Looking for a company to make Family Tartan Fabric

[KiltFitz]

Hi Priest,

Very interested in this thread. Although I go under the name of Fitzgerald, My family name (including my father's) is McGahon. It's a long story involving his broadcasting name for radio, the fact that he got married as Fitzgerald and a drunken trip to the registrar's office when he forgot to add McGahon at the end, all of which would be too humiliating to tell you all.

Basically - I'm a member of the clan since I understand McGahan, McGahen, McGahon all have the same Scots-Irish background. You will find quite a number of McGahons in the Dundalk and surrounding Louth and Co Down areas where my own family are.

Really interested in your tartan, let me know when you get anywhere with orders and I would be interested in getting some too.

[Priest]

This is the tartan being registered for our name. I will also upload the clan crest too once i can get it downloaded to my phone. I think Morton Mills is going to be the ones we use to produce the fabric. I'll keep you updated

Priest,


Very interested in this thread. Although I go under the name of Fitzgerald, My family name (including my father's) is McGahon. It's a long story involving his broadcasting name for radio, the fact that he got married as Fitzgerald and a drunken trip to the registrar's office when he forgot to add McGahon at the end, all of which would be too humiliating to tell you all.

Basically - I'm a member of the clan since I understand McGahan, McGahen, McGahon all have the same Scots-Irish background. You will find quite a number of McGahons in the Dundalk and surrounding Louth and Co Down areas where my own family are.

Really interested in your tartan, let me know when you get anywhere with orders and I would be interested in getting some too.

[Nick Fiddes]

I very much wished to get the Scottish Wildcat Tartan woven by either Knockando or Dalgliesh due to my having visited both of the mills on this past summer trip to Scotland. Knockando turned down the job. I tried messaging Nick through XMTS to ask him about it and I never got an answer. To this day, I STILL don't have an answer. After a couple of weeks wait for Nick to get back to me, I inquired through ScotWeb as to whether Dalgliesh would be interested in the job. It took a lot of prodding to get an answer out of Scotweb, but finally I did get an e-mail from "Hamish" at Scotweb that they would not be able to tell me, within the span of two weeks, whether Dalgliesh was even "interested" in the job. -- Not whether they could produce the stuff, but whether they could tell me if they were "interested". This boggles my mind, I mean, it's the matter of a phone call or a letter, yes?

It seemed clear to me that they simply didn't want Dalgliesh to get the work.

Hi Alan,

Firstly, I have to say I was baffled when you said you'd written to me on this board and not had a reply from me. I'm try to be punctilious about responding promptly to all messages. But I'm hugely embarrassed to check and see that there is indeed a message from you there, which I can only apologise profusely for if you've not had a response. At this remove I can only guess that I must have read it and then got distracted or had a computer crash or something, and failed to realise I'd not sent a reply. Unfortunately the display system on XMTS messages doesn't make non-replies easy to notice, which is no excuse. Perhaps you can understand however that with two small children and two businesses this sometimes leaves me, as a human being, operating at less than 100% efficiency.

However, whilst I understand your frustration with not getting what you wished, I also have to say I don't entirely recognise your account of the rest of your efforts to ask us to weave your fabric. May I share our own records of the correspondence, to see if they accord with yours?

On 28 August you enquired about having an unspecified new design woven.

The next working day (29th) we replied asking for details of the tartan.

You replied the same day, basically pointing us towards the XMTS forums for details.

The next day (a Saturday) we asked whether it was registered with the SRT?

The next day you replied, suggesting (a) that the design wasn't yet finalised; and (b) that you'd need 30 yards of 13 ounce double width fabric in "a week, maybe ten days". And I'd note that the question phrased as whether Dalgliesh would be "interested" in the work was introduced by yourself at this point, as it's certainly not a word we'd ever use to say that we couldn't undertake something.

The next working day we replied saying "I'm very sorry but we would not be able to meet that deadline. I'm sorry for any disappointment caused." The reason for this is that no mill to our knowledge can produce double width fabric on that sort of timescale; and also that 13oz is not one of our standard ranges so would take even longer.

You then replied, thanking us for the correspondence, and we believed it was closed to your satisfaction (even though we were unable to help).

I'd also note that I've also searched the DC Dalgliesh email archives and can find no record of any messages from you directly to DC Dalgliesh, so I believe this represents the sum total of our correspondence. I'm really not clear how this represents "a lot of prodding" when it seems to me we've responded appropriately and promptly at ever juncture.

So, in short, I'm very sorry that you've been disappointed by your experience with us. And as always we try to learn lessons from such events to see where we can improve. I do detect in some of your correspondence an element of frustration of "not wanting this to carry on for days and days, waiting on back-and-forth emails". But regrettably, due to the time zone differences, our offices are mostly closed when the US is awake, which makes email the best medium in many cases, and we do make a point of replying the next working day at the latest. I'd also note that it is better than unrecorded phone calls for establishing the full exchange of information, to avoid misunderstandings.

I hope this helps. If you have any other problems, please feel free to contact me directly since, as always, I make myself available to sort out any issues that may arise. I promise you my one-off failure previously to reply is not typical!

Kind regards

Nick

[Alan H]

No, NIck. I did not ask for finished tartan in 10-13 days. If your "records" indicate such, then you might wish to consult with who makes those records. I asked if Dalgliesh would be INTERESTED in producing a tartan. "Interested" is not the same thing as "produce".

Here is a transcript of the e-mail thread, as seen from my end.

• Scotweb Store Customer Service
•
• Sep 1
To
• me
*************************************************
* When replying to this message please *
* do NOT change the Subject: line *
*************************************************

Dear Alan,

I'm very sorry but we would not be able to meet that deadline. I'm sorry for any disappointment caused.

Yours,

Hamish
***********************************************


Re: Qry: Alan Hebert - Scotweb
• Aug 30
To
• Scotweb Store Customer Service
Not yet, but it certainly can be. I believe that we are very close to a final design.I can have the art director register the tartan, though I supposed we need a piece of it to send in, first.

We need to move on this. As in, how can we find out quickly if DC Dalgliesh is interested in weaving a double-wide order of primarily brown tartan in 13 ounce cloth, in a quantity of approximately 30 yards?. "Quickly" means with a week, maybe ten days. If the Mill is interested in the job, what would the per-yard coast be? Is a phone call better? I can call the 800 number on Tuesday. I need this NOT to carry on for days up on days, waiting on back-and forth emails.

I have messaged Nick Fiddes at X Marks the Scot, last week but he has not responded. That's why I went to the Scotweb form, which got me in contact with you.

Alan

************************************************** ***********

Re: Qry: Alan Hebert - Scotweb
• Scotweb Store Customer Service
•
• Aug 30
To
• me
*************************************************
* When replying to this message please *
* do NOT change the Subject: line *
*************************************************

Dear Alan,

Has it been registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans?

Yours,

Hamish



***********************************************
Re: Qry: Alan Hebert - Scotweb
• Aug 29
To
• Scotweb Store Customer Service
It's a custom designed tartan, called the Scottish Wildcat Tartan.

You can see the design and "negotiation" process online at X Marks the Scot - An on-line community of kilt wearers.








X Marks the Scot - An on-line community of kilt wearers.
X Marks the Scot - An on-line community of kilt wearers.

View on www.xmarksthescot.com
Preview by Yahoo


Go to that website, look down to the "Tartan Place" sub-forum and view the Scottish Wildcat Tartan thread. We appear to have a solid array of orders for 20 yards, possibly even as much as 30 yards.

Alan

*************************************************
Dear Alan,

thank you for your email. Which tartan is it you are enquiring after?

Yours,

Hamish

On 28/08/2014 22:16:37, alanhsails@yahoo.com wrote:

> A customer has completed the contact page for Scotweb.
>
> Customer Name: Alan Hebert
> Session Code:
> Tel No: in California 44-650-724-9811
> Assumed Country:
>

> Inquiring about a 20-30 yard custom run of already-designed tartan at
> DC Dalgliesh.
>

> Placed on: Thu Aug 28 22:16:37 2014 from 72.233.37.166
> UA: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:31.0)
> Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0

[Alan H]

In retrospect, I was in a big hurry, believing that we would be able to get orders quickly. HA! That was a fantasy, and not just with Scotweb and Dalgliesh, but with ANY weaver. I had no clue.

However, it seems pretty clear to me that Hamish wrote to me and said that Scotweb would not be able to find out of Dalgliesh was even interested in the job within a week or ten days.

Here is the pivotal sentence, IMHO.

"As in, how can we find out quickly if DC Dalgliesh is interested in weaving a double-wide order of primarily brown tartan in 13 ounce cloth, in a quantity of approximately 30 yards?. "Quickly" means with a week, maybe ten days."

OK, that's how if played out from my perspective. No, I didn't directly contact Dalgliesh. I thought I was supposed to go through you or Scotweb, seeing as we had communicated about Dalgliesh through the mailroom here on XMTS, previously...regarding the photographs. Barb Tewksbury contacted Dalgliesh through her connections at the company, about two weeks ago. Not me.

It so happens that the thread colors available to DC Dalgliesh may in fact earn the company the job, anyway, so you can rest easy on that account. I will say this, that Hamish/Scotweb did get back to me quickly. One-two day turnaround on e-mails is pretty good, considering the time differences.

[Nick Fiddes]

Hi Alan,

... then I'm very sorry if we've misread your wording. It seems both our customer service team, and I myself on re-reading the email records that you reproduce here, mis-interpreted your wording as meaning that you were asking for the fabric to be produced on that timescale. And I'd hope others on reading this transcript might understand our confusion. It simply didn't occur to us that you might have merely been asking for an answer to your question on that sort of timescale, since that type of answer is normally provided within at most one working day of a specific request. I apologise for the misunderstanding.

[Alan H]

Thanks, Nick. While I thought I was clear, it's certainly conceivable that a misunderstanding could have taken place. It wouldn't be the first time that e-mails got read and understood differently from what the writer intended. Again, at the end of the day, my guess is that because of the color range of threads that Dalgliesh has access to , the company may get the job, anyway.

Now, since we're discussing the Scottish Wildcat Tartan, and since that subject is verboten on XMTS, I won't be responding further here. I've said my piece. Done. If you want to communicate with me further about the issue, I suggest that we do this in the PM area. As for the prospective order, that's being taken care of elsewhere, so let's just let that proceed as it's going.

[Steve Ashton]

Alan,

This statement

"and since that subject is verboten on XMTS,"

Is not really accurate.

All that was asked is that you do not solicit funds from our members to support a charity.

While your wildcat charity is a good cause there are many good causes out there. X Marks cannot appear to be endorsing one over another.

And, as does happen at times, we have had a few times where there was doubt about where the money our members were being asked to donate was actually going.
No one suggested that this was the case with the wildcat Tartan, but for these reasons it was decided many years ago that X Marks was not an appropriate place to solicit funds for charities.

[Alan H]

Alan,

This statement

"and since that subject is verboten on XMTS,"

Is not really accurate.

All that was asked is that you do not solicit funds from our members to support a charity.

While your wildcat charity is a good cause there are many good causes out there. X Marks cannot appear to be endorsing one over another.

And, as does happen at times, we have had a few times where there was doubt about where the money our members were being asked to donate was actually going.
No one suggested that this was the case with the wildcat Tartan, but for these reasons it was decided many years ago that X Marks was not an appropriate place to solicit funds for charities.

This is true. I should probably have said that I don't feel "welcome" in discussing it further in any way, rather than saying something like it was "forbidden" to discuss the project. What's forbidden is the fundraising end. Whatever the case, this is far afield from the OP's original intent, so let's leave the topic and get back to helping him find someone to weave his tartan.

[Steve Ashton]

He already said back in post 32 that he will probably go with Marton Mills.