Schonhose

After waiting for more than two weeks for a response from several parties I’ve decided to go public with this story. This is a true story which hasn’t been resolved yet as all parties give me the silence treatment.

How does it start?
At August 11th, 2008 I purchase the Nike+ sportband at the Intersport Superstore Roden, based of Roden, The Netherlands. In the first few months, prior to the basketball season, I use it at a regular basis. During this time it registers several runs of a total of 65 km.

During the basketball season I stopped running, waiting for spring to pick it up again. Unfortunately I sprained my ankle in March, which forced me to put the running of until June this year. While gathering my gear for the first run of 2009 I noticed something is wrong with the display. It seems several white spots have turned up, making the display hard to read. This is the point where my quest begins.

Normally I would have gone back to the store, claiming my warranty. Unfortunately this store is located about a 2.5 hour drive from where I’m located right now, so it will cost me a fair amount of gasoline and most of the day to get it replaced under warranty.

Nike Customer Service
I used the internet to find out if other customers had the display problems and what I could do about it. While surfing the web I come across the Nike Customer Service pages and decided to mail a question about this issue. After processing this question it pops up a “Preliminary Response to Question” with the following information.

We are a U.S.-based Consumer Service Organization and therefore we do not have the resources to answer inquires from other countries. Please contact your local Nike distributor for assistance. The local distributor will handle all product complaints, regardless of where the product was purchased.

Along with that message came the details for the headquarters in the Netherlands, located in Hilversum. Initially this was just what I was looking for: the contact details of the headquarters and the note saying The local distributor will handle all product complaints, regardless of where the product was purchased.. This could save me a whole days work to solve the problem.

Contacting Nike Netherlands
After seeking contact by phone I was told the department dealing with defective stuff was located in Leusden and they gave me a phone number. So I phoned them up and told my story yet again. The woman on the phone insisted I had to go back to the local retailer. After I explained the take on the products complaints, based upon information from Nike USA, she asked me to relay that information by email. However, she kept insisting I should contact the retailer to work something out.

The same day I wrote an email to the department in Leusden, detailing the story above, and got an automated response in return. However, after that it was nothing but silence.

So, since the store where the Nike+ was bought had an internetsite along with an info email address I decided it couldn’t hurt to contact them as well. In this case there was no response, but the silence remains.

Where am I at?
Basically I’m stuck waiting for answers while my purchase date + 1 year gets nearer each day. I’m including some pictures of the receipt as well as the Nike+ with the blobs, hoping it will generate some response. As far as I’m concerned this isn’t normal behavior for both the display and the customer services involved.

Images

---

Update!!!!
I managed to get my item replaced under warranty. I drove nearly 6 hours to the store and back, waited about half an hour and got home with a new Nike+. A new Nike+ that shows new behavior: it just crashes while I run. Seriously, the whole display becomes garbage and the unit becomes unresponsive.

You know what? I’m so sick and tired of this I’m willing to take my loss. Next time I’d rather buy some beverages and food for the 70 euro I’ve spend. I know I’ll have more fun with the beverages and food then I’ll ever will again with the Nike+.

I know I forgot to mention this, but the current one is the third one I have. The first one got replaced under warranty due to those blobs, the second one also got replaced for that reason and the third one will be the one ending up in the back of the closet (where it can crash itself into oblivion for all I care).