Right–a few comments to that effect popped up on the Facebook debacle. Apparently they’re strict about the amount of product they require retailers to carry, pick and choose what gets sent to each store, and don’t allow retailers to discount even if they’ve had items sitting on the shelves for a really long time. Sounds like TS is digging their own grave, and it has nothing to do with the internet or the death of small retailers.
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My local tack store can’t sell them. The minimum purchase is too high, and TS told them how many of each color breech they had to buy. But this store has a very “mixed” clientele (read: not all high end hunter/jumpers) and did not think they could sell the colors well. TS would not allow them to pick the mix of colors. They wanted pretty much all tan and a couple dark colors. Not the full rainbow of colors. TS said no. So they don’t offer them. No huge loss, they sell every other brand you can imagine and do well.
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Tailored Sportsman’s customer service is the worst! Tack stores have to have specific TS return policies because if a customer wants to return a pair of breeches for whatever reason, the TS owner will not back up the store. I buy their breeches because I like the style, fit and colors, but I lose a little of my dignity each time - the owner is rude with a capital R!
TS needs to discern between a customer selling a single pair of breeches vs. a a large company/retailer trying to skirt around the TS minimum selling price agreement. Obviously TS ownership struck out majorly in this case and sounds like in many others. Imo, the bigger issue is that TS has not kept up with it’s competitors in terms of product offering, fabric technology, design, etc. let alone customer service and they have chosen to misplace their energy. Just look at how many brands of breeches are now in the market. If TS is to survive they need to stop resting on their brand laurels, stop making untenable demands on their retailers and get busy competing or they will continue to loose and it wont be because of Amazon.
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and get a website!!! My gawd, I can go on Equiline or Spooks and see their entire line and colors. For TS, I have to jump around a bunch of different websites hoping to see a swatch of the colors. It’s damn near impossible to know what the colors actually look like.
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- This has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon.
- She has no idea what bootlegging actually is (hint, if you know anything about alcohol sales laws or the whole bootleg record trend from back when we had records, you might have an idea of how it applies to fashion).
- There is no legal basis for TS to restrict these sales.
- I love the fit of TS side zips and for that I’d advise she engage an IP lawyer and a PR person to take away her social media and filter client relations. Yikes!
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She should not be allowed near a computer! Or social media! It is not bootlegging. That said I do love the breeches but I will never buy them full price! I refuse to give in to these tactics but truth be told I’m happy to take the clearance stock off my local small business’s hands… shame because it’s not about the product and if she just recognized that she’d have the security she fears losing.
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I worked at a tack store from 2005-2007. As an employee, we could purchase TS at cost. I put in an order form (at the time I was still a teenager so my mother was purchasing them) for 1 pair of tan breeches. About 2 months later we found out they had used my moms card to order over $1000 worth of pants for the store I worked at.
When she called them they were not accepting of fault and very rude. She was eventually refunded the money, but I buy all my TS off eBay now and I never pay full price.
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I worked at a tack store that is part of a larger chain up until very recently and oh boy. First of all – I love the cut of TS breeches, I’m a difficult shape to fit and no pants fit me as well as my 26L TS. So I’m still a customer for the sake of the product, even if I don’t like the company.
We had a woman machine wash her daughter’s jodhpurs with the black jod straps in the load. The black dye leaked and ruined the jodhpurs – TS refused to honour the return, made within days of purchase, because “she should know better than to mix lights and darks in one load” (paraphrased). We took the return, refunded the purchase price, and swallowed the loss on the defective product, even though we should have been refunded by TS under their own defective product policy. Of course the product was a manufacturer defect – it shouldn’t be leaking dye at all, let alone enough to ruin the pants.
Also, when it comes to ordering from TS, it’s very much a case of “you get what you get and you don’t get upset”. All we could reasonaly sell were tan, black, and some of the coloured breeches and the sun shirts, and instead we would repeatedly get all of the above, every color of the rainbow breech and a bunch of show shirts. Inevitably, half of the shirts would have ugly patterns on the collars and cuffs and would be discounted in the saleroom by the next season. Technically, we weren’t allowed to discount TS products – but we couldn’t move the ugly patterns or unconventional breeches and we couldn’t have all of our money and floor space tied up in them.
Finally, they also had problems with our employee discount policy. Employee discounts exist so that we can try the product out, understand the fit etc, and more effectively help the customers find what they’re looking for. Most items I could get for around 30-50% off, but TS were only 10% off. Apparently they had heard about a higher employee discount on the product years ago, and demanded that the head office of our chain lower it or else TS wouldn’t sell product to the chain. Even though it was our company losing money, not them. Somehow 10% off TS is a small miracle, apparently.
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My curvy behind and thighs don’t fit in TB breeches anyway.
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I agree that TS owner acted a fool. I also agree that regardless of how one comes to be in possession of the item (purchased from a store or second hand), that item is then yours to do with as you please, there is still something that I think is important in this situation that’s been glossed over. The original Facebook poster runs a tack sale page on Instagram where she routinely purchases new and used items and then re-sells them. When I first saw the post and her initial comments to the TS owner, I thought she came across as very defensive about where she had purchased the breeches. This makes me feel she probably bought them “second hand”, because otherwise why wouldn’t she just say where she bought them? Or take the owner up on facilitating an exchange if the size was the only issue? OP even
posted recently that she “obviously” buys all of her TS breeches used/discounted but still doesn’t want to wear them anymore. So which is it? Did she buy them new or “used”?
Ultimately I don’t care, and it doesn’t excuse the behavior of TS owner, but I think it’s important to note that this wasn’t a black and white case of not being able to exchange at point of sale. I want to be clear that I think regardless of how she got the breeches, she can sell them, burn them, wear them or try and return them. They are hers. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the TS owner had seen OP’s posts around the interwebs and made the same assumption that I did.
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well after reading the rest of the posts, and LA Tack store FB post , perhaps MY post wasn’t applicable to this situation… my only comment , Is “Custom Riding Apparel” still in business , cause they are FANTASTIC to deal with and thier breeches fit pretty much like TS’s and are beautifully made .
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Bri does resell used tack. Who doesn’t? As I mentioned in the blog, I resold a $900 saddle for $2500. I do that pretty much on the regular. Not ONCE have I been attacked by a brand owner. In this particular situation (not that it matters), Brianna DID get these as a Christmas gift and was unable to exchange them in the store due to the return window passing. Yeah, it sucks, but it’s impossible for her to resell a pair for MORE than retail. That’s just a stupid buyer if that happens. She did refuse to tell Susan where the breeches were originally purchased from, and having heard the stories from retailers themselves about how they are treated by TS - can you really blame her?
People are allowed to resell what they buy. Whether they buy it new or used or in any other condition.
It is possible that the original facebook poster (OFP)…
- Had a giftcard so she got the breeches cheaper than normal
- Had a coupon which probably shouldn’t have been applied but was, so got the breeches cheaper than normal
- Found an actual retailer selling below the set price, got the breeches cheaper than normal, and didn’t want to out that retailer
- Paid the set price but decided to sell them at a loss
Any of this is possible. Some scenarios explain why she didn’t want to tell TS where she bought the breeches. But importantly NONE OF THIS JUSTIFIES TS COMING AFTER HER. Scenarios 2 and 3 maybe justified TS contacting the retailer (though I would say for PR reasons, not publicly and not with the tone they used in dealing with OFP). Nothing, literally nothing justified them coming after OFP. She is the end consumer. She has no retail sales agreement with TS. None. She was not selling counterfeit breeches. There’s been no allegation that the breeches were stolen. She bought breeches. She then resold them. She’s allowed to do that under any of the four scenarios.
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This was a case of a private consumer taking something they bought and choosing to sell it. Brianna is not a retailer that was undercutting her wholesale distributor. She is a dedicated novice eventer that was trying to sell her pants that she couldn’t return. If you carefully read the 800+ comments on the post, the owner was not trying to so much as help her as she was trying to find out where she bought the pants. This so that she could 1. See if the pants were sold to Brianna under msrp and 2. Force the retailer to exchange them against their policy which is not right. The ts owner is a bully plain and simple. Apparently fb shaming is her preffered method of communicating with her retailers. Go look at LA Saddlery’s fb page.
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Is it possible the seller picked up some ts at that one day clearance sale they had at new years, 30 % off, and is now trying to sell them at let’s say 10% off for a small profit?
I am on several tsck sales fb groups and there are clearly folks selling things they have used and in some cases worn out. Sometimes someone will have a single new with tags item that was clearly a shopping fail.
But other folks have a dozen as new items, popular brands, and I expect there are folks out there who make some kind of income sourcing great deals online and selling them later.
For instance two years ago I scored a pair of Pikeur breeches from England for $135 Can after exchange was calculated. They sell for $400 Can here. You could put them up for sale for $200 after that English sale was gone off the internet 
and possibly move them. I personally couldn’t be bothered but lots of folk make a nice little bit of money buying selling and reselling on line in all kinds of collectors and niche markets.
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Lordy I know they are difficult but they are the ONLY brand that fits me at all…ack!!
I am so glad that the $35 Smartpak Piper’s fit me so well and I’m no longer an age where I care about brands.
That was a roller coaster. She deserves all the fallout she’s getting.
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There is nothing wrong with doing this, if TS has a beef it’s with the tack shop running the sale only
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