Treegloo Cases

[King Luis]

HUGE delays????

do you understand how production/business works at all? Suppliers have to be contacted and these guys and portenzo - have to ramp up immediately to satisfy all the fanboys here who have no idea how production works. In the quantities these guys need, I'm sure suppliers are demanding a 6 - 8 week lead time. Portenzo communication is terrible, but I don't fault them for the delays - they exploded overnight, just their connection to the customer that is the problem...and TG is overloaded as well..the stupid move on all their parts is using FB as a communication tool for customer's demands/questions regarding ETA's - really stupid....You won't find Tiffany or Rolex doing that...

relax, kick back and buy a cheap case and be surprised when it comes...

or buy a zoom - I'm sure they have cases...

so your telling me that these case manufacturers weren't expecting thousands of orders to come in almost right away? portenzo when from a 2 week shipping time (i waiting 3 weeks before canceling my order) to now a 6-8 week ship time. i waited an extra week for my case to ship and they nothing. with treegloo they estimated 2-3 weeks when i ordered. it's been an extra week and it's only now going into production. my order should have gone into production a few days after i put my order in. now if there was material or manufacturing delays then that should have been communicated which it wasn't. customers who have already paid for a product shouldn't be left in the dark wondering if the company took their money and ran.
i understand (for the most part) how a new product has to be created, sold, built, and shipped. but the clients need to know whats going on.
i'm not asking about why ios doesn't do something that 95% of people won't use. i'm asking why my order has not been delivered in the time they said it was going to be in.

 

[SmittS]

so your telling me that these case manufacturers weren't expecting thousands of orders to come in almost right away? portenzo when from a 2 week shipping time (i waiting 3 weeks before canceling my order) to now a 6-8 week ship time. i waited an extra week for my case to ship and they nothing. with treegloo they estimated 2-3 weeks when i ordered. it's been an extra week and it's only now going into production. my order should have gone into production a few days after i put my order in. now if there was material or manufacturing delays then that should have been communicated which it wasn't. customers who have already paid for a product shouldn't be left in the dark wondering if the company took their money and ran.
i understand (for the most part) how a new product has to be created, sold, built, and shipped. but the clients need to know whats going on.
i'm not asking about why ios doesn't do something that 95% of people won't use. i'm asking why my order has not been delivered in the time they said it was going to be in.

why do you people complain so damn much?

This made me laugh.

 

[glen e]

i'm asking why my order has not been delivered in the time they said it was going to be in.

because they ******** up..plain and simple ..all of them, except pad and quill which limits the options big time (fine with me - I use one now) - and with a few minor tweaks a lot of this could have been avoided:

Here's how:
put a pop up box on the TG site that pops up when you order - right after you hit "BUY". It should say "due to production constraints and our promise of quality, ordering at this time will take a MINIMUM of X weeks. Do you want to continue?" And the X should be reviewed weekly for accuracy.

And then if you hit yes, they should ignore every email/call from a person until that time frame has expired, if he is just inquiring about delivery and no order changes.

That would stop this whining here...

And I stopped looking ofr the Portenzo when they wrote they were going dark so they were going to ship - which means they are so low staffed that they had to step away from their computers to pack and ship..this leads me to believe it's a nice website with Darin and Liz doing everything out of their garage - in all the time I have been in internet commerce,I have never heard of such a thing...and more importantly, admit it on the web....crazy...That was the day I ordered my octavo and TG...

 

[King Luis]

This made me laugh.

have you seen 99% of the threads in the regular iphone and ipad section? thats why i put that sig. they know what they are buying yet complain about the specs still.

because they ******** up..plain and simple ..all of them, except pad and quill which limits the options big time (fine with me - I use one now) - and with a few minor tweaks a lot of this could have been avoided:

Here's how:
put a pop up box on the TG site that pops up when you order - right after you hit "BUY". It should say "due to production constraints and our promise of quality, ordering at this time will take a MINIMUM of X weeks. Do you want to continue?" And the X should be reviewed weekly for accuracy.

And then if you hit yes, they should ignore every email/call from a person until that time frame has expired, if he is just inquiring about delivery and no order changes.

That would stop this whining here...

And I stopped looking ofr the Portenzo when they wrote they were going dark so they were going to ship - which means they are so low staffed that they had to step away from their computers to pack and ship..this leads me to believe it's a nice website with Darin and Liz doing everything out of their garage - in all the time I have been in internet commerce,I have never heard of such a thing...and more importantly, admit it on the web....crazy...That was the day I ordered my octavo and TG...

thats true. they should have done that.

 

[MacDaddy08]

HUGE delays????

do you understand how production/business works at all? Suppliers have to be contacted and these guys and portenzo - have to ramp up immediately to satisfy all the fanboys here who have no idea how production works. In the quantities these guys need, I'm sure suppliers are demanding a 6 - 8 week lead time. Portenzo communication is terrible, but I don't fault them for the delays - they exploded overnight, just their connection to the customer that is the problem...and TG is overloaded as well..the stupid move on all their parts is using FB as a communication tool for customer's demands/questions regarding ETA's - really stupid....You won't find Tiffany or Rolex doing that...

relax, kick back and buy a cheap case and be surprised when it comes...

or buy a zoom - I'm sure they have cases...

I understand how production works and I understand that lots of custom orders coming in all at once are going to take a lot of time. The problem I have right now with Treegloo is that they have promised me my cases were going to ship each of the last 3 weeks, and here I am with a shipping notice without anything being shipped. On top of that, they lied to me, which extremely pisses me off. They made up some BS excuse as to why my cases didn't ship Monday and told me they would go out Wednesday, which didn't happen either.

If they were just up front and honest and said "Due to the overwhelming demand for our custom cases and the time it takes to create and produce each custom order, shipping times have been delayed 3-4 weeks from the original estimate," I would have been fine. Instead, they have chosen to lie to customers and promise shipping times which never happen in an attempt to buy themselves more time. That's what pisses me off.

Like I said, the last email I received from them said I will receive my cases Saturday, this is the 5th time now they have told me when I will be getting my cases. If Monday gets here and I still don't have cases and I'm given another excuse and another day when I'll receive them, I'm cancelling. This could have been completely avoided if they were just up front and honest from the beginning.

 

[MacDaddy08]

Just received another response from Treegloo:

"To insure Saturday delivery, you are getting a new tracking number. Your cases are shipping out tonight and you will receive them tomorrow."

We'll see if it happens, this is their last chance.

 

[King Luis]

Just received another response from Treegloo:

"To insure Saturday delivery, you are getting a new tracking number. Your cases are shipping out tonight and you will receive them tomorrow."

We'll see if it happens, this is their last chance.

shipping on saturday? aren't post offices closed on the weekend?

 

[MathRulz]

shipping on saturday? aren't post offices closed on the weekend?

US Postal Service Express mail is delivered 365 days a year.

 

[r6girl]

Mine arrived today finally! My first impressions are that it's nice overall but not as tightly constructed as the Portenzo or DODOcase (both of which I owned for the iPad 1). The kinetic latch is nice and I'm glad I chose it over the elastic strap. The cut-out for the sleep/wake switch is way off but still usable.

I'm working on a more complete review (that I'll post in a new thread) and will also do a video review of it.

 

[MacDaddy08]

shipping on saturday? aren't post offices closed on the weekend?

They use FedEx

 

[cruisn76]

I am running on a short fuse with Treegloo also. I ordered a very standard case without custom add-ons on April 3. I have not yet received a shipping confirmation and when I emailed them this was their response:
"We will look into what happened to your orders, as they definitely should have shipped beforehand."

I did not receive any shipment info prior to this response. Treegloo has been great in response but not of late. If they feel the pressure they should hire a extra set of hands to help for the time being. Getting your product out on time is much more important than holding off on hiring some extra help. But I have a feeling their suppliers are holding out on them and causing all the delays

 

[SmittS]

Blaming vendors and suppliers is not an excuse for ANY manufacturer. I work for a billion dollar manufacturing company and we run in to supply chain issues from time to time, but you never sole source any material and you always forecast and adjust your materials accordingly. If you run into material shortfalls and orders get back-logged, you ramp up production accordingly to maintain lead times. Sometimes there are global supply chain issues that are unavoidable (i.e. certain bulk plastics reliant on oil supply) but I guarantee that leather or wood are not materials that fall into that category. If and when I get my case, I may be happy with the quality, but Treegloo will not get my repeat business unless the quality really floors me (and from what I've seen from the pictures, they won't).

 

[Aqua Bliss]

Blaming vendors and suppliers is not an excuse for ANY manufacturer. I work for a billion dollar manufacturing company and we run in to supply chain issues from time to time, but you never sole source any material and you always forecast and adjust your materials accordingly. If you run into material shortfalls and orders get back-logged, you ramp up production accordingly to maintain lead times. Sometimes there are global supply chain issues that are unavoidable (i.e. certain bulk plastics reliant on oil supply) but I guarantee that leather or wood are not materials that fall into that category. If and when I get my case, I may be happy with the quality, but Treegloo will not get my repeat business unless the quality really floors me (and from what I've seen from the pictures, they won't).

Treegloo is probably composed of 2 guys and a girl assembling cases from their living room. Their supply chain consists of home depot and the local arts and crafts store.

I just remembered I think I have their phone number. If they don't write me back by Monday and include my tracking number, I'm gonna use it...

 

[Sand Man]

so your telling me that these case manufacturers weren't expecting thousands of orders to come in almost right away? QUOTE]

I am just curious what you do for a living? I have been in production and retail shipping for close to 20 years and if you are producing CUSTOM cases you are not putting every order into production as soon as the order is recieved. These guys probably went from 100 cases a week to a 1000 and like someone else stated on here they were probably just 2-3 people performing the tasks.
I agree forcasting plays a big part, but that only works if you know that you have the contract. When the companies I worked for had NEW buissness coming on they had a clue of how much to expect, and then purchased product and hired employees accordingly. You cannot just hire people with the anticipation of the buissness and then hope and pray that they choose your custom case.
Communication with some of these companies are better than others from what I have seen, but they ALL seem to have trouble from time to time fullfilling there promises.

 

[kschles]

I know Treegloo has fallen behind in it's customer service. This is part of a Treegloo post from their Facebook page in answer to someone complaining about not getting a response to their e-mail:

"Tomika, we really appreciate your enthusiasm, however you have emailed 17 times over the last 21 days asking for updates on something custom we have not confirmed we can build and we have answered every one of them as quickly as possible. The frame concept you are requesting requires us to stop production to fabricate a one-off unit."

I really believe they are doing the best they can.

 

[sarends]

I can't believe you could build anything with any degree of customization for under $100. It is very commendable that semi custom products like the Treegloo and the Portenzo even exist.

It is a big investment and risky for anyone without a significant balance sheet like Apple has, to make for any small company to ramp up ahead of time with the hopes they would be one of the ones people begin ordering hundreds and thousands of cases from.

Apple will sell their millions of iPads but the accessory market will be doled out to hundreds and hundreds of little vendors. The difference in financial capability to ramp up for production between Apple and an Apple accessory vendor is indescribably different.

I am amazed at the level of interest generated in these forums (myself included) for those who want a cool house for their very cool iPad. The problem is the manufacturer of the cool iPad is so cash rich it is silly and the vendor for the iPad accessory we are all clamoring for is cash and resource constrained like most any small business.

 

[Alaerian]

I know Treegloo has fallen behind in it's customer service. This is part of a Treegloo post from their Facebook page in answer to someone complaining about not getting a response to their e-mail:

"Tomika, we really appreciate your enthusiasm, however you have emailed 17 times over the last 21 days asking for updates on something custom we have not confirmed we can build and we have answered every one of them as quickly as possible. The frame concept you are requesting requires us to stop production to fabricate a one-off unit."

I really believe they are doing the best they can.

How is that indicative that they have "fallen behind" in their customer service? If anything, it shows that Tomika is an annoying customer that they would most likely prefer to simply not have as a customer in the first place. I don't blame them for that at all, considering he sounds like a royal pain in the ass.

It DOES show that they follow up and are willing to take on custom orders, even though they are swamped already.

 

[gus6464]

I was told they would for sure ship my case by the end of this week and have yet to receive a notice of any kind. I just emailed them to ask about it and if it has not yet shipped to go ahead and cancel my order. It has been over a month since I ordered and they have been pushing my shipping date back fpr three weeks straight now. Not really mad though just disappointed more than anything else.

 

[MacDaddy08]

I received may 2 cases today from Treegloo! I love them!

 

[kschles]

How is that indicative that they have "fallen behind" in their customer service? If anything, it shows that Tomika is an annoying customer that they would most likely prefer to simply not have as a customer in the first place. I don't blame them for that at all, considering he sounds like a royal pain in the ass.

It DOES show that they follow up and are willing to take on custom orders, even though they are swamped already.

I agree with you. A number of people are complaining that Treegloo used to respond to e-mails right away, but now it takes longer; as well as longer to receive their cases. Like Portenzo, I think Treegloo is getting overwhelmed. Having someone send 17 e-mails in 21 days shows that some folks are simply out of control. Dealing with such people slows up the process for everyone.

 

[sarends]

How is that indicative that they have "fallen behind" in their customer service? If anything, it shows that Tomika is an annoying customer that they would most likely prefer to simply not have as a customer in the first place. I don't blame them for that at all, considering he sounds like a royal pain in the ass.

It DOES show that they follow up and are willing to take on custom orders, even though they are swamped already.

I could not agree with you more. A company, with the size and resources of Treegloo, simply cannot afford to give the kind of customer service and responsiveness that people are expecting. I read the same thing in the Portenzo thread. Lots and lots of people expecting the level of service if as if they had just ordered a $10,000 or even a $1,000 product.

I remember when Honda 1st started selling the Accord, delivery times were months and months beyond what was promised. I cancelled my order after waiting 6 months, and as a young man, I was very irate at the dealer and at Honda. But, what I didn't understand then, I understand now, having had t ime to start several businesses of my own.

Even though the Civic had been successful, they simply could Not predict the orders they would receive for the 1st Accord.

 

[King Luis]

regarding cancelation. if you paid through google or paypal, (i think those are the only options) is there a maximum time that can pass before they cannot return your money? i remember with ebay is was 45 days or something like that.

 

[Aqua Bliss]

regarding cancelation. if you paid through google or paypal, (i think those are the only options) is there a maximum time that can pass before they cannot return your money? i remember with ebay is was 45 days or something like that.

PayPal is 45 days as well. That should be plenty of time (at least for TG). If you haven't received it by the 43rd day, I'd file with PayPal.

 

[outphase]

I agree with you. A number of people are complaining that Treegloo used to respond to e-mails right away, but now it takes longer; as well as longer to receive their cases. Like Portenzo, I think Treegloo is getting overwhelmed. Having someone send 17 e-mails in 21 days shows that some folks are simply out of control. Dealing with such people slows up the process for everyone.

Ironically, that 17 in 21 person had never actually ordered.

 

[gus6464]

Well I got my tracking email today for my case. Will be here on Wednesday according to fedex. This is moment is kinda bittersweet after all the waiting but I guess I will see if it was worth it.