altersys

Some of you know I have recently (well, over the last half year) had a series of very bad experiences with Vanson Leathers.* Here's a letter i have drafted that I plan handing to my lawyer to see if I have a case, and I will also send to the MA Attorney General's office as well as the BBB (I know they won't do shit but I want something on record).* The reason I am posting here is just to inform everyone of what transpired.* I'm not telling you what to do- that's your decision.* Take this as information and nothing more.


To Whom it May Concern:
I am writing this letter to describe a series of events that occurred relating to a business transaction between myself and Vanson Leathers Inc of Fall River, Massachusetts. I purchased a set of custom-fitted motorcycle leathers from Vanson, and on almost every level, the company delivered sub-par service and quality. Ultimately, I asked for a full refund, and was promised one so I returned the product. After receiving it, the Company went back on their word and has held back a portion of the refund under the protection of a “non-refundable deposit” clause on the original order form. I feel the Company still owes me the balance of $XXX.XX.

I will now state the facts of what transpired:


September, 2005
Received “custom leathers” package from Vanson, which includes leather swatches and a special measuring device for the custom measurements form. I had my measurements taken by a dressmaker and the measurements “reconciliation” form verified that the measurements were correct. I also had a few detail points that I wanted to make sure were not lost on the designer, so I included these very specific details with extra measurement information for clarity. This detail applies to the sleeve cuffs and the ankles. I have attached this document for reference (it is titled “Fitting Notes”).

September 20, 2005
I placed my order on this date, by fax with a sales person named Liz. I sent in all the measurements, the order form, and the fitting notes. Payment of $XXX.XX was made as a deposit. This form contains a clause that states “all custom orders must be signed and be accompanied by a 50% deposit. This deposit is non-refundable once work has commenced on your order.” More on this later.

Late September, 2005
I received confirmation of my order being entered into Vanson’s system and was given an estimated completion date of October 31, 2005. I reminded Liz of the special instructions for the sleeves and ankles.

Late October, 2005
Checked in with Liz on week of October 31 to verify status of order. Liz did not have an answer for me and promised to get back to me. She did not. I called several times and was told that “the computer says the order is still in ‘pattern.’” Exactly what this meant, Liz was not able to tell me.

Mid to Late November, 2005
Kept calling Liz weekly to find out the status of the order. Kept hearing the order was “in pattern” but did not receive any other information than that (though I did ask for it).

December, 2005
Received call from Liz stating the reason for the delay was that the leather colors I had chosen were not in stock. This was the first time I had heard about this. My order included four types of leather: perforated red, solid red, perforated brown, and solid brown leather. It was the perforated red leather that was not in stock, apparently. Liz asked me if I wanted to use another color instead. I declined. The next day, Liz called me and told me that to expedite my delayed order, they had taken solid red leather and hand-perforated it. The perforated leather I had ordered (the perforated model costs extra) is machine-perforated and has a lot more holes per unit area for cooling purposes. I did not know yet what this hand-perforated leather looked like, but the main point here is that I did not authorize it, and they did it anyway. This was a Friday and Liz told me to call her once I received the order to tell her if it “looked okay” or not.
I called Liz a week later to find out when I would receive the order, and I discovered she had “left the company.” I found out later she had been fired. I never got a good explanation of why, other than “she screwed up a lot of orders.” I was then handed off to Amanda for my order fulfillment.

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!

altersys

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.

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!

altersys

April, 2006
Pauline was very bad at calling me back (just like everyone else at the Company) so I called her daily to get a status report.* The Company was very resistant to refunding me the money, repeatedly saying they wanted to earn my business again.* My point remained that I had no confidence in the Company or the product and wouldn’t use it anyway (these products are supposed to protect your life and safety in crashes, so confidence is a big issue).* Finally, Pauline said “Well, it doesn’t look like I can change your mind so we will refund your money.”* I asked if I could ship the products using their UPS shipping account, and set up the shipment.* I also called to confirm the full amount that would be refunded ($XXXX.XX) so that there would be no confusion.* Pauline said “I will make sure the person in charge of refunds knows the amount.”

The Company received the goods, so I called to find out when I would get the refund.* The next day, I heard from Pauline.* She then said she had a proposal.* She would send my jacket and pants to a tailor that was visiting a dealer in California that would fix my order on the spot.* I stopped her and reminded her we had already come to an agreement that was amicable.* She said she had made a mistake and was not authorized by the owner to give a refund.* This was not discussed, and she was now going back on her verbal agreement.* I was quite upset, but did not resort to anger or name-calling (though I was very angry).* I reminded her we had an agreement and that she must talk to the owner and get me my refund.* A week later, I was finally told I’d get the refund.* The refund didn’t post until another week after (lots of phone calls and unreturned messages were left).

The refund finally posted (another employee, named Lori, was in charge of accounting and refunds).* The amount that posted was $XXXX, not the proper full amount of $XXXX.XX.* I called to find out why and was told by Lori “That is what Pauline told me to refund, and I don’t know anything else.”* Pauline called me the next day and told me the reason the refund was for that amount was because they were authorized to keep a portion of the deposit, per the clause on the original order.* I was floored.* Two times, Pauline and her boss had gone back on their word and this last time, she had basically lied to me when she said I would get my full refund and to go ahead and send the order back.* The amount of $XXXX was never discussed nor was that clause, which I feel exists for cases of buyer’s remorse rather than a complete customer service failure.* In my opinion, Vanson Leathers not only continuously demonstrated complete incompetence, they are also dishonest people with bad intentions and no desire to do the right thing.* I understand that I legally signed a contract on the subject of retaining a portion of the refund, but I was given a verbal agreement prior to my returning my order that I would receive my full refund.* It was not until after they had received the goods and refunded me a portion of my order that I was told (after I called!) that I would not receive the full amount.

I feel that Vanson Leathers owes me the balance of $XXX.XX for this situation to be resolved.* I am not asking for punitive damages or interest.* I just want what is owed to me, and what was promised.* I will definitely never purchase anything from this Company again.

Thank you

{edit: forgot to add that when Pauline finally told me they "weren't going to do anything else for me at this point (re: refunding the correct amount), I asked who the decision was coming from. She said the owner. I asked to speak to the owner. She said "he is not available." Basically they shut me down.}

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!

polpetta

Ash, thank you for posting your experience.

I am so sorry you are going through this.
Keep us posted.

I know you were so excited about getting your custom leathers.

I am sorry

Melissa

altersys

thanks.* definitely has left a sour taste in my mouth.

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!

chris

Aw man. :-\ just came here via my other thread.

I can highly recommend Z custom leathers in LA. And if they piss you off, I'll give you $100. Great people ... just be sure to tell them what your use is. If you tell them racing, the cut is for crouching on the tank and street riding may suck a little. Thankfully, I can still do 300 mile days in my Z suit, but I got textile for the long trips.

Best,
Chris


fwiw, people in the industry tell me that vanson only has a few patterns and are not actually "custom".

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Chris Kelley<br />for tech info ::&nbsp; www.ducatitech.com<br />to buy Ducati parts :: Ca Cycleworks :: www.ca-cycleworks.com<br /><br />Awesome Bike Hauling Van for sale: 2000 Ford Econoline<br />(it has full interior with seats, so you can say it is for the family)

ADG

Don't even get me started on my potential rant regarding Vanson.....

Their company has turned to shit and I've been an avid Vanson supporter/cheerleader for over 25 years.

I called Vanson direct when I decided to purchase the traveler perfed pants and the Cobra Mark2 jacket ($1,000), and they told me that they prefer to support the local dealership's and all final sales would *be handled though them. Fine. I gave them my local Duc dealers address. It took them over 4 weeks and numerous phone calls on my end just to get the mother fucking product shipped.

I finally received my perforated traveler pants and was ecstatic (Mike Tyson.)

But, the first time I tried them on, the teeth on the zipper fell off and the button popped off. I just spent $500 on a defective pair of riding pants!

I sent them back on 'my dime' and just received them today....after 2 months of bullshit.....


I've talked with Stacy, who initially tried to handle the problem in the repair department, *and later found out that she no longer works there. I've talked with Pauline and she seems to have her head screwed on straight.

altersys

stacy left too? she hated working there...

pauline is the one that f'ed me in the end...be careful.

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!

purplehayes

I've been trying to decide whether to buy Vanson or Dainese for a while now. Reading this thread has certainly made the investment decision an easier one. Thanks

Jon

altersys

sweet. glad i posted finally. ive been avoiding writing this letter because i just want to forget about the whole experience. honestly though I think i might pursue legal action (or at least consult an attorney) on a matter of principle.

dainese makes really good stuff. [thumbsup]

__________________
when good cream goes bad...<br /><br />buyer beware of vanson leathers!