Four and a half years ago I was in Maui compliments of
T-Mobile and the PEAK Achievement award I had won in 2006. It was quite a celebration but by far the best swag I took home from there was a pair of
Maui Jim sunglasses. They were unusual in that they were hinge-less but I liked that because I could wear them on the bill of my Mariners cap without having any worry that they would fall off my head. I knew these weren't cheap sunglasses so I took special care to avoid wearing them if there was any danger of them being lost or damaged... I have a cheaper pair for those occasions :)
A couple weeks ago I went to put on my Maui Jim's just as I had several hundred of times before and...
SNAP?! The glasses fell to the floor while both temples remained in my hands :( They must have simultaneously reached their design life for flexing fatigue cycles. I was bummed. I really liked those sunglasses and they reminded me of good times. Maybe I can get them fixed, I thought...
So I checked the Maui Jim's
web site. It looks like they no longer make sunglasses with the flex temples... not a good sign. But I used their
web form to tell my story to their customer support. Within an hour or so I had a reply that said I could send my broken glasses to their location in Peoria, Illinois and that they would repair them for a $10 processing charge, assuming they still have the parts in stock. There is hope!
I carefully wrapped the lenses of my broken sunglasses in a microfiber cloth and put them in the case along with the no longer attached temples. Then I took them to the downtown post office nearest my house. They had a small
Priority Mail box that was almost the perfect size, just a little too flat for the case, but I crammed it in and the package seemed to stay shut with the self-adhesive tape it came with. The postman stuck an extra piece of tape on the seam which made me feel better... the last thing I wanted was Maui Jim to receive an empty box and have my broken sunglasses find their way into the trash a post office somewhere. I didn't figure there was any sense in insuring the package since the glasses were broken and essentially garbage if I couldn't get them repaired. So that cost me $5.70 with the delivery tracking I added.
Yesterday I received a package from Maui Jim. I opened it to find my sunglasses, good as new, with flexible temples attached to both lenses :) All told it only took two weeks and less than $16 to get them repaired. Pretty impressive. I'm grateful to Maui Jim for repairing them even though they were clearly out-of-warranty. They come with a limited 2-year warranty and they'll be 5 years old next February. Hopefully they make another four years, but even if they only make it half that I won't have any reservations forking out the money for a brand new pair of Maui Jim's.
