On March 26, 2007, I ordered a pair of Oakley Half Jacket sunglasses from the UK-based Chain Reaction Cycles, who claim to be “Europe’s Largest Online Bike Shop.” At almost $180, this purchase represented the most I’ve ever invested in sunglasses, but I’d always understood that Oakley made top-quality sports sunglasses, and, hey, if they’re good enough for Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, they should be good enough for my jaunts around the hills of Marbella.
A bit less than three weeks later, having heard nothing, I emailed Chain Reaction about the status, and received an “Ooops, sorry about that. They’ll be leaving today.” reply. Not a good start.
A week later, April 24, I received them in the post. As usual with anything new, I could hardly wait to get them out of the box, and try them on. You can imagine my disappointment when the right-side arm of the sunglasses simply falls off. I inspected the glasses and discovered a moulding defect. As you can see in the following image, the right-side insertion bit was “pinched”, thereby providing little joint security, allowing the arm to detach at the slightest vertical pressure.
My first thought was, “I wonder if I’ve been sold fakes. Surely Oakley has higher quality control than this.” So I emailed Chain Reaction, to enquire whether they could dispatch a new pair, while I, in parallel, return these. They replied with an indication that, no, they can’t dispatch a new pair, and that I can send these back to their UK center, for assessment and possible replacement. I should be aware, however, that they don’t stock this item, and that I could be in for another long wait.
I decided that rather than wait another month (and risk having them lost in the post), I would request a refund. Chain Reaction replied that they would first have to assess whether the glasses could be repaired before authorizing a refund. Sympathetic to my desire to avoid another long delay, they strongly recommended that as an alternative, I contact a local Oakley dealer, and request a warranty repair.
That wasn’t my idea of a great customer service, to say the least. My office colleague had, coincidentally, just reported a defect in his new sunglasses to UnitedShades.com (in Italy), who promptly dispatched a new pair while he, in parallel, returned the defective ones. (His replacements arrived in less than a week. Lucky him.)
So, I searched around, and found a local optics store that handle Oakley repairs, passed by, and dropped off the glasses for repair. A month later I call to ask about the status, and was told, “Oakley haven’t responded yet. We’ll be in touch.” Two weeks after that, nearly six weeks after returning them for repair, I was finally informed that my glasses were back.
So, more than two months after I placed my order, I finally get to start using my sunglasses. How have things gone? Well, after about three weeks of wearing the glasses three times per week on cycling rides, here’s how they look. Notice how the surface around the eyebrows is FLAKING OFF!
Can you believe it? Can it be true that these are the “world’s best quality glasses”? So today, I’m left wondering whether I, in fact, have purchased a pair of imitation Oakleys, or whether this is really Oakley quality. I don’t really know what to do now. I certainly don’t want to send them off for another warrant repair, and wait another six weeks.
So I’m now going to contact Oakley customer service, point them to this blog article, and ask their opinion.
No es la primera vez que leo críticas así respecto de Oakley, sobre todo de los cristales, para otra vez prueba http://www.adidas.com/eyewear/homesite/index.asp Las referencias que tengo de Adidas son excelentes, no sé si será cierto, pero la óptica me han dicho que es de Ray Ban…en cualquier caso son muy buenas.