullet proof. Send me a PM of what you issue is and I will see what we can do to help.

Problem - Comparing us to other manufacturers. We are doing everything in our power to keep the prices on decoys affordable. Here is some proof. One decoy mentioned retail for roughly $37.50 each for a standard flocked head decoy with a painted body. This decoy is similar to our Pro-Grade with retails for $28.33 each. Our FFD series only retail for about $32.50 when you take out the price of the slotted bag. The other manufacturer is higher than the example above. Please see that we are trying to keep our prices economical for everybody.

I applaud the guy for taking care of his dog blind by himself (please send me a PM with your address). As insignificant as some of you think it is to shipping product all over the place it does add to the cost of doing business. The lower we can keep that cost the lower we can sell our products for.

Thanks for the time. Now do like Tony said and get out there and hunt. Winter is just around the corner.

The bottom line is that there are choices out there. He hope you continue to buy Avery/GHG products.

[Birdie Retriever]

Well put Rick!

Of all the comments on this topic so far I believe that your last post puts things into perspective the best.

I had some paint issues with the original "Hot Buys" and even though I was not able to return them I NOW understand that mistakes happen and it is good to see that whenever Avery has a Qualty Control issue they look for ways to improve it!

I don't have a dog in this current fight for either side but the only thing I will say is, that as a hunter, we are lucky to have a company like Avery!

Hunting product innovations have grown leaps and bounds since they joined the party! They have forced other companies to improve their own products and prices which in turn benefits the consumer.

IMO the Avery Sporting Dog line is the most innovative and affordable product line available to us "Dog Nuts"! I just bought some Avery Hexa-bumpers and for the price they are the best thing out there! I am looking forward to getting an ATB soon (hopefully from Santa) and I am sure it will be another great product from Avery!

Keep churning out great products and I would personally like to thank all of you at Avery for your hard work!

[Dirt_Bag]

You can please some people, most of the time. You can please some people,some of the time. And their is some people you will never please.

[Zach Meyer]

Just let this die guys. Good god this gets old. No matter who you think is right or what side you want to take, lets drop it.

[Get Down Cover Up]

Come on guys tuff up some of you guys are just plain being sissy's about complaints if you hunt hard decoys wear, and paint chips is a fact of waterfowling nothing is ever going to be perfect work with what you got! As far as buying defect decoys ya it sucks but i bet if they were put into a field birds would still be killed over them, this thread is dumb and should be done!!

[Steelers]

I applaud the guy for posting up the reply from Tom.

You can see his mad emotion coming through quite clearly in his words.

Dont like the comments on the world wide web? Then dont read them.

If Avery dose not want the negativity on this web site about their products then shut the forums down.

I welcome the Avery Rah Rah lemmings to respond.

As far as the other decoys companies not being avalible to respond to consumers that is plain bullSh!t.

Give their phone number a call. You dont need some internet web site to communicate with them.

[Fall Flight]

Understand these comments come from someone who absolutely lives the 'customer serivce' lifestyle everyday.

First let's forget the notion that the 'customer is always right'. Fact is, and I can say this with complete honesty, the customer isn't always right. MY customers range from parents, to teachers, to students, to bus drivers, to community members etc. etc. Quite frankly some of my customers, come to me with less than pure motives. I wish it weren't true but we're dealing with human beings bringing to the table human emotions. When a customer feels they have been wronged, cheated, mislead or whatever, they bring a personal history with them by which they view the ultimate solution should be to solve their problem. The best I can do as a recipient of this complaint is to listen and understand to the best of my ability what options exist for the best case scenario of "win win".

Companies, like schools, have policies for one and one reason only. Adopted policy gives us a best universal framework to help guide us when problems arise. Pure and simple. In short, policies are in place to assist those asked to enforce them, a means to ensure the best possible solution to a problem for consistent application across multiple settings and multiple scenarios.

Shifting gears to 'best practice' is the interpretation of a policy when all things are considered. Personally, I don't know Avery's return policy. Yes I buy lots of Avery products and most have been very good and some I wish were a little better (Like the neoprene thermos. :rolleyes: ) What I do know is that if I truly didn't want to keep my thermos I would bring it back to Scheels (Receipt needed.) for some sort of solution. A 'damaged' thermos the same thing. Scheels for example, as the vendor selling Avery products, would probably drop the Avery line of thermoses if THEY received enough complaints. It's not good business for them to associate their name with a line of products the consumer is no longer buying or unhappy with. That's business and I'm sure Avery understands this.

For one, I have had wonderful experiences with the Avery line of products. This situation may be a system issue that Avery may want to evaluate. I don't know. I would have to concur that I don't understand why Avery was contacted directly for some sort of resolution in this case. I personally have driven 150 miles to a Cabela's to return some decoys (Not GHG by the way and I didn't have a receipt.) I wasn't satisfied with. Cabela's customer service was exceptional. I certainly didn't expect the manufacturer to solve my problem UNLESS Cabela's wouldn't solve my problem. Get the point?

Great post, I have owned my retail store (Franchise)for over 11 years now. We also have best practices one being we accept returns from other stores in the chain and seek reimbursement from our Franchisor for the difference.We deal with this stuff everyday, Hell today i started my day with 2 of my first 3 customers coming in for refunds. We write the product off get our credit bact and quarterly the Franchisor gets reimburement from the vendors. Any good retailer would deal with issues direct and work to keep the customer happy at all times.

[kwikone]

Zach my man I wish I could let this drop but I can't.;)

Guess I AM an Avery Lemming.

Where's that cliff? There it is! Dang. If God didn't put that cliff there I wouldn't have to jump off it. Oh well. The cliff is there so I guess I better jump off it!? What God? I have a choice?