Well as I mentioned before I have had a pair of gloves, that I used once in the rain and the sticky grip pads simply delaminated like a fish shedding its scales. In response to my gloves falling apart so quickly i contacted the manufatcurer and the shop I brought them from. My major bug bear with the gloves (Terra Nova Windy Sticky Gloves), was that they basically started to fall apart about ten minutes into there first fall day of use, almost as soon as they are wet. The second issue was that I was going to have to drive all the way back to the shop to replace them or post them and not have a pair of gloves whilst I wait for there return.
Cotswold the shop replied first apologising for the situation and offering a credit note for the cost of posting them in. As it was I got an hour off yesterday afternoon when working at Plas Y Brenin, so made the journey to Betws to return them. The member of staff who had replied to the email, basically refused to let me take a like for like replacement, as he hinted that the exact same thing will probably happen again, instead he sent me away with a pair of better gloves at the cost of the retail chain. A situation that I am more than happy with.
However it left the question of if this is a manufacturing defect then why are they still on sale in the shop? Similarly my reply from the manufacturer was insulting to say the least. The quote from there reply is “From the pictures it does appear to be wear and not a defect ?”. This is despite the fact that I informed them that they had been worn once for an hour walk round llanberis and six hours on a navigation course, where they held a map and a compass. I wasn’t like I had taken them scrambling in which case whilst I might have been disapointed with them falling apart the nature of scrambling means that they would be far more susceptable to wear.
So basically I was called a liar by the manufacturer who seemed to be very reluctant to accept that the product that they supplied me was simply not fit for purpose. So please be warned that reading between the lines from what Cotswolds said when I returned the gloves, and Terra Nova’s total lack of interest in seeing if there is indeed a problem with there product, as if I was a manufacturer I want to sell the best product i can, and see situations like this as a vital piece of user feedback, not dismissing them out right.
Anyway I would stay away from the Terra Nova Windy Sticky Glove for the time being. However the good part of the story is the customer care that i received from Cotswolds was par excellent