Carlo Franco - Page 9

I don't think that is the case. On a personal level, cancer is a horrible thing, and of course, it pretty much goes without saying that we wish him and the family well. Then, there is the issue of how they conducted their business and relationship with others, which is a separate matter. Whether personal issues and business are severable is up to opinion, or whether the situation "gives them a pass." One can imagine situations where others facing a similar situation would have handled things much more graciously and not let the medical issue get in the way. But whatever.

ftfy But that's it, I'm done, go ahead and "to have" the last word.

I would take anything comming from Chucks mouth with a grain of salt. Wasn't there some big explaination post over at AAAC recently where he had stated it was Jill's father/mother who was sick with cancer? His first exscuse was that he was buying a house. Sounds like he is full of excuses to me. If he had just came out an apologized for running a business wrong and offered to compensate everyone who he wronged then there wouldn't be a problem but all the excuses and BS just make things worse.

ya, I'm a little surprised they didn't make fulfilment (hell, over-fulfilment) priority number one, and sales promotion priority number 2....

I mean....if all the unfulfilled orders received say 2 ties for each tie that never came, randomly in the mail (cost to business - exactly the same as running a 50% off sale) and maybe a 'we're sorry, take 20 bucks off your next order' with us card) and said nothing publicly, the boards - which were always their main source of customers would have lit up with 'guess what arrived in the mail today' posts.

Some degree of wellwishing would have followed, and given a bit of pre-buzz to them when they came out with their 50% off sale mail a couple of weeks later.

At least then they would have made things right before people immediately assume they are just going to make things wrong all over again...






disclaimer 1 - posting as a member, not a mod...not an official forum decree (cos anything I write people tend to take that way)
disclaimer 2 - I was a customer of both Carlo Franco and Sartorial Solutions and personally received excellent service and excellent products
disclaimer 3 - i always got along very well with both Chuck and Jill on the boards and bear no personal ill will

As on AAAC, I will not try to explain everything to everyone because 1) it would not be productive and 2) it would stir up more drama than is necessary and 3) those of you who love drama would not believe it anyway.. I am, of course, inclined to want to defend every accusation - especially those that are false. But that's not why I am here. I do not seek to build any new business. I'm merely trying to clean up what I now see is old business.

I shall be happy to extend a sincere apology to anyone with whom we had unfinished business. Whether you believe me or not (and those of you who know me, I think will) I knew nothing of unfinished business until I sent out the email promotion which was intended to 1) meet the requests of many old satisfied customers who have been asking to buy ties and 2) clear out some inventory of ties that are doing noone any good in the storage facility. As i mentioned on AAAC, we had outsourced everything to incompetent workers who assured us that everything had been handled. We were extremely naive and unprofessional in that we never bothered following up to see if it was true. It wasn't. In fact, I have logged on to AAAC and SF this week for the first time in over 2 years to see that I actually had PMs waiting. Any moderator can verify this.

So I will say only this. I didn't apologize or explain before, because I did not know I had anything for which to apologize. I am now humbly apologizing to those who have unfinished business, and am asking that you contact me to resolve it at: Jill (at) carlofranco.com. Oh, and one other note. I can assure you that neither Andy nor Alex has any interest whatsoever in CarloFranco. This is purely me, Jill. Chuck, while he loved the business, loved our customers, the forums and making ties, is not at all involved in this project either. He is overwhelmingly busy with his career. Suffice it to say, we got overwhelmed. We outsourced, rather than dealing. And that was, apparently, a massive mistake. To those of you who feel deceived, I once again offer my sincere and humble apologies and ask that you contact me personally to take care of business. I am not expecting to ever be the object of your affection or the "golden boy" of sartoria. I just don't like unfinished business. And now that I am aware of it, I am seeking to fix it.

Regards,

Jill

Absolute bullshit!

Not sure whether you have logged on in two years or not but im sure Chuck had and i can't believe that Audrey or someone within the outsourced group would not have told you about the problems going on especially when Chuck was so involved in the customer end of the business.

I find it quite convenient to just blame it all on others and Chuck, etc. and say you didn't know because you hadn't logged on so because its you now running the business and not "them" that everything should be fine.

Ridiculous!

I never said that "everything should be fine", JB. Audrey joined the military without even telling us. It took two months to even figure out where she was and where we could go to get our inventory back from her. I don't recall your ever being a customer. So I don't expect you to believe me or attest to my credibility. I have said quite clearly that despite the fact that our workers seriously dropped the ball, I still take full responsibility for trying to fix things. So I'm not sure why you're trying to call BS on me. I have been encouraged by many to not engage any critic who calls me/us an outright liar. But that is not in my nature. Frankly, you know not of which you speak.

You guys have been spewing excuses for 2 years now. Who cares that "Audrey" joined the military? I am however, almost inclined to believe that you knew nothing of what was going on as you both seem to be permanently out to lunch.

What you should do is send free ties out to those you have wronged and get out of the business for good. I doubt there are few who would actually place orders.

Sorry

dl

^^^Yes, this...and what m@T said, exactly.

I have no dealings with CF but from what I've read, the douchebaggery seems to rank right up there with the infamous Attolini pink cashmere tie incident. Seriously, you're dealing with the most sophisticated of consumers and the excuses have run the gamut, seemingly getting more and more bizarre. The business's namesake is so busy with his career he has just completely ignored the business for 2 years? while orders were paid for and not fulfilled? WOW!?!

And please brush up on public relations. I mean really, I don't even know how to read into this...

Of all of the crocks of shit in the world, this has got to be the biggest one I've ever seen. Thank you, I guess, for making this thread truly memorable. Wow!

I don't have any horse in this race at all but... Chuck Franke's primary profession was and still may be IT consulting and development. His Carlo Franco tie and shirt business and his Sartorial Solutions e-bay business were apparently new ventures that apparently got way out of hand and led to the colossal mess this thread is about. I know a lot of incredibly bright "computer geeks" who tried to get into on-line sales and customer service and failed miserably. Doesn't excuse the db behavior at the end, but if their only goal at this point is to make things right with old customers and send old inventory to people who still want to buy it, well......fine!

Dunno. "We got over our heads, we royally fucked up (for reasons probably involving family crises) and now we'd like to settle our debts before we move on" isn't the best thing to come out with, but at this point what else is there to say?

That would be an incredibly liberal interpretation of what she said.

Well, I already have the ties I paid for. And Zoloft keeps my levels of irritation lower than they might be.

There's no obligation here to accept Chuck and Jill into your country club, nominate them for a Nobel Prize, promote them up the ladder of your company, let them marry your bisexual daughter, or whatever. They fucked up, they're offering to make disappointed purchasers whole, and when inventory gets sold (at a decent price), they're going to disappear. That doesn't erase what happened before, but it's the best anyone's likely to get.

And when they're gone, we get other, more important things to think about.

+100 - Good summary of this sad and forgettable affair.