Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Kathmandu? Rather Brighton Beach.

In August this year I bought a pair of sandals in Kathmandu shop...


They required some time to adjust to my feet, and vice versa. And when we reached a satisfactory agreement, a disaster happened, a clip broke...


Well, not really a disaster because I was not in Himalaya but at Cape York, and what is most important, just 100 metres from our campsite. Anyway, I would expect, that the shop under such adventurous name, will not leave its customers barefoot in the middle of nowhere. Thus a suggestion to change the name, as in the title.

Broken clip, not a big problem. After return to Melbourne, I visited the Kathmandu shop again. They inspected the goods and the receipt - well we will give you your money back.
- Wait a minute, I already got used to these sandals, I do not mind keeping them, just give me a half a dozen spare clips as they are the weakest link.
Shop assistant went to inquire....
- Sorry, but we have no clips. So we will give you back your money.
I took my money, but I am still disappointed. What will happen with these sandals? Will they bother to replace a clip and send sandals to some charity shop? I doubt. My guess is they will be dumped to the rubbish bin.
I always linked tourism with care for environment. This time the link was broken, just because of lack of a spare costing probably 50 cents.

PS. There might be some positive outcome from my writing. I released this post on Facebook and received a message from Kathmandu, that they passed it to their management to consider providing spare parts for these sandals.