I recently bought a lovely pair of QHP Hailey lace up tall boots from The Distinguished Rider in December-today my zipper broke …I’m shocked that they have barely lasted 3 months …I have pairs of inexpensive Mountain Horse boots that have stayed in tact for 15yrs. The store told me to find a cobbler to repair them -they didn’t offer me any replacement or discount of any kind …problem is last time I had zippers repaired it was almost $200 which was almost the cost of these boots …I guess I’m just venting out of frustration because I’m tired of going through boots
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That’s awful customer service!
Maybe try Xenia Shoe & Leather - I think it was $85 to fix my zips last time and they did a great job
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Oh wow, that is crazy bad customer service.
Was there a written warranty with the boots?
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Are you local to Region 8 or will you be showing this year? Sometimes at shows there are cobblers.
I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the leather-cobbler that brings his truck to GMHA’s Dressage Days, the USEA Events, and the summer festival, but he repaired my zippers for $25. The zipper itself didn’t break, but the stitching blew out from toe to knee and the zipper itself had to be resewn back onto the leather.
He also repaired a halter, a bridle, and some other small things. And he noticed I was using a paper-clip for my zipper pull-up tab and he sewed on a leather tab…
All in I paid $70, which was more than worth it. I wish I remembered his name.
I agree that is poor customer service. If you don’t think a local cobbler is an option, try reaching out to TDR again, maybe you’ll get a better rep. Your (general) level of service is all contingent on the rep you get that day. A good rep will find a way to make it right. Don’t be afraid to escalate and ask politely for a manager.
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That’s what I felt like too… Usually in my past experience, they offer you something or even you know reach out to the boot manufacturer on the customer’s behalf to see if they would be willing to provide a replacement… I’ll have to look back at my purchase order, but I don’t recall any type of warranty But that’s just crazy to not even barely last three months and these are although inexpensive of decent quality boots from the Netherlands
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they are in the Netherlands so subject to EU warranty requirements
In the EU, consumers are entitled to a minimum two-year legal guarantee for faulty goods, meaning the seller must repair or replace them, or offer a refund if that’s not possible, and this applies regardless of whether the purchase was made online or in a store
how to get them to honor such I have no idea but suspect hell fire could be brought down on them fairly easily
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I’m in Pennsylvania… Berks County there’s one that I worked with several years ago it was Pisano Who used to be located in Malvern… I believe now they are in Phoenixville now granite I needed both zippers completely replaced on my Parlante boots, but it was darn near close to $200
Wow… I had no idea and that’s good to know… I will be reaching out then to QHP
Pisano is located in Kimberton now.
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I got my zippers repaired at my local cobbler (he does, shoes, boots, suitcases, bags, etc) and he only charged me $50
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Our local(ish) cobbler is known in the horse community as The Zipper Nazi. He charges about $100 and a lecture on zipper care…
He sees horse people coming in with their boots and already has his hands on his hips and is rolling his eyes as you walk through the door. Woe betide you if you take offense or quibble. No more zippers for you!
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I tried being more diligent with this pair of boots …even purchased “ zipper glide” that I would put on the zippers once/week …I’ve just never had a pair break in 3 months 
Distinguished rider is widely known for fantastic customer service. QHP is a low end boot made in Europe, for $200 lace up boots I think you kind of have to expect cheap zippers. I had a pair of Hailey’s myself and you can tell the zipper quality difference between them and my more expensive boots. Hailey’s have laces, were you using the laces to change the fit of the boot or forcing the zipper up? I guess the question is how long is a return window supposed to last for tack and equipment.
I know that people have had the same issues with Ariat boots.
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No …never adjusted the laces and my zippers zipped easily and I made sure to use their “zipper glide” product and always cleaned them after each ride …like I stated above -I have inexpensive Mountain Horse Boots as well as Ariats that have remained in tact for well over 10+yrs with not the best care either of keeping clean etc and zippers still in tact …whether QHP is low end or not they still cost over $250 -I expect them to last longer than 3 months…also in past experience I’ve had other boot companies replace with brand new boots that were more expensive than these …I don’t know 3 months is not very long at all in my opinion…I could see if this was more than 6 months to a year …not barely 3 months
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Being charged outrageous fees to replace boot zippers is why I bought a cheap hand crank leather sewing machine made for shoe repair and do it myself.
The thing is funky and a little temperamental but works pretty well. I mounted it onto a work bench so it’s more stable than this picture.
It’s already paid for itself but, that said, it’s a royal pain in the patootie and takes a long time (think 1 hour plus, more if you are a rookie and make mistakes) to replace boot zippers so I better understand now why it costs so much.
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I don’t have a dog in this fight at all, but how do we define fantastic customer service?
From their website their returns policy is basically “only unused items, must notify us within 7 days of receiving item, and pay your own shipping back”
And I totally respect a small business doing what they need to stay in business, but some would argue that policies seen elsewhere (eg “no questions asked, return anything for a year, we pay shipping”) are “better” - for the customer.
Great customer service in my mind is also prompt and friendly, and TDR may be very good at that! We don’t know how they tried to help the OP but it may very well have been handled very sympathetically.
But the last aspect of great CS in my mind is creating a policy that doesn’t leave the customer in a no win situation. In this case they might have identified the gap in policy between their wholesaler (who in this case points the finger at the retailer) and their own policy (pointing at the wholesaler) and acknowledged that that is going to cause some annoyance.
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Is one zipper damaged and the other boot OK? Or did both boots have simultaneous zipper failures? The latter would be something the manufacturer should be really on top of.
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I never said they weren’t nice or sympathetic-they just said “ oh bummer” you should find a cobbler and made a suggestion of one who they recommend…idk…I guess it would’ve been nice for them to acknowledge how crappy it is that these boots only lasted 3 months -they offered no explanation of any type of warranty or policy and didn’t offer to reach out to the manufacturer on my behalf which to me would have been better customer service. I did say in my original post that the only help offered was to find a cobbler …it sounds as if you’re blindly defending TDR for some odd reason. ??
Just the zipper on the right boot
