Anyone Know Whats Going On With Adventurebilt and Steve Decker?

[mingoslim]

I ordered an Adventurebilt hat three years ago . . . and I knew it would take a while to get to me. And I have waited with relative patience . . . Checking in every six months or so . . .

And every time he has answered I was told it would just be a month or so until he got to my order.

But now I get no answer to my queries . . . No response to my messages. He last responded back in February, telling me he was on the orders from January of 08 (After my order of December 07) . . . and he has not responded since. I have sent a message just about every month since August, and no response at all.

Did he take my money and run?
Is his sense of customer service this bad?

I had always heard good things about him . . . but I am getting pretty disgusted at this stage.

Any thoughts?
Anyone know what the magic secret is to getting customer service . . . or getting my money back?

Wish I had ordered from Art Fawcett!!!! Now there is some great service and a true gentleman to boot.

 

[zetwal]

I'm confused. I thought Steve Delk was the AB hatter.

 

[theinterchange]

You are not alone in your frustration, Steve Delk has become increasingly hard to communicate with. It gets to a point where one wonders if the end product is worth the wait time and customer service [or lack thereof in Adventurebilt's case] quality. A few years back, I had strongly considered the purchase of an AB, but the wait time and communication issues are too much for me to swallow.

There are many who defend AB stating that Steve's a one man show and hasn't time to communicate with customers. While he is a one man operation, he almost daily posts long-winded answers and stories on Club Obi Wan... What that tells me is he HAS time to communicate with customers but instead chooses to while away time on a forum rather than take care of customers who've shelled out a small fortune on his product. [huh]

Randy


P.S I've wanted to say this for quite some time but have been hesitant to do so. But sometimes the truth as one sees it just has to be said.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Agreed. I am not now nor have I ever been impressed. And when, in a childish fit of pique', he deleted all his posts from this forum, any vestiges of my respect for the man vanished with them.


I could give a

WHO he has made hats for, B.F.D. No. thank you.

'Slim, I'd initiate a CC charge back. See if that gets his' attention, eh? You have been way more than patient.

 

[gtdean48]

Makes 3 months for an Akubra seem like no time at all....

 

[Aureliano]

I considered, once, ordering an AB. I read about the man and what he's done. Then I met a friend who owns one and after inspecting the hat I found it to be, well, pretty great. Pretty great, yes but nothing above or beyond what Graham from Optimo and Art from VS are making for us. Waiting years for a hat (years!) unless he's using some sort of miraculous beavers that are going to be out of this world, with all due respect to those who have waited, is in my opinion just silly.

 

[scottyrocks]

Its mostly all about having a hat made to the identical specs of the hats that sat on Harrison Ford's head in an Indiana Jones movie, by the man who made them. If you want genuine and accurate, then this is the man to see. That, in and of itself, is worth the money and the wait.

 

[gpsoldhat]

why is it that john penman sells the adventurebuilt henry? is he affiliated with Adventurebuilt by a license agreement?

 

[DRB]

Help him out. If he is overburdened, cancel your order and get your money back. That will take some pressure off him and also send him a message.

 

[Tango Yankee]

He's back!

Hey, it's Mingoslim! Welcome back!!! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

It's been over a year. I hope all was well with you during that time. I don't have any answers for you regarding Adventurebilt, but I'm glad to see you back. :cheers1:

Regards,
Tom

 

[scottyrocks]

"why is it that john penman sells the adventurebuilt henry? is he affiliated with Adventurebuilt by a license agreement?"

I believe that although John Penman wasnt actually an 'apprentice' to Steve Delk, he did have some training, trade secrets being passed along, as Steve often talks about his inevitable retirement and not wanting his legacy of the specialized hand-made-from-scratch Indiana Jones hats to fade away. So it may not be a formal license agreement, but rather an informal one.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

I often defend Steve because he does get bombarded with emails, mostly from people asking every few weeks if their hat is ready. But three years and no means of contact indicates a problem to me. In the event that it is helpful, here a post from July on COW:

"Me getting to and reponding to emails is a constant struggle. I get overwhelmed with the emails. And I have no doubt that I have missed some. It seems to be in regards to a refund, and the way I have had to handle those is I have to refund after I sell a hat. Why. Because I already bought up the bodies and parts to make the hat when you ordered. I refuned over 40 grand right before the economy crashed,and many had lost jobs and needed their hat order money to pay bills. I refunded until I ran out of refund money. What I can do, is to send you your hat body and the parts bought, and then the difference between that and what I charged you for it. So, I now have stacks of hat bodies that were bought for refunded orders. After this happened, awhile back, I posted a notice in the vendor section that I could no longer refund, due to this occurence.

The recession hurt alot of small business's, and I am not immune from it. And I refunded folks until I could not do it anymore, as it would cut into the operating expenses. I never really planned on being a banker, holding monies until someone lost their jobs, and found myself in that postion, and being the guy that I am, heck, I gave mucho money back, until I ran out and built up a huge inventory of bodies and parts. So, the recession kicked my tale to, not just the ones who got refunds. I recently got some money for the Henry, but those payments are not made to me in a timely manner, and I used all 2500 bucks of that for refunds on prior requests. I am struggling here, to keep all folks happy, and failing, it seems. So, if you want what was bought to make your hat, and then my profit on that hat, I can send that to you. Email me, with HAT BODY as the header so I can find it.

I hate it that this is the way that it is, but generally one does not have to refund so much, and the recession was the cause of it. And I turned into a savings institution for alot of folks. Hard to pull that off. Fedora"

 

[handlebar bart]

I often defend Steve because he does get bombarded with emails, mostly from people asking every few weeks if their hat is ready. But three years and no means of contact indicates a problem to me. In the event that it is helpful, here a post from July on COW:

"Me getting to and reponding to emails is a constant struggle. I get overwhelmed with the emails. And I have no doubt that I have missed some. It seems to be in regards to a refund, and the way I have had to handle those is I have to refund after I sell a hat. Why. Because I already bought up the bodies and parts to make the hat when you ordered. I refuned over 40 grand right before the economy crashed,and many had lost jobs and needed their hat order money to pay bills. I refunded until I ran out of refund money. What I can do, is to send you your hat body and the parts bought, and then the difference between that and what I charged you for it. So, I now have stacks of hat bodies that were bought for refunded orders. After this happened, awhile back, I posted a notice in the vendor section that I could no longer refund, due to this occurence.

The recession hurt alot of small business's, and I am not immune from it. And I refunded folks until I could not do it anymore, as it would cut into the operating expenses. I never really planned on being a banker, holding monies until someone lost their jobs, and found myself in that postion, and being the guy that I am, heck, I gave mucho money back, until I ran out and built up a huge inventory of bodies and parts. So, the recession kicked my tale to, not just the ones who got refunds. I recently got some money for the Henry, but those payments are not made to me in a timely manner, and I used all 2500 bucks of that for refunds on prior requests. I am struggling here, to keep all folks happy, and failing, it seems. So, if you want what was bought to make your hat, and then my profit on that hat, I can send that to you. Email me, with HAT BODY as the header so I can find it.

I hate it that this is the way that it is, but generally one does not have to refund so much, and the recession was the cause of it. And I turned into a savings institution for alot of folks. Hard to pull that off. Fedora"

Wow:eeek:

 

[Tango Yankee]

...and the way I have had to handle those is I have to refund after I sell a hat. Why. Because I already bought up the bodies and parts to make the hat when you ordered.

I refuned over 40 grand right before the economy crashed,and many had lost jobs and needed their hat order money to pay bills. I refunded until I ran out of refund money. What I can do, is to send you your hat body and the parts bought, and then the difference between that and what I charged you for it. So, I now have stacks of hat bodies that were bought for refunded orders. After this happened, awhile back, I posted a notice in the vendor section that I could no longer refund, due to this occurence.

The recession hurt alot of small business's, and I am not immune from it. And I refunded folks until I could not do it anymore, as it would cut into the operating expenses. I never really planned on being a banker, holding monies until someone lost their jobs, and found myself in that postion, and being the guy that I am, heck, I gave mucho money back, until I ran out and built up a huge inventory of bodies and parts. So, the recession kicked my tale to, not just the ones who got refunds. I recently got some money for the Henry, but those payments are not made to me in a timely manner, and I used all 2500 bucks of that for refunds on prior requests. I am struggling here, to keep all folks happy, and failing, it seems. So, if you want what was bought to make your hat, and then my profit on that hat, I can send that to you. Email me, with HAT BODY as the header so I can find it.

I hate it that this is the way that it is, but generally one does not have to refund so much, and the recession was the cause of it. And I turned into a savings institution for alot of folks. Hard to pull that off. Fedora"

I don't know very much about Steve Delk and his operation, nor am I a businessman, but some of this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

For instance, he makes it sound like he's buying the hat bodies and materials one at a time, as he gets orders. I seriously doubt that. He's buying in bulk. Now, he may specify how many of each color based on the orders that come in, but why would you order the materials for each hat right when the order comes in (or shortly thereafter) if you have a waiting list of years? That's a waste of funds and a waste of storage space. If nothing else he should have most of that money sitting in a bank earning a few dollars interest for him.

He said he did refunds until he ran out of refund money. Why did he run out? Part of that apparently is because he spent money to stockpile long before he was ever going to be making a majority of the hats ordered, but it brings up another issue: If the money he's received for making hats that are years away from actually being made has already been spent on supplies and his living expenses (his "salary" if you will), what happens when orders slow down and he no longer has lots of prepaid hat orders coming in, but still years of hats left to make? What does he live on?

He said he posted the No Refunds policy in the vendor section, at COW I presume. Shouldn't he have that on his website? And is it really fair to apply a No Refunds policy retroactively? Or even legal? Or his offer to send you the materials to make a hat minus their cost if you want a refund--why? It's not like those materials are going to go bad and he won't be able to use them. It sounds more like spite to me. What's the average person going to be able to do with a box of hat parts, including a raw felt body? [huh]

If he's so far behind, why is he still accepting orders?

He may be a nice guy who makes a great hat, but it looks like he really needs a manager to actually run the business for him. I hope for the best for his customers and him as well, but I'm beginning to think that it doesn't look very good at this point.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[randooch]

Sounds like a classic case of poor business skills. Many artistic types are saddled with that handicap. Or handicapped with that saddle. He could maybe brew a pot of strong coffee, hire some helpers, and fill some orders. Or just slip away. Sad story, for sure. THREE YEARS?!!

 

[fluteplayer07]

...I could give a

WHO he has made hats for...

Hilarious!

 

[blixa00]

Based on the brief explanation above of this gentleman's business model, please run to the nearest phone and initiate a charge back ASAP! It does sound as though the individual does not understand how to run a business for profit and clearly you don't want a bunch of remnants for your "refund"...I do not know this fellow but I can recognize an under capitalized amateur business owner from a mile away and this my friends is a classic example.

 

[Andykev]

Enough said. Contact your BBB or your Credit Card holder. Or contact Mr. Delk, and if necessary, file for damages.