Rant on behalf of Specialized customers not from or living in the US

Triathlon Forum
1

Or a rant on behalf of myself anyway!

Why on earth is it not possible to ordered a replacement Mindset retention system for my Prevail helmet unless I:
a) am from the US and live in the US
b) have a US-issued credit card and get a friend to ship it to me overseas
c) get a friend living in the US to order it and then ship it to me

It seems quite absurd to be treating their overseas customers in this way. Surely if we choose to purchase their products, non-US customers should be entitled to receive something similar to the level of service and after-care that US customers are. I understand there could be shipping issues and even distribution rights problems, but even so…

I will add that I love the helmet, and I’d also love to get it back in working order again. To this end I’ll ask a US friend of mine to order it and ship it to me, but I really don’t think it should be necessary to go to such lengths. For example, when I had a problem with my Speedfil A2, Speedfil promptly shipped a replacement part to me in Japan, at their expense. That’s the level of customer service all companies should be striving for.

Here endeth my rant!

2

Talk to your local spesh dealer.

3

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I don’t have a local Specialized dealer. That’s mainly the reason why I bought the helmet online in the first place.
There are also a few cases online of people living in other countries, New Zealand was one I think, where the part was only available from the US online store.

4

I’m hijacking your thread for my rant about Felt. I’m in SA and there is currently no authorised dealer so inorder to buy the one spare I need I need to pay more than 5x the cost of the part in shipping and taxes.

5

The Google tells me there is a spesh concept store in Tokyo. Try calling them…

6

If you’re in south africa look at Aramex Shop and Ship

You get a US drop ship address which is redirected to you for usually less than UPS / Fed Ex
.

7

Thanks I’ll definitely look into that.

8

I take it from your name that you live in Japan in which case there is a Specialized concept store in Tokyo which should be able to get any specialized product quickly into the country. Here in the UK I have found the concept stores to provide excellent customer support so I would give them a call and see if they will ship you what you need.