Tracksmith Shoes Debacle

My son ordered a gift through Tracksmith via credit card and gave a delivery date. On delivery date{right before Christmas} Tracksmith refunded his money and said cannot complete order.

Having said that I love the gear. No way would I order shoes though

Selling a product that you don't have in stock...classic.

I've been a fan of the gear since the beginning, but the past year or two has seen a steep decline in both product quality and service.

Last year's NDO lineup was a disaster. I bought two items with the reflective strip thing, and after less than a week of wear, both reflective strips detached from the product in the middle, but hung on at the ends, so now they have this loose piece of reflective material that just hangs off of them like a sagging ribbon.

I used a gift card to purchase a number of things last summer, and then a couple of days later they told me one of the items I purchased was actually out of stock. They refunded the value of that item back as a new gift card, but the value of that one item was not enough to qualify for "free shipping" on my next order (which my previous order with all items did qualify for). So this kind of screwed me a bit, because to use that refunded value, I now had to order more, or pay additional for shipping to get back the value of the product that was out of stock... I messaged them about this, and got bland "we're sorry, but we have refunded the full amount back" responses, without acknowledging my issue.

In the past, I'd always give them credit for going above and beyond with their quality and customer service, but like all companies, as they've grown, they seem to have gotten cheap...

Target did this to me too this year. So, not exclusive to tracksmith.

OP- why not just cancel the order? Then when they have actual product in stock, buy the shoes.

This thread will be renamed soon, and have a pro-Tracksmith spin.

A good example of bad customer service

Here's a better idea....why not just post "Out of Stock" when the customer tries to order an item?

Saves the customer from ordering something, getting the charge posted, finding out the item isn't in stock, then trying to cancel the order. Kind of a no brainer.

What Target has to do with Tracksmith, I have no idea.

Obviously this is an option, and I plan to go this route (i.e. reach out to them and cancel my order/demand a refund) if they continue playing this game and push the shipment dates back into the Spring.

I don't want to do that though... I ordered and paid for the shoes because I wanted the shoes. They did this whole pre-order, corral release thing making it seem like they'd go out of stock fast. Maybe they will, and I want them. I'm not a complete hater. I think they're cool looking shoes.

What I'm complaining about here is the customer service and the poor handling of this whole situation. The lack of communication from them is annoying, and then their marketing flaunting the next version of the shoe while still being behind on the first version without acknowledging it is a slap in the face to me as a consumer. All the while, they have my money! If they left the charge as "pending", or if they had some communication keeping us updated on the delays, the entire thing would feel a lot less shady. Taking the money and leaving us in the dark just feels dirty.

So yes, I am aware that cancelling my order is a solution, but I think I have some grounds to complain on a letsrun thread a bit, which is the point of this post. I've been a Tracksmith supporter for a while, but they're losing me.

“Corral 1” orders were taken in October.

Initial email:
“Limited release in November”

From waybackmachine…
“Mid-December”
”Late-December”

From email inquiry:
”Early January”

Currently listed on the website:
”Late January”

Meanwhile they keep forwarding along marketing reviews of the shoes from various reviewers and sites. So SOME people seem to be getting them… Seems like the paying consumers are being strung along for a little ride here.

So I would agree that this is turning into a bit of a debacle.

Sounds like a classic marketing gimmick that worked exactly as it was planned to. This is a series of events that plays out over and over and will continue to as long as there are customers willing to hand over their money for products that don’t exist yet.

Tracksmith is just over priced junk for suckers,

I'll agree with this. I had a similar experience with Atreyu when they were running the subscription model. I was fine with the set-up in theory, but in practice it wasn't great. It was really difficult to find my size in various colors for the next shipment, I felt like I would be forced to choose from two or even one color because they didn't get enough stock in popular sizes. I wound up happy with my selections but the customer experience to get there was less than ideal. At least they realized that they couldn't keep this up and axed the sub model. There were also issues with rolling out the trail model. I've had overall good experiences with TS and their customer service as far as ordering, shipping, billing, and returns. That said, it's literally been years since I've purchased anything from them even though apparently some oversight has led to me being grandfathered into Hare AC for life. My wife has had less happy experience with them though still likes the heck out of the pieces she has. At this point, though, I'm more willing to shop apparel from Rabbit, Janji, The North Face, Saysky, Craft, even Patagonia. It's become a really crowded marketplace over the past decade and they have to realize a lot of people aren't in love with the sash enough to put up with mediocre customer service when there are a lot of quality options out there to try that probably will commit to getting the customer service piece right. Maybe Matt Taylor & co. should listen to Seth Godin more.

Fake new, just because they have are having production issues doesnt mean their staple products are trash. Their core items are still top tier running clothes in the market. Youre just hurt because you cant afford it or mom and dad wont fork over $65 for shorts.