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This is what it arrived like
This is a long one but a very important post so please stick with me here.
This is a a warning or a public service announcement for anyone thinking of ordering a brush from Artesania Romera (Gustavo Romera). I do not make this post to tell people not to buy from him but I think it's important to share my experience so people can make an informed decision for themselves when parting with their money. I also understand some people will have positive experiences of Artesania Romera and to save time and confusion I am not disputing those experiences I'm simply telling everyone my individual experience. I also hope this post does not fall foul of any forum rules and is taken in the spirit it is written, that is not to cause mischief but to inform and is allowed to be viewed freely by members regardless if Gustavo is a paid up vendor or not.
I ordered a 26mm Manchurian Rustic Barber Fan from Gustavo Romera on 28/03/16 and I had noted from the site that lead time could vary from up to 2 months or more and I had heard comments on the forums that he can take a while but his brushes were worth it in the end. As you will read , I'm a fairly patient man.
On the 26/04/16 ( 30 days since ordering and payment ) I contacted Gustavo with regards to an "in stock" brush that had appeared on his site for sale and I asked if I were to purchase it could he include it with the original "custom" order to save on postage , packaging etc as it was available immediately. He replied in less than an hour and said my original order would be ready and he would send both in a few days together.
During the next couple of days I received an unexpected Veterinary bill and decided not to purchase the 2nd brush. On the 29/04/16 I informed Gustavo of my decision and expressed my happiness that my original order would be shipped any day as he described when I inquired about buying another brush on top of my original "custom" order. I asked him to confirm this timeline. He did not reply to me so I gave him 7 days (06/05/16) and then contacted him again. I wasn't expecting a reply as quickly as I had all the time but I thought a week in this day and age of e-commerce was ample time to respond so I sent another email.
Now bare in mind at this point according to Gustavo the original brush should have been shipped about a week previous as he said. He contacted me the same day to tell me the brush that he said would be ready and shipped about 7 days previous was not ready or shipped but would be finished in another weeks time. This is when alarm bells start to ring, I can appreciate the whole Artisan thing but now he is either really confused and behind on the job or worse still he is just flat out telling me lies which would make him a liar. Anyway I thanked him for replying and wished him a good weekend.
Another 10 days passed with no further inquiry from me to allow him to get on with what he does. No shipping details either or information of at what stage the order that by this stage he said would have shipped 17 days previously. Now I understand this time frame is still in keeping with the 2 month lead time but the difference being he told me when I inquired about purchasing another "in stock" brush that it would be ready in a few days, If it's not at that stage yet just say so. Now for it to be ready to ship in a few days at that time (26/04/16) he would have needed to have had the brush coated with whatever sealant he uses and the knot glued and set for at least a day. So when he told me it would be ready to ship in a few days ( estimated shipping date would have been Friday 29th) it would have been turned etc already so what could explain the halt in progress and be put back by at least another 7 days according to him which was now 10 days later and it was still no further forward. All very suspect I thought at the time. After a couple of days he got back to me (18/05/17) with an apology and an assurance that my order was ready for shipping and would be posted out the next day. Great I thought.
I made no further contact with Gustavo aside to get the tracking number until my brush arrived on the 28/05/16 and I informed him of how happy I was with it although the black finish at the top of the brush ran off when in contact with water. He expressed his happiness at my happiness but made no mention of the black stain defect. By the 31/05/16 the brush was in a terrible condition. Not only had the black stain ran off so much that the poke marked design of the top of the brush started to look brittle and flaky. This was nothing compared to the rest of the handle , huge swathes of the finish had peeled off and I could no longer use it as I worried of water damage to the integrity of the wood. I told him of this and he expressed surprise and said he'd NEVER seen this before, something I would later find out from several customers of his was another lie.
Gustavo asked for me to post it back at his expense and he would repair it and by way of compensation he would give me 25% off my next purchase but I asked for a knot to be sent back with my repaired brush instead and he agreed if I would then cover the postage. I felt this was fair as the value of a 26mm Manchurian fan on his site was 41 Euros. The postage was between 10 and 15 Euros and with most of his brushes at about 120 Euros that added up for me and I agreed.
My brush arrived with Gustavo on 06/06/16 and I sent a an email on 10/06/16 to ask what he thought of the problem. He replied (11/06/16) that the brush was in treatment and would be ready in a week. At this stage he also said he made a mistake and he only had Silvertip or Manchurian bulb knots in stock so I agreed to take the Manchurian bulb. I emailed him again on the 17/06/16 (Friday) to see if it was ready as he said it would be. It would be posted on the following Monday he said. On the 22/06/16 I asked for the tracking details of the parcel and received a response on the 23/06/16 saying that a family member had to be taken to hospital and he has been out of town for a few days but he had left his brother in charge of shipping, furthermore he could not tell me if it had been posted until he got back home. I expressed sympathy for his situation and left it there despite his timeline not adding up.
Now this is the stage when I started to get quite annoyed with him. During the period of time when he said my brush would be posted right through to when he replied to say he was looking after a sick relative out of town he was advertising and posting on social media with brushes that were recently placed in the "in stock" section of the website and I knew we was in contact with people who were enquiring about buying from him. He could manage to do all this , upload pics , make comments and reply to people on Instagram ( a platform where we both followed eachother and he knew this) etc but he couldn't contact his brother to find out if he had shipped the brush or not? Bare in mind you would think he would want to sort my brush with no delay as I had to send it back to him for repair.
I informed him on the 26/06/16 (6 days from when it was supposed to be posted) that I sympathised with his family situation but if he could be very active on social media he could have found out if the parcel had been posted as he said it was all packaged up and ready to go. I also reminded him that he said it would only take a few days to remedy this problem and he had had it by this stage for 3 weeks. He responded that day with a sorry , I'll post it tomorrow.
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