Well, you know the economy is in the toilet when the customer service arm of a place like Pearl Izumi is willing to add insult to injury… and in a cowardly way as well.

Short story? Okay.

I buy a pair of their top 'o the line shorts (Microsensor 3D) back before last season and not 2 months in they come apart at the seam, the chamois starts to come out and they split where the stitches came out. Whoa!

Here I'm thinking: "$120 for a pair of shorts and they fail like a pair of $20 ones never would?" I'll take them back and see what they can do.

Did I buy them in Québec? No...I picked them up in Berkeley at REI. So I drop a line to Pearl asking what to do.
"Take them to any of our retailers." They say. Cool.

I take them to the Canuck equivalent to REI: MEC.

They look at them and tell me they’ll “…send them back to their distributor and they will handle it.” Okay.

Today: I get a package from the distributor! New shorts!

Yes, a pair of their $60, bottom of the line Attack shorts.

Pearl Izumi has lost a customer for life… or two... or ten or… well, people who know me know that I ride hard but I don’t abuse my stuff (just my body) and my riding club up here is shocked actually. Seems they’re not to happy with the prices they have to pay and now have one more reason to drop Pearl from their list of clothing options.

I guess I’ll stick to Fox and Primal… at least their stuff lasts.

Should've taken them back to REI. They have a great replacement policy. Or you could have mailed them back to REI for a full refund.