American Manufacturers Can Sill Excel

Recently, we had a customer with a day care center that purchased a dozen Kindermats from our store earlier this year. The customer contacted us and let us know that they were very unhappy with the mats, they had fallen apart and they were duct taping them just to get through the school year.

I spoke to the customer personally and expressed my surprise, because normally we do not hear anything negative about this product. (Unfortunately for me, I had the customer send along pictures to me directly so I could contact the manufacturer. I proceeded to lose track of the customer's email in the shuffle. In any event, the customer reached out again to me for a resolution. Sometimes I try to take care of things myself to make sure they are done correctly and then I occasionally drop the ball. Maybe I should rely more on my very capable customer service staff to handle issues. In any event, I apologized to the customer for the delay and assured them that the manufacturer would take care of the problem and, if not, we would take care of the problem.)

Back to the story at hand, I spoke to the manufacturer initially and, I will confess, I was not enamored with the response. They explained to me that this mat was basically a disposable mat and was intended to only last for one year or so. At the time, I did not realize that the mats in question were purchased only 8 months ago - nor had I made the connection that this description of the product was very accurate. We only charge $7.99 for these mats and they are a good quality, but certainly not intended for longevity. Nor should longevity be expected we such a low price point.

In any event, I placed another call to the manufacturer and they explained that the item did have a 1 year warranty and they would be happy to replace all of them for the customer. So, here you have a manufacturer, manufacturing in America, believing in the importance of customer service and standing behind their product 100%. They took the time to explain to me the intent of the product - a disposable rest mat at an extremely affordable price. They also made it extremely easy for us to honor the warranty with the customer. We didn't have to make the customer jump through any hoops, and we could deal with the manufacturer for them so the customer didn't have to be burdened with a second point of contact.

So, if you are looking for rest mats from an affordable manufacturer, that manufactures product at home in the USA (granted I don't believe all of their products are made here - this particular mat is), has integrity and believes in the value of customer service - give Peerless Plastics a hard look.