Waterfield Cases\SF Bags 11" MBA Case\Sleeve = Horrid Customer Experience! Avoid...

[Vashti]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. My experience of Waterfield is that they delivered what they promised and beyond. I wanted one of their bags with a different color leather. They happily made it for me for a very small upcharge. They spent a lot of time on the phone with me helping me make my decision. I ordered from them again and am about to a third time. My experience is that they overdeliver. I have spoken to Gary and others at Waterfield. My experiences with them have been universally positive.

I hope you're happy with whatever you choose next.

 

[mpetrides]

Like most other people posting in this thread, I've had excellent service every time I purchased a case from Waterfield/sfbags. Their cases are well-made, durable, and I have NEVER had a problem with their customer service. I currently have 3 (or is it 4?) of their cases and would purchase from them again in a heartbeat!

 

[Jaro65]

I ordered from them several times before. The product is superb and so is the service. They did forget to include a piggyback in the last order, which they apologized for (it's coming). There is zero doubt that I will be ordering from them again. ...And yes, I do like the fact that I can get a quality product from the US company.

 

[rylin]

I ordered a MBA 11 sleeve from them on the 26th.
At the time, they said it'd ship on or before the 29th.

29th comes and goes without me receiving shipping notification.
Nov 2nd I sent them an email asking about it, as I noticed the site said orders would ship by the 5th.

They got back to me a while later with the shipping notice, which just so happened to show that the bag had *just* arrived in Stockholm. Sweden.

It was basically just a case of a missing shipping notification.
I will say though that I'm very impressed with having a brand new, custom laptop sleeve (w/ extra everything) tailored, shipped and delivered halfway across the world in a week.

Right now, I'm waiting for my next paycheck.
I'll need to figure out if I want the 11" Muzetto, or spring for the slightly bigger 13" ;-)

Shame about how they handled your request though.

 

[MikePA]

Imagine that, one of the two people on my ignore list has a problem interacting with a merchant almost everyone else raves about.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

Guess it was my first time giving them a shot, and my last.

Your statement above is very revealing.

To judge a company so harshly over one issue is to cheat yourself. Gary is the owner, and SFBAGS do not use form letters nor do they mislead their customers. They operate one of the finest bag businesses ever.

Stop and _think_

The MBA is a very hot model and keeping up with demand can be challenging. Especially when your product is so great. I've been a customer of SFBAGS for years, have loads of their bags, the quality and durability is second to none.

So before you trash them get your facts straight.

 

[koobcamuk]

Arrogance should be EARNED, and judging by their size and standing, they haven't earned the arrogance afforded to companies like Apple.

Arrogance should not be earned, it's a disgusting trait. I think you mean "respect has to be earned".

Arrogance puts me off anything and anyone. It's a reason why many Americans (mostly those on the internet) disgust me.

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

Bella, can we see any of the emails?

 

[kapalua12]

I completely agree with the majority of posters on this thread. I have several bags from Waterfield design and they are great people with fantastic, well made products. They are quick to design new products. Much faster than most companies and the people there are a delight to do business with.

They answer e mails promptly and courteously and their custom made products seem to be released WAY before the majority of the Incase and similar large companies and companies who take forever to bring a product to market.

That said, I'm waiting for my sleeve case for my 13 " MBA which is due to ship FedEX today and I know I will get a great product. I have a similar version on my iPAD and 15 "Unibody MBP and I love their products. I also have several of their bags. So you can see I do have some considerable experience with them.

Yes, they did get slammed with a huge volume of orders since the iPhone 4, iPADs and latest Unibody MBP's were released. Sometimes "small" is a virtue in terms of market responsiveness.

They have treated me very well and I'll be a customer for life with them.

TP in Connecticut

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Well if you know anyone with a sowing machine you could always go to a craft shop and get some kind of fabric/material and have them make you one. Don't see it being too difficult.

Did this back when I had my Ti PBG4. Cost nothing compared to a purchased sleeve and it was just what I wanted!

 

[justin216]

I recently ordered my 6th bag over the past several years from Waterfield, and as has been the case all along, was an excellent transaction.

I ordered a Sm. Cosmo w/ a Sleevecase and CableGuy for my Macbook Air 11.6, and only selected the $10 priority mail shipping. Received the case yesterday, a day earlier than I expected, and everything was in order. Waterfield tends to also include a personalized, hand-written note to the client, which I believe speaks volumes about their customer care and service -- I've ordered a ton of other boutique bags and cases over the years, and none have went this far.

As for the OP, that's really surprising and unfortunate that you had some type of clash with Waterfield. But, even the best companies in the world get negative press, and they can't always make everyone happy.

 

[HoOn]

It seems I'm like everyone else in this thread. I've probably bought close to 10 things from Gary and his crew maybe close to 9-10 years now and never had any problems. I actually just ordered the sleeve before seeing this thread.

Not sure what happened but hopefully you weren't too demanding to have them turn you away. I'm not sure if you can any other company that close to its customers like sfbags. Like who even owns incase? Can you talk to their owner? lol

 

[rkahl]

Ha Ha, it's called Karma. The OP came down on me when I was frustrated with the whole shipping thing, now he's getting what he deserved. Funny how his personality shows... block lists and business canceling his order because they don't like his attitude. You must be a real joy to be around!

 

[mac jones]

I actually have two waiting for me in the mail room.....

I know....I'm bad.

 

[SmaugG5]

No offense OP but if you were as demanding to WF as you appear in this thread I don't blame WF for telling you to take your business elsewhere. The customer is not always right especially when they are rude, demanding and overbearing. Good for Gary.

 

[HoOn]

rkahl, I'm curious what happened with you and the OP? I am always for customers warning us about bad vendors but I hate it even more when they purposely try to discredit them without legitimate cause.

 

[rkahl]

rkahl, I'm curious what happened with you and the OP? I am always for customers warning us about bad vendors but I hate it even more when they purposely try to discredit them without legitimate cause.

Long story short... my MBA was lost for a few days in FedEx's hands. They had my item to be delivered, but it never happened until 4 days past the delivery time, even tho I paid extra for 2-3 day shipping. The OP called me a liar and laughed about my impatience with FedEx. Ha Ha, look who's laughing now!

 

[///M5]

Oh well, this is my first purchase from WF. The sleeves I ordered for the 11" MBA should ship today. Will report back.

 

[FuNGi]

Sorry to hear about you poor experience. FWIW, I ordered my sleeve on Oct 25 @ 10PM, it shipped on Oct 29 and arrived on Nov 1. It's a nice product - looks almost Apple OEM. I have an iPhone case from them. Customer service has been good in my experience.

Exactly the same experience. Rapid manufacturing and shipping for my 13" Air. Although I emailed with Melissa not Gary. Anyway, I ended up returning mine with no issues - I just didn't like the look of the verticle sleeve I ordered and ended up with an incase designed for the 13" macbook pro. Surprisingly the Air doesn't swim inside this thing.

i agree that the OP must have been one rude and impatient fellow to the WF staff.

 

[The Toddfather]

Here's Gary...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJujj_TKtyo&feature=player_embedded#!

 

[runnin17]

While this may be a negative customer experience story, here is a story about how apple's customer service did me a solid recently.

I had tons of left over rewards points from amex. I used them to order $250 worth of apple store gift cards. Order placed and confirmation emal received. Estimated ship date was NOV 24, order was placed on OCT 28. So naturally I am wondering why it takes a month to ship 3 gifts cards.

I called apple, spoke with a CSR (can't remember his name). He put me on hold a couple of times and plainly admitted he was not sure why the ship date was so far out. He said he would flag the order and sent it up the chain. I said okay and waited a couple of days. I check the order status two days later and it said that the order was cancelled, but it looked like a duplicate order had been placed (so basically a cancel and re-order thing).

So I call apple again and ask them what's up. The CSR was helpful and said that the order was still on its way and it was "prepared for shipment" (meaning it would probably ship in a day or two). Got an email confirming that the order did in fact ship on NOV 4 and would be delivered by NOV 9.

I also asked if I would be able to apply these gift cards to my recent 13" CTO MBA and they said that yes I could. I would just have to call apple and have them apply the gift cards to my MBA order and they would credit my amex.

Seems like smooth service to me

 

[unagimiyagi]

Guys and gals,

How much padding is in this $50 case? Is 6 mm more than say, an incase sleeve that you can buy in the apple store for the regular-size macbook pro? That's what I'm familiar with.
Also, I am concerned that the neoprene lining/padding will be static-shock inducing during the winter months when it's dry. I hate getting shocked by my macbook pro all the time, so a word about protection and the lining, please :> There is a Spire boot laptop case that has non-neoprene padding, just sort of like backpack strap cushioning and it's perfect. But they don't make an 11.6" version.

For a perfect fit, is the waterfield sleeve the only game in town for the foreseeable future?

 

[bella92108]

Well if you know anyone with a sowing machine you could always go to a craft shop and get some kind of fabric/material and have them make you one. Don't see it being too difficult.

I thought about that but I'll just wait until incase or someone comes out with a neoprene sleeve.

 

[pvmacguy]

While this may be a negative customer experience story, here is a story about how apple's customer service did me a solid recently.

I had tons of left over rewards points from amex. I used them to order $250 worth of apple store gift cards. Order placed and confirmation emal received. Estimated ship date was NOV 24, order was placed on OCT 28. So naturally I am wondering why it takes a month to ship 3 gifts cards.

I called apple, spoke with a CSR (can't remember his name). He put me on hold a couple of times and plainly admitted he was not sure why the ship date was so far out. He said he would flag the order and sent it up the chain. I said okay and waited a couple of days. I check the order status two days later and it said that the order was cancelled, but it looked like a duplicate order had been placed (so basically a cancel and re-order thing).

So I call apple again and ask them what's up. The CSR was helpful and said that the order was still on its way and it was "prepared for shipment" (meaning it would probably ship in a day or two). Got an email confirming that the order did in fact ship on NOV 4 and would be delivered by NOV 9.

I also asked if I would be able to apply these gift cards to my recent 13" CTO MBA and they said that yes I could. I would just have to call apple and have them apply the gift cards to my MBA order and they would credit my amex.

Seems like smooth service to me

Why deal with all that BS when you could have bought what you wanted from apple with your amex and then just used those rewards points towards your statement bill.

 

[runnin17]

Why deal with all that BS when you could have bought what you wanted from apple with your amex and then just used those rewards points towards your statement bill.

The conversion rate was only 0.05%. There was a special going on until Dec 31st at the amex rewards store that allowed you to redeem most of the gift cards at a discount of 30% (so for a $100 gift card, instead of costing 20,000 reward points, it only costs 14,000). This made it a conversion rate of 0.07% I believe. Allowed me to save an extra $75 by getting the gift card instead of using the points on my amex statement.