Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Smith Optics V TI and Smith's Customer Service

Here my latest purchase, the Smith Optics V TI. These glasses are really nice and light weight with some of the best optics I have used for cycling. There is nothing to impede you vision and they stay fog free in the most humid of conditions so far. They also fit my face pretty well. These are hands down the best and most comfortable pair of sunglasses that I own. Ivan Basso from Team CSC and and now Discovery Channel Cycling team helped develop these from Smith. Here are are so specs and pics:

Performance at its finest. The V-Ti features premium grade Titanium in the temple fronts and Beta-Titanium in the temple ends to provide maximum flexibility. Combined with an injected TR90 facefront, 7 base shield lens and megol nose and temple pads the V-Ti is the ultimate in performance eyewear. features:

* + TLT Carbonic lenses
* + Titanium temples
* + TR90 Grilamid front
* + Medium fit


Now what I was not happy about and what Smith Optics did....


I was very disappointed to find out after I order the glasses and got them here that the temple arms were not full titanium. We I saw Ti glasses, this is what I expected. So sent an e-mail to Smith expressing my feelings about what I thought was false advertising.
Not only did I get an e-mail response back, the Blair Clark Sr. VP Marketing and Sales called me and left a voice mail that they wanted to assure me that the temples on the product are 100% Ti covered in paint at the front of the temple and the back of the temple is a very thin titanium covered in megol rubber to allow extreme flexibility comfort and grip. I also explained that a pair of Smith Frontline glasses that I purchased were also horribly designed and very uncomfortable.

So I get a second call and ended up have a very nice conversation with him. Blair also asked for more opinions about the glasses. I expressed that I did not care for the wording on the bottom as it slightly in the field of vision. Nothing drastic or annoying, but there. He offered to send some replacement lenses without the graphics, but I declined.

Now here is the part that blew me away from Smith. When I sent the e-mail, I was very upset and did not try the glasses yet. I vented how I was feeling a little bit rip-offed by Smith. They offered to exchange them for any of pair of glasses if the retailer would not. When I spoke to Blair on the phone, I told him after trying them, I was VERY please on their performance and that I was going to keep them. So to please a customer and Blair offered to send my any pair of Smith Optics glasses in their catalog for FREE to make sure I was happy with Smith and they believe in their product and building customer loyalty. Now show me a company that would do something like that. They are sending my a pair of glasses that retail for $120 because I was upset? Kudos to Smith Optics and they have a customer for life in me.

Oakley Customer Service could learn a lot form Smith Optics. I have had NOTHING but trouble with them. Good product, they do not stand behind their product like Smith does.


Anyways, a big thank you to Smith of just calling my back and listening to a customer's venting....

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