There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
I contacted MD first, was given an option of return & refund. I then contacted AE, told them of MD's proposal and asked if I could have them serviced instead. AE emailed me a label and I sent them the boots, they repaired and sent back. Turn around time was ~8 days. I was expecting some service/shipping cost, but AE made no mention of it. Repair job wasn't stellar but was sufficient, I've been wearing the chukka since.
I spoke with Rose over the telephone about a defect with my shoe, and she was quick to redirect me to Massdrop. She proceeded to read from a document that said that all issues and concerns regarding the Chukka Boot should be directed through Massdrop only, and that AE would not help in any way. She even said that AE wouldn't speculate whether my defect was an acceptable manufacturing tolerance or not.
So, I guess all issues go exclusively through Massdrop from now on?