Renegade hoof boot customer service

[Caol_Ila]

Does anyone have any experience with Renegade’s customer service? I’ve just contacted them and was wondering what to expect.

My horse’s hoof boots are wearing out so I went to the one company in the UK that sells Renegades to buy new shells (all the other gubbings are fine). They don’t stock shells – they bring them in to order from the States and tell you it will take 4-6 weeks. Not useful. I could buy a whole new set of boots, but not the shell.

I then go onto Renegade’s American website and find out that I can order anything I want, and the website clearly informs me that they use UPS Worldwide Expedited service, and it will get to me (in the UK) in four days. Despite shipping being kind of pricey, it’s not much more expensive than using the UK distributor because they add a huge mark-up. Fantastic. Not only that, I can get brightly coloured boots. We’re suckin diesel now. The UK distriubutor only stocks black ones. I order some traffic cone orange ones and a spare set of shells on Sept 29, a Friday. The order confirmation email they send me affirms that it will be shipped via UPS.

On Monday (Oct 2), I get an email that says they’ve been shipped via USPS (not UPS…it’s all a bit Judean People’s Front but I know the difference) and will arrive in 6-10 days. Okay, whatever.

As I write this, we’re now on 12 days, and no sign of them. The tracking info is also bloody weird.

On 10/2, they leave AZ with the US Postal Service.

They eventually get to LA (via Las Vegas) on Friday, 10/6. Not fast but whatever.

They show up in the UK on 10/9 and appear to be processed through customs in Coventry, which is the Royal Mail’s international hub where stuff clears customs then continues onwards. All looks copacetic.

This is where it gets weirder. Tracking says on 10/10, “depart New York, United States.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure NY and Coventry are quite far away from another and not in the same country. WTF?

The next entry in the travelogue, from 10/11, says they’ve departed from Heathrow (London!) and are in transit to destination. Then radio silence.

It takes an hour to fly from London to Glasgow (where I live). One would think they had been scanned in somewhere by now.

The travel diary is just bizarre. LA-Coventry-New York-London makes absolutely no sense. I’m also a bit miffed that they said they were using a quick and straightforward courier service, which accounted for the high shipping costs (my family lives in the States… I know what it costs to ship stuff back and forth), didn’t, and now they are delayed and a little bit MIA.

I’ve more or less explained all this in an email to the company.

I also really need my boots!

[furlong47]

I’ve had USPS tracking get behind before (we also had a postal holiday on Monday), so that entry for leaving NYC may have just posted into the system late, a day or two after they actually left. Once they are in your country, they are in the control of your postal service now.

I’ve ordered things to the US from places like Bulgaria and Austria and that was REALLY scary… like the tracking ends when the package leaves their country and then you wait sometimes for a month until it finally pops up in the USPS system. I’ve also had things hang out in customs for weeks.

[fivestrideline]

Most likely your package did not reroute back to NY, it was just a late posted scan. Looks like they used USPS to get the boots to the export location (UPS often cannot handle the volume so it gets shipped by USPS - under different labeling). Once your boots landed in the UK, the lack of tracking is normal but the delays are on your postal service.

Renegade should at least be able to find out if your package cleared customs. If it did, it’s a little harder to locate (since it’s now 100% out of UPS/USPS hands), but sometimes they can.

Welcome to international shipping! Also I’m curious if there was designation for special courier status or if it just said the word “courier”, which is just what they call the transporters. Honestly I didn’t think UPS did that - we have to use other companies (and pay AT LEAST four figures) to get even the smaller boxes shipped that way.

[fivestrideline]

Just reread your post - 4 days for an international shipment is an INSANE timeline. That’s basically AOG with a driver at the customs dock fast. And you certainly didn’t pay for that!

I never promise anyone less than a week for international. Maybe you can get a refund on your shipping costs if they DID promise that - but usually it’s “estimated arrival” or whatever so it’s no guarantee.

I hope at least they can locate your boots and they arrive ASAP!