A very UNFORTUNATE experience...

[Kid Cossack]

And in the end....the most sad thing is to see that there are retailors paying for advertising space or offering discounts to those that buy after visiting this forum! Surely you can see how this looks to the kilt industry.
Cheers.

Yes, advertising. How sad! What a shame that Nick Fiddes has posted here, how diminished we all are that many of the this-side-of-the-pond kiltmakers (MacHummel, the Wizard of BC, Rocky and BarbT to mention only a few) post here, and interact with customers and potential customers.

OK, my tongue was a little bit in cheek with that paragraph. Just a thought, though---rather than ranting against X-Marks, maybe you could participate some? You wouldn't need to advertise, but you could post. Rather than being defensive, if you are confident in the quality of your shop, your kilts and your personnel, why not post some pics?

In my line of work, I've screwed up jobs, and I've had jobs screwed up by other vendors. I not only apologize profusely to the clients, but I try and keep them up to date about what's happening, and why. I've lost money (sometimes a good bit) on jobs gone wrong . . . but I always try to make sure the client is happy. My motto is and has been that "a happy customer is the best word of mouth."

This advice is seriously intended; I'm not being snarky. I like kilts, I like wearing them, and I like seeing them flourish. There are two ways to react to negative reviews: either blow them off as the griping of perfectionists who won't ever be happy, or to say, "This is an area we need to work on."

Best regards,

[pdcorlis]

First off - welcome to XMarks!

XMarks the Scot is an international community of kilt wearers - the members of this forum are free to post the good, bad, and ugly of thier consumer experiences with kilt shops and kilt makers across the globe. If you take the time to browse through the tens of thousands of threads you'll find countless reports of positive customer experiences with shops that do not advertise here.

Perhaps if you should think about spending more time thinking about your customers and their buying experience and less time thinking about defending the "kilt industry" whatever that is...

[Dreadbelly]

Colour me confused, but I thought the customers buying the kilts is the industry... How can you possibly have one with out the other? Defending the 'kilt industry' should be protecting the people putting money in your hands... Right? Or did I miss something? I am having a slightly off day, having trouble concentrating and focusing.

As a possible future businessman, I am seeing a very clear example of how NOT to treat my customers.

[Tattoo Bradley]

95% of the comments on here are all complaints and comments that do no one any good.

I have read posts here about petty nonsense, unproven complaints, one saying something good and forgetting they did and jump on the band wagon and add bad comments about more then 75% of the kiltmakers and retailors out there.

It seems that even the most respected shops names are on here with negative comments. And if you have a website....the chances of someone wanting to say something good about it is nil.

Nothing better than a gross exageration of the truth to discredit your opinion and make you look so sill that no one will take you seriously.

All the Best,

[Arlen]

Scottishstore:
Let me say something here as someone born and bred in Scotland who has bought most of my kilt stuff from old Scottish stores and some from various other countries.
Stop whining.
You are the one giving the kilt industry a bad name.
I have been to your shop and some of your stuff is really good quality while other stuff is strictly for the tourists. And, honestly, you did have kilts i would have bought.
However, I have heard bad reviews of your customer service from friends and family here in Scotland as well as abroad. I don't just base my opinions on what I find online.
When a friend of mine who works for a major Scottish kilt store loved the product they recieved from you but hated the rude customer service they got I thought perhaps the four times they'd called had been at busy periods and whoever they'd spoken to was stressed.
I've heard good and bad about you from many people, now. And I think that you relly need to focus on being as polite and considerate to your customers as you can rather than trying to argue against the many, many people on this forum who are potential customers.
Like it or not people from other countries do buy kilts. And they have every right to expect good treatment.
And, like it or not, people in other countries do make kilts. And let me tell you, were it not for some of the starter kilts people get from those retailers you'd not have a good bit of your online orders from people who've decided they like kilts and want to buy more.

At like a professional and considerate business and most of these complaints will go away.

[Q-Tip]

Not having bought from the mention retailer above, I have had a very similar experiance with another online retailer. The order took many phone calls to get sorted and when the kilt arrived all was good until the buckles broke after three days ;)
My opinion was that this was a sideline for a very busy tourist shop in scotland and they were to busy to deal with the customers.

This is odd of course becasue I lived and worked in Scotland for a while and found in general them to be very customer friendly face to face.

But I got over it and decided never to order from said company again, but seeing here it seems to be a common occurance!.

So bearing in mind lots of buyers are from US and the US commands a better customer service than us here in europe the message is simple get your act together guys and work on your customer service.

Anybody recommend a good online seller ?

Q-Tip

[gangreenfootball]

Thanks for the warning guys sorry for your troubles

[furrycelt]

geez, regardless of who was right and who was wrong, this whole situation is a text-book example of how NOT to behave as a merchant.

scottishstore needs to decide which is more important: customers or ego.

i would like to think that such a store in such a location would be a business that we could champion behind. it is just sad situation all around. i guess the problem with being in such a prime tourist location is they forget that they are still in a niche market. and their childish defensiveness just makes us all look bad.

[Riverkilt]

Most interesting reading.

Makes me most grateful to have a Keith Kilt School hand sewn kiltmaker I know and trust right here in the USofA.

Makes me most grateful for the trust I have in my contemporary kiltmakers.

I'm in Albuquerque in two weeks and Kathy has invited Marjorie and I to her home. Last summer Steve and Bobbi drove 150 miles out of their way to spend time with Marjorie and I. Rocky just PM'd me this morning to see how I was doing.

There are different types of human beings with different business values and different types of kiltmakers.

I spend my hard earned money with folks who have developed a long term relationship of trust with me while also providing solid value in their products and honesty and responsiveness when there's a hang up.

Its craftsmen for me thank you, not jobbers or mass marketers.

Ron

[Raptor]

Running my own business (& having done so for over 30yrs) if there's anything I've learned, it's that the single best advertising is word of mouth. I've read enough on here, including the vendor's OWN words, to be sure that I would not be spending my $$$ there. Regardless of quality, I'm convinced that if a problem WAS to occur, the attitude would be an emphatic "bad luck!"