Do Your Research (aka Buyer Beware)

[sirdaniel1975]

Wow, what a story. I seem to recall that many of the tartan & kilt retailers have disclaimers about the appearance of "tartans online." May not appear accurate, please order a swatch. (yeah, I know ordering a swatch on a custom woven tartan is very difficult).

As someone who also works in retail, "I Feel Your Pain!" I tend to see the extreme dark side of unhappy customers and their returns. You know; never happy, it doesn't fit (didn't you try it on in the store?), it's missing something... etc...



"Once a customer called to say they bought a digital camera and the camera was not inside. I was Electronics guy the night before, we opened the box at the camera boat, and everything was in there. We had video of me doing so, and management told the customer on the phone we where going to check the video. She called back 5 mins later to say the camera was in the box and she missed seeing it. She was trying to get two cameras for the price of one."

Back to the Tartan issue.

There is not much you can do except take the kilt back, have one done up in "Ancient Color Scheme", and try to sell the "Modern" one in the store and maybe loose $100-$200 in the process. At least you'll have a happy customer and maybe he'll come back for more purchases. Although, I'm guessing an 8 yard custom woven kilt is around $700-$800. So you might loose more like $400.

Unfortunately, you can not please everybody. Just imagine dealing with that on a higher percentage.

[MacKay71]

Some people can't even order correctly at the drive-thru of a fast food joint, let alone over the phone for such expensive item such as a custom-made custom-woven kilt. As a customer, I would want to make sure my order was right BEFORE it was even started on such an important item.

[DTrain]

I say have the fellow keep his modern tartan kilt. I like Ron's suggestion to let him "age" the kilt a bit if he prefers the ancient colors. My guess is he will be briefly unhappy but come to love the custom made kilt in a custom made weave as time passes. Good luck!

[Kent Frazier]

This seems like a good example where providing a STA tartan number would be of great help. Something I'll keep in mind whenever I order a custom kilt.

[muirkirkca]

Also seen numerous times on the web that 'modern colours '' are brighter or something similar and ancient colours attempt to replicate natural dyes of the times.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just to expound upon a few points...

From a customer service standpoint, I really do strive to do everything I can to make the customer happy. For one, that's just common courtesy. For another, a satisfied customer is the best PR going. That's better than any advertising, and I know that.

If ever a customer is unhappy with an order for a reason that is our fault I will always strive to rectify the situation, usually giving the customer multiple options as to how best resolve the situation to their satisfaction.

If a customer is unhappy with an order and it is no one's fault, I still try to do everything I can to address the situation in a manner that satisfies our client.

If a customer is unhappy with an order and it is clearly their own fault, even then I try to do all that I can to make sure the customer is happy, sometimes even doing things that cost up money, because I know in the long run a happy customer is worth a great deal, and I'm willing to work with people because of that.

The reality is that I don't have to deal with unhappy clients very often; a fact for which I am grateful. And if someone is unhappy with an order, even if it is due to their own error, if they are nice and understanding, I usually try to find some way to work with them so that both of us are satisfied.

However, all that being said, I don't think any business should be required to allow a customer to walk all over them for an expensive mistake that is in no way their fault. At some point, if there is a mistake due to customer error, the customer needs to accept responsibility for that.

As I said before, people would generally be surprised to discover how small the profit margin is on an item like a kilt made from a custom run of tartan. When you add up all the costs involved in producing the cloth, delivering to the kilt maker, and making the kilt, we have a profit margin of approximately 10%. When you consider the fact that we also gave the customer free shipping (we offer free shipping on any order of $200 or more, which would include all our kilts) the profit margin goes down even further. So, you see, even if I were to offer to let the customer keep the kilt at wholesale cost (just what it cost us to make and deliver to them), that would only amount to a refund of approximately $70 in this case.

As I said, we actually make a lot more money on the inexpensive casual kilts, made in stock tartan. We offer kilts from custom woven tartan primarily as a service to our clients who want hard to find tartans. We recognize that these are expensive items no matter how you slice it, and if we were to apply standard retail markup they would be way out of most people's price range. So we keep the markup to a bare minimum.

If I took the kilt back, we'd be out about $700 on the whole deal. And I'd have a kilt hanging in the store that I might be able to sell for $350 at best, and get only half of our money back. (People may be willing to pay $700 and upwards for a custom woven tartan kilt made to their specs, but they won't want to pay that much for one off the rack).

In the end, we'd be out a lot of money for essentially giving the client just what they asked for to begin with. Not a good prospect.

In the end, I'm trying to educate this person about tartan terminology and hopefully get them to see that we really did give them the tartan that they specified. Hopefully they will still be able to enjoy this kilt.

My purpose in this post is mostly as a warning to other folks out there so that a situation like this might be avoided in the future. Web sites like the Scottish Tartans Authority, the National Register, the Scottish Tartans World Register and the like generally show computer generated images in mid-range colors, the purpose of which is to allow you to see the tartan pattern. These sites do not reflect all the many hue options available in woven cloth; i.e. modern, ancient, muted, weathered, reproduction, etc. Nor do they reflect the fact that the same tartan produced by different mills may also vary in color.

When you order custom cloth, be aware that any of these tartans can be woven in a variety of color schemes. And familiarize yourself with these color schemes so that you will have a general idea of what you will get when you order.

In this case, providing the STA tartan number would have made no difference. We had the correct tartan woven, with the correct thread count. That is not in dispute. The issue the client has is that we had it woven in the modern colors, as requested; but the client had an erroneous idea of what the modern color scheme looked like, which is the root cause of the conflict here.

A secondary purpose in this thread is to give X Marks readers a "behind the scenes" peek at issues that kiltmakers and suppliers of Highland dress sometimes deal with. Frequently X Markers will post experiences they have had as clients of various suppliers. You rarely hear of a supplier's experience with a client. Obviously there is no need for names to be given (you'll note I haven't even mentioned the tartan). But I thought it might be interesting for some readers to "see the other side" as it were.

I'll reiterate again that this is an extremely rare occurrance.

[fluter]

This seems like a good example where providing a STA tartan number would be of great help. Something I'll keep in mind whenever I order a custom kilt.

That is a good precaution for a custom weave, or any unusual tartan.

Alas, it does nothing for this customer's color choices. Be it ancient or modern, the thread count is the same; and that's what you'll get from the registry number. The only preventive measure would be to see the photos he was seeing.

[Spartan]

I can imagine, the Ohio tartan was 2 diiferent tartans in my mind, because some pics didn't show the green. On my list is the Michigan State tartan. If I just ordered that, who know what I would get. Perhaps the official tartan of Mich., rather than the tartan of the Michigan State University. (same school colors as EMU)

Or, you could end up with the Michigan State Police tartan with blue and gold among its colors (not to be confused with maize and blue).

Are you a Spartan?

[Spartan]

Matt,

Thanks for your thoughts and experience in this instance. It's a good heads-up for us as customers, which I appreciate. I don't believe that kilt making is a profession where anyone is getting rich.

Bless you on working this out with your customer. It's awfully difficult to get someone to understand that their understanding (or misunderstanding) is the source of the problem.

[ronstew]

If somebody made the point before, I missed it:

With a custom weave, you can't order a swatch, which makes things even more risky.