Backcountry.com not playing nice

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

If I was a gearhead and got email or live chat messages, one after another of disapproval I know it would shake my trust in staying w a company like that.

I work at an abortion clinic simply for the hate mail

Skiers also took up their pitchforks. Pretty awesome meme if you ask me

Russ B wrote:

As we've already pointed out once, it's a grown man-child with a fragile ego that likes to try to rally people he doesn't know for support on the internet to help him learn how to cope with the mean things a bad old man said to him one day when he was punting at the crag. 

Damnit, I’ll never live up to your expectations, Russ. :(

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

Are you by chance still in contact with current employees? Do you know how many people, if any, have walked out and left the company very recently due to all this? If I was a gearhead and got email or live chat messages, one after another of disapproval I know it would shake my trust in staying w a company like that.

I am not. There is an incredible amount of turnover in that department, all the friends I've made there have long moved on. Turnover is so bad that is has gotten to the point that they can rarely fill all the seasonal Gearhead positions they require because they've burned bridges with all the local folks who look for that sort of work. 

And Aidan is correct, most of the people who worked there can't afford to leave due to a scandal, even if they're receiving the brunt of customer sentiment :( Such is the state of being in low wage jobs, I guess. 

Just received this email from them. Looks like they are trying to do some damage control. The last thing I want is to give them any of my business.

Jamie A wrote:

I used to be a Gearhead right after they were purchased by that private equity group in 2016 and leaving this company was the best choice I ever made. As for this phenomenon, the 3rd party they use to disperse ads relies on your browser cache to know what to show you (usually items you've browsed for before), and then it also pairs it with the highest % discount from your previously-viewed item's category. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes it's not. I got in trouble at the call center for honoring an ad that a customer called in about, and that's how I learned the ads aren't always accurate.  So yeah, basically douchebaggery, but unfortunately really common with a lot of online retailers. 

I've been buycotting them since I walked out of the Gearhead offices for the last time, but that started more due to my personal issues with them. A cursory Glassdoor review will tell you all you need about this company's character. It was only a matter of time before their toxicity started affecting other companies too and I'm glad they're being called out on it.

The key to this whole thing is the first sentence, IMO.

This has only been going on for a few years, and it appears to have started about 2016ish. Before that, no one cared, even though the other backcountrys had been going for years. Coincidence?

Sadly, it looks to me to be yet another once great company getting trashed from the top down, and for pretty much nothing, in terms of gaining any business. They were never losing anything to a two (now one) location used and new gear store in Boise Idaho, or any of the other backcountrys far as I can tell. No one was confused who was who, none of the names employed anything remotely like their logo....(maybe the "goat" one, if their logo was close enough)

And the damage is done.

But? This will settle down, people will forget, or cease to care or never have heard about this, in a fairly short time.

Except for all those employees who were delivering great customer service (that's far more than just the gearheads) and all those vendors who worked with Backcountry ©®£¢π¶∆.

That damage is huge. If they will make such a stupid, petty decision like this? What is it like internally otherwise?

Sad.

Best, Helen

Jamie A wrote:

I am not. There is an incredible amount of turnover in that department, all the friends I've made there have long moved on. Turnover is so bad that is has gotten to the point that they can rarely fill all the seasonal Gearhead positions they require because they've burned bridges with all the local folks who look for that sort of work. 

And Aidan is correct, most of the people who worked there can't afford to leave due to a scandal, even if they're receiving the brunt of customer sentiment :( Such is the state of being in low wage jobs, I guess. 

To you and all the other victims of this idiocy? My sympathies. It is truly sad to see.

Best, Helen

I got a Summit Club invite on OCT 22 which I think was before most of this shit hit the fan, or at least as far as I noticed. I took it as it having been almost exactly a year since I had placed an order and they noticed that they were "losing money".

Does anyone know when this whole thing "went public" in the sense of first article/forum post?

Old lady H wrote:

To you and all the other victims of this idiocy? My sympathies. It is truly sad to see.

Best, Helen

Thanks for your support. If any Gearheads (inbound or Account Managers) are reading this, please know that there are plenty of other companies in Salt Lake City that will treat you with respect and pay you a wage you deserve. I'd challenge you to look around locally and crunch some numbers -- you might be surprised to see that, when you account for a higher wage, the employee gear discount doesn't make much of a difference. You'll still be able to afford to get after it outside and stand behind a company you are proud of. 

sherb wrote:

I do agree with the above poster that dropping a single lawsuit as a consession to the backlash is too little, too late.

It was big of them to drop a lawsuit the USPTO pretty much already told them they'd lose.  

BC.com had a lot more to gain here - because if they'd lost - and the existence of a GoFundMe and a motivated party pretty much sealed that - it would have been a legal and financial disaster going far beyond this one case - they'd get dogpiled straight out of business, IMO - and they knew it.

That said - CEO came across to me in that letter as a super-douche.

PatMas wrote:Does anyone know when this whole thing "went public" in the sense of first article/forum post?

I suspect it may have been this thread. It was the first I had heard of it and the earliest article I saw on-line was dated 31 OCT 2019.

UPDATE: According to this: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/consumers-threaten-to-boycott-backcountrycom-as-retailer-sues-several-businesses-for-using-the-term-backcountry.html?trk=rss
...the story first appeared in the Colorado Sun, which is the first link in the OP.

I would be careful with any GOFund me's that pop up... It is easy to take advantage of angry WOKE self righteous ppl.  

Just saw this article from Outside -

https://www.outsideonline.com/2404984/backcountry-com-lawsuit-backlash-explained

The corporate wheels spin slowly but they finally published a response, which is as standard and meaningless as a cynic can expect.

https://gearjunkie.com/backcountry-statement-lawsuit-boycott-ceo

Instead of attacking customer service people and IP lawyers at BC, it seems that people should instead strike at the root of the problem, which is where the problem likely lies.

So, one can go here to see a list of the TSG execs:  http://www.tsgconsumer.com/team

But then, reading at the bottom of the page you’ll find this:

“The Operating Partners and External Senior Advisors listed herein, while not employees, members, personnel, or affiliates of TSG, are independent contractors who provide valuable advice, services and insights to TSG and its portfolio companies.”

They’ve contracted out their executive team?

This company is like a ghost.  And they just opened a London office in 2019, so the Euro’s now have the privilege of dealing with them.

Wow, that's a hell of a list of brands to boycott!

Hopefully this is a reminder to support your small, local businesses in anyway you can. Breweries (educate yourself on how many are owned by InBev/Anheiser Busch) coffee roasters, grocery stores, even the whiskey/tequila/gin/vodka you drink can make a statement. 

If only TSG were a publicly traded company
...we could make some money off this boycott 

Keep up with the pressure people. If backcountry closes, they’ll liquidate their stock to the tune of next level gear discounts. 

Ashort wrote: Wow, that's a hell of a list of brands to boycott!

I don't think ownership of those brands is necessarily up to date. You have to research each one a little bit and see if they have been sold to make sure you aren't boycotting innocent parties. I mentioned above that at least one or two looked like they had been sold.