Snapmat!

So I finally got my new chairmat. For those who missed my rant on my previous chairmat, you can read it here: ES Robbins Chair Mats – Lifetime Warranty?

While digging through my Costco receipts, I finally found my chairmat receipt dated 7/25/2006. I loaded the chairmat into my car and headed off for my biweekly Costco trip.

When I was returning the chairmat, I mentioned how I was ready to purchase a new one a few weeks ago until I noticed how the chairmat was supposedly crack-proof and had lifetime warranty. But after going home and looking up the warranty information, I found out I had to pay $20 for shipping which was moot since I can pay $18+tax at Costco and get a brand new one right then and there. He agreed that it was ridiculous for them to charge $20. He was cool and accepted this 2-year old return.

I ended up picking up one of the nicer chairmats that they carry: Snapmat. It did cost an arm and a leg. Considering that the regular plastic chairmats cost $18, this one cost $70, but I’m expecting this to last a REALLY REALLY LONG TIME.

The previous one always had problems with creating potholes and the wheels would always slide into those making it hard to maneuver in my chair. Let’s just say I’ve been enjoying sliding my chair back and forth for the past few hours.

The funny thing was that this chairmat was unfoldable, making it not fit in my trunk, I had to do some weird configurations in my car to actually get it to go in, with a series of steps of folding down both chairs, sliding the chairmat in, and then flip it into the back seat and the pop the driver seat back up. Unloading it required the same steps in reverse.

Later on, I decided to send the following email to Costco:

Hi,

I would like to bring to your attention of an item that you sell: ES Robbins Chair Mat (122164)

As noted on the sticker, it comes with a Lifetime Warranty, but I think your customers may be fooled by this. The chairmat costs $18 at Costco. In order to get a replacement via ES Robbins, there’s a $20 shipping and handling charge, therefore rendering the warranty useless as I can go to Costco and pick up one quicker and cheaper than getting it through the warranty service.

I know Costco sells quality products and I’m just making sure you weren’t tricked into believing their quality with their lifetime warranty service.

My chairmat had started to crack about 6 months prior and I was able to return my chairmat to Costco even though it has been almost 2 years. I ended up upgrading to one of those wooden chairmats and have been pleasantly surprised on how great they are.

4 Replies to “Snapmat!”

  1. Hey there. Randomly stumbled on this entry from Google while searching for a new chair mat. How are you liking yours? Has it held up over prolonged use? I’m interested in your results.

    Thanks! 🙂

  2. It’s actually doing quite well. I really like it. The chair rolls smoothly across the mat and there’s no indentation from any prolonged usage.

    The only thing that may be an issue is every once in awhile, I have to readjust the mat since it doesn’t have the little spikes on the bottom to lock it in place with the carpet.

    But besides that, I’m loving it. 🙂

  3. Awesome! Glad to hear it’s not a cheapy. I’ll have to take a trip to Costco and check out their selections (hopefully they’ll still have the ‘better’ options like the Snapmat [btw, the snapmat link returns an error]).

    Thanks for the information and quick response. Happy blogging. =)

  4. I too have been bit by the “No Crack Mat” from ES Robbins. They want $20 for warranty service. As the OP said, that is actually more than the mat cost in the first place.

    What can we conclude from this? Perhaps they are be getting a lot of warranty claims. I know I am right now sitting on a cracked “No Crack” mat.

    They seem to have been dropped by Costco, it doesn’t show up on their website. Good riddens. Maybe stop advertising “Lifetime Warranty” if you don’t mean it. By charging more that the product costs in the first place, what kind of warranty is that?

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