Timbuk2: A love story

Too many folks today feel compelled to tell you how shitty their experience was with any retailer. It seems that bad news is far more interesting to share than the good kind. After a while, you start to get really pessimistic. The surplus of unwarranted cynicism is enough to make you assume that everyone’s just in it for the cash.

This will not be that type of rant. In fact, this is closer to a love letter. You see, I’m in love with my new Timbuk2 messenger bag. Never ever (ever) have I had a more positive, and even fun, retail experience.

For the last 6 years, I’ve been using a Tumi computer bag. It was a corporate holiday gift, and to have bought one myself would’ve set me back around $300. It’s a sweet bag, totally solid and well constructed, but it had a former employer’s logo embroidered on the side. The logo always bugged me, but I couldn’t find a better bag anywhere. And I wasn’t about to drop $300 just to get one without the logo. Before you ask, having the embroidery removed would’ve left an even worse looking result.

So for many years, from company to company, and layoff to layoff to layoff, and recession to funding to corporate restructuring, and back again — I trudged on with my Tumi.

On a whim one day, I googled “messenger bag” and up came a bunch of crappy bags, and one that said “build your own custom bag.” Being the creative, go-getter type, I clicked on to the Timbuk2 site. They had a nifty little tool that let you pick from a whole bunch of bags and sizes and right on the screen you could construct your bag. They had a LOT of colors, fabrics, and options to choose from. So many that I spent about 3 weeks (seriously … ) trying to decide which combo was best for me.

I polled a few people, tried to imagine what would be cool, and by the time I made my choice it was December 21st. But I made up my mind, and when I went to the Timbuk2 website, they were offering free overnight shipping on all orders! That sealed the deal. Without delay, I ordered up a nifty custom bag.

The ordering process was simple, direct, and … it worked! Within seconds of paying, I had an email receipt. Normally, I just skim to make sure the order/address/charge was right. In this case though, they wrote one of the best “canned” emails I’d ever received. It was cool, unique, and got to the point. Better still, it was actually a positive experience that got me more excited about the purchase!

Here’re a couple of excerpts:

Dear Scott, Thanks for picking us. Your new bag is gonna ROCK! Here is your order summary email. We suggest that you actually read it and like it because this is what you are getting and the Lucky One’s address below is where we are going to send it. If you must be That Person, we can TRY our best to make changes or cancel your order. This is only if we have had enough coffee and our warehouse hasn’t. You will need to send your email to [email protected]. Remember, this is only if your order is NOT IN PRODUCTION. Once your order makes it to our production line, we can’t change it for you and if it’s custom, we can’t take it back. Not because we don’t love you; but because we already have really, really nice custom made Messenger bags from Timbuk2. It’s part of the uniform. Your order number is 5301877 $XXX.00

WHO PAID Scott Feldman XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX, MA United States, XXXXX THE LUCKY ONE Scott Feldman XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX, MA United States, XXXXX HOW MUCH YOU SHELLED OUT

WHATCHURGETTING

Item Quantity Price Item Total XXXXX 1 $XXX $XXX.00

Total:

The best part? I got notification the next day that my new bag had shipped!  I’d have it in my hands on 12/23! Sure enough, it showed up around 11 AM on 12/23 — less than 48 hours after I ordered it. Since the color combo was chosen by me from a billion combinations, someone had to actually make the bag. Not like the just took it off the shelf and dropped it in the mailbox!

The bag itself is EXACTLY the way it was pictured and described on the website. I wasn’t prepared to be overwhelmed by the entire experience, nor did I expect to blog about buying a computer bag, but it was really that awesome. This experience made me a customer for life. Which is convenient, because the bag has a lifetime guarantee!

Dealing with the myriad of companies, platforms, and products I do — it feels good to actually showcase a positive user experience. The entire process shows that so many companies have a LONG way to go. But tremendous kudos to the folks at Timbuk2. I’m definitely telling everyone I know about how impressed I am.