Free Fall Suits sells made-to-order jumpsuits, wingsuits, camera jackets, etc. -- everything a skydiver might want.
Note that I said "sells", not "makes".
TL;DR
I ordered and paid for a freefly suit and camera jacket from Chris Kotscha at Freefall Suits on September 21, 2013.
My five delivery dates:
- As of September 21: about 8 weeks
- As of December 12: "week of 13 January"
- As of February 7: "later next week"
- As of February 24: "The order WILL be completed and delivered before the season"
- As of March 19: "within the next 2 weeks"
I published this page after six months of getting nowhere.
Freefall Suits indicated that my freefly suit was completed on April 3, but I did not receive anything until April 19 – precisely 30 weeks after placing my order.
My camera jacket shipped May 2 but is still in transit.
The Whole Story
Quick links:
- Week 2
- Week 10
- Week 11
- Week 16
- Week 17
- Week 18
- Week 19
- Week 21
- Week 22
- Week 25
- Week 27
- Week 28
- Week 29
- Week 30
- Week 31
- Week 32
Initial contact
September 21, 2013
It was a Saturday. Like most Saturdays, I was skydiving, but with Nationals recently completed, I was fun-jumping instead of training with my team. It was my last weekend with my rental wingsuit, so I started the day with two wingsuit jumps before joining most of my friends doing other things.
I saw a tent go up after my third jump of the day. Ah, jumpsuits for sale! I was in the market for a freefly suit, so I made a point to stop in.
I popped over around jump #6 and said, literally, "sell me this jumpsuit". Chris – who I later learned was the founder of Free Fall Suits – took the demo suit by one arm and told me to pull on the other one. "No, no, really pull on it!" I did. The suit didn't care at all.
Honestly, very impressive demonstration. He told me all about the fabrics (this panel uses a Cordura/Kevlar blend!), the zippers, the stitching, everything. It looked and felt like an exceptionally well-made jumpsuit, but it was priced at the bottom end of the spectrum. I challenged him; Chris explained that he wanted to grow his company rather than to make a bunch of profit day one, and the best way to do that is to saturate the market with his suits, which meant selling them cheap.
This seemed like an unusual strategy, but Chris seemed like an unusual fellow. "All right, I'm sold", and he started measuring. I selected both a freefly suit and a camera jacket.
Chris had been planning to make a wingsuit jump, so I made sure to review: jump run is north, we're landing north, no more than 90º onto final, there's power lines on all the roads, etc. This left his associate to run the booth. We chatted about the company: they're just starting out, they've been on a tour, they were just leaving Nationals at Skydive Chicago and thought they'd stop by, etc. Seemed reasonable enough.
I watched Chris land under his reserve. Bummer – apparently he had a malfunction, chopped, opened into reserve line twists, and dropped his handles in order to sort it out. He spent the next while trying to gather his rig together again while I kept jumping.
After sunset, we looped back together again to finalize things: colors, options, payment. I paid in full using a Capital One VISA and got an Intuit payment receipt by email at 7:19 PM.
I was told to expect delivery in about 8 weeks, which fell just after the end of my season. I figured it didn't much matter if the schedule slipped because I wouldn't need it until spring.
Week 2
October 10, 2013
I received an email:
Good afternoon,
Please note that we are having a delay as some of the materials for the generation 4 suits did not pass the stress tests.
As we use materials that are custom made we are not able to simply go to a fabric store and start making the suits.
I apologize for the delay and will inform you as soon as we resolve this.
Thank you,
Chris Kotscha
Freefall Suits
All right. Again, I can deal with a delay.
Week 10
December 4, 2013
We're now two weeks past the original delivery date. I wrote an email, quoting the delay message above:
I haven't heard anything in quite a while. Is everything still on hold? More directly, could you provide an updated delivery window?
I included a copy of my receipt for reference.
Week 11
December 10, 2013
No reply. I wrote another email:
Hello?
I'm now concerned by the lack of communication. Additionally, I note that we're coming to the close of the 90-day chargeback window.
Please talk to me.
--Will
December 11, 2013
I received:
Good morning Will,
I am unsure why you have not received a response from the office. I will look into the status of your suit.
Thank you,
Chris
Sent from my iPhone
December 12, 2013
I sent:
When should I expect to hear back on this?
--Will
I received:
Good evening will,
I asked the office and they say your suit will be done on the week of 13 January.
I thank you for your patience. We had an issue with our material supplier but have found a new source and are catching up to the cue.
Thank you,
Chris
Sent from my iPhone
Optimistic, I sent:
Excellent! I appreciate the update.
What's the delivery time look like after that? I'm thinking I want to order another suit once I get my current order and can check it for fit and such.
Thanks,
--Will
And received:
Shipping normally takes 3-8 business days.
Cheers!
Sent from my iPhone
Week 16
January 13, 2014
This is the delivery date provided on December 12. I wrote:
Are we still on track for shipping this week?
Thanks,
--Will
Week 17
January 22, 2014
I sent:
I am beyond tired of emailing your company without reply. Customer service is a solved problem. Even a to-do list would suffice: check your email, add the issue to the list, reply "I'll get back to you", and work down the list. Any issues left open at the end of the day get a second reply saying "I haven't forgotten". It's not acceptable to ignore direct inquiries.
--Will
I received:
Good Morning Will,
I apologize that you have not had a good experience. I am heading back to the office to fix a number of issues that arose once I had left. Unfortunately I had thought that the office was responding to you and others but it turned out that they were not doing there job. As such you were not responded to and for that I really apologize. I have let go two people as a result of this lack of communication as you were not the only one (unfortunately), the shipping is one example as I was told it would be ready to ship. I passed that on to you and then it turned out to not be correct. I am heading back to the office this week and will ensure your suit gets built asap, even if I sit down and sew it myself.
Again I am heading back to the office to fix this issue and finding out why the inspection did not catch both the options and the measurements. Unfortunately it seems that as soon as I left things started to fall apart. I will fit it. I cancelled all my plans for the next few months so I can stay in the office.
My motivation for starting this company was to provide a well built suit at a price that was much more reasonable then what the market currently is. Money was not at all a motivator as I planned on not making anything for the first 4 years. I just want to make better products at a better rate.
I really do thank you for your patience, I understand your frustration as you this should not have been an issue. All I can do at this stage is makes sure that you get a good value and experience. We made mistakes but I will do anything to correct the issues and get you the suit.
Thank you,
Chris Kotscha
I sent:
I didn't even know there were issues with my order. The last contact I had was the December 12 email giving last week as the shipping target.
I appreciate your attention.
--Will Glynn
Sent from my iPhone
Week 18
January 31, 2014
I received what seems like a mass email since it's approximately a duplicate of the one I got on January 22. I guess lots of other people are having problems.
Good Morning,
I wanted to reach out to you so you know what has been happening with your suit order.
There have been some issues recently that I am currently addressing. Unfortunately I had thought that the office was responding to you and others but it turned out that they were not doing their job. As such you were not responded to and for that I really apologize. I did not realize the scope of the issue until I got back to the office. I have let go two people as a result of this lack of communication as you were not the only one (unfortunately). It seems that as soon as I left things started to fall apart. I WILL fix it. I cancelled all my plans for the next few months so I can stay in the office in order to resolve the delivery times and communication to ensure you and future orders get exactly what they expect.
In the September/October timeframe we switched over to the generation 4 models of suit and the transition of this design took longer than we had expected. These suits are amazing in build and strength and I know you will be happy. We fixed the modeling issues that arose and are now in the final stages of “catch up”. I apologize that this build up of orders affected the delivery time on your suit, know that we are working 2 shifts a day to catch up on this backlog and we are almost caught up.
Please send your email inquiries to the info@freefallsuits.com address and someone Will get back to you shortly, Unfortunately I personally receive over 500 emails a day and sometimes they get lost, the office will always assist you.
My motivation for starting this company was to provide a well built suit at a price that was much more reasonable then what the market currently is. Money was not at all a motivator as I planned on not making anything for the first 4 years. I just want to make better products at a better rate. I thank you for the opportunity to
I really do thank you for your patience, I understand your frustration as you this should not have been an issue. All I can do at this stage is makes sure that you get a good value and experience. We made mistakes but I will do anything to correct the issues and ensure you are happy.
Thank you,
Chris Kotscha
Week 19
February 5, 2014
I sent:
Can you provide me with an updated delivery date?
--Will
February 7, 2014
I sent:
I don’t really know why I expected a reply this time, but I’m disappointed.
Look: I need to know if you’re going to make that jumpsuit and camera jacket. I placed the order on September 21, 2013 — that's 20 weeks ago tomorrow. Safety Day is 4 weeks away, the start of my skydiving season is 7 weeks away, and the local iFLY tunnel should have its grand opening around then as well. If you’re not going to fill my order, I need to get someone else working on it now.
--Will
I received:
Good morning Will,
Your suit will be ready later next week.
I apologize for the delay. Since I got back everyone has been working double shifts in order to catch up the backlog.
Personally I apologize for not responding on Wednesday. I thought that I had but obviously confused that with responding to someone else's request.
Thank you,
Chris
Concerned that he might have forgotten I ordered two things:
Excellent, thank you.
Is this just the freefly suit, or does that include the camera jacket as well?
--Will
I received:
Hi Will,
That's for both. I thank you for your patience through these growing pains.
Sent from iPhone. Please note if I do not reply quickly I may have not received your email due to the high volume I receive.
Week 21
February 21, 2014
I haven’t heard anything in two weeks, so all I can do is assume there’s been no progress.
As a reminder:
Look: I need to know if you’re going to make that jumpsuit and camera jacket. I placed the order on September 21, 2013 — that's 20 weeks ago tomorrow. Safety Day is 4 weeks away, the start of my skydiving season is 7 weeks away, and the local iFLY tunnel should have its grand opening around then as well. If you’re not going to fill my order, I need to get someone else working on it now.
Tomorrow marks 22 weeks. It also marks one month since you offered:
I am heading back to the office this week and will ensure your suit gets built asap, even if I sit down and sew it myself.
—Will
Week 22
February 24, 2014
Hi Will,
I am trying to figure out an exact delivery date. The order WILL be completed and delivered before the season.
Unfortunately we are running behind on production. We recently experienced an issue with our made to measure software. This caused some grief as the issue resulted in ankles, wrists and the waist to be a bit smaller then the pattern. Because of this we had to redo a number of suits before they could be sent out. This compounded the other lessons learnt but we have learnt and continue to improve.
We have identified the issue and are working hard to catch up the cue as quickly as possible.
This delay in production caused the cue to build up. I apologize that this build up of orders affected the delivery time on your suit. I am still trying to get specific delivery dates to everyone, it's just going to take a few days for me to figure out how quickly we can catch up.
My motivation for starting this company was to provide a well built suit at a price that was more reasonable then what was on the market. We have experienced some growing pains but that motivation is as strong as ever.
I really do thank you for your patience.
Chris
Freefall Suits
Week 25
March 19, 2014
I wrote:
I am trying to figure out an exact delivery date. The order WILL be completed and delivered before the season.
Opening day is next Friday, March 28. I’ll have my suits by then?
—Will Glynn
Then I saw this on their Facebook page. They're both selling stock suits and inviting more custom orders while my 6-month-old paid-in-full custom order is still sitting unfulfilled. I had to comment:
Freefall Suits removed my comment but could not be bothered to reply to my email or otherwise address my situation. I found this extremely distasteful, so:
- I published this page to the web at large
- I shared this on dropzone.com, finding I'm not alone
- I shared this on Twitter and Google+
- I shared this with my local DZO and recommended against Freefall Suits as a vendor
- I sent this page to all my skydiving friends, some of whom have heard about Freefall Suits, but most of whom haven't
Freefall Suits: fill my order. Chris Kotscha: you said you would build my suit "asap, even if I sit down and sew it myself". That was two months ago. My season starts next Friday.
After publishing this, I received:
Good evening Will,
It will be close but you will have them within the next 2 weeks. We had to re-make your suit a few times as they didn't reach my standard.
I'm sorry it has taken so long, we ran into every administrative and personnel problem that I had ever thought possible. We are sorting it out but I know the wait was too long. We are working very very hard to get a fast turn around.
Thank you,
Chris
Sent from iPhone. Please note if I do not reply quickly I may have not received your email due to the high volume I receive.
I replied:
Thank you for the response. I look forward to receiving the suits.
You should know: I wrote you the email earlier today, and then saw a Facebook post inviting more custom orders. I posted a comment indicating my 6-month-old order is still in limbo – clearly as a frustrated customer – and instead of responding in any way, someone simply deleted it.
Deleting that one little comment made me feel not just ignored but actively silenced, so between then and now, I chronicled my entire Freefall Suits experience in full and published it to my website.
http://www.willglynn.com/2014/03/19/free-fall-suits-malice-or-incompetence/#week25
Delays are understandable, but combining both extreme delays and poor communication is a problem. I’ve had to reach out to Freefall Suits over and over again to get any kind of information, including today, and the responses I’ve gotten have mostly been broken promises.
I sincerely hope I will be able to end that post in a positive way, having received well-built, well-fitting jumpsuits at a fair price.
--Will
I received two more messages after I went to bed:
Hi Will,
I apologize that you got that impression. We have someone managing the Facebook that doesn't have any day to day information. When he saw your post he sent me a message telling me that no one reached out to you.
Unfortunately we are in our first year and have had personnel issues that caused communication issues. Obviously that still needs to be worked out.
All I want to do is provide a great suit at a way lower price then what the market currently is. I'm not making any money (actually loosing a ton right now) as that's not my motivation. Unfortunately it's hard to get others to understand the importance of answering the phone or messages instead of the physical cutting and sewing portions.
Hopefully this summer we will grow big enough to be able to afford front desk personnel to ensure effective communication.
Thank you,
Chris
Sent from iPhone. Please note if I do not reply quickly I may have not received your email due to the high volume I receive.
Followed by:
After reading your posts I realized that I had said I would sit down and sew it myself.
In my schedule I realized that it would be a wait if I did it myself as I suffer from a mountain of work. As such I looked at other options to speed things up. We built a pattern for your suit and gave it and the materials to a local seamstress. Expensive but speed was key. Since then the seamstress went on a very long vacation and didnt tell me until I received an email 2 weeks after I have everything over.
Not an excuse, our problems are ours to deal with. I just wanted you to know why I didn't physically sew the suit myself. After 4 months of working 7am until midnight or past I have realized that time for me to sew is virtually non existent.
One of the unfortunate realities of any new business is balancing employees, production, suppliers and infrastructure and bringing it all together. The easy way out would be to stop making suits, but I want this to succeed. It frustrates me to no one when people I know spend $1000 for a jumpsuit and I want to change that.
I thank you for your time and patience.
Chris
Sent from iPhone. Please note if I do not reply quickly I may have not received your email due to the high volume I receive.
March 20, 2014
I replied:
We have someone managing the Facebook that doesn't have any day to day information.
I found the Facebook post aggravating for two reasons: first, it happily invites readers to order more custom suits, even though I know with certainty that Freefall Suits has custom orders from at least six months ago still outstanding. Second, my comment was deleted very quickly – much more quickly than any other contact I’ve had with Freefall Suits – and it was deleted without any other form of contact, such as a private message indicating that someone would get back to me soon.
Unfortunately it's hard to get others to understand the importance of answering the phone or messages instead of the physical cutting and sewing portions.
It’s really about expectations. Perhaps showing these people my perspective as a customer will help them understand.
Hopefully this summer we will grow big enough to be able to afford front desk personnel to ensure effective communication.
I made some suggestions in my January 22 email where I assert that customer service is a solved problem. I believe you need a *system* — really, just about any system — not more people.
If you had told me in September that my suit wouldn’t be ready until March, that would have been completely fine. Unfortunately, I’ve let Freefall Suits set my expectations at each point, only to have each delivery window come and go without another word. I think someone should keep track of the delivery dates given to customers. You know a week in advance when a suit won't be ready in time, so you can be proactive — give your customer an update before you’re late.
Without that, we get my experience: the dates come and go, so I check to see what’s going on because no one has told me. If I got a reply setting expectations again, I’d be a little irritated, but generally okay. However, I didn't get anything from Freefall Suits unless I hassled you repeatedly; see my emails on December 4/10/12, January 13/22, February 5/7. Seriously? It’s not hard to figure out which emails need action and mark them as such. I’d even settle for “I’ll get back to you shortly”, but being totally silent after blowing a self-imposed deadline is just awful.
Whatever you’re doing now isn’t working. Fix it. There are plenty of tools available.
After reading your posts I realized that I had said I would sit down and sew it myself.
It really doesn’t matter to me if you personally construct my suit. Ultimately, you took my measurements and you run the company; if I have a problem with the results, I’ll be contacting you to resolve it regardless of who actually put it together.
That said, I did interpret this as meaning you were personally taking ownership of my order, and I took it at face value when you said you would “ensure [my] suit gets built asap”. That was two months ago. I suspect it would have been possible to start and finish producing my order in less than two months.
For comparison, a friend and I each ordered a wingsuit from Phoenix-Fly in November — exactly two months after I ordered from Free Fall Suits. We both received our orders on time in early February, right around when you told me “later next week”. My wingsuit was perfect, but his wingsuit had enough problems that Phoenix agreed to re-make it from scratch. Correcting this required a single phone call, and his second suit arrived three weeks ago.
For an additional comparison, I ordered a container from Rigging Innovations in October. I’m sure I was told when to expect delivery when I sent in the form but I didn’t remember anything more specific than “Q1 2014”. I wrote an email on January 9 at 4:53 PM:
I haven't heard anything in a while and I don't really remember when to expect production to be complete. Could you check on my order?
I got a response at 5:13 PM:
It's moving along, I'm guessing it should be done within 3-4 more weeks. The factory is closed for 2 weeks at the end of December, so that always creates a bit of a backlog for us. I attached a picture of it. Thanks!
I was so pleased, I sent the photo of my partially-constructed container to a bunch of people right then. It shipped three and a half weeks later. I know who I’ll talk to next time.
One of the unfortunate realities of any new business is balancing employees, production, suppliers and infrastructure and bringing it all together. The easy way out would be to stop making suits, but I want this to succeed. It frustrates me to no one when people I know spend $1000 for a jumpsuit and I want to change that.
I want you to succeed. I want to like your product enough to buy more and to recommend it to my friends. So: please, make me a happy customer. Fill my order and let’s go from there.
—Will
Week 27
March 29, 2014
My skydiving season officially started. This means we're also officially past my fourth delivery date, given on February 24:
The order WILL be completed and delivered before the season.
April 2, 2014
We're now at my fifth and most recent delivery date. I sent:
On Mar 19, 2014, at 10:00 PM, Chris Freefall suits wrote:
It will be close but you will have them within the next 2 weeks.
It's been exactly two weeks and I don't have the suits. I also don't have a tracking number, which makes me think they haven't been shipped, and I haven't received any information about my order's production, which makes me think nothing has happened at all.
Eight weeks ago:
Look: I need to know if you’re going to make that jumpsuit and camera jacket. I placed the order on September 21, 2013 — that's 20 weeks ago tomorrow. Safety Day is 4 weeks away, the start of my skydiving season is 7 weeks away, and the local iFLY tunnel should have its grand opening around then as well. If you’re not going to fill my order, I need to get someone else working on it now.
Not only did you agree to make these items, you said they would be ready "later next week".
I need these suits. You've repeatedly committed to providing them. Where are they?
--Will
I checked in on the Dropzone.com thread, finding posts from several other people still waiting for their orders as well as a post by a Freefall Suits representative. I replied:
We are currently processing the orders from the very end of Dec. Within the next 5 weeks we will be caught up on all the orders from January, February and March bringing us back to a 6.5 week delivery time.
If that's true then you're not processing orders chronologically. I ordered on September 21, and as of my fifth delivery date (today), I haven't received anything.
For perspective other suit companies have had a 24 week delivery time before when they were newer and learning lessons
Maybe so, but I'd guess those other companies don't make a habit of promising and failing to deliver. Again, I'm at five delivery dates blown -- delivery dates set by Freefall Suits. If you had quoted me a 24-week lead time, I probably would have been okay with that, but instead I was told I'd have my order in 8 weeks, 4 weeks, next week, 4 weeks, and 2 weeks.
As of now, my order is 27 weeks old and I don't even have an ETA.
April 3, 2014
I received this in the wee hours of the morning:
Hi Will,
Your freefly suit is done, now we need to work on your camera jacket.
I know we have broken past deadlines that we supplied. At the time for all of those I thought it was achievable, then we would run into more issues that delayed delivery.
Unfortunately due to a flurry of posts on dz.com we went from the usual 30-40hrs a week of answering phone / emails to an absurd amount. This meant that I had to pull a seamstress to answer phones in addition to myself and one other sharing the workload. As we are a small company this resulted in a loss of 15% of our production until the inquiries die down. When I quoted the 2 weeks I didn't predict that I would lose 60hrs of productive sewing labor in a week. Unfortunately hiring more staff is not a possibility to cover this off.
I used to think that building suits was easy. Frankly the physical sewing is easy, but getting the man power, infrastructure, supplies and administration together while concurrently trouble shooting each day is a challenge.
We have / are sending over 140 suits this week so we have been hyper productive to catch up after an endless list of issues (almost all externally influenced).
I thank you for your patience. We're a startup and people's patience has a benefit that I cannot begin to describe my appreciation of.
Chris
I replied:
Thank you for the update. I look forward to receiving the suits. Please send me a tracking number when they ship.
--Will
Week 28
April 10, 2014
A brand new account posted on dropzone.com that they ordered from Freefly Suits in late October, received a suit in February, sent it back for fixes, and received the altered suit in two weeks.
April 11, 2014
I jump in eloy and Chris was out there at the Halloween Boogie. … My suit came in February. … He took the suit that day and reenginered it . 2 Weeks later I had my suit back.
I ordered in September -- 29 weeks ago tomorrow -- and still have received nothing. According to Chris, my freefly suit was completed at least 8 days ago, but I haven't received a shipment or a shipment notification. Maybe he's waiting to finish my camera jacket too in order to save on postage...
But Freefall Suit makes unbelievable skydiving suits.
I hope so.
This story is consistent with my earlier suspicion that Freefall Suits doesn't have anything resembling a first-in, first-out production queue.
Week 29
April 12, 2014
I sent an email:
On Apr 3, 2014, at 12:39 AM, Chris Freefall suits wrote:
Your freefly suit is done, now we need to work on your camera jacket.
It's been 9 days since your last message, so I assume the camera jacket isn't ready yet. However, I need a freefly suit more than I need a camera jacket.
I understand that it would be cheaper to ship both together, but seeing as how my order is now 29 weeks old and my skydiving season is underway, I think it would be reasonable for you to ship both items as they become available. Could you ship my freefly suit on Monday?
--Will
What happens when you need more money, but there are no new orders?
Apparently you do a stock sale, solicit more new orders, and delete any negative feedback.
Chris indicated that my freefly suit was done a week and a half ago. I asked him to ship it on Monday even if the camera jacket I ordered is still outstanding. Let's see what happens next.
I received a reply:
Good afternoon Will,
I will ensure it is sent out on Monday.
Thank you,
Chris
April 14, 2014
Monday's business hours came and went without a word. Shortly before going to bed, I sent:
I will ensure it is sent out on Monday.
Was my freefly suit shipped today? If so, could you provide the tracking number?
--Will Glynn
Sent from my iPhone
A couple hours later (after midnight my time), I received:
Good evening Will,
The tracking number is USPS 9114 9012 3080 3140 4494 32
Thank you,
Chris
April 15, 2014
The tracking number shows it was supposed to be delivered today but the tracking data casts doubt on this prediction:
April 16, 2014
USPS continues to list an Expected Delivery Day of yesterday, but at least the package appears to be making progress:
This is consistent with USPS FY2014 Q1 statistics showing 75.3% on-time performance to Chicago and 84.0% overall.
Chris posted to the dropzone.com thread, addressing numerous issues. I responded:
Will - your suit was shipped and the tracking number was sent to your email.
That's true; I have a tracking number. I've been keeping my post up-to-date. If I receive the freefly suit, and it fits, and it's the correct colors, and it has the correct options, it will have been a 29-week ordeal -- and if there's a problem, it will end up being an even longer ordeal.
Either way, my Freefall Suits camera jacket is still in week 29 with no ETA.
April 17, 2014
No movement from USPS. "Expected Delivery Day" remains April 15.
The USPS performance report says "98.5 percent delivered within the service standard plus three days", which should be tomorrow. On the other hand, USPS appears to lose more packages than its competitors. Let's hope I get lucky.
April 18, 2014
No movement from USPS. I'm slated to organize at today's RW event, so I won't be sitting at my mailbox in Chicago all day, but I've arranged for a friend to stop by and collect the package should USPS indicate it was delivered.
Week 30
April 19, 2014
The USPS package was actually delivered to my home in Chicago today. I'm at the drop zone all weekend (team training!), so I had a friend stop by, retrieve the package from the entryway, place it inside my home, and send me a photo.
I plan to open the box on Monday.
April 21, 2014
Closer examination of the box reveals why it took so long: the handwritten shipping label contained the wrong ZIP code.
I opened the box, revealing a freefly suit in my colors and approximating my size. It has magnets, which is the option I cared most about. There are some issues with the fit, some of which I can't precisely diagnose alone.
My plan is to get feedback from my local rigger and prepare a full report tomorrow.
April 23, 2014
I visited my local rigging loft and we decided that the best next step is to jump the suit and see what happens. The weather should permit that on Friday.
April 25, 2014
I jumped the freefly suit a couple times. Positives:
- I fit inside of the suit.
- It's the right colors.
- It's warm.
- The arm material seems like it'll withstand contact with velco, say, from an altimeter wrist strap. (This is a source of wear on my current RW suit.)
Negatives:
- The torso and legs seem too long in general, both by about an inch and a half. The legs sort of bunch up above my shoes and mostly the excess goes away once I put on a rig. The torso, on the other hand, has a habit of riding up while I'm under canopy and making the zipper brush against my chin.
- The seams are bulky and don't really lay flat, instead developing an uneven waviness. (I think that's part of the design and not anything particular to my suit.) I'm calling this a negative because there are bulky, not-really-laying-flat vertical seams cuddled up right next to my pillow cutaway/reserve handles.
- The elastic around the ankles is small enough that it's legitimately a struggle to fit my feet through the leg holes. Maybe I have an unusual foot-to-ankle ratio?
- The collar is loose enough to breathe more than desired in freefall, though thankfully not so loose that it flaps around enough to irritate my skin.
- The magnets on the zipper are mounted in thin fabric and they readily snap to each other when the suit is not zipped.
- It'll probably be too warm in the summer. I needed gloves in the air today, and despite not wearing layers under the suit, I was almost sweating.
Despite the length of list, on the balance, I'm not dissatisfied with the suit for the price I paid. However, given the level of service I received during production, I am not inclined to ask Freefall Suits for alterations on this suit, or for additional jumpsuits in the future.
Now all I need is a camera jacket and I can be done with this company.
Week 31
April 28, 2014
Someone resurrected the Dropzone.com thread, calling out Freefall Suits' earlier "within the next 5 weeks we will be caught up" statement, saying:
Well, 5-1/2 more weeks have passed and still no suit. This takes my wait to just over 30 weeks so far.
I posted, citing my earlier reaction to this claim, adding:
To their credit, Freefall Suits filled half my order – I did, in fact, receive a freefly suit. That said, my camera jacket (ordered that same day in September, now 31 weeks ago) is still outstanding. Freefall Suits seems to have stopped providing me ETAs; I've heard nothing about my camera jacket since an April 3 email which seemed to imply that production hadn't started.
April 29, 2014
Four business hours after my forum post, I received:
Good morning Will,
I am following up as we haven't received a reply in a week.
Your camera jacket is finished and I will send a tracking number as soon as I get it from S&R.
I thank you for your patience as we worked through our issues.
Chris
I replied:
Good morning Will,
I am following up as we haven't received a reply in a week.
It took a week to receive the shipment. I wasn't able to jump the freefly suit until Friday.
Your camera jacket is finished and I will send a tracking number as soon as I get it from S&R.
I thank you for your patience as we worked through our issues.
Excellent, thank you.
--Will
May 2, 2014
Another customer posted on Dropzone.com, complaining about splipping delivery dates and poor communication, including his correspondence as well. I replied:
I am just going to start posting my correspondence with this company in this thread, since your blog seems to have gotten you results maybe this will help.
Posting here seems to get attention too.
I had no contact with Freefall Suits since an April 14 email exchange. I posted here two weeks later, and within hours Chris emailed me saying my camera jacket is complete, promising a tracking number. Now, it's been three days and I don't have a tracking number, but still – this was the first ever unprompted email I've received from Freefall Suits, and it happened right after post #37.
Customers shouldn't have to resort to public shaming.
I then received an email:
Good morning Will,
Tracking number USPS 9114 9012 3080 3140 3771 79
Thank you,
Chris
I replied:
Thank you. I look forward to its arrival.
--Will
I also posted to Dropzone.com:
Now, it's been three days and I don't have a tracking number, but still – this was the first ever unprompted email I've received from Freefall Suits, and it happened right after post #37.
…and now, a few hours after posting this, I received a tracking number.
Customers shouldn't have to resort to public shaming.
Seems like it works.
I received another email:
I'm genuinely sorry it took as long as it did. Never in my life has I faced so many hurdles to getting things done. After tons of hard work from everyone, double shifts for months on end we are finally catching up on the cue. A few other suits are late but we are rapidly catching up on clearing out the entire cue.
Thank you for your patience as we sorted out the growing pains.
I replied:
On May 2, 2014, at 1:31 PM, Chris Kotscha wrote:
I'm genuinely sorry it took as long as it did. Never in my life has I faced so many hurdles to getting things done. After tons of hard work from everyone, double shifts for months on end we are finally catching up on the cue. A few other suits are late but we are rapidly catching up on clearing out the entire cue.
Thank you for your patience as we sorted out the growing pains.
That's great. I hope you can deliver your product at your price with an acceptable level of service – you could actually force the jumpsuit industry to compete. Your success would benefit everyone.
However: I have stopped caring. I want to be done.
Every single opportunity Freefall Suits has had to impress me has resulted in disappointment.
I placed an order; you could impress me by filling it promptly. Then there was a problem with materials and production was halted: all right, so impress me with how you handle that by keeping me in the loop with how things are unfolding. Then I wrote an email concerned by the lack of communication: you could impress me by telling me what's going on and instilling confidence in your ability to handle things going forward. Then I wrote another email annoyed that no one replied: you could impress me by taking control of the customer service situation. On and on and on, weeks and weeks and weeks.
You did impress me at one point after making the sale:
I am heading back to the office this week and will ensure your suit gets built asap, even if I sit down and sew it myself.
…and then disappointed me further as my order continued to sit unfilled.
At one point, I told you what I need as directly as possible:
Look: I need to know if you’re going to make that jumpsuit and camera jacket. I placed the order on September 21, 2013 — that's 20 weeks ago tomorrow. Safety Day is 4 weeks away, the start of my skydiving season is 7 weeks away, and the local iFLY tunnel should have its grand opening around then as well. If you’re not going to fill my order, I need to get someone else working on it now.
You replied:
Your suit will be ready later next week.
That was 12 weeks ago today.
The reasons don't matter, the apologies don't help, and my understanding doesn't change anything. Ultimately, "disappointed" doesn't begin to capture my experience.
I went public when the frustration of dealing with your company was too much to bear. It took a lot to get me to that place. I've been disappointed by plenty of companies, even in skydiving: just three weeks ago, a canopy I ordered over the winter missed its delivery date, at which point we all found out that the factory hadn't even started production. They offered me a reason to wait a second time and gave me the information I needed to make a decision. I ended up ordering a competing product instead, but I'm not even upset. I'll happily talk to them again next time I need a canopy.
Freefall Suits, on the other hand, has taken "ordeal" to a whole new level. I believe I've accurately chronicled my entire customer experience, I believe it speaks for itself, and I believe people ought to know that this happened September 2013 through May 2014.
I want to receive that camera jacket. I want it to fit, I want it to be in the correct colors, and I want it to have the correct options. That's it. I want to be done.
--Will
Week 32
May 3, 2014
USPS inexplicably reports that the package is "available for pickup". I hope they bother trying to deliver it at some point because a) it's their job and b) my local post office is a frustrating place to visit.
It's fitting that Freefall Suits would ship with USPS.
May 5, 2014
I filled out the USPS problem form around 11 AM:
Topic: Receiving Mail > No Delivery/No Attempt > I Did Not Receive a Specific Item
Tracking number: 9114901230803140377179
Message: This package arrived at the 60640 post office and is presently "Available for Pickup", but no delivery has been attempted. I would like USPS to deliver this package.
I selected that I want a response by email instead of a response by phone:
However, my local post office has disregarded this selection in every previous instance, choosing to call me or to ignore the issue instead.
My case number is HQ117780154.
I received an aggravating phone call just before 6 PM from a woman at the Uptown post office. She did not bother reading any of my report and instead asked me to provide all my information again. She indicated she would "look for the package in the place where we keep packages" (essentially what I asked them to do in the first place) and call me back tomorrow.
Around 8 PM, the tracking updated to show delivery earlier this afternoon. I'm not in Chicago, but my wife is, and she retrieved the box from my building's lobby. This package has the correct ZIP code.