VERY LONG POST.
TLDR: Product did not ship until 3 weeks. When finally received, the product already had cosmetic damage and was literally unusable due to a faulty belt loop. Matthew (owner) is ignoring all of my emails.
Hey guys. Lurker who's been incredibly frustrated with my first experience with Lakehouse Leathers.
I've been interested in buying a "quality" belt for awhile now and finally sought to go through with it when I saw someone post about Thirteen50's $37 belt sale two weeks before Black Friday sales would begin. At the same time, I thought maybe Lakehouse Leathers (LHL) would have a sale soon as well. I did some research and could not come up with a definitive conclusion of whether Thirteen50 or Lakehouse Leathers would be the better product. But because I see Reddit bring up LHL so much more frequently, I figured they probably did. LHL was currently sold out for the same period so I messaged them via their contact form to find out if they would restock anytime soon.
I received a quick response within minutes that he had just received enough materials for a few more stock and included a discount code. Amazed by his customer service at the time, I immediately placed an order for their belt.
I anticipated that the belt would arrive "within 2-5 business days" as his website states. At worst, the site states it would take an extra day or two during busier times of the year (but it was still 2 weeks before Black Friday).
I patiently waited 10 full days (November 26th) after my order to message Matthew about the order. Here's his response.
Okay. Great. I received tracking information the same day. However, another 4 days and the tracking status still said they never received anything from the seller. I messaged Matthew again on November 30th. I did not hear back from him at all until 4 days later (December 4th). Here's what he said then.
Okay... You told me it should be hitting the mail "tomorrow" back on November 26th and you're saying the same thing now? Mind you this is just over two week since I initially ordered the product already. I understand the belts are custom but he should not have told me it would be "hitting the mail sometime tomorrow" previously and create false expectations. I expressed my disappointment with the whole process and he responded the next day with apologies and the offer of an additional discount to make up and expedited shipping.
I still did not receive the belt until December 10th.
At this point I'm glad to finally just have gotten the product I paid for, even though it took a little bit over 3 weeks. As soon as I opened the belt, I was wowed by the beauty of the item itself. I looked over it thoroughly and was disappointed to find that it already had a cosmetic gash of some sort on the unfinished side of the belt. This affected the integrity of the belt enough to show a crease on the same opposing side.
I can deal with some cosmetic blemishes. I figured it would probably receive lots of creases over regular use anyways (I intended this to be my daily as my old one was falling apart). But here's the kicker. Due to the size of the BELT LOOP, I literally can NOT insert the tapered end through it at all. In other words, I LITERALLY can not even wear the belt. In fact, no one can. Even if I slide the belt loop past the thicker bolted area (where it's obviously intended to be), I am unable to get the belt through the loop.
I hope this next picture is able to convey how small the loop really is compared to the whole lol... I'm not familiar with making GIF's but I could if you guys wanted video proof of me attempting to loop the belt through. In the meantime is this.
Obviously I messaged Matthew again as possible (with a full video of the problems). However, it has been a full 6 days and an additional followup email later... I'm on his ignore list again. He is not responding to anything at all and I feel as if I've been scammed.
Yes. I finally received the product I paid for. But the product is completely unusable. I wouldn't even be able to give the belt to someone else if I wanted to. The belt does not fit through the loop at all. I'd have to sever it and fashion a new one. In my followup email I offered to send the belt back so he could see for himself firsthand that the belt really doesn't work.
Now it's December 16th. I paid for this belt an exact month ago from today. I am practically still productless (and out of my money) but am worse off because since I technically have received the belt, I would be unable to perform a chargeback via my payment method.
I really don't know what to do at this point. Matthew doesn't respond to anything I send and I have a long piece of paperweight. I checked his Reddit profile to see if he had been active recently and saw that he posted a sale again a week ago. Great. He's moved on to new customers while I'm sitting on my ass. Best of luck to whoever ended up ordering at the time.
Edit: Got an email tonight at 12am. Will try to keep y'all posted but I believe that Matthew is genuinely trying to make things right.
Submitted December 16, 2018 at 04:42PM by JoonSwoon https://ift.tt/2PDXPQp
