Warm Thoughts for a Cold Season

Three winters ago, I purchased a charcoal-black wool Pendleton winter coat. It was exceptionally warm with rain-resistant sleeves, and a large shearling-lined lambswool hood. Like all Pendleton products, it was beautifully sewn and made with the finest wool. I had purchased items from their catalogue before and never had any complaints.

The coat was costly; more than I would normally spend, but I wanted to be really warm. That coat would last a lifetime. Winter was balmy that year, so I did not wear it until late January. One thing bothered me: the coat was very narrow. It didn’t flare out below the hips enough for walking or sitting without putting a strain on the zipper.

A coat is cut narrow for one of two reasons: either to make people look thin and tall or because the maker wants tol save money by using less fabric. We all understand shrink-sizing by now…smaller boxes with the same prices. One sees cheaply made clothes in the big chain stores all the time. Walmart, Target, and Marshal’s sell clothes where the material is thinner, the sleeves, shorter, and the pants legs and shirts, skimpy. They are cheaply made and they quickly fall apart. But I trusted Pendleton; this had to be an honest mistake made by the coat's designer.

Still, I worried that the coat’s narrowness would strain the zipper. I should have returned it, but it was freezing outside by the time I actually wore it and the coat was incredibly warm. I was careful to unzip the bottom six inches when sitting or walking fast. This was not so easy. Double zippers are ornery things in the best of coats. Unless you position the two zippers just so, the slider gets jammed, or you zip  the top zipper all the way up, and the zipper separates. Still, the coat made it through two winters.

By the third winter, (this winter), I worried that the bottom zipper was going to break. I told myself not to worry; Pendleton products lasted forever. The winter started out mild, but by February, a blanket of Arctic air had settled over New England, refusing to budge. It was eight degrees outside when I noticed that the metal bar on the bottom zipper had, as I feared, ripped away from the cloth, making the zipper impossible to use. “But,” I told myself, “Pendleton stands by their products.”

The consumer service representative was friendly and helpful. She found my original order and suggested I take photos of the coat and the zipper for her to send to the outerwear department. “Perhaps they can send you a zipper,” she said. I told her I wanted them to install a new zipper, not send one to me. The coat was in perfect shape, otherwise. “Oh dear, I’m afraid they stopped making those coats,” she said.

“I can see why,” I told her. “I’m sure every coat like mine had a zipper that broke. It was a poor design.” I took her email address, put the coat on my dress dummy and took shots from all angles, including  close-ups of the torn zipper. Then I emailed them to her and waited two weeks before emailing her again. Several more frigid weeks passed. I was forced to buy a replacement coat (which was wider below the hips).

I sent a letter (return receipt requested) to John Bishop, President/Chief Executive Officer at Pendleton, explaining the issue and sent my coat photos, for good measure. I also wrote: “I am seventy-eight years old. I am not rough on my coat; I only weigh 125 pounds. I don’t run in it or do any activities that would put unnatural strain on the zipper. It is well-cared for and dry-cleaned each spring. I cannot buy a new coat every three years because the zipper has ripped so I would like Pendleton to install a new zipper. If the narrowness of the coat’s design causes a replacement zipper to rip over the next three years, at least I will have gotten five and a half year’s wear out of it. I will also continue to hold Pendleton in high regard and continue to buy from your company. Any company can have a product with an issue; the customer should not have to bear the cost of that mistake.” Sadly, John Bishop has not favored me with a reply. Pendleton has failed to take responsibility for their bad design. As a result, they will lose a good customer.

We live in an age where cheating and scamming the public to ensure higher profits for shareholders is taken for granted. Those in charge know people are so busy in their everyday lives that they haven’t the time or energy to return shoddy merchandise, spoiled food, much less speak to the manager. America is a Capitalist society where it is necessary to maintain the delicate balance of power between suppliers and consumers. “The customer is always right,” has become a laughable, archaic slogan. Things started changing around the time corporations attained “personhood” in the 1978 Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations “free speech” (meaning they may donate huge amounts of money to support agendas that benefit themselves). Formerly, only real humans could contribute money to ballot initiative campaigns. This, along with the public’s insatiable appetite for cheaper and cheaper products has had a bad effect upon what people (I’m referring to the ones with warm bodies and blood) will accept. The less we care about quality of the goods we buy, the less the other “people” (the legal entities separate from their owners that exist to create a profit for themselves) will care about their own integrity, the safety and condition of their products or the rights of their customers.

I may be naive, but I was hoping for an apology from John Bishop, for all the trouble his coat had put me through. I spent several weeks holding the coat closed by hand, hoping for either the weather to change or an offer from Pendleton to arrive, giving me a voucher for a better product that wouldn’t fall apart with normal use or an offer to repair my coat. Even ten bucks to purchase a heavy-duty zipper would have been a gesture of good will.

A local tailor is installing a new, sturdier zipper in my Pendleton coat for $50. It should last for many years now. I will not do business with Pendleton again, although most of their products are well-made. The fact that no one got back to me at all, after my calling, sending photos, emailing and, finally sending a registered letter to their president tells me that I am not worth their trouble. Therefore, they are not worth mine. I, alone, count for very little at Pendleton, or with any  large company or agency, including our government. But if everyone reading this warned others about Pendleton’s lack of customer service, and if all of those people spread the word, the company would eventually lose public support and business.

I advise you, dear Readers, to stop getting pushed around. If you purchase a bad product, take the time to return it. Be civil. Be firm. You may not obtain satisfaction, but you will feel good about yourself. You must be ready to stand by your convictions. The same is true for our current political situation. Rather than just grumbling on social media, take action to change things.

When corporations or governments grow so large that the people at the top ignore those of us on street-level, we can still be heard if we join together, forming a pyramid by standing on each other’s shoulders.