Ekster Wallets review: Ekster turned one missing pump into a masterclass in failed customer service

One star is generous.

I ordered Ekster’s TravelPack Vacuum Kit Pro, which is supposed to include four vacuum bags and the small black air pump. The four bags arrived. The pump did not.

This was not a missing delivery—the package arrived incomplete. A competent company could have resolved this in a single interaction by checking the order and shipping the component it failed to include.

Instead, Ekster created one of the most maddening customer-service obstacle courses I have ever encountered.

Between August 19 and August 21, I repeatedly explained that the package and bags had arrived but the pump was missing. I provided the order number, confirmed my address more than once, and explained that I was traveling and had purchased the kit expecting to use it during that trip.

Ekster nevertheless continued telling me that the shipment showed as “delivered,” as though that somehow answered a report about one missing component. They suggested checking with neighbors and building staff even though I clearly stated that I possessed the package and bags. They asked for an order number already present in the thread, requested the same address confirmation again, and kept asking for a photograph instead of simply correcting their fulfillment error.

Then came the most absurd part: replies to the support address shown in Ekster’s own emails repeatedly bounced as undeliverable with an “address not found/account disabled” error. Ekster continued sending messages from that address while its own email system made reliable replies impossible. I had to keep chasing them through alternate methods merely to determine whether anyone was receiving my responses.

Their messages repeatedly promised that a “human teammate” would take over or that a replacement would be arranged “right away.” As of August 22, I still had no replacement-shipment confirmation or tracking—only recycled apologies and additional requests for information I had already supplied.

At this point, I cannot determine whether Ekster’s support operation is spectacularly incompetent or intentionally designed to create so much friction that frustrated customers eventually give up. I can only say that it functions exactly like such a system.

Ekster markets premium-priced travel gear but delivered bargain-basement fulfillment and Kafkaesque customer service. The missing pump made the kit useless for its intended purpose during my trip, and the company demonstrated absolutely no sense of urgency in correcting its own mistake.

If your order from Ekster arrives incomplete, be prepared for canned responses, broken email routing, repeated questions, irrelevant references to delivery tracking, and seemingly endless resistance to a basic resolution.

I will never purchase from Ekster again, and I cannot recommend trusting this company to resolve even the simplest fulfillment problem.