It's blk/tan or blk/red or just outlined in tan?

[Gwenhwyfair]

*sigh* Just a wee bit of a vent here.

I ordered a personalized bag from a vendor (not associated with this site). "I *heart* German Shepherds" and I ordered the "blk/tan" GSD version. (they had blk/red, blk/tan, black and white as the options). The picture on the product page showed the saddle back blk/tan as an example.

Well that seem pretty straight forward.

The embroidered dog came as an all black dog with the single thread of the outline around the dog's body being tan, entire interior of the dog black with a smidge of grey thread at the neck.

On the first bag sent I called and told the vendor I want the 'saddle back' black and tan like the one pictured on the product page....I get yet another one with the dog not having a black saddle pattern, just the outline around the body of the dog. I would send them back but they're personalized and as such non-returnable.

Talked to the owner who thinks Blk and Red are the only 'saddle pattern' dogs there are...apparently. We had quite the discussion about the different colors bi, sable and of course "the only" saddle pattern type from Germany Blk/red then back to the AKC description.

In my world (generally speaking) Black and Tan means the dog has both black markings and tan markings on the dogs body and the one on the bag doesn't even have bi-color markings, the entire body and legs of the dog is black.

Oh well, nice bag, I like black GSDs too it's just I don't have one. Was a little Christmas present to myself but I think I'll be getting my schutzhund supplies elsewhere going forward.

/wee vent over I feel better.

[Rerun]

I'd be pretty irritated and would not have been as polite as you about it. I understand they are custom, but if they don't do it correctly then that's not your problem. I would be including several references in my next email containing things like AKC photo illustrations of what "black and tan" is as well as when to expect my new, and correct, bag.

[qbchottu]

If the seller didn't make the bag according to your specifications, I would ask that they refund your money or redo the bag according to your specifications. Yes it is customized, but it isn't your fault if they mess up your customization. I would badger them if they give you the run-around with that...

[AbbyK9]

If the seller didn't make the bag according to your specifications, I would ask that they refund your money or redo the bag according to your specifications. Yes it is customized, but it isn't your fault if they mess up your customization. I would badger them if they give you the run-around with that...

^ This.

It is not your fault that the bag was made incorrectly. Send them a screen shot of the image on the website that you made your pick based on, the black/tan one. Tell them this is what you ordered, not a black dog outlined in tan.

[Gwenhwyfair]

Thanks for the feed back all!

They actually had sent a second bag, after I had called and said I wanted the 'saddle back' as pictured on the product page. The second bag was the same as the first. So the person who helped me with the replacement did not bother to double check which one was which.

I did push it with the owner of the company. Was on the phone for over 1/2 hour and at the end asked her if this was worth loosing a customer over and she replied she had already lost money because of the 2nd (incorrect) bag sent to me. During this call they directed me to a sublink (a link not on the product page at that time). This link was near the bottom of the side bar of the web site. The link contained the sample of embroidery patterns. After scrolling almost half way down through many many different breeds and GSD samples you get to the different GSDs patterns that go with with this particular product.

Apparently it was my responsibility to ensure the bag I was picking matched the samples on that link. The problem is (as someone who has designed a few websites) the lack of consistency in the nomenclature and extremely cumbersome for the user to figure out which belongs to which. So in the product description blk/tan means an ALL black dog outlined with a single tan thread and blk/red is a saddle back dog with brown thread filling in the body/legs.

I think what frosts me the most was the tone of the customer service person I spoke with and later the owner. They both were terse and acted as though this was entirely my fault. I did not expect to have to do so much due diligence to order a product from them.

Boy oh boy, there are a lot of places one can buy this kind of equipment from. I've purchased quite a bit of stuff from them too. This is just not the way one keeps customers coming back. I own my own business too. A client has to really go over the line for me to speak to them the way I was spoken to yesterday. Just can't afford to loose customers these days.

In the end she offered me 20% off and free shipping. I thought about it and if I could find significant fault on my part I would go for it. I just don't think I'm that much at fault....she's at least 80% wrong on this, not me.

btw- I did pull up the AKC site (that the owner referred to) and sure enough the dog pictured for a german shepherd is a light tan with black saddle back.

[AbbyK9]

To be honest, if I were in your position, I would let people know which company I have had those issues with, so that others will be warned about using them in the future. I expect, especially with the type of treatment you received, that they probably have plenty of unhappy customers considering the way they are treating them.

I have had some bad experiences with companies before ... one time I ordered a reflective collar from a company several people here recommended and it was like two months, they had my money, and I didn't get anything. Called them several times, no answer just the answering machine. Left several messages. Eventually got someone and eventually got my collar, but you betcha I wrote about that experience on my blog so other people looking up the company maybe think twice before giving them their money ... or at least know they might not get their product unless they keep calling them.

I've since had a bunch of people comment on that blog post about their bad experiences, so hopefully others will find it before finding themselves there.

[Rerun]

Did you pay via credit card or paypal? If either of those, I'd file with them immediately.

[Gwenhwyfair]

Yup, I did pay with a credit card and I did think about disputing the charge.

This is the first time I've had a problem with this company. They've been easy to deal with in the past (when there were no snafus). The item is not super pricey ( under $25.00). For these two reasons I was going to let this go.

Given the input I've gotten here I'm going to rethink that decision.

If anyone wants to know the name of the company just send me a PM.


...thanks again I appreciate the advice!