Loyalty Is Not a Word, It's a Lifestyle

May 11, 2017 - My son, JPM was a loyal person. He was loyal to his friends. He was loyal to his family. He was loyal to the things he loved.

JPM loved good quality products made by people and/or companies that shared his love for the environment and were produced ethically. He was not the huge consumer that I was, but when he did purchase things, he put a lot of thought into what he was buying. Where was it made? How was it made? What was it made from? Was good design incorporated into function? Yes, a lot of thought was put into every purchase he made.

Nothing JPM bought was cheap, but he always felt that cost was relative to quality and service.

After he passed, as his father and I began to go through his belongings, his "things" had more meaning to us now. Though I've talked about "things" being less important in the scope of life, JPM's "things" would be all we would have of him physically, now that he was no longer with us.

Topo Designs and Patagonia were two of his favorite companies, and he had a lot of clothing and gear from both. His dad and brother took most of these items, because I felt that my financial situation was such that I could just purchase duplicate items of those things once I got home. (Besides being able to afford replacing the items - I was also a bit larger than my thin son - whereas his dad and brother were similar in stature.)

When I got home, I reached out to a friend who works at Patagonia, and she helped me to find many of the same jackets, shells and sweaters that JPM had, some of which were discontinued items. She's been instrumental in giving me advice on gearing up for future adventures and has helped me to duplicate all of the clothing that I felt had meaning.

Next, I went to the Topo Designs website. They had the same bags and packs that JPM had, but the colors he had were no longer available. I decided to email the company, telling them a bit about JPM and his story, and asking them to check their clearance or old stock to see if they might have any of the items in the colors that JPM had.

I heard nothing. No reply. No call. Nothing. So I reached out again via email, and sent them photos of the bags I was looking to obtain.

Still nothing.

After a few weeks, I called them and left a message asking for a call back, referencing my previous emails.

The very next day, I got an email:

"Hi Geri, Thank you for your patience. We have both of these packs done. Let me know a good address and we will get these out right away. Let us know if we can help with anything else."

Huh? "We have them done"? I hadn't even ordered anything yet. What were they talking about?

So I called and asked for the person who had sent the email.The girl who answered asked politely, "Can I tell him who's calling?" I gave her my name, and there was a short pause, and then, "Oh Mrs. Vee,...we've all been working on this for you."

What? Huh? "We've all been working on this for you?" What was she talking about?

I explained that I'd emailed several times, and was beginning to wonder why JPM had thought so highly of this company, when their customer service seemed to be so lacking, given that I'd not heard anything from them from my previous outreach.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I thought I'd sent you an email, but we've had a team of people working on this, and it must have fallen through the cracks. We've recreated the bags your son had, and we just need your address to send them out to you."

I was speechless. "We've had a team of people working on this for you."

Of course the tears began to flow. This company had a team of people working to recreate my son's packs.

The bags arrived two days later.

This.

This right here - exemplifies exactly why JPM loved these companies. This is why JPM was loyal to these companies.

I too will forever be loyal to these, and other companies like them. You just don't get this kind of quality, this kind of service, or this kind of compassion from WalMart.

It pays to find products and companies like these two gems. They exist. And though their product pricing may be more than the things you might find at places like Target, Marshalls, or TJ Maxx... just remember that cost really is relative to quality and service.

Quality - whether in people or in business - deserves loyalty.