Over the past 18 months, I have sold three kilts and have ordered three. All three have been ordered from X Marks Partners, and I have to say that USA Kilts and New House Highland have been excellent to deal with. I have now dealt with seven X Marks Partners, and have had excellent experiences. My kilt closet currently includes 2 Freedom Kilts, a Lady Chrystel Kilt, a Burnetts & Struth and a USA KIlt.

I have just received the kilt from USA Kilts, and it is truly a work of art (photos will be posted, eventually). Like New House Highland, Rocky came well-recommended by many of you, and his service and product have surpassed my expectations. In a few more weeks, I shall be taking delivery of one of Matt Newsome's creations, which I have been assured is a real treat.

Then, there's......uh, the other one. I have done business with him before, and the service was great; I like his website and through reading the Partners Dedicated Forms, I have come to think of him as a respectable member of the Kilted community. It didn't seem to be much of a stretch to buy a kilt from him--I felt confident dropping about $460.00 .

But here's what happened. I ordered in May (I think they said it would be about 8 - 10 weeks), but about 7 after ordering I was emailed, informing me that there would be a delay. I told them no problem. In mid-August, the same thing again. I was fine with that, too. No hurry. At the end of August, yet another delay. I was getting concerned, but sometimes all you can do is wait.

In mid-September I missed an email and picked it up the following morning, a couple of hours before the kilt arrived--but not in the mail, rather by FedEx. C.O.D. charges were $151.40. Deep breath. "Okay," I thought, " A really good deal is now just an average deal, but I have read that this is a quality product, so...."

I took the kilt out of the box and tried it on. ***? Cinched right up to the tightest notch on the top buckles, it was so big it could slip right over my hips. I had ordered a 38" waist and received (at least) 41"--and I had no idea what the hip measurement might have been.

Laying the new kilt on top of another kilt of identical measurements, fabric weight and pleating, it did not compare favourably. The buckles appeared about 3" out of place, as indicated by measuring the waist. I emailed the company and sent it back. Cost: $56.63.

Over a month later, there have been several email exchanges and I have told them I want a refund. They won't discuss a refund, and offered to have the kilt "professionally measured" which of course confirmed their position that I was in the wrong. They did offer to move the buckles, but added the comment that they were doing it "as a gesture of good will." I took that as being condescending and quite unacceptable, and repeated that I wanted a refund.

So far, I have spent :$460.00 (original price of the kilt)
$151.40 (customs + brokerage fees)
$ 56.63 (postage to return the kilt)
for a total of: $668.03

..............and I have nothing to show for it.

I should add that I specified shipping by mail, because I know that Canada Post's handling charges are considerably lower than FedEx, about $40.00 lower, in fact.

I have respected this particular X Marks Partner's sticky which advises people with service issues not to comment in his forum.

I have given this company every opportunity to fix this problem, but I have only received excuses and now rather inappropriate "attitude." No offers of compensation or even alternate services that they could provide at little expense to them, but of value to me. Not even a refund.

What do you think?