Terrible lock

By Bryan Ranked #210 - Bindings January 18, 2013

I purchased not one, but TWO of these locks - one for my wife and one for me. I chose this lock because it was small and could easily fit in my pocket without being cumbersome. And it had the Burton name associated with it (I wrongly assumed this would equate to quality). And it was available in the ski shop when I was purchasing skis.

I wish I had taken the time to research it first and read the public reviews on this lock. Had I done that I would have chosen another brand. I've seen dozens of bad reviews stating that the lock became "stuck" in the locked position and scissors/wire cutters were necessary to remove it. On THAT ALONE I would have walked away from this lock.

My main issue with this lock is that THE NUMBERS WORE OFF. They didn't just wear off on one lock; they wore off on BOTH locks. This is after only 2 years. The lock is no longer functional if one cannot read the numbers.

I will be purchasing a competitor's lock now.

If this wasn't bad enough, I called Burton and explained what happened. Their response was "Our warranty only covers up to 1 year from date of purchase. I can't help you. Sorry. But please do email Burton because the 'higher-ups' read those emails and take them seriously. Include pictures if you can."

I'm confused. If Burton takes feedback seriously, then why couldn't the customer support rep help me? So now I have to help out Burton by writing an email and taking pictures to document a problem with their product but Burton can't help me out when I'm the one affected by the problem? Yeah, lovely.

Well I went ahead and emailed Burton and included pictures.

Here is their lame response:

"Sorry that you have had an issue with our Cable Lock and we defiantly do take customers feedback seriously. However, we cannot cover every issue under our warranty policy, but we do want to improve products so issues like this do not happen in the future. Unfortunately, if customers didn't give feedback we would have no records of problem and could not upgrade product. We thank you for your feedback and the time you took to write this email. I will send this information to our feedback center."

It's a $15 lock, Burton. Your cost is probably $5. You *seriously* can't take a $10 hit to keep a customer happy when the issue is a defect in your own product? Warranty or not, the numbers should NOT wear off over time. You failed to realize that happy customers come back. I won't be coming back.

Sorry Burton, you've lost my business forever. And I hope people reading this will choose another brand as well. Not only is your product defective; your customer service skills are as well.

Badly played on your part.

View Details: Burton Cable Lock

Helpful Votes: 0 Yes