I’m starting to seriously doubt any of these kits ever had the missing items regardless of what Woot! is saying about spot checks.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes that Surviveware ever would have stocked these 72-hour emergency kits for any length of time fully assembled. There’d be too much risk of the perishable components (including the Lifestraw, which does have a shelf life) expiring or being close to expiring at time of actual sale.
More likely, the kits were stocked deep and the perishable items only added to the kits in smaller batches from more recently sourced supplies.
Whenever Woot! bought up the leftover stock from Surviveware (who apparently doesn’t sell this product anymore), they either weren’t told of that final component assembly process, or lost track of it. And never revised the advertised content list.
Mine arrived today, no food, no water, no life straw. Also, one of the bags had a shoulder strap that was not sewed on, see picture where the buckle should be.
Here to state that I just received mine and was also missing the food, water, and lifestraw. No need for the copy pasta reply. I’ll reach out to woot customer service.
I think numbers are misleading. I am sure that you aren’t receiving complaints on a majority but there are still likely some to be delivered, people who won’t open them, people who went directly to support, or people who don’t use the forums.
On that note, considering those people might not find out until it is too late and they are in dire need of the missing contents, I think it would be a good idea for WOOT to send out a “check the contents of this item right away!!!” email.
Should people count on the water and food being in there? No.
Could people count on the water and food being in there? Yes.
And when I say “good idea”, I mean there have been lawsuits over crazier things.
Just adding my 2 cents here. I’m also one of the unlucky folks that’s missing the food, water and Lifestraw from my kit. I highly recommend that everyone that purchased this item take it apart and verify the contents before you may need it in an emergency situation. I’m going to reach out to Woot Customer Service for resolution.
Same here, missing, food, water and lifestraws, emergency whistle and knife. Matches not as advertised. This is a serious screw-up, considering that this is could jeopardize an emergency survival situation for two human lives, rather than alleviate such. Talk about false advertising! Woot, I love you, and I realize that you didn’t cause this issue, however, you are the ones selling this so please make this situation right! (And Thunderthighs, yes, I contacted Woot CS.)
Woot advertised a 72-hour backpack intended to help people survive emergency situations, prominently advertising that it included 72-hours worth of water and food for two people, and a water purification system (Lifestraw)
Then WOOT shipped them out with what appears to be EVERY PACK not including food, water, and the Lifestraw.
There’s a very good chance many people will simply open the box and throw this backpack THAT THEY THINK has food and water into their car or closet, only to find out IN AN EMERGENCY that WOOT didn’t send any food or water as promised. THAT’S DANGEROUS. WOOT COULD KILL PEOPLE WITH THIS ERROR.
Now WOOT is offering some small discount ONLY to those who write in to complain.
This looks like intentional fraud, a way to liquidate inventory by lying to customers about what is in the “survival toolkit” and shipping a product that is dangerously lacking in food, water and water purification method.
If WOOT had any ethics, it should be writing to EVERYONE who bought this warning them that the product is incomplete AND sending them replacements for the missing items.
This isn’t a boardgame missing a pair of dice. This is an emergency kit missing the most crucial items that keep people alive: FOOD AND WATER.
WOOT should do the right thing and SEND EVERY PURCHASER the water, food, and lifestraw that is missing, instead of cowering behind front line service workers instructed to send out insulting $15 refund offers.
I also was missing the Life Straw, Water Sachets, and Food from the 3 backpacks I purchased.
I reported this to Woot and was contacted back in less than a week and offered various ways to remedy this. I opted for a partial refund on each pack.
So I did some research on the Life Straws and found the following only minutes ago on Amazon.
Hope the following helps all of you who are missing the straws.
I’ll be honest…the most recent experience with Woot has me questioning my relationship with Woot going forward. The whole debacle about needing to find out what wasn’t in the packs, emailing again and again trying to get a response (can’t call because that doesn’t work right now!) and never really getting a great response. Finally decided to return and when picking the “reason” for the return, the second option kept resetting the first and wouldn’t let me actually file a return. Finally tried a different browser to be sent ONE return label for TWO boxes which I didn’t realize until I got to UPS. Not a big deal right? Just use your phone and fix it. Well…Woot doesn’t allow you to use the desktop site on your phone so I had to head home and start the process all over again.
Honestly…the amount of time, effort, thought and conversation that went into this order turned into a return is more than I have ever had to deal with from any other vendor or website. Shame on you Woot
