Backcountry Access Slope Meter

Saw these on a shelf at a bricks & mortar store... several of them were broken. The design is really silly as nothing protects the tube that holds the ball bearing. What a waste of manufacturing materials & energy. Even if you get one that's not broken, it's only a matter of time, unless you buy an Otterbox or Pelican type case for it (which would add protection at the expense of fidgetiness & bulk).

Basically I received a slope meter that had tiny cracks in 2 different spots of the plastic tube. It was very hard to see but renders the slope meter useless as the ball bearing inside gets stuck. This was not broken during shipment as the broken product was inside an un-opened and sealed (well actually stapled) plastic and the plastic itself had zero sign of shock or tear on it. So BCA basically packaged a broken product and I ended-up being the sucker receiving it.

I spoke to backcountry.com about it. Since I was now overseas and not in the USA anymore (where it was originally shipped) then they would not pay for my sending back of the defective one nor the shipping of the new one (but they would credit me for the defective product once they receive it). This is an unfortunate & unusual situation but it just gets to me that because BCA manufactured some defective item I end-up having to pay 2x for international shipping... Sadly the original guy I spoke to at BC.com told me that the shipping back & forth would be paid for since it was a defective item, but after checking the fact I was overseas i turns out it was not true.

So, defective item from BCA + mis-communication with backcountry.com = that freakin blows golf balls.

The last backcountry.com guy I spoke to told me that if I had ordered from overseas directly the 1st time around then they would have paid for the shipping back and forth from Japan in my case for the defective product. But.... when I check on the website this is not what it says. This is only valid for within the US.

So.................if you order from overseas and you want to return a broken item, bring your wallet and get ready to get stuffed like a turkey. Surely something should be done about this.

This is the 1st time in many years of using this site that I come across such a problem. Very disapointed.