Aero customer service-- can't be beat!

[cloudylemonade]

It's not really a question of service, but the question of unfair advertising. I bought a-2 jacket in Aero on sale. At the site description jerky horse was listed, but in reality it is the steerhide. Site description promised perfect jacket, but in reality there are hide defects on the sleeves. Furthermore, epaulettes were made ​​wrong - in a single layer.
With regard to the substitution of horsehide with steerhide, it happened long after the scandal with Will and Amanda.

Could you please PM me with your name/email address so I can look into this? So sorry about the mis-listing, with A-2s sometimes its easy to make a mistake with listings for leather types - this certainly wasn't intentional! PM me and we'll make sure it's sorted out. The office is actually already closed for the holidays but I'll be working overtime, so I'll see what information I can get for you before we reopen in January.

Thanks

Holly

 

[Fanch]

My personal experience with Aero Customer Service has been exemplary. Rippsnorter, we would love to hear F/U from you AFTER you have been in touch with Holly, who has always provided prompt resolution regarding any questions that I have asked of her.

 

[cloudylemonade]

Your English in describing the issue is perfect.
If you decide to "get off your lazy", you can contact Holly by sending her a private message here on the forum.
Her forum name is "cloudylemonade" .
Just copy what you wrote here and send it to her.
I don't think she checks her PM's all that often..so it may take a while for her to get back to you.
Your best bet is still to send an eMail to Aero. Again, just copy what you wrote here.

Thanks Jeff, I certainly would ask anyone with any issues to please contact me. I am usually back logged with enquiries to deal with and sometimes it can take me a day or two (sometimes more depending on the issue/enquiry - if I need to discuss with colleagues) but I will get back to you. As we're so busy the time I've had to keep an eye on the Fedora Lounge has unfortunately been minimised, but I do (usually) get an email notification when I get a PM so should see that too - as long as I've not let the inbox get too full and not realised.

(First time I've seen a reference of an episode of "storse" since the management change. How do you know it's steer and not horse? It can be very difficult..nigh impossible...to tell them aprart in many cases, hence the reliance on DNA testing with those vintage WW2 jackets to see if steer was every used back then. It was.
I own an Aero A2 made with "jerky" horse hide that I received about 2 yeears ago. I had to return it as the fit was off. I was pretty sure the hide was not jerky horse.....it had very little grain to it, and asked Aero to double check if it was or not.
I was assured it was, and the replacement jacket had the same hide.
I think this was the old management however. :eeek: )

Sorry the leather didn't look quite like your cutting, I guess the cuttings we send out tend to show the heavier areas of grain - to show this is as grainy as it can get, where possible. It's really hard to regulate hides, but hope you were happy with it in the end!

 

[Fanch]

I think bad service from any biz that is established can be traced to either a PITA client, just plain bad luck, or unrealistic expectations (or combo thereof). Every vendor can have a bad day so it's how they hand the problems that shows character. Honestly, I've not herd anything that resembles any patterns here or elsewhere. If you handle your complaint politely and with facts and don't get emotional, I'd wager 99% of the time you'll end up happy.
And yes, these forums are a HUGE help.

Scott, I think what you said earlier is sage advice and bears repeating. :thumb:

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Well..'Merry Christmas' to the Caulders and the Aero Leather crew..!!

 

[Jeff M]

Sorry the leather didn't look quite like your cutting, I guess the cuttings we send out tend to show the heavier areas of grain - to show this is as grainy as it can get, where possible. It's really hard to regulate hides, but hope you were happy with it in the end!

Things worked out fine Holly, thanks.
The leather on the follow up jacket was the same. Not as much grain as I was expecting, but not as smooth as the "smooth" leather. I know leather can vary from batch to batch...just accepted it as a a different batch from the jerky sample I had received earlier.
The main issue was the fit of the first jacket...which was corrected with the replacement.
Was very happy with Aero's customer service. Prompt replies. Very helpful. Friendly.
I believe I received the replacement jacket within a month after returning the original. Compared with some other makers I've worked with, a blink of the eye!

 

[ButteMT61]

Well..'Merry Christmas' to the Caulders and the Aero Leather crew..!!

Agree! Enjoy your holiday - the jackets need to take a back seat now so you can have some rest like the rest of us. I hope 2014 brings good things for Aero.

PS - thanks Fanch

 

[rippsnorter]

My personal experience with Aero Customer Service has been exemplary. Rippsnorter, we would love to hear F/U from you AFTER you have been in touch with Holly, who has always provided prompt resolution regarding any questions that I have asked of her.

I have been in touch with Holly. And Ken. And Denny.

My personal problem had nothing to do with a problem in changes to options. It had to do with, among other things, a 5 month wait just to get a refund for a charge they made to my credit card that they shouldn't have, plus over 2 years in waiting for jackets to be completed. 14 months of that was after Ken took over again.

None of this is my biased opinion. I have all the emails between us proving all the problems they had with refunds and taking forever to get my order done. I was incredibly patient and polite during all of it.

I'm not really that bitter anymore. After finally deciding to stop being so patient and nice (after something like 2.5 years) I sent them an email detailing every last thing that they had done me wrong on and demanding it be made right. Denny finally did a rush and got my last jacket done (nearly) correctly in something like 2 weeks. The only problem was they screwed up putting an extra pocket in and would never respond to any of my emails after that.

As I said, none of this is hearsay, I have all the emails to back it all up.

I am however, glad that they seem to be handling things better. I just wish that back when I first ordered from them a few people had bothered to voice their problems too so I wouldn't have thought they never had any problems. I would have been more hesitant to order then.

I actually have the best experience dealing with Holly out of the three of them though.

 

[handymike]

I've never been in contact with either Denny or Ken, but Holly has always been very helpful.

 

[rippsnorter]

I've never been in contact with either Denny or Ken, but Holly has always been very helpful.

As I recall Holly always seemed to do what she said she would do. Unfortunately it always ended up in someone else's hands, and the ball was always dropped there.

 

[Foster]

Holly is the only one of the three who regularly replies in my observation. She is very diligent when it comes to replying, and it is appreciated.
I am glad they are taking time off for the holidays, though I also realize it will delay my current order even further. Sadly much more of a delay will put its arrival past the weather when I can wear it, and will end up equalling the wait time for a Goodwear. The difference there is the Goodwear wait time is an accurate estimate, but my three to four month timeframe for this Aero is now at about 10 months since I sent something in for trade in credit. What I planned on wearing for autumn 2013 did not work out as I had hoped.

 

[Capesofwrath]

As I recall Holly always seemed to do what she said she would do. Unfortunately it always ended up in someone else's hands, and the ball was always dropped there.

Holly is always very helpful and pleasant. But how much she is still involved day to day in customer relations and how much she can really do is open to question; and as you say it then goes to the production side.

My experience of dealing with number one son there on the phone was not good at all, and he was unwilling to believe the evidence of his own eyes when I sent a picture of an additional problem with a jacket which had been sent back for the major cock up to be fixed. It was a bit like the dead parrot sketch as he tried to convince me that what I could see quite clearly wasn't there at all. His attitude was terrible and it seemed to me as if he didn't really give a monkey's.

 

[schitzo]

a monkey's what? Could you please elaborate Capes

 

[Dr H]

In coarse naval slang, 'a monkey's toss' (i.e. Worthless); later sanitised to 'a monkey's uncle' (not sure what the latter implied).

 

[rippsnorter]

Holly is always very helpful and pleasant. But how much she is still involved day to day in customer relations and how much she can really do is open to question; and as you say it then goes to the production side.

My experience of dealing with number one son there on the phone was not good at all, and he was unwilling to believe the evidence of his own eyes when I sent a picture of an additional problem with a jacket which had been sent back for the major cock up to be fixed. It was a bit like the dead parrot sketch as he tried to convince me that what I could see quite clearly wasn't there at all. His attitude was terrible and it seemed to me as if he didn't really give a monkey's.

I had the same experience with Ken, not as much with Denny. Continually trying to convince me of what was not true, evidence to the contrary.

I'm glad to hear a few others voicing their honest experiences instead of everyone singing Aero's constant praises and those with bad experiences being afraid to say anything.

As said though, I actually like Holly, she's always been nice, but there's only so much she can do.

I wonder if a separate thread for those with bad experiences with Aero wouldn't be a good thing, if nothing else so it could be found easily with the search function for those wanting both viewpoints when they are deciding whether to purchase from them or not.

 

[ButteMT61]

How about a thread showing complaints about all vendors like Alexander, Bill Kelso, etc? It will make it easy to show issues with all makers. Or maybe there's only a few complaints compared to the many happy folks. You really think people say Aero (and others) are great when they get screwed? I highly doubt it. What I don't get is in two threads this weekend, two guys have found it necessary to beat the drums over and over in regards to a problem they had. I think most here get it. One post telling your story should do it.

 

[bretron]

Sounds like a troll's playground

 

[ButteMT61]

Sounds like a troll's playground

Seems to be lately. But most see it clearly so it's not like it works.

 

[bretron]

Truth, bro. Plus I guess I had stopped reading this thread at like pg 4

 

[rippsnorter]

Conversely, it's a fan boys playground here now.

When I researched whether to buy from Aero, all I found were people singing their praises. It would have been nice to have found a single person with the courage to go against the grain here and say "yeah, I had a problem".

As it is it seems that people want to instantly squelch anyone saying anything other than how great Aero is.

It was already said that someone stopped reading at page 4 here, hence did not see anything bad about Aero other than my original post. What good does it do then?

If there are 10 pages of people saying good things about Aero, and one thread about the bad, don't you think people can make up their own mind?

Why is it more acceptable for people to "beat the drum" as you say about how great a company is? 10 pages of almost everyone having a love fest of Aero, and a couple that dissent isn't beating a drum of hate.

Or is Aero a paid sponsor here and we're not allowed to voice dissent?

I also resent being implied as a troll. I am not making up my problems with them. I have the emails from them to back it up. Or do you think that 5 months to start processing a refund is great business practice.

For the record it was actually partly because of Butte constantly singing Aeros praises that I spent over 1600 dollars on them, and narrowly avoided losing my money.