A Tale of Two Vendors

[MacMillans son]

Not to justify their common practice of grossly missed shipping dates, but to assuage your anxiety a bit, I have never known them to not ship something at all (as in ripped off), they are just frequently way outside their promised shipping dates, often times by months.

[David Thorpe]

That has been my experience as well. It has gone far beyond anxiety at this point. I'm totally done with them, and merely attempting to help get my brother extricated from his far overdue order situation.

[chrisupyonder]

I have used HoS on several occasions and never had any problems. I even returned a Black Watch PV kilt just because I decided I did not like it and they refunded within a few day of my returning it to them.
Delivery from them was usually less than a week. It may be that it is their suppliers that is the problem and maybe they are not getting sufficient info to pass onto you.

Just my 2P worth.

Chris.

[David Thorpe]

He tossed the Paypal grenade and got their attention. The refund he requested has still not been forthcoming. More foot dragging -- not the least bit surprising.

[CaptHowdy0001]

you guys have me worried now. i ordered a special weave ten weeks ago and its collecting but i was told it wouldn't ship till December. i need it for next year October so im not in a real hurry but i want to make sure everything fits for my wedding. concerning none the less.

[David Thorpe]

you guys have me worried now. i ordered a special weave ten weeks ago and its collecting but i was told it wouldn't ship till December. i need it for next year October so im not in a real hurry but i want to make sure everything fits for my wedding. concerning none the less.

My advice is to keep in email contact with them. That seems to be the only way to get them to stay on task. You might also want to contact the mill directly to monitor progress from their end. It would not be counter to my experience to have the mill ship to HoS and HoS sit on it until they are forced to ship. I hope you have a far better experience with them than I have had.

[Riverkilt]

Its sad when I continue to read threads like this.

I've come to believe that the huge middlemen who can get you anything prey on the newcomers to kilting...or the guy getting married in a kilt and its also his first time kilted.

I'm baffled that so many of us still use middlemen for items we could go straight to the maker for. I'm baffled that we go to a middleman to score tartan cloth or kilts for us when all the reputable kiltmakers have great relations with the mills and can do it for us without adding another level of profit to the package.

You can have any two of price, quality, and service.

For me, quality and service are always the choice.

The promises of savings and fast service from middlemen seem to be a frequent source of frustration when the middlemen don't follow through.

Customer "non-service" seems the order of the day whenever we seek an update on our long overdue order.

I've even experienced on more step of frustration. When the late goods finally do arrive they are not as ordered...calls to the middleman result in defensiveness and insistance that the order is really correct - even though it is obviously wrong.

End of rant.

[CaptHowdy0001]

I've come to believe that the huge middlemen who can get you anything prey on the newcomers to kilting...or the guy getting married in a kilt and its also his first time kilted.

i am hoping that if anything is wrong i can get it fixed by a local Taylor or someone within the U.S.A. at the very least. My dads order just passed customs and will be here on Tuesday i believe. Major problem is i never knew of this forum before i made my purchase. I spent so much money on my wedding outfit and its really going to crush me if its not right. I will keep in contact with the company as suggested and honestly i have had great contact with them and they have helped me change sizes and such since i ordered but the horror to fairytale story ratio has me concerned. Also its kinda hard to dispute a charge that happened months ago with a credit card company.

[Riverkilt]

Tell them you're now a member of the X Marks the Scot forum and that you're reporting their progress on the forum....That should get their attention.

Suddenly you're not a newby....now you're a dissatified customer reporting their behavior to thousands of their best prospects.

As well you should. The best thing about this forum is reporting vendor behaviors so we can avoid the customer no service vendors and deal with the true customer service vendors. None of us need this kind of hassle.

"I'm a member of the X Marks the Scot forum. The folks on the forum report some good service and a lot of not so good service from your firm. I've already posted on the forum about what's not happened so far and will continue to report the service your firm provides until all my goods have arrived. Just telling the truth to a few thousand other kilties."

For sure it won't slow things up any worse than they now are.

[RockyR]

Also its kinda hard to dispute a charge that happened months ago with a credit card company.

For charges within the US (assuming by your "location" tag you're in the US), you have 6 months to dispute a charge. For charges overseas, you have 1 year.