BLUNT HQ, Retail Store & Service Centre — Local services in Waitematā

My wardrobe consists mostly of greys, navy, black, white, beige etc so I thought I’d get the Classic in red for a bit of contrast. I wasn’t really into the shade of red after I had it so was going to see if they’d let me exchange it for another colour but a colleague really liked it so bought it off me. So I was umming and ahhing about getting the orange (my initial second option) or being super safe and getting the black when another workmate heard about my dilemma (first world problems I know) and offered to buy the orange off me if I didn’t like it. So the orange arrived in the last couple of days and I love it. Two people (so far) I know now have seen mine and decided they’re getting one. There are three others at my work who have heard me talking about it and told me how they’ve had theirs for years and love them. The website is easy to use and the umbrella arrived promptly once ordered. I’m giving five stars based on the level of service, ease of ordering, innovation, styling and comments from people I know well and trust as I’ve not had an opportunity to really use mine yet but am sure it’ll be great and if it’s not, I’ll come back to update this review. The secret little Tile slot is really cool too (for tracking your umbrella) and I’ve always wanted one of those Tiles for keys etc so they’re now on order as this seemed like a good reason to justify having to buy them. Anyway... really looking forward...

I have owned a Blunt G1 umbrella for about five years, Its an outstanding product. It has seen me through some very wet and windy walks on the mean streets of Auckland's north shore with out any issues. However the other day in horrible conditions, I slipped, and my Blunt G1 felt the full force of 90 Kg landing on it! Needless to say the umbrella sustained damage, in fact the carbon fiber shaft snapped. I was gutted! Now Blunts are not cheap, so on browsing their site, I saw they did repairs. I thought, Oh Aye!(I'm from Yorkshire). I bet it will be in for weeks, and cost as much as a new one. Anyway I toddled off to Newmaket and found Blunt HQ which btw is one of the coolest work places I have ever been in. I walked in holding the two halves of the G2 and a nice young lady read between the lines. "Haven't seen one of these in a while, Give me 10 minutes" she said taking the parts from me. Again, I thought, Oh Aye (I'm from Yorkshire). 10 mins to look at it more like, I though. But NO! how wrong was I. She had my G1 stripped down faster then a Formula One pit change, and all in front of my eyes. She found the necessary spare parts (of an umbrella that has not been made for years) and moving like lighting she had the thing as good as new IN 10 MINUTES!!. I was only charged $15!. It was emotional! Thank you legend, you know who you are! Blunt products and service are...

Everything is great until you have an issue with the product.

Bought a metro umbrella and it was great while it lasted. After a few months of use, some of the support strings fell off.

Contacted support and it took 8 days to get a copy and paste template response.

This is not what a “premium umbrella brands” experience, which is priced 4-5 times more should feel like.

Long story short, they would not replace or refund. Looking at the other negative reviews, clearly the companies service and repair process needs to be adjusted. (Who in their right mind would want to wait months re-explaining the issues and invest time and energy for an umbrella repair?).

Branding it as “an environmentally friendly approach,” so they don’t need to replace the items. Maybe make your products last instead? Just an “environmentally friendly suggestion.”

To keep it Blunt, I have put mine in the bin and will not recommend.

Buy a Warehouse umbrella, it might just last the...