Bad experience of Le Prevo

[ScottEnglish]

[ScottEnglish]

[ScottEnglish]

IF YOU WANT TO UPLOAD MORE THAN ONE PHOTO RELOAD THE PAGE AND THEN YOU CAN KEEP ADDING THEM.

[Sheilajeanne]

Wow, that's REALLY bad!  

I've only bought cow leather at Tandy, and have never seen a side that bad at their store.   Sure, there are hides with stretch marks, but not to that extreme!  I only buy leather in person, and fortunately I live only about 45 minutes away. 

 

[ScottEnglish]

Hi Sheilajeanne. It's a shoulder. I appreciate your comment. Thanks for posting it.

[ScottEnglish]

Below is the email I've just sent to David Richardson at Le Prevo:

 

Dear David Richardson,

 

I've twice bought leather from you and on both occasions it has been of inferior quality. You will find photographic evidence of the poor quality of the leather you sold me on the leatherworker.net site where I've continued the topic entitled 'Bad experience of Le Prevo'.

 

Having viewed your trading terms you state: "The cost of returning goods will be paid by the customer unless we accept that there is a genuine fault with the product returned." I hope having viewed the photographic evidence you will acknowledge that there is a genuine fault with the leather and be gracious enough to arrange at your own expense for the collection of it as I've already been inconvenienced by dealing with this matter and would like to be spared any further inconvenience.

 

I will be copying this email and posting it on leatherworker.net.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Edited March 12 by ScottEnglish

[Northmount]

22 hours ago, ScottEnglish said:

I'm having trouble adding more photos.

If your files are too large to post here due to file size restrictions, you need to resize your files to fit.  Follow this link for some helps and suggestions.  https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/15122-how-to-post-pictures-on-lw/?do=findComment&comment=551171 There are lots of Apps, software, and online tools available on the web, or even built into your device to enable you to reduce your file sizes.  800 pixels in the longest dimension is quite adequate.  Smart phone screens and many monitors don't display high res files in high resolution.  People that live on the fringes of the internet appreciate smaller file sizes and high res photos may take from 10 minutes to hours to download.

EDIT:  I checked your file sizes, a little large, near 500kB, but shouldn't be a problem loading 3 or 4 photos at a time.  800 pixels in longest dimension may help reduce that size some more.

Edited March 12 by Northmount
added comment

[Constabulary]

Now we know what they did with Jabba the Hutt after Leia killed him.

[ScottEnglish]

Thanks Northmount for the information. Your comment made me smile Constabulary.

David Richardson, the managing director of Le Prevo, has replied to the above email that I sent him. Here is his reply:

"As per your previous return (and the returns policy) just send it back to us and we'll sort out a refund for you. Regards, David."

I'm disappointed in his reply. He has offered no explanation for why Le Prevo have sent me inferior quality leather on both occasions that I've bought leather from him. Neither has he apologised for doing so. He is also unwilling to arrange for the collection of it which I don't think an unreasonable request in view of what he sent me (please see photos).

Forum user fredk's experience of Le Prevo is this: "With Le Prevo I've bought 2nd quality, or damaged or leather with scars from them in their discounted list and I know what I'm getting. All other leathers were first rate, blemish and damage free." So why have I been sent poor quality leather on both occasions I've paid for, to use fredk's words, leather that is "first rate, blemish and damage free?" Please offer an explanation David Richardson.

Edited March 12 by ScottEnglish

[AlZilla]

11 minutes ago, ScottEnglish said:

David Richardson, the managing director of Le Prevo, has replied to the above email that I sent him. Here is his reply:

"As per your previous return (and the returns policy) just send it back to us and we'll sort out a refund for you. Regards, David."

I'm disappointed in his reply.

Funny, I was just looking at your post and wondering how I'd react if someone threatened me with posting such a truculent email online. He was nicer than all the things I was contemplating.

It's all the reply you deserve, frankly. Instead of just reaching out to him and giving him a chance to respond, you immediately badmouth him and his company online and challenge him to defy you.  Challenge accepted, apparently.

Edited March 12 by AlZilla

[ScottEnglish]

If you take the time to read the first post in this topic AlZilla you will see that I did, to use your expression, reach out to David Richardson the managing director of Le Prevo. This happened the first time they sent me poor quality leather. After being told by David that I'd confused the flesh side for the grain side of the leather, and that the scars on the leather were actually surface indentations resulting from damage during transit, alarm bells started ringing. As some of the questions I'd asked David prior to buying that first piece of leather perhaps suggested I had little experience of purchasing leather, I suspected Le Prevo were trying to rip me off.

To quote David Richardson/Le Prevo in an earlier post on this topic: "For context this is the first return of leather for this reason in the 8 months since I took over Le Prevo." So what are the odds a year later that I'm sent another piece of inferior quality leather?

Pugnacious. One might think both your posts on this topic to be such AlZilla. But then I don't know you, so I'm not going to judge you on the basis of your posts as you judge me.

[AlZilla]

4 minutes ago, ScottEnglish said:

If you take the time to read the first post in this topic AlZilla 

-------------------------------------------------------

But then I don't know you, so I'm not going to judge you on the basis of your posts as you judge me.

In fact, I went back and re-read the whole thing, looking for the followup to your first return. Found none.

Unrepentant and Guilty As Charged.

[Sheilajeanne]

AIZilla, that's pretty much the worst piece of leather I've ever seen. Please read the whole thread - I'd be pretty pissed off, too! 

When I've seen leather with stretch marks, at least a good part of the rest of the hide was usable. This one doesn't appear to have very much usable leather. And I buy from a provider that has a reputation for selling rather poor quality leather.

Constabulary, thanks for the chuckle! Yeah, I wonder just what that particular animal looked like in real life! Have never seen stretch marks like that before!

Edited March 12 by Sheilajeanne

[AlZilla]

3 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

AIZilla, that's pretty much the worst piece of leather I've ever seen. Please read the whole thread - I'd be pretty pissed off, too! 

When I've seen leather with stretch marks, at least a good part of the rest of the hide was usable. This one doesn't appear to have very much usable leather. And I buy from a provider that has a reputation for selling rather poor quality leather.

Constabulary, thanks for the chuckle! Yeah, I wonder just what that particular animal looked like in real life! Have never seen stretch marks like that before!

Oh, I've been here from the start of it and I agree the hide isn't great.  But publicly shaming the vendor before he's even had a chance to respond is just preemptively antagonistic, trying to paint him into a corner. Trying to skewer him on the alter of the internet. If it were me, he'd eat that piece of leather and I'd take the heat.

On the other hand, if the customer pointed out to me that I had twice screwed up, I might just send him 2 hides to make amends.

You know, it seems the first issue was resolved to the OP's satisfaction, but somehow that wasn't worth a public pat on the back and a thank you. But, man, we'll throw him in the fire, rake him over the coals and stick a fork in him!  Yes siree!

Internet definitely has an ugly side ...

[ScottEnglish]

You say the hide isn't great AlZilla. Let's be frank: it's awful.

I've explained why I started this topic in the first place: because I suspected Le Prevo were trying to rip me off thinking me to have little or no experience of buying leather. You're wrong AlZilla in saying I didn't give David a chance to respond before starting this topic. We did correspond. And I told Le Prevo that I'd started this topic, and then resumed it.

Accountability. Shouldn't leather suppliers be accountable to the folk who enable them to put food on their tables? We're buying a natural product that varies in quality. It needs to be graded. Apparently, Le Prevo grade their leather. Forum user fredk's experience of Le Prevo is this: "With Le Prevo I've bought 2nd quality, or damaged or leather with scars from them in their discounted list and I know what I'm getting. All other leathers were first rate, blemish and damage free." So why have I been sent poor quality leather on both occasions I've paid for, to use fredk's words, leather that is "first rate, blemish and damage free?" This question remains unanswered.

The replacement leather that you mention? It wasn't all that great to be honest. But it was better than the first piece they sent me.

Maybe it's about time leather suppliers up their game.

Edited March 13 by ScottEnglish

[AlZilla]

4 hours ago, ScottEnglish said:

I've explained why I started this topic in the first place: because I suspected Le Prevo were trying to rip me off

<snip>

 So why have I been sent poor quality leather on both occasions I've paid for,

I understand. You're the innocent victim in all of this and just trying to do the public a favor.

They probably actually have it in for you.

Duly noted.

I reiterate - you should probably buy your leather in person. I guess that makes me pugnacious.

Edited March 13 by AlZilla

[ScottEnglish]

Le Prevo are arranging collection of the leather for which I'm grateful.

[ScottEnglish]

On 3/12/2024 at 5:53 PM, ScottEnglish said:

After being told by David that I'd confused the flesh side for the grain side of the leather, and that the scars on the leather were actually surface indentations resulting from damage during transit, alarm bells started ringing.

Having looked back at my first posts in this thread I made an error in the above sentence. David suggested that I'd confused the flesh side for the grain side of the leather. He didn't tell me I had. But he did tell me that the scars on the leather were actually surface indentations resulting from damage during transit.

On 3/12/2024 at 5:53 PM, ScottEnglish said:

Pugnacious. One might think both your posts on this topic to be such AlZilla. But then I don't know you, so I'm not going to judge you on the basis of your posts as you judge me.

AlZilla: I apologise for my unhelpful remark above.

Edited March 14 by ScottEnglish

[ScottEnglish]

CONCLUSION

Below is the email I received from Le Prevo this afternoon:

To confirm: leather received back this afternoon safe & sound.

We checked through rest of batch of these shoulders from the tannery production run - all much the same as the original so there isn’t a replacement to send out.

As we can’t predict when we’d be ordering another batch of these shoulders (or what the run would be like) a refund of the purchase price and postage cost has been made to you now.

Thanks

David

Managing Director 413 Leather Ltd - T/A Le Prevo Leather No.1 Charlotte Square, NE1 4XF T:0191 232 4179