mark

Apr 12, 2017

Spyder great gear, lousy website, communication and support.

Spyder make great sports clothing, sadly that doesn't mean they run a great website. Summary, If you live in the US I'm sure you'll be OK, others should buy locally. I was excited to find that Spyder offer free international shipping for orders over a certain amount. First I ordered a jacket to take on a ski trip with plenty of time to get it. I waited, waited, finally after 10 days contacted them to receive a reply saying, "sorry that item is out of stock - didn't we tell you? " Frustrated I ordered another jacket and confirmed that it really was in stock with their support. I was careful to make sure the price was below the 150 euro import allowance for Europe so I'd have no customs problems. For some reason Spyder then put a higher value on their customs declaration (I paid 147 with delivery they put ~ 165 euros), so the jacket gets caught up in customs who demand 44 euros in tax and "fees" (fees being money for them to tell me that i owe them tax). I contact Spyder to ask them why the different price and inform them it's not been a great experience, they reply suggesting I'm lying about customs and that anyway, I should open a dispute with the tax office. Naturally I went and bought a different jacket locally. I've given them 2 stars because their products are good, but their site and support is terrible. Having dealt with them I suspect getting warranty support will also be difficult.