Good service from Kathmandu

I would agree. That's excellent service. Frankly, it is up to you to accept responsibility for the strap maintenance and in understanding the use of it. They didn't have to help you to that extent and perhaps to ensure they continue such service for everybody you should make the effort to reward them.

A couple of years back the service at Kathmandu used to be woefull. Staff in the branches did not seem to have the authority to settle complaints and they were also not allowed to reveal the names and contact details of the head office personel who were. Not a satisfactory situation for the customer. But something changed about a year ago and service has been supurb. Incase anyone hasn't realised it shop staff have the authority to waive the $10 fee to join the Summit Club, so all you have to say is that you want to be a member but object to paying to join a loyalty club (which I do) and you are in.

They seem to have had a change in policy with the membership fee. I was told yesterday that as long as I spent $100 in a year the fee would be waived.Thats easy!

Im a YHA member and get free Summit club membership. Likewise, students get free membership as well. Wasnt aware thast you can get it waived. Ive had pretty good service with them over the years, but best so far has been Bivoac Outdoors. The Dunedin branch is topnotch.

Retail staff that care are hard to come by. It is lousy pay and anyone who shows genuine interest in you needs encouragement too. Believe me, in that position you get enough of people who only ever take and give little back. I don't mean to sound nasty but club members always come across as the tightest. If you want a quality product and you want quality service it should be rewarded and encouraged.

I joined the Summit club for about a year some time ago, but let it lapse because it didn't seem worth it and I came away thinking I'd just paid them $10 to receive junk mail similar to what they'd send anyway. I could well have missed some of the benefits though. Do you find you get much out of it? For me at least, it seemed the discounts didn't really matter because Kathmandu's pricing model seems to be to have much more substantial sales every 3 months regardless. These days I rarely buy anything from Kathmandu unless it's in the clearance section and/or has at least a 30-40% discount off their standard price (because sooner or later it probably will anyway), but I haven't looked there for a while so things could have changed.

Anyone in the industry who has gained an understanding on how they configure and price their gear knows the only time to buy at Kathmandu is when they've got it on their 50% off sale. That's when your getting a fair price on the quality of the product and not just contributing to their profit margins.Generally, they are copying what was once a quality product and then sourcing it differently and as a result the markups for $RRP are much higher than the original. Rarely is it a better quality product from the original although most people wouldn't notice the difference.

I find it interesting walking through a Kathmandu store when there's not a sale. Nearby shops actually have people in them, but Kathmandu is almost completely dormant except for 3-4 sales assistants for every browsing international tourist. They're often running around preparing things for the next scheduled sale, which everyone knows about and everyone expects. Once I was about to buy something, and the guy there outright *told* me I should just wait for the sale in a couple of weeks rather than buy it now. It's not a pricing model I like, I guess because (as aardvark's pointed out) it takes emphasis off quality and puts it entirely on marketing, doing whatever they can to make people think they're getting a bargain when they're probably not. (Actually I think 70% of Kathmandu's primary market is people who have no interest in tramping or outdoor activities at all, but simply want warm clothing and functional daypacks, etc, and for those purposes it's probably fine.) I think Moutin-Noir's starting to go this way with the pricing/marking model at least, which I'm not very comfortable with but it seems to be the way they've decided they need to compete. Oka then. On the side, though, it's great to hear that Kathmandu service seems to have improved somewhat, and that their retail staff have been given some more control. I might visit more often.

Firstly I don't think low wages is an excuse for poor service. I just thing that often the people in those positions are quite often young and as we know, young people can be a little self centred or just havn't learnt to be polite yet. There are quite a few middle aged staff at the Rotorua Branch and they are all nice. Secondly with Kathmandu's marketing model, yes you are correct, you are mad buying anything there that is not on sale or discounted. The Summit Club does get you discounts on some non sale goods so is probably worth it but never pay $10. I also appreciate the notification when the next sale comes. But the thing about this marketing model is that IT WORKS! Remember MacPac had quality product and did not attempt to compete on price. But MacPac FAILED. It was loosing big dough before it went off-shore and in the end the founders got out while they could. They had always hoped to break into the US market but never did. We have Mountain Designs in this town too and it has a very low marketing profile compared to Kathmandu. They have good stuff but there is never anyone in the shop. I worry that they will close up sometimes. I had a chat with the Manager there once, they only have staff of 2 so it seems fairly low cost. It is quite big in Aussie and he felt they are just biding their time here before they decide what to do.