Business is up 30%. Good for her! When you take 2 grand from a customer, don’t give that customer anything for her money then let the cc company give it back to the customer. Now THAT is a great business model!
[QUOTE=CaitlinandTheBay;7927433]
One does have to wonder exactly why revenue is up 30%.[/QUOTE]
Yeesh, tough crowd. Chill out, people.
Now before I say much more, let’s note the following:
–I have encouraged Obiwan to tell Patrick Saddlery and Adam Ellis what she’s heard from both of them.
–If I’d been waiting for a saddle for 5+ months and the saddle fitter went totally MIA, I’d be very concerned and would have pursued a similar course of action to Obiwan’s. That is a LONG wait with no communication from the fitter.
–I don’t know Colleen Meyer and haven’t worked with her. I have heard from a variety of folks I’ve advised to contact her about Détente (or other products that are hard to get unless you go through her) that she’s hard to get on the phone. That’s about the extent of my dealings with her.
But yeesh, folks. Many saddle brands and fitters had a good year in 2014. Colleen’s revenue jump could be as simple as “She is selling products from several excellent brands that are ‘on the rise’ with US consumers, she’s good at fitting saddles to horses, she’s been in business a long time so she’s got a strong customer base to draw on, and the economy is slowly improving so saddle sales are up across the board.”
There’s also no proof that Colleen has “cut her expenses to zero” and is “taking in income” from these saddle deposits. Could she be slicing cash off the top for herself, criminal-style? Sure, that happens sometimes. That’s what happened with Danforth Fine Used Saddles.
But there could be legit reasons that Adam Ellis and Patrick Saddlery don’t have the deposit money and are pointing the finger back at Colleen. I’ve known other reputable fitters who lived this sort of nightmare:
Fitter has taken orders from (for example) 10 customers for saddles from Brand X. Fitter ordered the first 3 saddles from Brand X several months ago, and she forwarded the deposit money for those three saddles to Brand X. After a reasonable wait period, let’s say 12 weeks, fitter has not seen hide nor hair of those first 3 saddles…and in the meantime, she’s taken 7 more orders for Brand X. Fitter can’t get a straight answer from Brand X about the delays on those first 3 saddles. Fitter doesn’t know whether something fishy is going on at the maker OR if this is a a typical routine BS situation symptomatic of the saddle manufacturing process–for example, maybe the maker is getting strung along by the tree manufacturer, who keeps swearing that the trees will be there “next week” in order to cover up a supply problem at their own factory, which leaves the maker AND the fitter unable to answer questions about the saddle’s final delivery date. Since the fitter has never had a problem with this maker, and maker is literally an ocean away, fitter has to take the maker’s word for it. BUT to cover her butt and protect her customers, fitter tells Brand X that she’s got 7 more customers’ deposits waiting in her own bank account and she will gladly forward those deposits as soon as she’s seen proof that the first 3 orders are in process. Meanwhile, Customers #4 thru 10 are pissed that fitter has “not even forwarded their deposit to the saddler” and now suspects the fitter of pocketing the deposits. Meanwhile, the saddler is pointing the finger back at the fitter for “non payment on orders.” And now the fitter has to explain all this to 10 customers, many of whom are probably already feeling edgy and anxious about spending $$$$$ on an expensive handmade saddle. And then, if she’s really lucky, it all blows up on COTH or social media or both, where it will haunt her business for years…even if she did nothing wrong.
Now granted, Colleen did do at least one major thing wrong, and that’s “fail to communicate well with her customers.” I am not excusing Colleen’s failure to call Obiwan back, or the other customers who’ve chimed in on this thread. I know plenty of customers who endured a 5, 6, 7, even 10 or 12 month wait for a saddle…as long as they knew where their money was and knew that the fitter was hustling as best she could. I also know customers who decided to back out and go with something else, but they walked away with a favorable impression of the first saddle fitter and recommended her to other folks. And I’m not blind to some of the other fishy elements of the story that don’t match the abstract scenario that I laid outm above.
I’m so sad for Obiwan that she got strung along for five months with virtually no communication. That really sucks, and again, I fully support her decision to do a chargeback, return the loaner saddle, and shop elsewhere. But I’m also sad for Colleen Meyer, who is learning the hard way about the power of social media to spread customer reviews at light speed and fossilize them…an extra-hard thing to learn when your Achilles heel is “poor communication.” Colleen, if you’re out there reading this, I’d advise you to take down that Facebook post. Whether you’re innocent or guilty or whatever, the Facebook post’s length makes you sound frustrated and guilty, which is probably not your intention.
T’was a joke. I am still waiting for Colleen to come here and clarify what has been going on, which she said she is going to do.
Crowne are you crazy!? Look what a bunch of long winded horse pucky she wrote out on Facebook, God help us she uses the user friendly posting capabilities of COTH :lol:
[QUOTE=Obiwan;7927480]
I agree. I was hoping to get answers on why exactly Adam says her account is on hold, and why Adam would supposedly lie to her that he was making my saddle. Everything so far has just been one big runaround.
It was a very nice letter of her filling herself with hot air as she explains she tries her oh-so-very best.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I would not trust that one as far as I could throw her. She sure is a charmer and talks a good game.
You know the old saying fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!!
[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7927602]
T’was a joke. I am still waiting for Colleen to come here and clarify what has been going on, which she said she is going to do.[/QUOTE]
Same here. I suppose I need to get better at using COTH smiles to communicate mirth.
Picking up on the earlier comment that it’s surprising that a “white collar type” would do this, and that her FB defense is compelling because it’s well-written and sounds classy: there is no causal relationship between economic classes and education level, and dishonest behavior.
I find it telling that even those who have gotten saddles, or who know people who got saddles and were pretty happy, remark that once a sale is made she disappears (no answer to refit problems etc). So follow-up in general seems to be a failing; she can close a sale, but apparently ongoing customer satisfaction is an issue.
[QUOTE=HungarianHippo;7927661]
Picking up on the earlier comment that it’s surprising that a “white collar type” would do this, and that her FB defense is compelling because it’s well-written and sounds classy: there is no causal relationship between economic classes and education level, and dishonest behavior.[/QUOTE]
One has only to look to Wall Street to see ample evidence of the truth of this statement.
She has time to post a biblical length tome on FB but no time to call or email her customers back . Okay…
so what saddle company is she representing now?
[QUOTE=jn4jenny;7927588]
Now granted, Colleen did do at least one major thing wrong, and that’s “fail to communicate well with her customers.” [/QUOTE]
Apparently in your world “failure to communicate well” is a euphemism for “lying”. Colleen lied to the OP for months; I consider that much more than a simple communication issue. Jeesh! Remind me to never do business with you.
[QUOTE=HungarianHippo;7927661]
Picking up on the earlier comment that it’s surprising that a “white collar type” would do this, and that her FB defense is compelling because it’s well-written and sounds classy: there is no causal relationship between economic classes and education level, and dishonest behavior.[/QUOTE]
Just to be clear, I’m not saying it’s compelling - I’m saying that it’s classiER than many of the businesses that come on here ranting after a good COTH bashing.
Certainly not implying that she handled this well, or even that it’s that well-written. It’s just not focused on discrediting the client (OP) in question, which is more than we can say for many in the past 
[QUOTE=starhorse;7927464]
While I do continue to have an eyebrow raised, I have to say that the Facebook response post is much classier than some of the businesses that have been questioned on COTH.[/QUOTE]
I appreciated it.
When I asked Meyers to tell me about her business, she really enlightened me on the matter of trees… their manufacture and availability, at least in the Walsall industry.
How many of you/us knew that there was a bottle neck in manufacturing at the level of saddle trees?
Meyers often chooses a tree for a horse and then has a saddler build around that tree. I don’t know of another fitter who will choose saddle-maker and tree-maker separately. Try getting that from one of the Frenchies or from County.
And I knew nothing about the labor-issues in the saddle-making industry. And having seen saddles made using lower standards, less-skilled makers and such, I can appreciate Meyers’ (and the manufacturers’) attempt to build saddles well, even if at an uneven pace. I consider a saddle a “durable good” or “major appliance.” I’ll spend a few thousand and I’ll ride in it for a couple of decades. I do want it built well.
I appreciate the lesson on the industry behind the product… even if that sounds like an excuse.
I find the part about her accounts being “on hold” to be the big red flag here. That’s not a tree or manufacturer issue.
I agree. The bottle neck doesn’t seem to be between the tree maker and the saddlers, it appears to be between cm and the saddle makers. She’s sort of telling the truth. She does indeed have a problem with her suppliers. In other words, they won’t do business with her anymore.
Creating a mystery surrounding the process of procuring a custom saddle doesn’t make me trust her, frankly. Its like trying to create a “hard to fit horse” in order to elevate her in her client’s eyes.
Just another reason not to buy a custom saddle. :eek:
I guess my horses are just ridiculously easy to fit because I’ve bought off the shelf saddles for years and had them fitted by my very talented saddle fitter. I haven’t owned a ton of horses, but I have had 7 or so come through my barn (either owned or fostered) and I’ve found saddle to fit them all. I am obsessive about saddle fit and have my saddles checked 2x year . . . so it’s not that I’m riding around on saddles that don’t fit.
I don’t buy the “only I can fit your horse” line. I’m sure there are some horse out there with truly challenging conformations, but the vast majority of them do NOT need to go custom and you should not have to wait 5 months to get one (or in the OP’s case, get nothing).
[QUOTE=Cheesetoast;7927707]
Apparently in your world “failure to communicate well” is a euphemism for “lying”. Colleen lied to the OP for months; I consider that much more than a simple communication issue. Jeesh! Remind me to never do business with you.[/QUOTE]
When I said “failure to communicate well,” I was talking about the many people on this thread who have reported their dealings with Colleen, not just Obiwan. Some of them were victims of other kinds of crappy communication besides lying, so I used a big, broad phrase that covered all of it.
As for doing business with me, I’m not a horse pro of any stripe, just an ammy who likes saddles and is interested in how the industry works. On the rare occasions that I let someone pay me for saddle advice, I have them cut the check directly to a 501c3 horse charity.
But like mvp, I’m probably more familiar than the typical COTHer with the inner machinations of these saddle transactions. I can absolutely see the case for fraud and lying, which is why I fully support Obiwan’s decision to get out + make sure that Patrick Saddlery and Adam Ellis are comparing notes re: Colleen’s account. But I can also see many simpler, less nefarious explanations for how all this stuff went down. I’m not surprised that most COTHers can’t imagine possibilities like, “Maybe Colleen really did think the saddle was next in line, and maybe it even was next in line at the supplier before other dominoes fell, so Colleen wasn’t lying.” Before I learned a lot about the British benchmade saddle industry, that would have sounded super weird to me. Ditto with other elements of this story.
FWIW, I’ve rarely had a reason to recommend Colleen Meyer to customers because she tends to deal with small, niche brands like Détente, Adam Ellis, Patrick Saddlery, etc. These are excellent brands, but most folks who come to me for advice have eventual resale in mind. Thus, if I can point them toward a more mainstream brand that will suit their needs, that’s what I do. Some people are better served by the super-duper-custom, personalized attention that you get from a one-man shop like Patrick Saddlery or Adam Ellis. But one-man shops come with their challenges, too–like, for example, when Patrick Keane is on vacation, that is the entire shop on vacation. :lol: And this ain’t the US we’re talking about. British people generally take at least 3-4 weeks’ vacation each year, plus holidays.
If there are potential customers reading this thread who are now gun-shy about Colleen, there are many other good fitters in that area. Nancy Shedrick, Kitt Hazelton, Patty Barnett if you’re in the southern part of Colleen’s coverage area, etc. are all great fitters who are also good communicators.
That FB post! :lol: It actually reminded me of that over-the-top press release of Newt Gingrich’s from a few years ago, that John Lithgow did a “dramatic reading” of for the Colbert Report (starts around 3:30) http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/7qmvog/john-lithgow-performs-gingrich-press-release
So what saddle company does she work for??
