Carlo Franco

[redtree00]

Smart and ethical thing to do was to send an email to all customers and come on both forums, explain why everything went to hell AND THEN and only then send out a 50% off coupon (on jacked up price may I add) to all previous customers.

My own personal experience was prior to the "outsourcing". I had to send multiple emails and make several phone calls to receive delivery on merchandise that was already paid for. If I had the time or gave a damn I am sure I could dig up post after post of lame excuses on both this forum and the AKAC forum.

 

[voxsartoria]

Is this the thread where I place a cravat order?

- B

 

[VKK3450]

I'm not going to make a call on truth or lies, but as a small business owner myself, this kind of crap makes things that much more difficult for those of us who are honest and work really hard to develop trust and relationships with our customers.

It's a hard enough online retail market without this kind of ****.

K

 

[Styk33]

Jill replied to a PM of mine from July 11, 2007. I will post if anything comes of this correspondence. The worst can be I am still out my cash, the best is I received what I paid for in January 2007.

 

[VKK3450]

Originally Posted by m@T

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.

Not really. In your scenario they are preemptively volunteering to paying out double on liabilities with no guarantee of additional future revenues.

Instead, the way they are trying to work it, customers will only receive ties if they contact Carlo Franco with proof / etc. In reality; some won't see this, some won't bother, and for all we know CF will not honour some of them.

Plus, the way they are working it they get to dump excess inventory, freeing up capital / cash flow and cutting any holding costs. If you have a garage full of ties worth $X.XX, you may as well unload them at 50% off a raised price (lower effective discount) and get a bit of cash out along with some garage space.

Originally Posted by Jill

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 you were receiving the emails with many requests of old satisfied customers, but not of the customers you ripped off?

It's getting deep with $#!t in here.

Originally Posted by Jill

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

Seems IT consultants always blame outsourcing when things go **** up.

K

 

[Jill]

Originally Posted by VKK3450

... unload them at 50% off a raised price...
Not true. The price was previously $165, which is among the lowest on the market for 7-fold ties.

Originally Posted by VKK3450

]...So you were receiving the emails with many requests of old satisfied customers, but not of the customers you ripped off?
As implausible as it may sound, that is absolutely true. The CarloFranco website / email had been DOWN for two years until about 4 or 5 months ago, when I got a notice to renew the domain. It was at this time I started receiving emails again.

I'm not going to continue to defend repeated accusations of deceit from posters who have never even been customers of ours, and which are blatantly false. There is nothing more for me to say publicly, as it will only be met with more of same. If you are a former customer, and need to have unfinished business resolved, please contact me at jill(at)carlofranco.com. I will do everything I can to right the situation, with my sincere apologies.

 

[teddieriley]

What I'm curious to hear from people on SF who actually bought CF ties - are they really one of the best in the market? I have a hard time believing some IT guy in Texas thought, hey, maybe I will start a tie business selling 7-fold ties, and having them be one of the best constructed in the market, sufficient to rival or surpass well-established brands (admittedly some may not necessarily be on top of the game due to cutting corners for the sake of maximizing profits). I don't know these CF people, and maybe they studied tie making for years.

 

[oscarthewild]

I have a shirt. It is not a kiton but pretty good. Forgot what I paid for it.

The wool ties were very interesting. Great pop of colour on a subtle background. Saw them in person in NY that year.

-

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by teddieriley

What I'm curious to hear from people on SF who actually bought CF ties - are they really one of the best in the market? I have a hard time believing some IT guy in Texas thought, hey, maybe I will start a tie business selling 7-fold ties, and having them be one of the best constructed in the market, sufficient to rival or surpass well-established brands (admittedly some may not necessarily be on top of the game due to cutting corners for the sake of maximizing profits). I don't know these CF people, and maybe they studied tie making for years.

I have a few. They're pretty good but not deserving of any superlative that were/are thrown their way (positive or negative). IMO the woven silk ones (if you managed to find one that's not overly tacky) were fine but nothing special, the wool/cashmere ones were very nice, and the wool/cashmere 7-fold were so ridiculously thick that they ended up simply unwearable (I think I could unfold one and it would make a nice throw or blanket...).

 

[marc237]

I bought both a shirt and a tie. I liked both more than gdl. The ties are thick indeed. The shirt was a very nice substantial herring bone. Both have held up very well. Were they a bit less expensive, I would buy more.

However, not to plug, but FIH ties is now my go to place for ties.

 

[Concordia]

Originally Posted by teddieriley

What I'm curious to hear from people on SF who actually bought CF ties - are they really one of the best in the market? I have a hard time believing some IT guy in Texas thought, hey, maybe I will start a tie business selling 7-fold ties, and having them be one of the best constructed in the market, sufficient to rival or surpass well-established brands (admittedly some may not necessarily be on top of the game due to cutting corners for the sake of maximizing profits). I don't know these CF people, and maybe they studied tie making for years.

They are very thick, and made to Chuck's taste (which tolerates more flashiness than mine). I think the same suppliers might have occasionally sold to Four In Hand, as they have carried some of the same sort of thing in the past.

The more conservative ties look fine and knot well, etc. Since I've never bespoken a 7-fold from Sam Hober or anyone other than CF, I can't tell how much of this is special sauce dor just the way it comes out when you do it right.

Among Italian sources, I'd much rather go to Marinella or the guys who sell with Ambrosi and Solito during their (increasingly rare) US trips. Elsewhere, Sam Hober on one end of the scale and T&A or Charvet in the glossier side. FIH is also a very well-run shop, and has good value if you like what they sell. But CFs do what they do very well.

 

[hws]

Originally Posted by Jill

As implausible as it may sound, that is absolutely true. The CarloFranco website / email had been DOWN for two years until about 4 or 5 months ago, when I got a notice to renew the domain. It was at this time I started receiving emails again.
How is possible no receive email for domain which is no expire??

 

[mtf]

Originally Posted by teddieriley

What I'm curious to hear from people on SF who actually bought CF ties - are they really one of the best in the market? I have a hard time believing some IT guy in Texas thought, hey, maybe I will start a tie business selling 7-fold ties, and having them be one of the best constructed in the market, sufficient to rival or surpass well-established brands (admittedly some may not necessarily be on top of the game due to cutting corners for the sake of maximizing profits). I don't know these CF people, and maybe they studied tie making for years.

The ties are pretty showy - some are almost gaudy. I wouldn't wear many in a conservative environment but they're great "fun" ties. I got married wearing one. They make a huge knot too.
They're better than the borrelli, brioni, talbots best-of-class, isaia 7fold, and attolini ties that I own.

 

[teddieriley]

Originally Posted by mtf

They're better than the borrelli, brioni, talbots best-of-class, isaia 7fold, and attolini ties that I own.

And what are you basing this on? I imagine the quality of construction and fabrics of these ties are relatively top-notch already. What specifically are you considering when you make this assessment besides thickness of fabric or how nice the resulting knot is?

 

[joshman]

Originally Posted by hws

I have find there exist a contrary thing this same person have speak:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/f...5&postcount=18

This make a big confusion!

Now I not write nothing more to this topic for respect the request from m@T to me on page more early of this threak

Kabbaz isn't just a clown as he's known, he's a bit of a contortionist aswell.