Souldier

So you know what I really hate about some businesses?
When they try to play you for a fool.
I ordered a collar in February, over six weeks ago. After it did not arrive in a little over a week, I contacted the company to ask where the order was. I received the following response:
Hello,
Custom handmade to order items can have an estimated waiting list of a few weeks (excluding holidays and weekends and snowdays) to make according to your choices from over 1000 patterns, 30 colors webbing colors, 30 end colors in vinyl or leather, and hardware colors. Plus shipping and customs time. We make it from over 6 million color combinations just for you. It’s been five full business days and should ship soon. Thank you.
Okay, so that email was incredibly poorly written. I could forgive (kind of) a company who uses poor grammar, punctuation and syntax when corresponding with customers. On the other hand, this company sews pre-​made ribbons to canvas collars. It’s not as if they are hand weaving silk in the far off mountains of China.
I realized that I may have been a tad impatient, translated to: very impatient, to expect a custom collar within two weeks, the stated time on their website.
I decided to wait patiently until sixth week. After the six week mark passed, I contacted the company again only to have the email ignored.
24 hours later, I again contacted the company asking about my collar. Only when I threatened a charge back for failure to deliver goods did they respond.
This was their response:
Hello,
You should have had the custom item by now. We’ll refund you and file insurance claim with FedEx. We’re very sorry about the issue and inconvenience.
This was my response:
I would rather have the collar than a refund.
Additionally, I am not believing the claim that it was lost in transit. I have a personal FedEx account. The moment is something is shipped to my address, I am automatically notified via email. I receive dozens of shipments a month for work and never has a notification been missed.
Please forward me the FedEx tracking number, so I can validate your claim that the item was actually shipped.
Thank you.
As you can guess, I never heard from them again.
They lied about shipping the collar. They lied about FedEx.
How do I know this? As I mentioned in my email to the company, I am notified every single time something has been shipped to my address. I never received any shipping notification from Souldier. And it should come as no surprise that I never received a response with a FedEx tracking number so I could look up the shipment details.
More than my collar not being delivered after six and a half weeks, I’m more disgusted by the fact that the company blatantly lied to me about shipping it at all. Don’t assume that your customers are either naïve or stupid. We’re not.
In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a big deal. I wanted to support a local business who I know makes quality products (even if their shipping is an astronomical $ 10 per medium sized dog collar!!!). It seems as if their collars have disappeared at local retailers over the years and I have a feeling their lack of communication and poor business practices may be the reasons why.

I was at Taste of Randolph tonight and stopped by their booth. They have awesome camera straps, dog collars, instrument straps, belts, etc. Great products in a variety of fabrics and materials. Really low prices-​I was impressed! I bought a new strap for the camera and have my eye on the dog collars. Therir website is very detailed and everything can be ordered on-​line. If you like supporting local businesses I highly suggest you check them out!