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Andar poor customer support & poor quality

C

CaramelSky

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2022
108
86
Purchased my first Andar product because I was curious about the hype on the forum. Got an Aspen with action button in navy after pre-ordering and waiting 2 months.

Case came with an obvious defect in the leather, a raised bump kind of like a pimple sticking out. Its obvious to see and you can clearly feel it while using the device. Andar acknowledged this and said it is indeed a defective case.

I’m no stranger to leather and understand they have different wears since it’s an organic material, though this is not right.

I tried contacting Andar support, and they have a great habit of just not listening. They kept dancing around the issue and copy pasting standard responses without even reading my emails. It took multiple emails of me saying the same thing for them to understand.

1-2 weeks later of saying “we’re looking into it”, they said they can’t provide a refund with a shipping label and I’ll have to send it back myself. It took them that long to say that, really?

Really frustrating that I waited this long, pay a tonne for shipping here, get a defective item, and have to pay another fortune to send it back. It’s just money down the drain. Anyway fine, I’ll pay return shipping. Then you’re hit with a $5 USD “handling fee” you have to fork out to initiate the return. Lol.

I understand paying return shipping would usually be expected especially if it’s a change of mind return, but Australia’s consumer law protections state that manufacturers have to pay for return shipping for defective items.

I’ve learnt my lesson, not buying from Andar again. Highly recommend looking at other leather cases, or just praying you don’t need to reach out to their abysmal customer support.

TLDR; got a defective case that Andar acknowledged was defective. Making me pay return shipping to the US + a handling fee despite them sending out a defective item, as well as their support not reading the emails and copying pasting standard responses.
 
Sorry to hear, I have once had to contact them, similar issue actually with leather sticking out around a button. But they had a replacement case out the next day.
 
Lobwedgephil said:
Sorry to hear, I have once had to contact them, similar issue actually with leather sticking out around a button. But they had a replacement case out the next day.
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Very unusual. They just stopped replying as well. I’ll be buying a leather case from Bare now anyway, less than impressed with Andar. Way overrated IMO.
 
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Reactions: Lobwedgephil
CaramelSky said:
Purchased my first Andar product because I was curious about the hype on the forum. Got an Aspen with action button in navy after pre-ordering and waiting 2 months.

Case came with an obvious defect in the leather, a raised bump kind of like a pimple sticking out. Its obvious to see and you can clearly feel it while using the device. Andar acknowledged this and said it is indeed a defective case.

I’m no stranger to leather and understand they have different wears since it’s an organic material, though this is not right.

I tried contacting Andar support, and they have a great habit of just not listening. They kept dancing around the issue and copy pasting standard responses without even reading my emails. It took multiple emails of me saying the same thing for them to understand.

1-2 weeks later of saying “we’re looking into it”, they said they can’t provide a refund with a shipping label and I’ll have to send it back myself. It took them that long to say that, really?

Really frustrating that I waited this long, pay a tonne for shipping here, get a defective item, and have to pay another fortune to send it back. It’s just money down the drain. Anyway fine, I’ll pay return shipping. Then you’re hit with a $5 USD “handling fee” you have to fork out to initiate the return. Lol.

I understand paying return shipping would usually be expected especially if it’s a change of mind return, but Australia’s consumer law protections state that manufacturers have to pay for return shipping for defective items.

I’ve learnt my lesson, not buying from Andar again. Highly recommend looking at other leather cases, or just praying you don’t need to reach out to their abysmal customer support.

TLDR; got a defective case that Andar acknowledged was defective. Making me pay return shipping to the US + a handling fee despite them sending out a defective item, as well as their support not reading the emails and copying pasting standard responses.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad experience.

My experience with then has been very different. I’ve had to email them a few times and on each occasion I’ve had a response back from anything between 3 mins and 4 hours. They’re always super helpful and fix everything immediately.
 
I've always had such a good experience with Andar's CS! They have the best CS out of all the case companies I've dealt with, imo.
 
maxrest said:
I've always had such a good experience with Andar's CS! They have the best CS out of all the case companies I've dealt with, imo.
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They must’ve recently dropped their game then because they hardly reply now. Can not recommend them in the slightest, not even being harsh about it.

I’ve had general interactions with Caudabe, Moft, and Bare and they’ve all been great. Andar has been atrocious and they should be ashamed that they’d admit to a defective product, and then charge you for a remedy.
 
CaramelSky said:
They must’ve recently dropped their game then because they hardly reply now. Can not recommend them in the slightest, not even being harsh about it.

I’ve had general interactions with Caudabe, Moft, and Bare and they’ve all been great. Andar has been atrocious and they should be ashamed that they’d admit to a defective product, and then charge you for a remedy.
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Hmmmm. I emailed them yesterday to check something on a product and had a pretty detailed response within 2 mins. I’m using hello@andar.com
 
For my recent damaged order, I emailed their support email and got a response later the next day. Sent the requested information back about a day and a half ago, and haven't heard back yet.

I did see mention on their site for responses to take 24-48 hours.

EDIT: I received a response later in the day, so just about 48 hours for the second response.
 
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InsulinJunkie72 said:
For my recent damaged order, I emailed their support email and got a response later the next day. Sent the requested information back about a day and a half ago, and haven't heard back yet.

I did see mention on their site for responses to take 24-48 hours.

EDIT: I received a response later in the day, so just about 48 hours for the second response.
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What was their remedy?
 
InsulinJunkie72 said:
It was a damaged Red Aspen for the Pro Max 15, which they don't have any stock of, so basically a return was all that could be done. Figured as much, but reached out just in case.
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Did they cover the handling fee for the return? And was shipping back free? Albeit I am overseas so I get if shipping is free for US users
 
CaramelSky said:
Did they cover the handling fee for the return? And was shipping back free? Albeit I am overseas so I get if shipping is free for US users
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Yes, they provided a US Post Office prepaid shipping label. As best I can tell, I'll only be out the original shipping costs ($5-$6 or so), which is expected.
 
Thanks for clarifying about the return shipping - free prepaid label is definitely a plus! Makes the whole process a bit less painful, especially compared to dealing with overseas return costs.
 
I just got an email about my return.

They couldn't give a full refund on the damaged case because it had scratches and signs of patina. I had the case on for about five minutes, and it already had scratches out of the box.

Anyways, I told them to proceed with the partial refund (rather than the full value in store credit), just to wash my hands of this whole thing, and move on.

Never again, Andar. Never again...
 
To Andar's credit, I just got notification that they processed the partial refund, so they worked very quickly on that front.

I am slightly salty that I ended up paying $15 for the privilege of receiving a damaged case I didn't keep.

EDIT: On a further reading of what they sent me, I'm wondering if they dinged me for the case being damaged - even though that's why I sent it back! Their support even told me to do so - after they had requested, and I had sent, photos of the case. Couldn't exchange, because they had none left.

I am reaching out because we have received your return for the Aspen case. Unfortunately, there seems to be some wear onto the product and this is not eligible for a full refund. In order to return a product for a full refund, the product does need to be in unused and new condition. Since the case is showing obvious signs of use such as scratches and patina on the edges, we are not able to do a full refund for your return. Usually, in a case such as this we would not accept a return at all, but since you have already sent the case back to us we would like to give you two options.
Click to expand...
 
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