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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
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PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 7:11 am    Post subject: Any experience with revival.us (Chivalry Bookshelf)?         Reply with quote

Just curious if anyone has had any experience with the armor produced by Brian Price at revival.us. I ordered a pair of hourglass gauntlets in the 'bargello' style from his site and was told they'd ship in about 2 weeks. Well, that was in August. Needless to say it's November now. At first, Brian was good about emailing me when I'd ask about my order. But I kept getting responses to the effect of 'As soon as they're back from the heat treaters I'll send them on their way, any day now.'

Any day now has stretched in to months, and I'm starting to get anxious. They're not cheap, and naturally my money is already in their bank. I also have received no reply to my last inquiry made over a week ago, expressing my concern. I'm wondering if this is normal for them. I told him I have no problem waiting several months for quality work, but I would of course appreciate being told that it will take a few months rather than be told a couple days every couple weeks to no avail, which I think is reasonable and fair. So, has anyone else had a similar experience or am I the exception to the rule?
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Cory Winslow




Location: Salisbury, Maryland
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Reading list: 5 books

Posts: 30

PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 7:33 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I ordered a pair of leather gloves from there about 3 years ago and about 6 months ago received a notification of shipping for them. I have not received the gloves yet...

I wish you better luck than I've had.

-Cory

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Brian K.
Industry Professional



Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Joined: 01 Jan 2008

Posts: 727

PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 8:22 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've never had a problem with them, and have always had timely shipping.
Brian Kunz
www.dbkcustomswords.com
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Jean Thibodeau




Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Joined: 15 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 12:48 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Brian K. wrote:
I've never had a problem with them, and have always had timely shipping.


No problem with them either but it was for books and not something that might have manufacturing delays by them or from whatever maker that makes them for them ....... who knows ? Sometimes these things are just bad luck with an item jinxed with a series of SNAFUs and the embarrassed vendor is honestly trying to fill the order but is having problems himself with broken promises from his supplier/maker.

If it's a pattern and it happens a lot for many different people then the problem may be a more generalized one ?

O.K. lets assume that they are really doing their best here, but things keep going wrong and causing delays, you can continue to wait but you should also ask for your money back and cancel the order if they make another last delivery date promise and miss it ! Their reaction to a cancellation and sending your money back should tell you something ! They may be missing delivery times due to no fault of their own but they should still be able to send your money back ASAP if you request it.

( The comment above is just my general opinion about how any vendor should react to a request for a refund and not specific to this case, but a good vendor should either deliver or refund without being difficult about it if they expect to ever get my business more than once. Wink )

You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Joe Fults




Location: Midwest
Joined: 02 Sep 2003

Posts: 3,646

PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 1:02 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

My experiences with them and their products have been mixed.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Craig Shackleton




Location: Ottawa, Canada
Joined: 20 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 1:42 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Your experience is not unique. Here are two links to reviews. Good luck.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewto...ht=revival
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewto...ht=revival

Ottawa Swordplay
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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Reading list: 5 books

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Posts: 301

PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 2:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Craig Shackleton wrote:
Your experience is not unique. Here are two links to reviews. Good luck.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewto...ht=revival
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewto...ht=revival


Thanks for those links. I tried to do some research prior to ordering but hadn't come across those. I seem to be stuck in the same situation as link #2 above. Great.... I think I'll give them a little bit more time before going the refund / dispute charge for unshipped goods route. But needless to say, regardless of how good these gauntlets turn out, based on customer service alone, I highly doubt I will ever order from them again. I guess I had been spoiled by the customer service Allan provides at merctailor, as he's been the main armorer I've had the pleasure of doing business with. Revival.us is a full 180 out from what I've experienced with Allan.
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Bill Grandy
myArmoury Team


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PostPosted: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 4:43 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've also had mixed experiences. Once upon a time I was a big fan of the company, but as time goes on they've had more and more questionable business practices, from unkept promises to what can only be described as lying to the customer. I've been charged for things that supposedly were in stock which never came after several months, though to their credit they did always refund the money when I demanded it. I have a friend who ordered some armor from them that not only took months beyond the promised time, but when she got them, they were pieces of junk that you see on Ebay, and not the armor that was pictured on the site. When confronted, they claimed that they'd given her a free "upgraded" armor (which was a load of garbage). They did allow her to return it for a refund at least.
HistoricalHandcrafts.com
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P. Cha




PostPosted: Sun 07 Nov, 2010 12:50 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

That's not good to hear. I was thinking of ordering some armor bits from them.
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Gregory J. Liebau




Location: Dinuba, CA
Joined: 27 Nov 2004

Posts: 669

PostPosted: Sun 07 Nov, 2010 10:17 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've purchased from them online and on-site at SCA events. The shoes I've got have been of interesting quality, but overall I've been pleased. I got shipped a totally wrong size of padded coif at one point that didn't even look like the picture on their site, and was refunded but I had to pay for shipping it back, which I thought was a bit silly considering it wasn't my fault at all. I'll probably continue to deal with them, but only at events. I've heard too many horror stories about dealing with them through their website.

-Gregory
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Dave Smith





Joined: 15 Mar 2007

Posts: 30

PostPosted: Sun 07 Nov, 2010 3:24 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I can only say that I've been pretty happy with them. Communication has always been good, and I've been pleased with the products received each time. That being said, our dealings have been largely face to face each time. At any rate, I'd still like to give them props for making me a satisfied customer.
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Michael R. Black





Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Likes: 1 page

Posts: 180

PostPosted: Sun 07 Nov, 2010 5:40 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've bought items of theirs from the online site on two occasions. No problems. It has been 2-3 years though, so maybe things have changed?
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Gary Venable




Location: Kansas City
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
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Reading list: 16 books

Posts: 133

PostPosted: Mon 08 Nov, 2010 8:20 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I have purchased several small items. Gloves, Knives, etc. and all have arrived in a timely manor and were as described/shown on the site, so no issues with them.
Gary
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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
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PostPosted: Tue 09 Nov, 2010 12:53 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Update for those interested:

So I emailed Brian about a week and a half ago and received no reply. So I re-inquired via email a couple days ago and still got no reply. So today I called their toll-free number. I was told that the gauntlet parts have all returned from the heat-treaters as of yesterday and should be assembled and shipped soon. Keeping my fingers crossed! I'm still a little annoyed that I don't get responses to my emails, but any news is better than no news, so we'll see what happens.
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Randall Pleasant




Location: Flower Mound, Texas
Joined: 24 Aug 2003

Posts: 333

PostPosted: Tue 09 Nov, 2010 1:52 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

My experience is the same as Dave Smith's experience. I too have had good very service from them but that has all been face to face since they are just three miles down the road. I do know that Brian Price has been heavily engage in writing his PhD dissertation in the past months, which may or may not have had an affect upon his business.
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Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team


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PostPosted: Wed 01 Dec, 2010 1:17 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I have just had a positive experience with them. After this thread started, i checked out their site for the first time in a long time. I found a bone-handled knife I liked and sent them an email to see if it was in stock. The reply to that email did take 11 days, but it was in stock. I ordered the knife Saturday and received it today.

Obviously a tiny in-stock item isn't the same as custom armour, but my experience was positive.

Happy

ChadA

http://chadarnow.com/
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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Reading list: 5 books

Spotlight topics: 1
Posts: 301

PostPosted: Wed 01 Dec, 2010 4:52 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Unfortunately, as you can see above, I called them around 9 November on the phone and they told me the armor was back from the heat-treaters, and ready for assembly and shipping. It's been almost a month since then, and no word from them. I'm going to call them again and inquire, but I think it's just about getting to that point for me where I'm going to ask for a full refund, because I honestly don't know what to believe from them. I've literally been told any day now since August. Working with them has left a sour taste in my mouth.
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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Reading list: 5 books

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PostPosted: Mon 13 Dec, 2010 12:22 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Update 12/13/2010

Still no gauntlets... and no replies to any emails. I called them again today, and talked to a live person and was once again told 'They're working on them as we speak and should be out the door by the end of the week.'

Haven't heard that before... We'll see, I'll let you all know what happens!
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Andrea Scattolin




Location: verona-italy
Joined: 15 Nov 2008
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Reading list: 1 book

Posts: 84

PostPosted: Mon 13 Dec, 2010 4:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I have bought from this company, 3 pair of leather embroydered gaunlets,plus,some rivets,and other small accessories,in 2 different times.
All went well,no problem with custom,and all received in Italy pretty fast,all arrived both times,in 10-15 days,but obviously,we are talkin about products at stock.
Andrea
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Ian S LaSpina




Location: Virginia, US
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Reading list: 5 books

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Posts: 301

PostPosted: Sun 02 Jan, 2011 6:34 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I have finally received my hourglass gauntlets and am rather pleased with them. They fit extremely well, and are very comfortable to wear and grip things in. There are some historical inaccuracies in the design, but I knew this before purchase so I wouldn't complain about that. Overall, I'm happy with the pieces themselves, but still dissatisfied with the process of getting them. Just wanted to provide some closure to this thread. They can be seen in the Show Us Your Kits and Harnesses Thread
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