2 days and 64 minutes.....

only to find out that the tent pole I was looking to replace was out of stock!!! UNBELIEVEABLE! I just wasted an outrageous amount of time on hold for a non existant tent pole!?!? We own a Bass Pro 18x10 4 cabin tent (model year 2004) which Tom bought for a LOT of money at a garage sale 2yrs ago. It was way more then I'd normally spend on a garage sale purchase but I was ok with it because it was a Bass Pro tent.

We'd used the tent a handful of times the first year. When setting it up in the yard last summer we noticed the center fiberglass tent pole was splitting. We patched it up with duct tape for the one time last year Tom and the kids used it (didn't go camping too much with me being pg and then having a newborn).

Fast forward to this year and us thinking of camping a good deal this summer. I'd seen someone online mention Bass Pro was great about replacing parts, even for free. I got excited. I didn't care if it was free or not, I just wanted my tent to be in working order. I dragged the tent out of the shed, figured out which poles I needed and the part numbers then found the customer service number on the tent bag.

Yesterday I called near the end of the day and was on hold for 20mins before I was transferred to a voice message system and asked to leave my name and number....someone would call me back as soon as possible....so I did, including an explanation of why I called. I waited...nothing. Ok, they might've been really busy since it's camping season. I could understand not getting to it too close to closing (2hrs after I called). So I waited until today. At 1pm I realized I hadn't heard anything back and decided to call again. This time I didn't get transferred but was kept on hold for over 43 mins!!!!! That's 3/4 of an hour. I cleaned up the yard, messed with the pool, played with Sean, went potty and made grilled cheese for lunch before they got to me.

I made a mental note to mention how many times and long I'd been on hold at the end of the conversation. The customer service rep told me my parts were $6 for the center pole, $2 for the rear window pole. Woohooo! It wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg! As she began looking up the availability of my parts I started to understand why they took so long to get to my call. It was as if the woman was climbing ladders, looking in boxes for my poles herself! She finally started talking to me again all apologetic. They were out of my part. Oh no! Which one...I could do without the rear window pole. PLEASE don't let it be the main pole! YEP, it's the main pole. I almost started crying. I asked what I was suppose to do now that I have an almost $300 tent that I can't use. I was hoping she could find a similar pole to replace it, surely there are different models that use the same size pole. NOPE! It was suggested I look in the yellow pages for a used sporting goods place and see if they have one. UGH!!! At least she told me the dimensions of the pole (102.75 inches x 1mm...I'm pretty sure that thickness isn't correct...I'll have to measure later)

I have to admit, I kinda lost it. I didn't get all medival on her but I wasn't all sugary sweet either. I told her their system sucked and how long I'd been on hold both days. She explained that it's camping season (I acknowledged that), they were working as fast as they could (I understood that and suggested it might be a good idea to get more help). I also let her know that it didn't explain why I never received a call back from the message I left YESTERDAY! Afterall I was told every few minutes to feel free to leave a number and message and someone would get back to me as soon as possible. I'm not entirely sure what her excuse for that was because I then thanked her for attempting to help me and hung up.

OK...I suck. I just ripped someone probably getting paid minimum wage and just trying to do her job a new one. Don't I feel all big and scary. UGH! Sorry CS lady. I know you probably can't help that you're understaffed. You certainly can't help that the part is no longer made. I do think there might've been a better attempt to find an alternative but that's me. You probably can't due to legal reasons. I understand the need to CYA even if I think it sucks! Stupid litigatious society!

I've calmed down a bit now. I think I might stop in Bass Pro after taking Michelle to work one day this week. Maybe they actually sell a pole that's similar or that I can rig up to replace this one.