Upset with Carpatina

[slovejoy]

So...about a year ago, I purchased a sample dress of the purple fantasy. I e-mailed before I purchased to make sure it was of good quality and that there was nothing wrong with it since it was cheaper. She e-mailed me back and assured me that it was of top quality and the only diffence between the sample and the production dress were shoes and a slight variation in color. I have no children so the dress was treated very delicatly and I noticed that part of the gold fabric has pulled out of the seving in the velcro which has made an unsighly bubble in the fabric. I e-mail Carpatina to let them know of the problem and offered to e-mail photos if needed. They e-mailed me back and said that they are already looking to change the gold fabric in that dress since I'm not the only one who has had problems with it. I emailed them back saying I was happy that they were fixing the problem and was wondering if, when the new dress comes out, I could exchange just the dress of my faulty dress (mine never came with shoes) for one of the redesigned dresses. They e-mail me back that I had bought a sample dress and paid less for it, and that would explain the imperfections of my dress [img]mad.gif[/img] . I was quite upset by this since I has specifically asked about the quality before I bought the dress and now she is telling me that the dress should be expected to have imperfections when I was assured that it did not! So here is what I e-mailed:

Carpatina-
Yes, I did purchase the sample, but was assured that it was of the same quality of the regualar dress, and the only difference was a slight variation in color and the lack of shoes. Had they told me at that time that the quality could be compromised or the dress could have imperfections, I assure you I would not have purchased the sample and I'm a bit upset that I was lied to and lead to believe that it was of the same quality when you tell me otherwise!


Thank-you
Shanna

What do you think? I guess I'm just used to AG's superior CS and was taken aback by the Carpatina e-mail. I don't think I'll be ordering from them in the future!

Shanna

[sthissell]

I must say that I'm surprised. I have a bunch of Capatina stuff and it is beautiful. I have never had problems and have always had a great experience with the company. I live in NH, where the company is based and my mother in law is a first grade teacher in Manchester. A little girl in her school had cancer and the school held an auction to help pay medical bills. I e-mailed Mihaela and she donated one of her lovely dolls. Unfortunately, the girl has since died, but I thought it was nice of Carpatina to donate to someone they didn't know.

I wouldn't let one bad experience sour you on a company. People have had bad experience with AG customer service as well. If you got a substantial discount, maybe it would be fair if you returned the dress and paid half of the difference or something.

I just love Carpatina and hate to see anyone upset at them.
Sarah

[ColonialGirl]

I had a bit of a problem with them too. I bought the celtic princess dress which is gorgeous, but the arm bands wouldn't fit over any of my girls' arms. PM or not. I e-mailed them, asking if they could exchange it and they said the dress was accurate and with gentle guidance, it would go on the arm. They said that every one was exactly alike so there was no chance of this one not fitting, but it simply didn't! We could get one arm very snuggly in the sleeve, but the other one was visually and significantly smaller. We ended up cutting off the bands to re-sew.

That said, I still adore Carpatina and have a huge wishlist. Sophia is still begging for the French Princess dress.

[auri]

Originally posted by ColonialGirl:
[QB]I had a bit of a problem with them too. I bought the celtic princess dress which is gorgeous, but the arm bands wouldn't fit over any of my girls' arms. PM or not. I e-mailed them, asking if they could exchange it and they said the dress was accurate and with gentle guidance, it would go on the arm. They said that every one was exactly alike so there was no chance of this one not fitting, but it simply didn't! We could get one arm very snuggly in the sleeve, but the other one was visually and significantly smaller. We ended up cutting off the bands to re-sew...[QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I love Carpatina and I've had good luck with everything I've bought from them. My Celtic Princess dress fits my Nellie perfectly but I'm surprised Carpatina wouldn't acknowledge that in any run of dresses--or anything else--some can get by that just aren't made right. It happens even with the best quality control.

To be fair, I'm sure many of us here remember the problems AG had with the most recent outfits for Felicity and Elizabeth. My Elizabeth's ball gown tore at the sleeve because it was too small and I saw numerous complaints here about similar problems with that item and with the tea dress. I spoke with a CS rep at AG who claimed they weren't hearing about any problems at the same time people here were venting about them night and day.

It's tough running a small business, which I gather is what Carpatina is, and they do seem to have very high standards of design and manufacturing, so hopefully this will all get straightened out.

[slovejoy]

I love Carpatina and I've had good luck with everything I've bought from them. My Celtic Princess dress fits my Nellie perfectly but I'm surprised Carpatina wouldn't acknowledge that in any run of dresses--or anything else--some can get by that just aren't made right. It happens even with the best quality control.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">but AG will always replace a faulty product whether it's common or not. I'm just outraged that Carpatina wouldn't even aknowledge the problem with the armbands, and lied to me with the purple fantasy dress. Like I said, I'm not impressed...I think I'll stick with AG! In my opinion their CS is unsurpassed!

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ June 12, 2006 09:29 PM: Message edited by: slovejoy ]</font>