Poor Black Diamond customer service- Don't buy their heated chalk bag!

Tradiban wrote:

That would never happen, you are from WI and therefore extremely cheap. You would never buy next air.

That's true... Secretly I want all the delivery drivers to suffer as they drive through the absolute nothingness that is southern Minn., Iowa, and Illinois.

I had the exact same experience with the chalk bag, but the exact opposite experience with Black Diamond's customer service.

Bought a BD Hot Forge chalk bag last April for my gf with Raynaud's, chalk bag worked bomber all spring, put it into storage for the summer, followed the charging and storage instructions to a T (even took it out of storage once to charge the battery), pulled it out this fall... dead.

I submitted a service/refund request to BD and they responded within a few days to tell me they were issuing a refund.  The refund hasn't hit my account yet (it's only been a couple of days), so I can't comment on the shipping cost issue.

I've had great experience with BD customer service in the past, too.  Sucks that you had a bad experience, but I get the sense it's atypical.  I wouldn't start boycotting BD just yet.

Jared Chrysostom wrote:

If you return a fully functional because you don't like it, maybe not. If you return a defective product, usually yes. 

Not in my experience. If they don't advertise "free returns" when you buy it, you should assume that the shipping is a sunk cost. Hell I've had to actively pay shipping several times to return things.

Greeley wrote: I had the exact same experience with the chalk bag, but the exact opposite experience with Black Diamond's customer service.

Bought a BD Hot Forge chalk bag last April for my gf with Raynaud's, chalk bag worked bomber all spring, put it into storage for the summer, followed the charging and storage instructions to a T (even took it out of storage once to charge the battery), pulled it out this fall... dead.

I submitted a service/refund request to BD and they responded within a few days to tell me they were issuing a refund.  The refund hasn't hit my account yet (it's only been a couple of days), so I can't comment on the shipping cost issue.

I've had great experience with BD customer service in the past, too.  Sucks that you had a bad experience, but I get the sense it's atypical.  I wouldn't start boycotting BD just yet.

So, now I'm concerned. My wife has Reynaud's, so I bought her one of these. Charged it up when we got it, made sure it worked... and then had great weather all season, so she hasn't used it yet. I'll have to check if the damn thing still works.

I seem to remember that they used the same tech as their heated gloves. Any chance those batteries would work in this?

1. It's $7, calm down
2. Why do you feel that you're owed a refund on shipping? The shipping seems to have functioned correctly, since you received it.  They refunded you for the product, which was defective.

it's just a lithium polymer battery. everybody has them. just find one with the same chemistry, voltage, and amp hours and desolder the old one and put the new one in. they aren't magic. honestly, if you pull it out, it will probably have all the specs you need to replace it written on the plastic.

Nick Sweeney wrote: 1. It's $7, calm down
2. Why do you feel that you're owed a refund on shipping? The shipping seems to have functioned correctly, since you received it.  They refunded you for the product, which was defective.

Because he wouldn't have paid for it and the shipping in the first place if he knew it was junk. Duh.

That sounds like great customer service to me. Like others have pointed out, the issue is with the product, not the shipping. I can't imagine a company refunding shipping unless they had some special policy about it. In any case, it's $6. You'll be okay. 

Tradiban wrote:

Because he wouldn't have paid for it and the shipping in the first place if he knew it was junk. Duh.

The shipping charge isn't attached to the product though.  If he bought two chalk bags and only one was defective, would you expect half the shipping to be refunded in addition to the price of the chalk bag?

I pulled mine out after 6 months in the closet and it charged up fine (in about 3 hours).  But I'm glad to be reminded to do that more often!

For those who still have the chalk bag, the heater uses a pair of 7.4 v 1800 mAh batteries wired (I would assume in series but you can't tell because of the covering) to a female jack.  If you can solder, you could rig up the same thing with commercially available substitutes if the batteries you have stop working.

This is a great example why companies like BD typically shy away from gimmicky products like heated chalk bags. Not worth the reputation damage when something doesn't work out. 

Heated gloves seem to be a thing, so you'd think BD could get the technology right.

rgold wrote: Heated gloves seem to be a thing, so you'd think BD could get the technology right.

Right, and the chalk bag supposedly uses the same technology as their heated gloves. I kind of assumed the batteries would be interchangeable. (I hadn't shopped around at all, but I was envisioning buying replacement glove batteries to use as spares for the chalk bag.)

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

Right, and the chalk bag supposedly uses the same technology as their heated gloves. I kind of assumed the batteries would be interchangeable. (I hadn't shopped around at all, but I was envisioning buying replacement glove batteries to use as spares for the chalk bag.)

Don't know about the actual specs, but the battery pack for each glove looks exactly the same as the chalkbag battery pack.

By the way, for both storage and transport, it make sense to unplug the battery pack to insure against accidental activation...

I just ran into this.  Was able to find a similar battery from another company.

https://fieldsheer.com/products/7-4v-glove-2in1-battery?variant=30238111826035

Kinda expensive but slightly bigger capacity and better than buying a whole new chalk bag when just the battery is bad.  Will post and update if it works out.

I don't buy electronics from BD. 

For everything else, they have always had great customer service.

A heated chalk bag is actually a real thing??  How much time do your hands spend in your chalk bag that its actually going to warm your hands?  Buy a pair of gloves.

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

A heated chalk bag is actually a real thing??  How much time do your hands spend in your chalk bag that its actually going to warm your hands?  Buy a pair of gloves.

In 2018 it was originally intended to be an April Fools joke, like the Alex Honnold Spatula, but it turned out to be real.

https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/product/hot-forge-heated-chalk-bag/

Kevin, I sometimes put those chemical handwarmers in my chalk bag on cold winter days. Think of it like those muffs that a quarterback uses between plays. Nice to warm the fingers and get some blood flowing before a hard move. But, yeah, a battery powered chalk bag is just silly. 

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

 How much time do your hands spend in your chalk bag ...

Probably more than usual if the rock is cold and the chalk bag is warm.