Cotopaxi does NO GOOD in the area of customer service!
Cotopaxi is a company that prides itself on “doing good” and doing right by their customers. However…I discovered that Cotopaxi does NO GOOD and I am disappointed, disillusioned, and disgusted by Cotopaxi’s total lack of customer service and responsiveness.
Melissa and I have been Cotopaxi fans for a few years now. And we have touted them in our stories and have flaunted them in pictures and in our posts.
We wore our Cotopaxi backpacks proudly while exploring five National Parks in California.
And we wore our Cotopaxi backpacks proudly while conquering the Mighty 5 National Parks in Utah.
In Israel, Greece, Canada…and everywhere in between. Our weekend treks on the Colorado trails…all with our Cotopaxi backpacks.
Not anymore.
Taking my granddaughter Iris on a hike has been something I have wanted to do…and so I thought what better gift than for Iris to get a beautiful and colorful Cotopaxi kids’ backpack for Christmas? Great idea, right?
I ordered the backpack online and paid an extra $25 to ensure two-day delivery. It was supposed to be delivered on Monday, December 22, 2025. However, ON Monday, December 22, 2025, at 12:04 p.m. EST, I received an email that my ”Order #2657480 has been canceled.”
The email read:
Hello,
Your order #2657480 is now officially canceled because it did not comply with Cotopaxi terms.
Please check your next billing statement to make sure it went through. If something doesn’t seem right, please contact us either by replying to this e-mail or by calling 844.268.6729.
Thanks,
Team Cotopaxi
What does that mean?
And so I called that number. Repeatedly. But all I kept getting was a lot of ringing, no answer, and then finally a recording that said, “Your call cannot be completed at this time. Please check the number and try again later.”
And so I checked online.
Do Good.
That is their “tag line.” Do Good. OK…well…apparently something is amiss. Because if they are so about “doing good” then they forgot about how to “do good” by their customers.
Cotopaxi customer service is non-existent
There is no way to reach anyone at Cotopaxi. Sure you can go directly into one of their retail brick and mortar shops. But, for the most part, the workers are just kids trying to eke out some extra bucks. The company is a worldwide distributer. They should have a worldwide accessible customer service. But they don’t.
But wait, digging deep and there’s more. While we didn’t find it when going directly to their website, we found a page with “Terms of Use” that IS a part of their website when we Googled “Cotopaxi terms of use.”
Here are the terms that we found in Paragraph 4 of its Terms of Use that MAY be an answer as to why my order was summarily canceled:
“When you purchase an item on the Web Site, you will be required to provide Cotopaxi with your credit card billing information. In consideration of your use of the Web Site, you represent that you are of legal age to form a binding contract and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction. You agree to pay for all charges accumulated by you on the Web Site. You acknowledge that you will have sole responsibility for all taxes relating to such order (except those based on Cotopaxi’s net income), and you agree to pay all applicable taxes. You also agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Web Site’s registration form. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete (or becomes untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete), or Cotopaxi has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Cotopaxi has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof). If you use the Web Site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password, and for restricting access to your computer. You agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you exit from your account at the end of each session. You agree to notify Cotopaxi immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security. Cotopaxi reserves the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, or remove or edit content in its sole discretion.”
While like most other paragraphs, this just seems to be legal jargon and cover your ass lingo. However, what the hell is this:
“You also agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Web Site’s registration form. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete (or becomes untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete), or Cotopaxi has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Cotopaxi has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof).”
I am a college graduate with three degrees. I am a relatively intelligent person. But what the hell does that mean? What information could be untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete? I am buying a backpack. I provided my true address, of course, because I don’t want it going to some stranger. And I provided my credit card information which was immediately authorized and successfully billed. So what’s left?
I guess I was mesmerized by the colors of the products. Because other than that, the company has nothing else to offer. Because they certainly aren’t run like a big company that cares about “doing good.” It’s all a great marketing ploy. Dazzle them with the colors and keep their focus on the company mantra…it’s all a façade…fake.
Mesmerized is the right word because if I am trying to be objective at this point, the products are not all that practical. They don’t fit the needs of the average hiker. They look nice. Yes…I absolutely LOVE the colors. They attract attention. They certainly do. But they are not always the best fit for the needs. And everything you buy will have good points and bad points…pros and cons…but nothing is more con than brutal customer service.
Going down the rabbit hole we found multitudes of horrible reviews about the terrible customer service and lack of response and virtually no communication. Now, reviews are always questionable because most people take the time to write bad reviews but few take the time to write good ones. But the bad reviews were very consistent with what we have now experienced.
Here are some very recent reviews that we found posted:
So, hey, Cotopaxi, explain to me why you canceled my order.
So…here is the update. After posting our story on various social media outlets, including Reddit, I also sent the story via Instagram and Facebook to Cotopaxi on Monday, December 29.
I was immediately met with the same message as previously sent to me via Facebook:
Thanks for messaging Cotopaxi! We don’t reply to message sent via Facebook messenger. If this a customer service-related inquiry, you can chat with us online here: https://help.cotopaxi.co/ or call (385) 381-6196 If this is about something else, or related to partnering with Cotopaxi on content or as an ambassador, please DM us on Instagram. Thanks!
But then on Friday, January 2, I received this message…via Facebook Messenger:
Hi Alan, Thank you so much for reaching out. First off I am sorry for the delay on getting back to you through these holidays, and that you had trouble reaching us. At this time we are not accepting calls for customer service, but we are availible (sic) via emil, and usually reply the same day, if not the next business day! I apologize for the phone number in the email that led to a dead end. It looks like an old email template that we are working on updating now! Looking at the order, it looks like it was shut down due to the billing info that was entered not matching what was on file with the bank, so it was shut down. We do this to ensure that customers with stolen card info are not able to place orders on our site. I am not seeing an email from you on this issue. Just as a bookmark, you can chat with us on most pages on our site, by clicking the chat button in the bottom right side, as well as start an email ticket on our support page. J https://help.cotopaxi.com/ Let me know if there if you have any other questions! Cheers,
I immediately responded with:
I appreciate your message but what you are saying makes no sense. The charge with the bank went through. And if it hadn’t, the payment system would have known immediately and prevented the sale from processing. It processed without a hitch. It wasn’t until the date of delivery, three days later, that your “system” canceled my order. Your explanation about an old template of an email also makes no sense, nor does it make sense that it was holiday time because the time period was Dec. 19 through Dec. 21, prior to the beginning of the holiday. And how could you have NO customer service available DURING holiday shopping time? And why WOULD you not have a working phone number? That makes no sense. So ZERO accessibility during the holiday shopping period. AND….you make no attempt to rectify my situation…no offer of any kind to make up for a situation that was caused by you and your system.
And, of course, this is what I got in return:
Thanks for messaging Cotopaxi! We don’t reply to message sent via Facebook messenger. If this a customer service-related inquiry, you can chat with us online here: https://help.cotopaxi.co/ or call (385) 381-6196 If this is about something else, or related to partnering with Cotopaxi on content or as an ambassador, please DM us on Instagram. Thanks!
Even though THEIR message indicates to call a specific number, you can’t call that number because it doesn’t work. Even though THEIR message indicates they will not respond to a Facebook message but will respond to an Instagram message, they responded the one time to a Facebook message and never to an Instagram message.
Most importantly, they did absolutely NOTHING to rectify the situation or provide ANY KIND OF CUSTOMER SERVICE. Their mantra is to “do good” but where in this instance have they done ANY good?
