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Hydromagnt
10-16-2002, 12:37
Anyone have any recent correspondence w/ Kurt Russell, Wanderlust Outdoor Gear, Myrtle Beach, S.C. I tried the phone number on his web page, and it's disconnected/out of service. I'm trying to check on mu order, placed May 28/02. Thanks :confused:

Jeff
10-16-2002, 13:48
I have also been unable to contact Kurt. My last phone conversation was on Sep 19th and he mentioned business was as strong as ever. He also talked about some illness with a family member and I can only assume he is focused on that right now.

Hydromagnt
10-16-2002, 15:02
Thanks Jeff, for the reply. I imagine it probably exactly as you report.:confused: :confused: :confused:

Hydromagnt
10-17-2002, 15:15
I just spoke to Kurt, so I guess all is O.K. Don't know what the problem w/ his telephone was in the past, but it's working now.;) ;) ;)

snowbirder
01-20-2004, 01:32
I ordered a Nomand 242 last June 03, paid in full and my check was cashed soon after it was revived by Mr. Kurt Russell. Since that time almost 8 months ago Kurt has never attempted to contact me. I have sent numerous emails to him that have all gone unanswered. I call his phone daily. In the past an answering machine answered that only stated that it was full of messages and could accept no more. For the past month the phone just rings and no one ever answers. Twice I have reached Mr. Russell on the phone, we had a polite conversation and twice he promised a ship date of my tent, once in October 03 and once in November 03. ( fool me twice shame on me? )

I read a lot about Mr. Russell and his tents before I ordered and expected a wait of 4-6 months. I am going on 8 months since I paid for my tent, two broken shipment promises and the man is impossible to reach. Regardless of how light or good his tents may be, from my experiences I would avoid doing ANY business with Wanderlust. It's Frustration. I have moved to a Hennessey Hammock ( happily ) and am now trying to get a refund from wanderLust. If anyone knows how to actually contact wanderLust please let me know.

If you are planning on ordering

BEWARE ....

tlbj6142
01-20-2004, 10:50
Do a quick search on wanderlust on the www.backpacking.net (http://www.backpacking.net) forums. Kurt responded to a "public cry for a refund" a couple of months ago. In that message he gave his contact information.

There seem to be quite a few complants recently (past 8+ months) about him. For folks still considering his tents, check out www.sixmoondesigns.com (http://www.sixmoondesigns.com) and the Europa II or www.tarptent.com (http://www.tarptent.com). You can't go wrong with either tent and their tents in stock.

icemanat95
01-20-2004, 11:44
Do a quick search on wanderlust on the www.backpacking.net (http://www.backpacking.net) forums. Kurt responded to a "public cry for a refund" a couple of months ago. In that message he gave his contact information.

There seem to be quite a few complants recently (past 8+ months) about him. For folks still considering his tents, check out www.sixmoondesigns.com (http://www.sixmoondesigns.com) and the Europa II or www.tarptent.com (http://www.tarptent.com). You can't go wrong with either tent and their tents in stock.

Sounds like Wanderlust is suffering one of the worst side effects of success, demand has outstripped his ability to produce a supply. He has then tried to redouble his efforts to meet that demand at the cost of customer service. That WILL kill his business. What he needs to do is communicate with all the customers on his backorder list and tell them what has happened, what he is doing about it and allow them the opportunity to back out of their orders. If he doesn't have the money to pay refunds, he needs to take out a small business loan to do so. If he is honest, and gives people honest estimations of delivery times, most folks will probably be OK. He should also stop taking new orders until he has fulfilled all his back orders, then he needs to build up a stock before he opens up for orders again. It may behoove him to hire someone to help him meet his back orders ASAP.

But from the sounds of things, he is cutting his own throat.

Rain Man
01-20-2004, 12:06
I ordered a Nomand 242 last June 03, paid in full and my check was cashed soon after it was revived by Mr. Kurt Russell. Since that time almost 8 months ago Kurt has never attempted to contact me. I have sent numerous emails to him that have all gone unanswered. I call his phone daily. In the past an answering machine answered that only stated that it was full of messages and could accept no more.

If you are planning on ordering

BEWARE ....

This advice is may be too late for you in this instance.... but one should "beware" (as you say) always about payment IN FULL and UP FRONT. Generally, reputable places should charge no more than half up front, and half on delivery.

If it's any thing more than that, or if you want to be prudent, pay by credit card, then "dispute" the charge if something like this happens.

I have no idea what the cause of the problem was with your order, but I'm sorry you even had this experience. Backpacking should be FUN, not a hassle.

Rain Man

tlbj6142
01-20-2004, 12:15
Part of the problem is that he seems to be not willing to outsource the work. Sure there are some new "problems" introduced when you make that move, but they can be resolved. Check out tarptent.com or brasslite.com or sixmoondesigns.com, ula-equipment.com. All of these "little guys" built their gear in-house. Once the demand became so great they were able to switch to outsourced help. Now they spend their time overlooking their provider instead of sweating over the work and pissing off customers.

gravityman
01-20-2004, 12:33
One word of caution about making demands of Kurt. He may not want to continue making his tent, which is a unique tent that you can't get elsewhere. Yes, the lead time is simply insane, his customer service is, well, not so impressive, and he demands payment full up front. But he has been delivering these tents to customers for some time, and has good ties to the thruhiking community. It is unlikely that he will simply "take the money and run" as people actually know where he lives. But sometimes you have to put up with these fustrations if only one person is producing the product.

So, if you recommend this tent to anyone, make sure they understand the problems. But don't come down so hard on Kurt that he decides to stop making him. Some pressure is good, and will help reform his buisness practices (I have to say, I would like to see outsourcing. Especially to someone who doesn't smoke! My tent STANK when I got it) but too much purely negative criticism will surely make him just stop making them, which would be a loss to the thruhiking community.

Of course it's not clear these are the best tents out there (the cloudburst from tarptent looks really good, especially for its wind/storm characteristics) but they are the best tent for some people.

Gravity Man

icemanat95
01-20-2004, 15:22
But as a business owner, when Kurt takes money from people to provide them a service, he enters into a contract with them to provide that service or product within the agreed upon timeframe. When he fails to do that, he is violating that contract.

I've seen business practices like this destroy businesses and fast. people who have an excellent reputation for quality have watched that reputation collapse under the spectre of many multiple missed deadlines, failure to communicate, unwillingness to refund money paid, etc. People will only put up with it for so long and then they will begin destroying the business the same way it was built, by word of mouth (and Internet). If Kurt's business practices cause enough dissatisfaction among the thru-hiking community, it will spread fast through this forum, Trailplace, AT-L, etc. until Kurt couldn't sell his stuff if he was giving it away. A little bit of honesty and outsourcing could prevent a deluge of requests for refund or even worse, complaints to his state attorney general's office. Many attorney's general would consider taking money up front for a product never delivered a theft or fraud. If the money was sent via US Mail, it could be construed as federal mail fraud...OUCH! And all it takes is one sufficiently pissed off customer.

snowbirder
01-23-2004, 15:59
Thanks for the information pointing to the posting by Kurt. I don't know why he could not put the same type of information on his web page or answering machine at the same time he posted that.

If anyone hears anything else about Wanderlust please post it. I would really like to have some communication with Kurt. I keep trying daily. However my avenues to do so keep closing down, two days ago the phone number for Wanderlust was disconnected, 843 232-9432. (The order forms for the tents are still on the web page though)

Obvisouly there is something strange going on with Wanderlust. Did Kurt build a better mouse trap and the rush of people beating a path to his door overwhelm him, has he taken ill or injury, finally left on his own thru hike or maybe he is frantically sewing tents as I type? Who knows .... :confused:

Footslogger
01-23-2004, 16:46
Can't comment on being able to get in touch with Kurt, since I haven't tried to reach him in well over a year. However, I do own one of his tents (Nomad Lite) and used it on my thru-hike in 2003. It was nice carrying a shelter that weighed only 1 pound 11 ounces, since I didn't use it all the time. It's about the closest you can come to a tarp plus it has the no-seeum mesh to keep the nagging bugs away at night.

The tent is in great shape but I don't have too much use for it anymore and would be willing to part with it for the right price. I paid around $285 for it new in early 2003.

If anyone's interested just send me an e-mail direclty.

Happy Trails ...

Mike15601
02-03-2004, 11:54
[QUOTE=snowbirder]I ordered a Nomand 242 last June 03, paid in full and my check was cashed soon after it was revived by Mr. Kurt Russell. Since that time almost 8 months ago Kurt has never attempted to contact me. I have sent numerous emails to him that have all gone unanswered. I call his phone daily. In the past an answering machine answered that only stated that it was full of messages and could accept no more. For the past month the phone just rings and no one ever answers. Twice I have reached Mr. Russell on the phone, we had a polite conversation and twice he promised a ship date of my tent, once in October 03 and once in November 03. ( fool me twice shame on me? )

I read a lot about Mr. Russell and his tents before I ordered and expected a wait of 4-6 months. I am going on 8 months since I paid for my tent, two broken shipment promises and the man is impossible to reach. Regardless of how light or good his tents may be, from my experiences I would avoid doing ANY business with Wanderlust. It's Frustration. I have moved to a Hennessey Hammock ( happily ) and am now trying to get a refund from wanderLust. If anyone knows how to actually contact wanderLust please let me know.

If you are planning on ordering

BEWARE ....

Same problem here. I ordered my Nomad with a 100.00 deposit in March 03. I talked with Kurt once and he was very nice. Said my tent would be ready in early Fall. Well here I am late Jan. 04 and no word from Kurt. Now his phone is dissconected. He does not answer E-Mail. He does not even reply to regular USMail even when I have enclosed a self addressed stamped envelope! I think I have come to the realization that Im out a deposit. I do hope Kurt is OK. I have heard he is really bad at the business end of things but this is just REAL BAD BUSINESS. I AGREE: DOUBLE BEWARE

snowbirder
02-03-2004, 12:54
Good News,
The phone number (843.232.9432) to Wanderlust that had been disconnected is hooked up again and lo and behold Kurt answered it this morning! I hardly knew what to do or say when he did I was so surprised. We did chat a bit and Kurt seems to be the same friendly person that I had talked with months ago. He offered to get my tent out that same day, but as I had to make other tenting arrangements I opted for my refund.

It seems that a lot of major life events have occured with Kurt in the past months. Obviously he should have handled his business end better. From the sound of things though it seems he is back and running. You might want to consider Wanderlust tents again. I hope things go well for him.

Snowbirder

rhino
02-03-2004, 13:28
If Kurt turns his thing around and starts making "timely" deliveries to those of you with outstanding orders, please update this thread so those of us doing our long range planning can re-consider his gear as an option.

Mike15601
02-03-2004, 18:32
I just got a call from Kurt and he seems to be up and running again. He is sending my tent today (hopefully) after a 10 month wait. He says he had a death in the family and some other problems over the holiday season which set him back. Hopefully my news is good news for all of us waiting.

tribes
02-03-2004, 19:11
I would still think that Kurt would STOP taking any new orders until he brings himself current with what he still owes to people. It would be foolish to place any new orders with him knowing the current situation anyways. I am anxious to see how all of this pans out for the consumers that have already paid for their tents. To any involved with a transaction: Please post any new info as it becomes available. Good luck to all involved. :confused:

gravityman
02-03-2004, 19:36
I seem to remember reading a post on another site that was linked further up in the thread that said he had also lost a lot of paperwork, and might have a few people that he doesn't even know he owes a tent to. So if you are waiting for a tent, seems like now is the time to call!

Gravity man

Mike15601
02-06-2004, 21:41
I received my Nomad tent from Kurt today. Time from order to my mailbox....about 10 months 2 weeks. I did speak with him on the phone Wednesday Feb. 4th. He seemed upbeat and back in the swing of things. Again good luck to all.

Hammock Hanger
02-06-2004, 23:21
I received my Nomad tent from Kurt today. Time from order to my mailbox....about 10 months 2 weeks. I did speak with him on the phone Wednesday Feb. 4th. He seemed upbeat and back in the swing of things. Again good luck to all.
I heard that he was out of business. Hope he has gotten it together.

HH

casey
02-07-2004, 02:57
I have just gone through this with wanderlust as well. I ordered a tent months ago for my thru-hike, and was not able to get in touch with Kurt at all. But I did speak with him at the beginning of this week, and i got my tent 2 days later.

From what I hear, this is his MO, and he usually comes through, even though hes not a very responsive.

Although I have to say it was worth the wait (not sure about worth the stress though) I love the tent, and I dont think any others compare to its quality and weight.

If anyone is still trying to contact Kurt, i suggest trying again now, as it seems he is back in town and working on the tents.