I’ve been looking for a new slim wallet to replace my current mid-sized wallet from Danier Leather. A friend got a really nice slim wallet from Danier (one slot for all your cards, then a money clip for bills), but when I went by they no longer sold them, so I settled for the model with individual slits for your cards and a money clip in the middle. When I say money clip it is essentially a hook on the spine of the wallet that clasps the bills in. It’s pretty small footprint wise, but because of the slits it can get thick even with 4 cards in it. In searching for a slim wallet solution I looked at a bunch of options and decided to settle on the Koyono Slimmy minimal wallet because of it’s small footprint and thickness when full. I don’t carry a lot of cards as it is, so the minimal space works fine for me. (review)
This is where the problem begin.
Their website on August 11th indicated shipping times of 3-5 days, and made no mention of backorder delays. After waiting 13 days for my wallet to arrive I visited their contact page where an interesting notice had been posted:
A notice posted on August 21st, 10 days after my order was placed, now indicated that a backorder situation exists. Thanks guys, but it would have been nice if you had emailed me this information 6 days ago since you have my contact details. An email was also placed to their contact info, and they sent out a reply that read:
Dear Minimal Wallet Enthusiast,
We are sending you this e-mail just to let you know that we are experiencing a slight delay in getting some of you your Slimmy abecause (sic) of especially high demand. While our suppliers are doing their best to keep pace, we are experieicing (sic) slightly longer lead times to fill orders.
In order provide quality customer service as we grow, Koyono continues to add resources to prevent a similar recurrence.
We really apologize for this inconvenience and thank you in advance for your understanding. We have confirmed that we will be receiving shipments in before the end of the week, and will begin delivering all backorders orders as they arrive. You will receive an e-mail confirmation with tracking information when your order ships.
If there is anything further we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Koyono Support Tank
My gripe isn’t that they have a backorder, my gripe is that they didn’t inform me about the backorder. What is even more concerning is that they make no mention of the backorder on their product pages or final ‘confirm your order’ page. The only indication of a backorder is tucked away on their contact page. While I’m on the topic of shipping I should point out that they charge $41 for the 3-5 day shipping option (to Canada). Is it just me or does that seem a little high for an item that measures 3.8″ x 2.9″ x .3″ and can’t weight more than a few hundred grams. What are these things shipped in? Gold lined crates? The wallet should easily fit in any standard size envelope. Even $9 for 1-3 day delivery in the US seems expensive compared to other much larger products I have purchased online.
Koyono, listen up. You appear to have a fantastic product, don’t ruin it by following it up with crummy customer service. If you are behind in shipping let the consumer know, they’ll appreciate it. Otherwise you will cause great frustration as they wait by the mailbox day after day for a package that will never arrive. That is just common sense, and marketing 101. I hate to say it, but I think you need to get your act together.
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for your post and we do apologize for not getting your Slimmy to you and for not being timely with communications. There were notices on our contact page about the backorder, however, they were wiped when we migrated to a new platform (which occurred since the time you placed your order).
We take customer service very seriously and again apologize for the hassle. Koyono is a small (tiny), independent company, and as a small business, we do not always have the luxury of resources of larger companies. With a lot of moving parts (like moving to a new website), things do not always go as planned. Not trying to make excuses, just providing a little reality.
We are working on it and appreciate your time and energy around this. We hope you will give us a second chance.
Have a good one and do enjoy wallet minimalism (your Slimmy). Drop me a line anytime.
Best,
Jay Yoo
Founder of Koyono
If you like thin and great customer service, check out the Stretch. http://www.stretchmoneyholder.com
Thanks for the link Mike but I’m in the market for a more traditional wallet. From just a quick glance the Stretch looks very similar to my old solution of wrapping my cards in a hair elastic and carrying my money in a money clip.
@Jay Yoo – Thank you for taking the time to read about my complaint and post a comment, it’s much appreciated. I did just want to make the observation that it was my understanding that small companies are better able to negotiate the challenges of customer relations because they are small. It is when companies grow to epic proportions that emails get lost in the fray and customers feel ignored. Mind you I have never run a small business and only have anecdotal information from general reading around the subjects of business, technology and entrepreneurship.
Kyle,
Yes, I believe you are right, but running a small business, with few people wearing many hats, sometimes it can be tough to be constantly proactive. I recently submitted a request to a large company via e-mail and never heard back. We always get back to people and customers. Anyway no excuses, we did not do a good job with you and really apologize. Thanks again for your feedback and please stay in touch.
Best,
Jay
Hi Kyle,
I was just informed that a Slimmy shipment has arrived and your order will be shipping out tomorrow.
Just wanted to let you know.
Best,
Jay
Hey man,
Fox has a money clip with 3 card slots in it. Maybe something to check out??
Sass
Sass,
Can you be more specific when you say ‘Fox has a money clip’. Do you have a link to the product?
Is there still a backorder? I want to buy this but only if it comes within the 10-17 days shipping, since that’s long enough anyways. Also, like Kyle mentioned, shipping is too expensive for the size/weight of the product!
Hi Chris,
I’m not sure about the backorder situation. I got confirmation that my order shipped on 8/29/2008, so with the Labour Day Monday in the US and Canada it should show up early next week.
I’ve been dealing directly with Jay Yoo and he has been extremely helpful. I think that shows that he really does care about his product and how his company deals with customers. I can’t make any comment about how emails sent to the generic email address listed on their site are currently handled. I’ll be writing a post about the wallets once they arrive.
Hey Kyle,
Thanks for the update! Let me know if you receive it within the 10-17 days!
I placed an order for a Moca Slimmy on Sept 2, 2008 and received shipment notification on Sept 5, 2008. It has been exactly 14 days and nothing has arrived yet. I understand Koyono allows for a 10 – 17 day arrival window. Here’s hoping to something showing at the beginning of next week!!!
I will keep this thread updated as to my progress.
I’m working on a more formal post but for those interested it took 20/21 business days (depending on how you count) for my wallet to arrive in Canada. Koyono did provide a small refund for the delay.
Wow… Kyle, sounds like good customer service. I’ll order right now and post my transaction experience here as well! I hope I get mine in the stated time…
Thanks for the updates Kyle, I appreciate it. You as well James R.
I’m getting it shipped to Canada too.
Oh, actually… Maybe I’ll wait for the more formal post… or at least your opinion of the quality, Kyle?
My only shipping option is $70 .
Are there any other options besides the Koyono website for ordering?
I ordered Special Edition Slimmy, I recieved tracking # and i checked the USPS tracking said the package was delivered on Feburary 17 at 4:09pm. I cant find anything at my home. I reported to the Koyono customer service for the missing or the package was never delivery to my home. Their customer service is pretty super slow response. it takes 24-48 hrs =(
PS. is US post office tracking accurate or someone stole my package or USPS lost my package?
I still waiting………………
I went PO office today, They seems lost my special edition wallet package. I asked Koyono to send me replacement or send my money back. Koyono customer service really stink super slow response. Any suggest?
Hi Trev – Sorry for the trouble with your order. This was clearly a mishandling by the USPS. We did send you a replacement and show that the first shipment arrived. Customer Support responded and advised that you keep the first wallet on us. It sounds like in the end we resolved your issue. Thanks for doing business with us.
Jay
I too ordered one last week. The credit card was charged immendiatley and received an order confirmation but no shipping confirmation or any note saying it was back ordered. Two emails have gone unanswered. Hopefully will hear back soon.
I just ordered a Slimmy myself but the site was painfully slow and I got a random error message at the end of the order process so I didn’t get an email confirming my order.
I managed to log in later to see if the order had been processed, and it looks like it’s in their system, but I’ve been trying to contact them by their email form to verify this and the form doesn’t even work. There’s a CAPTCHA field at the bottom and, even though I’ve entered the correct characters, I keep being told that “The verification code you entered did not match the image provided. Please re-enter the new code and try again.”
So only God knows how I’m going to get through to these guys. Small business or not, all of the problems I’ve encountered and those that have been described here don’t fill me with a lot of confidence, especially given that this blog entry was published over a year ago and they’re still having trouble.
Hey Dave. It is distressing to hear that they are still having problems. Why they still have problems I don’t know. Sadly, they sell the best wallet I have ever seen, so there is little choice but to deal with their potentially flawed system.
Hey Kyle,
Hopefully you’re right and this wallet’s worth the trouble! It’s just a shame they can’t get their act together… :(
Let’s hope they see these recent comments too, although It’d be better if they were busy fixing their website and orders before reading random blogs :)
- Dave
The wallet is 100% worth it. My friends love theirs and I love mine. I’ve actually considered ordering a backup to protect myself if (for some reason) they go out of business.
Sorry to hear this… I’ve been waiting on good news so I can buy too.
For now I have my cut-in-half portable hard drive leather case as my mini wallet :)
Good luck, hopefully they can reach you through here and clear up this mess.
So, after all of the “drama”, I did end getting up my Slimmy wallet in the post, and I can say I’m very happy with it.
But before I talk about the wallet itself, I want to go back and address the customer service problems I had originally:
A few days after sending my complaint email, I finally received an apology from Koyono for the delay. Apparently their e-commerce platform had crashed and it was causing a number of problems.
After that, I did in fact get regular updates from a Customer Service Rep about my order. Unfortunately, they had some problem receiving stock of the wallet, but they kindly offered to include a complimentary Slimmy pen to make up for the delay. Full credit to them for making amends (and a cool pen it is too).
As for the wallet, it’s exactly as advertised: it’s remarkably slim. I’ve got it stuffed with four plastic cards, a few bills and some random bits of paper, and while it LOOKS like it’s bulging a little (at least compared to when it’s got nothing in it), everything fits snug and I hardly notice it’s in my pocket. As someone who wears tight jeans most of the time, this is definitely a godsend!
In short, I really recommend the wallet. It looks good, works well and doesn’t cost that much.
Shame about the service problems I had, but they made up for it and product itself is superb.
Kudos to Koyono.
Hi all,
I ordered a product from Koyono (not the slimmy) on October 22, with free 7-10 day ground shipping. Still have not received it. When I track my order, it shows as “processing”. I did write the company inquiring as to the ship date, and received a polite email on 10/30 indicating that it would “probably arrive “next week” (which was last week).
Still hasn’t arrived, status is still “processing”…I can’t imagine ordering anything from this company in the future. (Incidentally, I ordered the Incase Nylon Dop Kit, which I have an immediate need for, with all my usb cables, earbuds, etc becoming increasingly entangled in my purse!)
Hi all,
I guess I’m in a lot worse situation compared to some of you when it comes to Koyono. I ordered an Incase Sling Pack on 20th of October! They haven’t sent it yet. Back order problem as they told me…on Nov.5th they told me that they are going to ship it the following week. They didn’t, therefore I wrote back again asking about the situation and I got an answer telling me that they don’t expect any more sling packs until the first week of December, they also added, in case I don’t reply back to that mail in 24 hours, they would automaticaly cancel my order and refund my credit card. I waited for some days and as expected no refunding took place, even after two clear emails telling them that I wanted my money back. Since then, I had no replies from Koyono.
If I lived in US or Canada, I’d have an idea of what to do next but I live in Turkey and I don’t know what I can do for oversea purchases. I can’t just forget it and drink a cold water over my 110dollars.
Any help is appreciated,
thanks…
I’m in the same boat as many of y’all. When I first placed the order on March 2nd there was no indication of a backorder – there was a promotional “free 3-5 day” shipping option though. My payment cleared that same day and I didn’t hear back from anyone. After a week I went back to the site to check the status of my order and saw a notice in red that they were backordered. I sent an e-mail and after 30 hours(!) I got a response saying the wallets were back ordered and that they were expecting a shipment in 48 hours and that I would get a free shipping upgrade. Well, that time frame came and went and I tweeted about my experience. I got a reply from @JayYoo with an update. Jay’s tried to be helpful – but man, I just can’t get past waiting 17 days and STILL not having a tracking number or anything. I’m sure the wallet will be fantastic but after reading more stories about them, I just can’t see myself ordering from them again.