Tale Of A Three Wheeled Rimowa

The Three Wheeled Rimowa And No One Who Cared

A three legged dog walked into the bar and said, "I am looking for the man who shot my paw."

Just as dogs and horses were designed with four legs Rimowa designed their luggage with four wheels. This is a tale with a happy ending although it took four and a half weeks to fix. It would be fair to say that if you vigorously tried to rip off one wheel of a Rimowa ,using various tools and appliances it would not be that easy and almost impossible for a mere human. Not so for the gorilla's they have handling baggage at Finnair and a few days into a five week trip Finnair did it with rare skill. Off came the wheel literally ripped from the suitcase by someone super human. or perhaps hell bent on destroying Rimowa luggage and travellers lives.

It was in Munich Airport on arrival that the three wheeled monster misbehaved and immediately the Finnair Agent was advised, action was taken to help the unhappy traveller to resolve the issue and things looked good.; oh how misguided that view was. As Munich was in Germany the home of Rimowa resolution seemed possible but alas not so. Finnair sent an email apology and  was then missing in action and never heard of until an automatically generated email survey was sent four weeks after the event seeking whether I had resolved the problem or made a claim and hoping I was now a happy camper or had disappeared over a cliff never to be heard of again. Their German agent tried hard but it would take two weeks to fix the thing but the advice was good--'Have it fixed and send your receipts to Finnair." No one really cared and least of all Finnair who finally was let off without any repercussions for their rough handling of my luggage and inadequate assistance after the event. Even the poor reviews on Tripadvisor (R)  achieved not even some recognition of what they had done. Sadly no one cared.

So the three wheeled Rimowa accompanied me throughout Europe with no chance of resolution and frankly no one, least of all Finnair taking any interest in my predicament. Until the final leg of the journey in Tokyo (Narita) where Rimowa has a service operation. Anticipating the Japanese with a willingness to assist this old "gaijin' my broken Rimowa was left, my goods and belongings in another bag and two days later on departure the suitcase appeared with a new wheel. 'No charge as it is under warranty' they said with a smile and proud they could help. "But what about Finnair," I said to myself , "How do they pay for what they did?" The answer is simple I surmised, travel without luggage that might break or don't fly with airlines like Finnair who don't care because they are never made to account for what they do. No one heard and no one answered but thank you Rimowa Japan for your service.

As an after thought this was not the first Rimowa that has lost a wheel. American Airlines had the same gorilla's, which is probably disrespectful to gorilla's and some others have fractured various parts so maybe the Rimowa service in Tokyo is correcting a problem that is inherent with Rimowa.