Considering the nature of the product and the fact that Doug Ritter has put his seal of approval on the product (after a great deal of research), I think allowing substitutions is bordering on unethical. The substitutions may not have affected the overall effectiveness of the kit; then again, they might, and unless the substitutions were made with Doug's prior approval, it strikes me they're abusing his endorsement.

Since Chris sounded like he didn't know about the substitutions, I doubt Doug does.

There might be something in a contract between them (AMK and Doug) that we don't know about too.

Not pointing fingers at all. I'll pick up a few other things to add to the kit on payday anyways.

laters

I'll have to give that one a try. Heaven knows I have a butt load of orings around me at work.

thanks!

IMO that's no "minor" substitution. There's a world of difference between a pair of tweezers and fishing hooks, swivel, sinker, safety pins and a heavy duty needle. I ordered one of Doug's kits a long time ago from the link on the ETS website. It came exactly as described. I actually still use many of its original contents (fishing hooks, sinker and needle to name a few) in my current home-made PSK.

Hi There,

Chris at AMK here...

This was a packing error not a substutution. We narrowed it down to one batch of kits that was made on a specific day by a new packer and, because of an anomoly, not QC'd properly. The shipping department missed it because the vial that we use for the tweezers is the same as the fishing kit we use for the PSP.

We did call all the dealers who received the product and asked them to check their stock for the error in question. They only found five kits with this problem (out of 37 made that day by that packer). meaning that she used the correct fishing kit for most of the kits she did. Some dealers may have missed a few still so there may be a few still out there.

The substitution clause is something we have to put on all the kits we make and sell. As you can imagine, suppliers of the hundreds of products we may include in a kit change their packaging, or spec's fairly often. This allows us to make changes--usually upgrades or enhancements I might add--without reprinting expensive hang tags or header cards. One change that may be coming for example in the PSP is to the pencil. Pictured is a thin golf pencil Doug found. The company that made that pencil decided to discontinue that product after the photos were shot. We bought all they had left but we will have to put in a bit thicker pencil as a replacement when those run out.

Please feel free to contact Adventure Medical Kits with any questions you might have about the kits. We are really proud of our association with ETS as well as the work we have put in making the PSP the best it can be. We want to hear any ideas you might have to continue to best serve your needs.

Best Regards,

Chris Gubera
President
Adventure Medical Kits
Chris@adventuremedcialkits.com
800-324-3517 P
510-261-7414 P
510-261-7419 F

PS Brad, check your pm's....I want to get a gift pack coming your way. Sorry about the hassle....

A prompt and detailed reply from the president of the company... that's what I call impressive customer service! AMK will certainly continue to get all the business I can throw at them.

Thanks for the reply Chris!!

As I said in my pm reply to you, I didn't start this to flame anyone, just let everyone know that some parts had been substituted. Figured you guys ran out of something and used something else for the kit.

No harm on my end, but thanks for helping me out with new parts for it!

That is great customer service!
Thanks for the clarification, went to the local REI last night, no PSKs in stock.
Mail order looks like the way to go.

Absolutely. Considering the original post was at 5:00 on a Sunday, to have a reply like this by 9:00 am the following Tuesday is impressive indeed.

It's not clear from AMK's response how long ago the error was discovered; if they only found out about it when Brad posted to the forum on Sunday night, that's even more impressive, because it meant they tracked down the source of the error, identified the extent of the error, and called all the dealers to correct the problem in one business day.

Definitely this is a company that cares about its reputation and customer service. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I agree with the other replies that compliment your responsiveness. I'm always impressed by the high level of contributions by all to theis forum.

BTW, regarding the pencil issue. I have a small pencil the length of a golf score keeping pencil, for lack of a better description, but is only twice the thickness of the lead. It looks to be a little thinner and shorter than the one pictured in your kit. I happened upon this pencil many years ago when it came with a promotional Coka Cola playing card set (2 decks, pencil & score pad) in a decoritive metal box. Perhaps specialty manufactures may be a source for a replacement.