King Gee - Show some FUCKING intiative!
I hate lazy "pass the buck" types...
They will by their actions, or the lack of, cause endless shit and hard work for others, when they could have done so little to make it so much better for so many others...
What sent me off this time was a particularly unhelpful human being from King Gee.
The story - I have some King Gee jeans.... good jeans as far as they go - but the riveted buttons that "do the pants up with" have a real habit of coming apart.
This is pulling apart back into TWO pieces - which is different to pulling through the fabric.
Why do they come apart? Because they are cheap shit - just good enough - buttons.
Though they are not actually rivets, in the sense of a solid metal shaft holding two metal objects together with a rounded head at each end, they are more like a short nail being driven into a slightly too small - thin metal tube.
Although they come in all shapes and sizes and lengths, these are they typical bona-fide proper copper rivets
http://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/copper-rivets.html
And here is a real person making a real copper boiler, using real copper rivets.
http://www.jbodenmann.com/berk/berkphotos/fireboxwrapper.jpg
And here is the atypical nail style of button that is used in most pairs of jeans.
I am not picking on any one particular manufacturer, and some will be better than others, but it's the fundamental weakness of this style of fastening system.
They are cheap. Made from thin sheet metal. They have poor long term holding qualities. They tend to rust out / wiggle loose, pull apart...
The nail type design is garbage.
Real riveted buttons made from real copper and real brass that are the solid copper and brass rivets of the 1800's - to early 1920's military leather gear standard ARE the rivets to use.
But I guess this was when REAL jeans were made from HEMP fibre, and tended to last a very, very, very long time.
But King Gee - as do all most of the other manufacturers, - use the cheap shit stub nail / receiver tube type "rivets".
The pants ARE good, but I think - "Mmmm yeah - except for the buttons."
Why is that?
"No button? Your pants fall down."
" Great."
So I think, "Contact the people running King G and get some replacement buttons."
Good idea? Not really.
So I send them this email:
"The rivets holding the pants closed - actually break...
Disappointing.
It's happened on a few pairs now.
(i.e. pop 3 or 4 in an envelope and post them to me)
The reply:
We unfortunately do not have any spares we are able to send out.
How I interpret this:
Given that I assume, the buttons will have say a 10 - 15% failure rate - if they imported the odd box of 10,000 buttons with their jeans, the buttons would I expect be costing about 25c each.
Add in about $2 to post 3 buttons, and it's about $3 all up.
That is how I would be doing it for my customers.
But the genius from King Gee?
He expects me to take the 3 pairs of jeans all the way back to the store.
He expects me to engage in 5 or 10 minutes of transaction time with the store people.
He expects that the store people will then send the 3 pairs of jeans from their shop, back through the distributors, and then all the way back to the King Gee offices.
The people at King Gee will probably take 2 or 3 weeks to get through the inspection - which is composed of looking at 3 pairs of jeans - minus buttons.
This is a huge IQ raising exercise.
They will be sure to come to the conclusion that the buttons have pulled apart and then replace the entire 3 pairs of jeans, with 3 new pairs.
The end result of this will NOT include replacing of the buttons, because they don't keep a box full in stock - but they will toss the reasonably good jeans into the waste / recycling / conversion to rags process.
Then they will supply me with 3 new pairs of jeans, which will I expect - be sent via the distributor, to the shop and then the people in the shop will phone me to say your replacement jeans have come in, and this will include me having to make another trip all the way to the shop to pick them up.
All of this is because the people in King Gee use the cheapest shittest buttons you can get in their jeans for we the, fattest and most lard arsed people in the world; followed up with a dozen other people getting roped into this bullshit trip - just because the customer service guy at King Gee has such a firm grip on the big picture.
Which is a round about way of saying he is a lazy good for nothing fuckwit.
He can't get his head around running up say $400 of costs in total for a whole heap of people, instead of grabbing 75c worth of buttons and posting them to me.
His solution is wasteful, in terms of money, time, resources, travelling, and I hate the idea of tossing 3 perfectly good jeans without buttons, when it only takes 3 cheap shit rivets and a quick whack with a hammer - which is like 5 seconds of work.
At the end of it all, the just barely good enough, "cheap shit buttons" will not be upgraded either.
And the stupidity just rolls onwards.
Will I shit can the brand? Not really.
If I happen to need more jeans - I'd like to have a crack at the hemp jeans, like the original Levi types, and I'd be taking a damned good look at the button used to do them up with.
Or I would be going to what ever is convenient....
I have got good pants that fit well, that come with shit buttons, that come from a supplier who employs clueless people.
At least I know that if I buy MORE King Gee jeans, that I ought to pick up a pack of replacement buttons when I do.
At least that keeps the "big picture" people out of the loop.
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Well a bit of a recap here:
I GOT MY BRAND OF JEANS WRONG - I really did. I fucked up - I made a mistake.
It was the Hard Yakka brand.
So while I am totally right about the "fucking shit service" and all the hassles that leads to, I am wrong on the brand.
So I contacted the folks at "Hard Yakka" and guess what?
They replied.
"We unfortunately do not have any spares we can send out to yourself.
If the pants we purchased from us here online, we can arrange to have them returned and replaced.
If the pants are purchased from a retail store, you will need to take them back and have them send back to us for replacements to be sent out.
Thank you etc."
So I replied:
"Well go and get some fucking spares.
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I actually thought - "This reply from the Hard Yakka people, sounds just like the reply from the "King Gee" people... In fact if I am not mistaken - the respondent has the same name."
Some searching:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Brands
Company profile
Pacific Brands is a marketer of Everyday Essential Brands. The origins of Pacific Brands can be traced back to 1893 when the business began manufacturing Dunlop bicycle tyres. Today, Pacific Brands is a manager of Everyday Essential Brands in Australia and New Zealand, marketing brands including Berlei, Bonds, Clarks, Dunlop, Everlast, Grosby, Holeproof, Hush Puppies, King Gee, Mooks, Mossimo, Sheridan, Slazenger, Sleepmaker, Tontine and Yakka.*2001 Pacific Brands was split of from Pacific Dunlop and sold to CVC Asia Pacific and Catalyst Investment Managers. Further develops key categories with the synergistic acquisition of Sara Lee Apparel Australia Business (including King Gee, Playtex, Razzamatazz and Stubbies).
*2007 Acquired the Yakka group of companies (including the Yakka, Hard Yakka, Can't Tear 'Em, Wrangler and Lee Jeans brands.)
* 2009 Announces it will lay off 1,850 staff and close most manufacturing sites in Australia, saying they are no longer economically viable.[5] The company had received $17.6M in government funding over the previous two years targeted at (but not conditional on) continuing local manufacturing.[6][7]
Controversies
Local manufacturing
In the 2006/2007 financial year Pacific Brands declared a gross profit of 1.6B AUD and employed 9,000. In 2006/2007, it received $8.6-million in assistance from the Australian government to keep manufacturing jobs in Australia. In 2007/2008, it received $9-million. In 2009, the board of Pacific Brands announced the sacking of 1,850 employees, after granting unprecedented pay rises to executives who developed a plan to move manufacturing operations to China. CEO Sue Morphet's package rose from $685,000 to $1.8m.[11]Human rights
In recent years, Pacific Brands has come under the spotlight due to the lack of transparency in its overseas operations.[12] Pacific Brands claims that accountability is one of its underlying values, stating on its website: "do what you say, take responsibility".[13] But human rights advocates are concerned about the company’s lack of accountability regarding its off-shore suppliers, as well as its lack of protections for the rights of workers producing Pacific Brands products.[14] As a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative since 2008,[15]which is an independent & internationally recognised code of labour practice, founded on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation,[16] Pacific Brands is obliged to report fairly and accurately on its trading activities and their performance on key labour rights issues. Ethical Trading Initiative, [17] However, at the end of 2010, Pacific Brands has minimal reporting on factory conditions and has refused to publicly release a list of its supplier factories. The lack of transparency in the overseas supply chain of Pacific Brands contrasts with a growing number of international brands who have shared the location of manufactures in the name of accountability.[18] Non-disclosure of factory locations makes it very difficult for independent organisations to verify worker’s conditions. At the same time, the global garment sector remains notorious for its poor record on human rights, marked by ongoing barriers to freedom of association, unsafe working conditions and poverty wages.[19]One of Pacific Brands’ supplier, Li & Fung has a poor record with regards to transparency and reporting. In 2009 the Oxfam Hong-Kong transparency report revealed that Li & Fung has a poor record on transparency and audit reporting.[20] In a 2008 investigation into labour rights violations at an Indonesian factory, the Worker Rights Consortium wrote that "[Li & Fung's] expertise in supply chain management has not been matched by a capacity for credible labour rights investigation."[21] An additional key obligation for companies under the Ethical Trading Initiative base code is a living wage provision, which states that companies are obliged to pay enough for workers to meet basic needs and to provide some discretionary income.[22] Pacific Brands is yet to implement more than a basic minimum wage across its supplier factories. Oxfam Australia has urged Pacific Brands to adopt transparent and independent auditing practices, as an initial step towards ensuring respect for the rights workers in their supply chain.[23]
Executive remuneration
Despite claiming that the transformation plan for the company as almost complete, the company continues to post disappointing financial results. During Ms. Morphet's leadership of Pacific Brands, sales has fallen by 15 per cent and net profit by 40 per cent. EPS decreased from 11.5 cents/share to 3.0 cents/share.[24]In October 2011, Pacific Brands became one of the first companies in Australia to have its shareholders voice their disapproval for its remuneration report. Despite missing their mandatory EBITA targets, the board approved generous short-term incentive payments to its senior management team.[25] Although shareholders have had the right to vote on remuneration reports since 2005, the results of the shareholder vote were not binding on the board. (just like Telstra's Board of Directors) Under the new rule, a company will be obliged to hold a spill vote of its board if its remuneration report is not supported by 75% or more shareholders for two years in a row.[26]
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So there we have it, another corporate moron that thinks a $3 mail out is harder to do and more cost effective than wasting $30 of my fuel, 4 hours of my time in travel, 10 or 20 minutes of the shop peoples time, half an hour of the couriers time, wasting three perfectly good pairs of pants and then replacing them with 3 MORE pairs of pants with a retail value of $90 - $120, and then asking me to waste another $30 in fuel and 4 hours of my time to go and pick them up.
This is what a dumb fuck the guy really is.
This is what a dumb fuck the guy really is.
And the corporate moron is working for another "Team Sleaze" cash grabbing clique - who like to rip off and rip up anything and anyone just so they can line their pockets with all the cash they can stuff into the bank accounts.
All I can say is that next time there is a gas leak in the building, I hope someone hands this person and his managers, a cigarette lighter to go and find it with.
The managers and bored of directors? I hope their shareholders lynch them.And you moron share holders deserve to get fucked in the arse with a cactus for your stupidity and greed.
Foot note:
The zips for these jeans - the handle - held twixt the finger tips, I am sure it's made of brass plated steel - as it seems to me to be damned near impossible to make die cast brass strips that thin, that will resist pulling open.
You could almost call them brass foil.
Good on ya bro, Ur names not Animal is it?
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