FirstGear Outstanding Customer Service

[FJ Flyer]

I've had a lot of FirstGear gear over the years, jackets, pants, gloves.  My HT and HT Air overpants are my daily choice for my commute to work, as they are easy to get over my work clothes, have liners and armor.

On Monday, I got to work and was taking my HT pants off in the garage and the right leg zipper slide came completely apart, breaking at the post.  Never had that happen before. I've had tons of pulls break off, but never had a slide self destruct.  Not a lot of work arounds for this, the velcro flap barely held the halves together for the ride home.

On Tuesday, for grins, I sent an email to FirstGear asking if they have a repair service.  The pants are not that old (couple years) and in great shape. I was expecting  a curt reply saying they don't do repairs and if the pants are out of warranty, tough luck.  My next option was going to the local cleaners or shoe repair.

FirstGear customer support promptly responded that they are currently changing their repair vendor, and if I send them some pics of the pants, along with my shipping address, they'd send me a new pair of pants.  They never asked for a purchase receipt, how old the pants were, or any documenatation.

When I got home that day, took some pics, emailed them back.  Got another email back saying the pants were on their way, along with a shipping label to send the old pants back to them.

Got home yesterday to find a big box in the kitchen with my new pants.  Talk about fast turnaround!  And this was for a free replacement pair of pants.

I will say they've made some nice improvements to the pants since the pair I bought.

So they kept a long-time customer very, very happy.  Xmas came early this year!   

[ZOA NOM]

Holy crap! Great news! I have a Firstgear one-piece with a broken zipper on one leg. I'll give them a call.

[FeralRdr]

   I'll say this for FirstGear, they do at least stand by their products. 

Having said that, I have found that they do have some serious quality control issues with their zippers and snaps.  I've owned 6 FirstGear jackets and 3 pairs of their riding pants.  On all 3 pairs of pants ((2)HT Air 2.0 Mesh pants and (1) HT Overpant) I've had to replace several of the snaps that secure the inner liners to the outer shells.  On the HT Overpants, I had 2 zipper failures.  One similar to FJ FLyer's (on it's first use) and the other was the slider 'zipping' off the fly's zipper.  FirstGear  repaired the leg zipper and 2 of the snaps (they broke as I was pulling the pants off), and had them back to me within 10 days of me sending them off.  It should be mentioned that 2 of the snaps broke again several rides later.  On the fly zipper failure, I was able to get it back on and I found a zipper repair kit with the appropriate zipper stop to keep it from coming off again.  This also happened to me on one of the jackets.  In that case, I was able to take it back and get it replaced at the local shop I bought it at.  On my Jackets, other than that one zipper, I've only had to replace one snap and that was on my Kilimanjaro Jacket. 

To be honest, the failing snaps were never that big of a deal for me as I went down to Jo-Anne Fabrics and got one of these kits the first time one of my snaps broke:

http://www.joann.com/black-color-snaps-and-tools-1-half-in/12139887.html#prefn1=brand&sz=18&start=109&prefv1=Dritz

Cheaper and faster than sending it back, and in my case it's been a good value as I've had to replace so many of them.  Zippers on the other hand, can be a bit more problematic; especially if the slider is damaged.

[FJ Flyer]

I had every zipper pull fail on the first pair of HT Air pants (V1.0) that I had, even on the rain liner.  It was still under warranty and I sent them back, with receipt showing date of purchase, and they replaced them, with V2.o pants.  The 2.0s have been holding up much better, and they indicated they had changed their zipper supplier. 

I have had a few snaps go, and I do use the home snap repair kit. 

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Chris....That is so good to hear. 

Based on what you've shared, First Gear will now be my first choice

[FeralRdr]

Well, I Just got some great news from FirstGear (FG).  Further, if you have any Armored Textile FG apparel that is less than 5-years old and in need of warranty work, you might want to pay attention.

So long story short, my FG Kilimanjaro jacket started leaking in the sleeves last spring (and not just a little bit).  Upon encountering the leakage, I checked on the FG website to see if my jacket was covered under warranty.  At that time (late April), their website said that all non-TPG textile apparel only had a 2-year warranty.  As such, I figured that I was SOL being as how I bought the jacket in December 2012.  To say I was a little disappointed in the FG brand would be an understatement, especially after finding out that the reason for the leaks was the use of a non water proof/resistant fabric panel in the construction of the sleeves (located in each sleeve's elbow pit area).  To be clear, I believe that when the jacket was manufactured, those panels were probably impregnated with a waterproofing treatment that eventually just washed out of the jacket over time.  As I had no other recourse with FG, I decided to chalk it up to another good brand being sold off to new ownership who care more about profit than the quality of their products, and decided to start shopping around for a new brand.

Fast forward to last week end.  After posting up here, I decided to double check the warranty page on their website, and surprise!  They've revised their warranty to extend the time period from a 2-year warranyt, to 5 years on all "Armored Textile Apparel".  So, I also emailed them, and was pleasantly surprised to hear back from them that yes, the jacket is covered by their warranty, and that they would replace it as such.  As in FJ Flyer's case, they are going to replace it with the newer 2015/16 style Kilimanjaro jacket.  I just have to wait for them to arrive sometime at the end of the month.

Hope the info helps.

[FJmonkey]

Sounds like FIRST is really being emphasized in their name.

[FJ Flyer]

Glad to hear it just wasnt a rogue employee playing Santa and its a company policy.

Nice to see a company change for the better for once.

[FeralRdr]

Glad to hear it just wasnt a rogue employee playing Santa and its a company policy.

Nice to see a company change for the better for once.

Agreed!

[Dads_FJ]

I'll attest to the quality of FG products.  I've had my Kilimanjaro over 5 years - a bit faded but nice and broken in, like a pair of jeans.



and warm too - I wear it skiing

[FeralRdr]

Just wanted to give a shout out that my new jacket arrived yesterday, and I must say that it is pretty impressive.

http://firstgear-usa.com/mens-gear/jackets/firstgear-37-5r-kilimanjaror-textile-jacket.html



They now include both a D3O back protector (CE standard), and D3O chest panels (not CE rated).  They've done away with the stretch panels (that leaked in my older jacket), and it looks like the whole jacket is made of the same base material with heavier impact panels in the shoulders and elbows. Additionally, they redid the lower front pockets.  Previously, there were fold-over velcro pockets with a zippered hand warmer pockets behind each.  The problem was that the hand warmer pockets were too small to put your hand fully in, and were a little cumbersome to use (for me at least).   On the new generation Kilimanjaro, they did away with the fold-over pockets, and enlarged the hand warmer ones.  The only real feature that I miss (so far), is the doing away of the inner thermal liner.  I found it to be a nice value enhancing feature, that could be conveniently installed and removed as needed.  Further, it could be stowed away in a smaller, more compactible package as compared to an extra jacket or sweat shirt.  Not a huge issue to be sure, but it is something to consider when selecting new riding gear.   Additionally, the jacket is a more generous cut, so if shopping for one, you definitely want to try it on with your preferred inner layer's of choice to insure proper fitment.

I did a quick check of the zippers and snaps, and they seam to be top notch with all of the open ended zippers having stops on them (one of the issues of past FirstGear zipper failures).  Also, the pulls and sliders all seem to be very good quality, but only time will truly tell.  To be fair, out of all the gear I've owned, I've only had one zipper failure of this type (and as mentioned before, FG warrantied that no problem).  The overall first impression, is that FirstGear has listened to their customer base, and has reexamined their manufacturers quality control. 

Didn't mean to turn this into a product review, just wanted to reiterate the great customer support from FirstGear.  They replaced a 3 year old jacket with a newer and (all things considered) better jacket. 

Hope the info helps. 

[Dads_FJ]

After reading this thread I also contacted FirstGear with questions about a couple faulty zippers on my jacket.  'Nick' asked for some photos and determined it was within warranty.  My new jacket arrived yesterday and as a bonus he said I could keep my old one for 'sentimental' purposes.