If it were possible to give this store less than one star, I would do it without reservation…read more
My wife bought me a premium hat through their online storefront some months ago. She placed the order in October, and it arrived in January, which was expected, given the time required to make and ship the item. The total cost was over $500, but she felt comfortable buying online because my hat size is well-established, given that I've been wearing cowboy hats for 25 years now. Additionally, Pungo Ridge advertizes a return policy that they claim allows you to return an item if you're not satisfied with it. So she didn't see any issue in placing this order through this vendor.
When we received the hat in early January, we immediately noticed that there were three major issues with it. First of all, the brim of the hat was creased in a really odd, almost clownish style that was nothing like what she had ordered. Second, the lining of the hat was installed haphazardly, so that it looked crooked and off-center. Totally unacceptable for such an expensive hat. And last but most importantly, the hat was at least one size too small for me to wear, a major discrepancy in sizing.
So we reached out to Kelley at Pungo Ridge to see about either returning the hat or having it altered to the specifications that my wife had ordered. She was very accommodating at first, expressing concern and offering to help. After exchanging several messages, she said that the manufacturer would be contacting us in a few days with return instructions for the hat. We thanked her and waited to hear from the manufacturer's rep.
Unfortunately, the hat's manufacturer never contacted us. After three weeks, my wife reached out to Kelley again to find out the status of our return, but her messages were ignored. My wife even called the store and received no reply to the voicemail she left. So after $500 spent and all the back and forth, we were left with a very expensive hat that I can't wear. The sad thing is that, even if the sizing were fixed, I don't really even want it, because the quality is a lot less than you'd expect from a $500 hat. So it's a total loss for us at this point.
The bottom line is that my wife ordered a very expensive item from Pungo Ridge, and when it wasn't delivered as ordered, Pungo Ridge did not stand behind it with good customer service. That's the critical test for any retailer--what they do to help you when things go wrong with an order. In our experience, Pungo Ridge failed that test completely.
