Buyer Beware

What has happened to customer service? Before you say Covid-19, the China Flu, the Pandemic, etc. let me be a little more specific. When I say “Customer service” I mean, communication with you, the customer. In the statements that follow I am going to walk you through my recent experience with Artemis Overland Hardware. For all of you fan boys/girls out there, turn away now lest you get your feelings hurt.

In the Spring of 2020, I was in the middle of building out my JLU and overland trailer when the pandemic hit. I made it a point to purchase products & gear from well known businesses who are considered ”experts” in the overlanding community. Ninety-five percent of the vendors I chose were a pleasure to deal with. Communication was spot on, orders showed up when they were supposed to and everything was peachy. The other five percent, not so much. Artemis falls into this five percent along with a couple of other vendors, that will remain un-named. There is a reason I bring up Artemis by name.

Last fall I was talking to someone with a well known social media “personality” via direct message on Instagram about my experiences with Artemis in 2020. This person is friends with Aaron, the owner of Artemis. In our conversation he stated he was aware of my bad experiences with Artemis and that Aaron ”felt bad” I had such a negative experience. He went on to say he was trying to make changes and felt like things were better now than back in 2020.

In December 2021 I decided to place an order for a Goose Gear fridge slide from Artemis Overland Hardware to replace my current Dometic fridge slide. I purchased the Dometic slide on Amazon in 2020 because of another ”overlanding vendor” couldn’t get the slide I ordered. After a eight or nine week wait, I finally cancelled my order. I ordered this slide the next day and had it in three days. Go figure.

Full disclosure, when you place an order for Goose Gear products from a vendor, it is shipped directly from Goose Gear to the customer. I have no issues with this. When I placed the order I was aware of general 4-6 week lead time. Again, I have no issues with this. It’s the lack of information I have received when I have inquired about an update on my order. It’s the unanswered emails that I have an issue with. This is exactly what I dealt with in 2020. Unfortunately nothing has changed.

Friday morning, January 28th, I contacted Goose Gear directly about my fridge slide order. Guess what I found out? Goose Gear did not have a record of my order. That’s correct, an order I placed with Artemis Overland Hardware on December 22, 2021 never made it to Goose Gear. Needless to say I was just a little upset upon finding this out.

Once I got the news from Goose Gear that they didn’t have any record of an order for me, I attempted calling Artemis. This all happened a few mins before they opened at 10 am so I left a voice message and continued calling several times until Aaron answered the phone. He was apologetic and had no idea how my order had ”gotten lost”. I vented for several minutes explaining I sent an email January 10th following up on my order and received an email response January 11th saying my order was in ”process, and should ship any day”, this was at worst a lie, and at best what I would consider a lazy response by his customer “service rep”. There were a couple of emails after my January 10th email sent by me seeking more information that went unanswered. I am not sure in what world this is acceptable. Maybe this is just peachy if you fall into the fan boy/girl demographic I mentioned in the opening of this blog. Either that or you are an Overland Welfare recipient and these matters don’t concern you. Because who cares about customer service when you get your gear for free. Am I right?

Aaron stated he would do whatever he had to do to resolve the issue, including not charging me for the slide. Although this was a very generous offer, I declined. I am the last person who would accept free product, what I like to call, OVERLAND WELFARE, even in the middle of trying to resolve an issue with an order. Within a couple of hours the order was expedited and Saturday morning I received tracking information.

Aaron is a stand up guy but, as I told him on the phone later in the afternoon, he is only as good as the people he hires. That goes for any business. This was a failure of whatever system he has in place. We had a pleasant conversation on the phone and I wished him all the best in the future.

Had I not been persistent in following up on my order, I would still be sitting here waiting for a product that had never been ordered by Artemis Overland Hardware.

In closing, I’ll say this. Do not fall for all the glowing praise for vendors that you see on the various social media platforms. Do your research, check reviews of the company in question. More often than not, there is a clique of folks who sing the praises on their social media platforms, sponsored YouTube channels etc. because of the kickbacks they receive for promoting his ”awesome overland gear business”.

Buyer beware!

-Kevin