Hey Folks..

I just wanted to give a THANK YOU to Mr. Smith Kinney of C.O. LYNCH ENTERPRISES. He is the Brand Manager for Itasca/Columbia Sportswear Companies.

I had recently purchased a pair of their Model 1200 Camo, Scent Free, Insulated rubber boots. I started having leaking issues as the vulcanized seams appeared to be separating and splitting.

The business where I purchased the boots would NOT made any adjustments so I contacted the company. Within a few days, Mr. Kinney called me personally and we discussed the problems and I answered his questions.

Mr. Kinney apologized for the inconvenience and informed me he was shipping me a BRAND NEW pair of COLUMBIA replacement boots OVER NIGHT and FREE OF CHARGE!!!

The FED EX truck just delivered my "ITEMS" and to my surprise, I also received an EXTRA pair of COLUMBIA ADRENALIN HUNTER 60554 boots to "field test" and evaluate for the company. I also discovered a pair of COLUMBIA MONARCH PASS "over the calf" HEAVY WEIGHT Merino Wool hunting socks.

To me, this indicates a TRUE CONCERN for CUSTOMER SATISFACTION and I HIGHLY ENDORSE COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR PRODUCTS!!!

Bud Fields

I bought the same Itaska boots last year from Gander mountain, after two weekends of hunting in them I had the same problem. Gander Mountain took them back and DISCOURAGED me from replacing them with the same brand boot! The person at the return desk said they had numerous returns of this brand boot. My guess Bud is you told the representative about your speaking tour and he did not want the bad press. they had the problem last year and still have it this year??? That's not customer service or product management....

Hi JB..

GOOD TO HEAR FROM YA' partner... The man told me they had sold something like 8500 pair of those boots and something like 27 issues were brought forth.. (Not sure about the exact numbers.)

He at least listened to me and made the free adjustment and shipped the items OVERNIGHT. IF they don't last, I won't be using them but AT LEAST they made an effort to satisfy me and another popular boot company would not even do that when I had a similar problem with their boots.I was out about $130 and that SUCKED BIG TIME..

GOOD HUNTING..
Bud