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.