Re: Vanson Leathers complaint
January, 2006
My order shipped mid-January (a full 2.5 months after the estimated completion date). I received the jacket and pants and immediately noticed the lower quality and effectiveness of the hand perforation. Some of the holes were not completely penetrated (leather still in the hole). The holes were about half the size of the regular perforation (called “ProPerf”), and the number of holes was dramatically less than ProPerf. Basically, the perforated I received would not provide the cooling of the proper model, which was the whole point of the added expense. I remind the reader that I was not consulted in this order change. It was done without my consent.
Other issues with the order: the sleeves were too long, and too wide at the cuff. I had given explicit written instructions and dimensions for the sleeves so that my riding gloves could properly fit over the sleeve cuffs. The pant legs were also too long and too wide as they too are supposed to fit inside the riding boots. These dimensions and instructions were also included. I found that I could fit the pant legs over my boots, so I decided not to send the pants in for warranty repair because I was already losing faith in the competency of the Company and didn’t want to give them too many things to fix and confuse the tailor. I sent back the jacket on January 16, 2006 for repair (basically, to fix the errors). I did not ask at that time for then to replace the torso with the correct perforated leather, because again, I was no longer confident of the Company’s competence. I asked for the sleeves to be shortened and brought in by the indicated amount. I even marked the sleeve cuffs with permanent marker to show exactly how much shorter they should be for my gloves to fit correctly so there would be no confusion.
February, 2006
I called the Company to find out the status of the repair and learned that Amanda had now also mysteriously left as well. I was then referred to the repairs supervisor, Stacy. I was given a projected return date of one month, but didn’t receive the repaired jacket until early March. I asked for the armpits to be opened up a bit if possible, and was told that it was possible so I authorized that repair as well. Stacy had looked at my jacket and confirmed that she was surprised the jacket “ever left the factory” in the condition that it was in. She felt it was shoddy workmanship. I concurred. I then was told a week later that instead of repairing the sleeves due to the problems, they would just put on new sleeves. This worried me because I had a feeling the tailor would now lose the new length information I had given them by marking the old sleeves, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt (not without voicing that concern to Stacy, however).
March, 2006
I received the jacket back. The sleeves were even worse than the last time. They were both longer, and looser. At this point, I had lost absolutely all confidence in the Company’s competence, customer service, and respect for clients. For this reason, I called Stacy and asked her to talk to whomever was necessary to authorize a full refund. I was offered a store credit for my order, but I declined specifically on the point that it was not an issue of a bad product, but very poor customer service that I did not expect to get better. I politely asked again for her to talk to her boss to request a refund. It took a few weeks of conversation (which, in that time, I was told on several occasions that they appreciated that I did not “yell at them and was nice.”) I was then handed off to Pauline, a Supervisor that reports directly to the owner. She then began discussions with the owner as I explained to her everything that had happened, and that the Company could not save me as a customer as I would not do business with them again. I simply wanted them to do one decent and honorable thing which was to fully refund my money and accept the jacket and pants in return. There was no yelling or inappropriate conversation on either side.
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