"At this point, words failed me utterly. He HAD a perfect length IN STOCK, but had sent out a bit he knew was damaged??? WTF?"
I'd point this out to him (of course, at this point I'd be more than willing not only to grey-list him but to have him grey-list me, or at least I'd be willing to take the chance that he might), and I'd simply ask him directly not what he intends to do about it, but whether he wants to do A or B. I expect one of those would be to refund a given percentage of your money---at least a third of it, since you had to reduce the circle skirt by that much.
That you were able to make a success of this gown despite his...carelessness, we'll call it...isn't the point. The point is, he either was completely negligent about what he sends out, or he was counting on you not sending back goods you'd already paid for. (When I do this, it's usually because a quick-service/fast food establishment has made up my order incorrectly, and I'll point out the error and ask them whether they'd like to refund my money in full on the spot, or re-do the order---correctly. But I never leave the option open-ended and I'm always specific about what courses of action are acceptable.)
I did give him the option of refunding the postage (about £10 for the overnight postage), but have heard nothing. Negative feedback and blacklisting him follows. We don't have time for this sort of pissing about.
Contrast with Heritage Trading: we found a length of braid from them had faults along the length. One section of about 3m was perfect, one section could be used with care, and 3m is totally unusable, so because of the time constraints, we had to sub another 3m length of a braid that goes well with the HT braid. Su emailed them and they have apologized and are refunding the total cost, no questions asked. They emailed back within the hour, despite a big time difference. Now THAT is customer service! They even said they checked and the whole batch was bad so they wouldn't even try to replace it for us. It was lucky we had something suitable that the customer liked in stock. We don't mind errors (though quality control should have picked this up), when the company puts it right.
I once had a length of scarlet Barathea turn up as olive drab on the doorstep! Hainsworth sent out the replacement and it was with me by special courier less than 12 hours later. The courier even took the wrong colour back with them. I'll deal with that kind of service any day!
I'd point this out to him (of course, at this point I'd be more than willing not only to grey-list him but to have him grey-list me, or at least I'd be willing to take the chance that he might), and I'd simply ask him directly not what he intends to do about it, but whether he wants to do A or B. I expect one of those would be to refund a given percentage of your money---at least a third of it, since you had to reduce the circle skirt by that much.
That you were able to make a success of this gown despite his...carelessness, we'll call it...isn't the point. The point is, he either was completely negligent about what he sends out, or he was counting on you not sending back goods you'd already paid for.
(When I do this, it's usually because a quick-service/fast food establishment has made up my order incorrectly, and I'll point out the error and ask them whether they'd like to refund my money in full on the spot, or re-do the order---correctly. But I never leave the option open-ended and I'm always specific about what courses of action are acceptable.)
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Contrast with Heritage Trading: we found a length of braid from them had faults along the length. One section of about 3m was perfect, one section could be used with care, and 3m is totally unusable, so because of the time constraints, we had to sub another 3m length of a braid that goes well with the HT braid. Su emailed them and they have apologized and are refunding the total cost, no questions asked. They emailed back within the hour, despite a big time difference. Now THAT is customer service! They even said they checked and the whole batch was bad so they wouldn't even try to replace it for us. It was lucky we had something suitable that the customer liked in stock. We don't mind errors (though quality control should have picked this up), when the company puts it right.
I once had a length of scarlet Barathea turn up as olive drab on the doorstep! Hainsworth sent out the replacement and it was with me by special courier less than 12 hours later. The courier even took the wrong colour back with them. I'll deal with that kind of service any day!
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