Do you still expect her to show up tomorrow? Seems she is reading this thread so… Don’t count on it.
[QUOTE=gumshoe;7925696]
Do you still expect her to show up tomorrow? Seems she is reading this thread so… Don’t count on it.[/QUOTE]
After all this? Expectation Level---------------> 0 out of 10
[QUOTE=Obiwan;7925661]
She went into how Adam wasn’t filling orders correctly, sending wrong saddles and other things which she stopped paying him for. She gave me stories of ill fitting saddles and other stuff I tuned out, it just seemed irrelevant. This had me going for her, of ‘oh Adam messed up’. It was a good story. I immediately emailed Patrick Saddlery and asked about her account standing and was told that her account there was also on hold. I’m taking it as a sign the two saddle makers can’t be wrong! This ‘new’ person she is working with, who she would order me a saddle, would have my saddle jumped to the front of the line, it sounded good.
There was no explanation for the lies, no explanation why when, if it was really Adam’s fault, why not tell me we need to change the order and Adam isn’t working?
There was no great explanation of why she was MIA for three weeks. She said she was traveling and her hubby kept telling her to call me but she kept forgetting. I also sent emails. It would have been really easy to shut me up with a quick email of ‘almost done!’.
I’m not sure if she actually expected me to pay her for another saddle. I told her I was uncomfortable sending her money under the current circumstanced and that my card company was already in the works to get it back. She ended up mumbling something and I ended up with her coming to the barn tomorrow. I have one of her loaner saddles, she offered to give me a nicer loaner saddle while I continue to wait for mine:lol: but I’m just going to hand it back and be done.[/QUOTE]
Meh, I’d leave her business vis-a-vis her suppliers alone. There is a lot that can go wrong between orderer and maker of custom saddles. You haven’t heard both sides. They are all professionals who want to stay in business and have histories together. Let them sort it out.
[QUOTE=gumshoe;7925696]
Seems she is reading this thread so… Don’t count on it.[/QUOTE]
What? How do you know Meyers is reading this thread?
[QUOTE=Obiwan;7925491]
I wouldn’t be surprised if she was posting now that you mention it! When she eventually called me back at the end of our phone conversation she asked if I wouldn’t mind taking down this chronicle post.
Anywho, she comes to the barn tomorrow. Then I can hand her back the loaner saddle, be done with her, and one very angry trainer can find out what’s going on with her other clients saddles! What a can of worms.[/QUOTE]
Even if the fitter isn’t reading this thread, someone is filling her in on the contents.
[QUOTE=Obiwan;7925437]
I see this reference constantly, what what does it even mean! 
[/QUOTE]
Ha ha ha. I hope nobody already answered this.
Many years ago in a COTH train wreck, somebody was posting under numerous names, with the other names supporting the OP’s position. When someone traced the IP address and called them out, the original poster claimed that he/she had not written all the other posts from his IP address with the different names, but that he had houseguests who must of logged onto his computer, logged into COTH and posted under their own COTH board names.
[QUOTE=mvp;7925752]
Meh, I’d leave her business vis-a-vis her suppliers alone. There is a lot that can go wrong between orderer and maker of custom saddles. You haven’t heard both sides. They are all professionals who want to stay in business and have histories together. Let them sort it out.[/QUOTE]
I agree with this, but only to a point. I hardly think it’s worth contacting the entire WES, but if it were my problem, I’d certainly “thank” Adam Ellis and Patrick Saddlery for the time they’d spent writing reply emails by saying, "Thanks, that’s very helpful. Just fyi, I got a similar report from your competitor down the street, Patrick Saddlery/Adam Ellis. I have evidence that I am not the only US consumer who is in this position. Perhaps you could suggest another US fitter that I might contact if I’d still like to have assistance ordering one of your products? " Let them decide how to handle it from there.
[QUOTE=Simkie;7924578]
The way I read it, the OP is getting the money back via her Discover, and the saddle fitter is going to get a saddle from another maker. The OP doesn’t pay out any more $$ until she’s got that new saddle in hand.
Super shady behavior, IMO, but if you’re happy, OP, that’s all that really matters.
(But if you still don’t have a saddle in six months, don’t say we didn’t tell you ;))[/QUOTE]
the saddle fitter still has the original $2000. The OP is being reimbursed by Discover, no one is reimbursing discover as of yet.
so yeah the saddle fitter is making out. I wouldn’t buy a rock from her much less a saddle.
[QUOTE=Tab;7925777]
Even if the fitter isn’t reading this thread, someone is filling her in on the contents.[/QUOTE]
How do you know that?
I’m confused.
[QUOTE=Jaegermonster;7925805]
the saddle fitter still has the original $2000. The OP is being reimbursed by Discover, no one is reimbursing discover as of yet.
so yeah the saddle fitter is making out. I wouldn’t buy a rock from her much less a saddle.[/QUOTE]
I do wish the derelict party would pay rather than having the credit card issuer eat the cost of fraud…. and poop it out to us later on.
In any case, I’d allow Meyers to make it right… if she can… but no cash would leave my hand until I had whatever product we decided on in my hand. If she didn’t want to take that deal, I’d walk. Along the way, I might let her know that I was willing to solve our problem very “in house” and not make an even more public deal of this than I had to date. In fact, were she to do right, you might (properly) come back here with praise.
At least that’s how I roll. I try to solve problems quietly. I give people a chance to do right. But they must do it really right if they have been wrong once. I let them know that I’ll be just as public with my praise as with my blame. It’s really their decision about how they want it to go.
Good luck getting a saddle that works, OP. It shouldn’t be this hard. I am glad you got your Two Grand back.
[QUOTE=mvp;7925810]
How do you know that?
I’m confused.[/QUOTE]
OP said in one of her responses that during a conversation between herself and the fitter, the fitter asked her to take this thread down. So if she isn’t reading it herself…and possibly posting as a houseguest as some people have suggested, then at the very least someone has told her what is going on here.
Just want to say that the very nice Adam Ellis I ordered took months to get and then didn’t fit…but Colleen said it did. My horse said otherwise. Currently on consignment at Smartpak…
I experienced a similar situation a few years ago with a representative for a custom tack trunk cover/show drapes company. I placed an order with the rep, paid for it in full and waited for delivery, which never came. This rep, who was a pathological liar, went so far as to tell me that she would have the tack trunk cover shipped directly to the horse show I was competing in. Guess what, no delivery. When I finally contacted the manufacturer I discovered that the rep HAD NEVER PLACED THE ORDER! I did eventually get my money back.
FWIW, she has not updated either of her FB pages since October:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Advanced-Saddle-Fit/316397082223
https://www.facebook.com/colleen.meyer.18?fref=ts
Also, to the OP (original poster), do not have any further dealings with [her]. If she also receives payments through PayPal, you might want to let that company know of your recent experience with her also. They have a very diligent group of fraud investigation/deterrence folks.
ETA, I did not find any link to paying through PayPal on the website, so maybe that would not be a useful thing to do, but I did notice that the link to the BBB does have a link to file a complaint.
From this blurb from her website, http://advancedsaddlefit.com/about/, with backgrounds like this one would expect a high level of ethical behavior, so I hope that she and/or her Husband have not fallen upon hard times in the form of health problems. The information in this forum topic do point toward some disturbing downward trend in business behavior within the past few years.
ETA again, bingo, she is on eBay, which means she should be known to PayPal:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fairfax-Performance-Dressage-Girth-26-Brown-/111535656224?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f80b0d20
Just to put your collective minds at ease… Discover will not eat the money, they will debit it and a substantial penalty out of her merchant account. Lots of these will get you in more trouble. If there are insufficient funds for this, they will certainly take additional steps.
Merchants really really hate chargebacks.
[QUOTE=mvp;7925812]
Along the way, I might let her know that I was willing to solve our problem very “in house” and not make an even more public deal of this than I had to date. In fact, were she to do right, you might (properly) come back here with praise.[/QUOTE]
Aye, In sorts I tried to solve it “in house” but my phone calls never got returned. In turn made this a very public matter.
If she were able to make it right I would let everyone know, but I would also feel obligated to add that in order for her to make it right I first had to:
- Call the police
- Get my money refunded via CC
- Contact the saddler myself and find out my saddle is not being completed
- Post an online forum ousting her name and the issues going on
keeping in mind it was only after the police contact she took it upon herself to call me. The trust is broken, I was lied to for months and there is nothing in me that thinks she would’t lie to me for months more, need be.
I will tell you, I think she is good at what she does. I thought she fitted my horse great, good selection of saddles. From what I can tell she knows what she is doing as far as saddle fitting. She gave me a loaner because she didn’t approve of the fit of my other saddle. If this (very large) blip didn’t happen I would have recommended her to all of you, just like she was recommended to me. If you have faith that what happened to me won’t happen to you, use her. But at this point I don’t think it is worth it to let myself wait to see if she will make it right.
If you plan to pursue collection back from CC company, file a police report. This puts it on official record and will prove to the CC company that you had this happen to you and are willing to pursue it ( I had CC fraud recently, very different from yours but that was the step I had to take to get the $ back from CC company), especially since your situation is older and has gone on for awhile.
Astonished to read the saddle companies themselves are so vulnerable to bad acts from a fitter. One would think they’d have some kind of insurance to compensate for it to their customers if that happens.
We wonder why credit card interest is so high.
[QUOTE=Obiwan;7925934]
Aye, In sorts I tried to solve it “in house” but my phone calls never got returned. In turn made this a very public matter.
If she were able to make it right I would let everyone know, but I would also feel obligated to add that in order for her to make it right I first had to:
- Call the police
- Get my money refunded via CC
- Contact the saddler myself and find out my saddle is not being completed
- Post an online forum ousting her name and the issues going on
keeping in mind it was only after the police contact she took it upon herself to call me. The trust is broken, I was lied to for months and there is nothing in me that thinks she would’t lie to me for months more, need be.
I will tell you, I think she is good at what she does. I thought she fitted my horse great, good selection of saddles. From what I can tell she knows what she is doing as far as saddle fitting. She gave me a loaner because she didn’t approve of the fit of my other saddle. If this (very large) blip didn’t happen I would have recommended her to all of you, just like she was recommended to me. If you have faith that what happened to me won’t happen to you, use her. But at this point I don’t think it is worth it to let myself wait to see if she will make it right.[/QUOTE]
You sound fair to me. If all those facts are true, the good, the bad and the ugly, you can make them public. After all, any of us gets to protect our reputation by doing the right thing, not asking folks simply not to tell others.
I am sorry to hear that things have gotten to this point, because 15 years ago she was doing a really good job and educating a lot of people about saddle fit. It has been strange to hear that she is bouncing around between so many brands.
I bought a saddle from Colleen back in 2001, when she was working with Albion. She is a very convincing sales person, with that “I am right and no one else can POSSIBLY be any good” sort of schtick. She will also tell you that your horse is going to be a VERY difficult fit, but don’t worry, she has the only saddle that will work. The saddle did fit my horse well, but it never fit me and she doesn’t care much about the rider - she even says on one of her blogs that the horse is the important one and the rider should suck it up.
I would not buy another saddle from her - in part because of her current reputation of coming out and wowing everyone who needs a new saddle with her VAST knowledge of fitting and backs etc, but then the saddles take an age to arrive, and after that? You are on your own. Despite claiming that they will need to be adjusted once they’ve broken in and as the horse changes (because with this new most fabulous saddle they will suddenly develop all kinds of new muscles) you won’t get her back to do the fitting.
Good luck OP - and I’m sorry this has gotten to this point - she used to be a good (if overly opinionated) saddle fitter.
