I'm happy of course to respond here on behalf of Scotweb. As always, we're concerned whenever any customer experiences dissatisfaction, and if we've failed to communicate correctly at any point I want to know about it to address the issue. We do know of one such issue that we're currently addresssing, that I'll explain below. But at this point I'm otherwise failing to see exactly where we've fallen below the standards I'd expect.

As you say, your initial order (this time) was for a made to measure casual kilt, which you ordered in one of our economy tartans. As you state, you requested a rush order which we offered to meet, but would have to surcharge (to cover additional costs we incur ourselves). You decided to wait instead. So far so good.

We then learned that the fabric you had requested was out of stock, and there would be a delay re-weaving. As we make every effort to explain wherever possible, this is a normal and routine event in tartan production. If there was any way for us to circumvent it we would, and the same would be true for any kiltmaker. So we immediately communicated to you the delay.

You then chose to look at obtaining a kilt from our clearance range instead, which our team sought to help you with. But it appears this is where your expectations and ours diverge. I understand where you're coming from, but you appear to believe that because we could not supply your original request on the timescale you wished, you had a moral right to ask for any kilt from our clearance range to be given to you instead for the same price, regardless of its value. But I'm afraid this is not something I can agree with. The kilts you were interested in were made from far more expensive fabrics than the economy kilt you had ordered. And one was a Manley Richardson. Whilst we always do our best to make every customer happy, I'm afraid giving customers free range to pick from our entire stock of kilts whenever a mill runs out of the fabric originally ordered is just not a sustainable business practice.

So still trying to help you as best we could, we suggested another similar fabric to your original order, within the same price band, that we could supply more promptly. Again, you asked for this to be supplied as quickly as possible. And we promised we would do our best to hurry it along, though our hands were tied by this now being during the kiltmakers' annual holiday break. Nonetheless, we are expecting to have the garment ready, I understand, in about half our normal six week lead time from the time your eventual order was finalised, by early September. We are rushing this at our own expense, as a goodwill gesture despite the fact that we believe we have already done everything possible at each step of the way.

I am honestly unclear at what point you feel we have failed to communicate, since our records suggest to me that we were in contact promptly and fully each time you contacted us, or the situation otherwise changed.

The one criticism I fully accept is the frustration of our status reporting in the members' area, which is currently far from satisfactory. This is one of the reasons we have had a team of tech people spending most of the past year rewriting our back-end office systems to enable more effective operations. The first modules of this upgrade will start to come on stream as early as next week. And I hope to see improvements in our customer information systems later this year.

Finally, may I draw people's attention again to the Sticky at the top of this thread about contacting me directly with any issues before posting messages like this here. I have no problem with legitimate criticism where it's deserved. But as with any interaction there are always two sides to a story. And I would appreciate the opportunity to clarify points of difference or misunderstanding in a more direct and personal way first.