Many of you may know that the Toolshed, located at Toolshedtoys.com or the store in Milwaukee, WI, sells many gender expressive items to people. Though if you have purchased STPs from them recently, you might have noticed that the tubing was a bit shoddy. I complained, and luckily they explained to me that they were getting a shipment in the next few days of better tubing, and I even got a free STP packer out of the deal. I will copy the emails to and from the Toolshed and myself.
"To whom it may concern,
I've ordered three separate STPs from your site, two of the STP 1 nipple style and one STP2 medicine spoon. I have had the same "design flaw" in every single packer. The tubing does not look as it is pictured your site. It seems to have been poorly melded on, and because of that the tubing ends up breaking after 2-3 days. It's ridiculous. Fortunately, I ordered tubing from a different site and in the meantime am using my third STP, the style 2 medicine spoon, after having super glued the tubing together in multiple places. What a hassle! I think you should put a disclaimer on your page about this somewhere or better yet, fix the tubing. I like your products and I would like to continue purchasing them from you, especially because your store is located close to me, but I will have to take my business elsewhere if something isn't done about this tubing...
Thank you for reading this.
Sebastian"
Their response (in less than 30 minutes from my original email!):
"Dear Sebastian,
Thank you for writing, and I am sorry you've experienced problems with the STPs.
The man at STP-Fitz who makes these STP packers for us recently attempted to change to a different type of tubing, rather than continue to use the latex tubing he had been using for years. The new tubing was an improvement over the latex in many ways (it didn't swell over time the way latex is known to do), but it turned out to not work quite as well with the adhesive, so we had some that didn't bond as well as they should have. I have heard from other users about this flaw, and since then he has reverted back to the old tubing. I am awaiting a new batch of all latex tubing from him that should arrive any day now, so it should not be as issue anymore.
As you might imagine, it is difficult finding the right combination of materials for these STPs, because none of the raw materials used to make them are intended to be used together-- it is a case of having to retrofit soft packers using tubing and glue that is not designed to work with the elastomers that the packers are made from. The oils in the packers themselves are very hard on a lot of adhesives to begin with-- and certain colors of elastomer even react differently than others. I know STP-Fitz and our store have discussed numerous different combinations and experiments to try to find the perfect combo. It seems the latex is the best he can get thus far, and even that has its drawbacks.
I'm glad you found a way to fix your STPs and make them work. Do you have a preference for the size (3.5" versus 4")? I can send you a new one with a nipple and latex tubing if you'd like when I get a new shipment.
Very best,
Hudson"
We emailed a few more times, and I am getting a free STP out of the deal. Very nice. They handled the email well and professionally, and thoroughly explained the problem. I will definitely continue to purchase my products from them. :)
I hope any of you who have had the previous STP tubing and didn't like it won't take it out on this store. I will make sure to put up a little response on if the tubing is much better once I get the new packer. Best of luck mates.