Baron Seabiscuit woman's hat.

I've wriiten Baron's many, many times and get nary a response.

Hmmm. Another lounge member crosses Baron off his list.

Done.

A message from Baron Hats

android said:

I just wanted to follow up on this since I have seen some additional discussion about Baron Hat.

They never followed up on their promise to resolve this situation to my satisfaction. In fact, after a few weeks, they no longer returned my calls or email.

So, I would advise all to avoid them at all cost.

Click to expand...

A companies' reputation rests almost entirely on word of mouth. I am proud to say our company has pleased thousands upon thousands of repeat customers (including televison and motion picture studios, musicians, museums etc.) for over 50 years! Word of mouth has been great! It is how we've survived for so long. Our customer satisfaction rate has gotten even better since we've been offering our services online.

I, nor anyone here, will not deny the simple fact that ANDROID has not had the very best experience. From the creation of the block (which was done, and redone, and redone yet again), to the assembly of the hat... this was not a quick process. After much wait and anticipation, we delivered, and the product fell below his expectations (but not his wife's). In order to get the right dimensions and shape for this hat we opted to use 2 bodies (which were cleanly combined to create an attractive custom hat). ANDROID somehow expected a superfino Montecristi. His rationalization for the price was established without taking the amount of time and work that was needed to create the custom hand carved block, and custom hat, into consideration.

For all of you that are basing all of your potential purchases on ANDROID's experiences, please hear me out. We've spent decades building a solid reputation within the hat industry and this one post has tainted that reputation tremendously. We do NOT ignore our emails and/or our phone calls (if we did so... we would not be around). ANDROID has NOT called and/or emailed us since I offered to remake the hat... in fact, I sent HIM an email with pictures of potential bodies to use, and I never heard a response! Our goal is to please the customer, and if a customer cuts off all correspondance (after a product has been delivered), it does not behoove us to continue working on that order.

I've apologized for the miscommunications with ANDROID, and for falling short of his expectations. I offered to fix the situation, but instead of working on the order, he decided to work on damaging our image further. Most of you have already made up your minds to not use us based on ANDROIDS experience, and that is fine. We are proud of our work, our clients, and our history. People continue to use us based on word of mouth. We go above and beyond what is expected from us. Our satisfaction rates are tremendous (especially considering how particular most of our clients are)! For a credible reference, feel free to ask the webmaster of The Fedora Lounge... because HE is a proud customer of Baron Hats!

Thank you very much for hearing me out.

The very best to all of you,

Kevin Greene
Director of Customer Service
Baron Hats

Oh, ...

...well there you have it.

Baron Hats said:

I, nor anyone here, will not deny the simple fact that ANDROID has not had the very best experience. From the creation of the block (which was done, and redone, and redone yet again), to the assembly of the hat... this was not a quick process. After much wait and anticipation, we delivered, and the product fell below his expectations (but not his wife's). In order to get the right dimensions and shape for this hat we opted to use 2 bodies (which were cleanly combined to create an attractive custom hat). ANDROID somehow expected a superfino Montecristi. His rationalization for the price was established without taking the amount of time and work that was needed to create the custom hand carved block, and custom hat, into consideration.

Click to expand...

No, I never expected a Montecristi.

I was promised a Cuenca brisa with backwoven edge. To me, nothing screams cheap Panama more that a stitched edge and that detail was very spefically discussed with Mark and Kevin in email and by phone.

I acknowledge the work he did on the block, but that is not relevant to the quality of the hat I purchased. Baron promised the hat, with a specific body and a specific style for a given price. They failed to deliver that hat.

Baron Hats said:

For all of you that are basing all of your potential purchases on ANDROID's experiences, please hear me out. We've spent decades building a solid reputation within the hat industry and this one post has tainted that reputation tremendously. We do NOT ignore our emails and/or our phone calls (if we did so... we would not be around). ANDROID has NOT called and/or emailed us since I offered to remake the hat... in fact, I sent HIM an email with pictures of potential bodies to use, and I never heard a response! Our goal is to please the customer, and if a customer cuts off all correspondance (after a product has been delivered), it does not behoove us to continue working on that order.

I've apologized for the miscommunications with ANDROID, and for falling short of his expectations. I offered to fix the situation, but instead of working on the order, he decided to work on damaging our image further.

Click to expand...

Well, I have my spam filter set to allow every email address from Baron that I know about. That includes:

KevinBaronHats-at-aol.com
BaronHats-at-aol.com
gnometree-at-aol.com

Since they use AOL address rather than @baronhats.com, there is a small possiblity the email may have been caught in my spam trap. I do not allow unknown aol addresses into my inbox and I think you can all understand why. I do review my spam before deletion and never saw a response.

Nevertheless, there was not much to do on my part other than wait for a replacement hat to show up on my doorstep since this was the last email I recieved from Kevin on July 22, 2005. So I'm not sure how I failed to "work on the order"


From: KevinBaronHats@xxx.xxx [mailto:KevinBaronHats@xxx.xxx]
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 7:36 PM
To: xxx@xxx.rr.com
Subject: Re: Response to the forum

Andrew,

Mark has given me the green light to remake your wife's hat in a better material!

He will call you on Monday to give you the specifics. We will not ask your wife to return her hat! She can keep it as a gift from us.

You were undoubtebly flexible and easy to work with. We accept 100% responsibility for your unsatisfaction. After reviewing the pictures it is obvious we underdelivered (which is something that we NEVER do!).

Very Best,

Kevin Greene
Customer Service Manager
Baron Hats


Mark did call on Monday as promised, and said I could expect the new hat in about 4 weeks. I emailed asking status on August 19th and followed up with several phone calls over the next few days following days.. That's where it ends from my end. Six months later and the hat isn't here.

I'm not sure how somebody who is "flexible and easy to work with" would be that much of a problem. I just expect communication and delivery of what is promised.

All my emailed correspondence with Baron is archived and these are the straight up facts.

Andy

Ther you have it...

...and I've about a dozen emails in my sent box, of course, all unanswered.

They know the truth.

Well Well

This has certainly been an interesting and informative thread. There has only been over 900 views on it so I wouldn't be too concerned about bad publicity.


fedoralover

Ive had some awful experiences with some retailers, both online and off, and yet friends have had excellent experiences with the same people. I think you guys had a misunderstanding that needs to be ironed out as soon as possible, but probably on the telephone. Writing on a forum is just so bad for communication of this kind as its impossible to get the correct meaning across. Best of luck.

Wisdom

vespasian said:

Ive had some awful experiences with some retailers, both online and off, and yet friends have had excellent experiences with the same people. I think you guys had a misunderstanding that needs to be ironed out as soon as possible, but probably on the telephone. Writing on a forum is just so bad for communication of this kind as its impossible to get the correct meaning across. Best of luck.

Click to expand...

This post just overflows with wisdom.