I've been waiting over TWO MONTHS now for my centercaps from Aesthetic Creations. About a month ago (after waiting over a month) I did receive some center caps from them, but they were the wrong size (and the size was clearly indicated in my order). I was told they'd whip up some more (no apologies mind you - and could you mail the old ones back? without offering to pay for the return shipping). Now I'm still waiting. I was told he'd ship them last week, but I haven't heard a peep from him, despite many emails.

I'm all for the great community of MINI owners, and I hate to speak poorly of anyone, but this is no way to run a business.

If anyone is thinking of ordering anything from them, I have to advise you to be careful. I wish I ordered my centercaps from GrafxWerks. I've heard only good things about them and I know I'd have them by now.

Ugh. Feels good to vent. It'd feel even better to have my centercaps.

 

I don't know your situation and your gripes may or may not be justified. That's not for me to judge. However, in situations like this, I've found that relying on email is one of THE WORST ways to resolve issues. With all of the spam/email eating filters in today's electronic world...pick up the phone and do it the old fashioned way. You might get better results.

My $0.02 worth.

 

The thing is, he did reply to a few messages a while ago, and he stated that my replacements caps were going to ship last week. But they apparently did not. And he hasn't gotten in touch with me since. Plus from the responses I received before - not even an insincere apology for sending me the wrong size, and asking me to pay to return the items he sent incorrectly - it's all left me angry. Someone running a business can not blame spam filters for not replying to a customer's email. I never have. And I don't feel like calling because it might just make me angrier.

 

I'd Just give him a call. He is a nice guy and have dealt with him before.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I don't think it's common however, based on my experience and other comments posted by others on this board.

I've ordered from them 3 times and have received my product promptly and exactly as ordered. I know that doesn't help you one bit, but knowing how one unhappy customer can outweigh the positive experience of 10 or more customers, I thought it worth stating for the record my positive experiences.

Hopefully you will get your issue resolved soon and to your satisfaction.

 

I don't know the details of your order, nor do I care. What I do know is that AC is a 2 person operation: Mike (design, marketing, production, installation) and Hannah (business manager, website stuff, general all-around sweetheart). Hannah , you may be more involved, but I'm only saying what I know.
Domed items take some time to make. There is very little "off the shelf" stuff. Each order is usually custom made per the customer's request. This takes time. If Mike said your order would ship last week, have you really given enough time for it to arrive?
If it shipped Thursday or Friday, AZ to PA by Monday is a little on the impossible side.
I've ordered from AC several times; I'm usually given a timeframe (based on their schedule, not mine) and have recieved my orders within that timeframe. Always pleased with the results.
I will continue to order from AC because I understand what goes in to the items and I like their work.
The Nordstrom mentality (I want exactly what I want, and I want it right now) doesn't work with every online business. Sometimes you have to wait for the best results. I have been very satisfied with my dealings with AC.

 

I just placed an order with them yesterday and received an email today from Hannah stating my pcs have shipped. So far so good. Give them a call.

 

He made some custom carbon fiber, magnetic chip guards for me. This was right at the time of the MOTD, so he warned me he would be slammed. When I didn't hear back from him after he returned, I called, got him right away and he had them in the mail (priority which he picked up) the next day. Try the olde fashioned way, the phone, and see if that helps. My dealings with him have ben first class.

Gebne

 

I had a great experience with Mike also. I ordered some items right before AMVIV, and he responded and said that he would get to them after he returned. And in keeping with his word, about 2 weeks after I had my items.
Calling people and having that personal touch never hurt....

 

Hey I again don't know the details of your dealings with Mike, but I have nothing but great things to say about him, he is a busy guy. I have purchased several graphics from him, always from e-mail. Keep an open mind, he may be at a MINI meet or possibly vacation, but he works hard and is always willing to please.

 

I'm a full time artist doing art shows. I have no website because people who shop online and at regular stores have no idea how hard it is to fit in custom work, do events, run the business, and try to have a life! Call him before you post such a nasty venting and putting a blotch on his reputation that may not be deserved. We all make mistakes afterall. Will you really feel better about your venting when those caps arrive (maybe today - maybe not) and they are fantastic on your car?

 

I hear what you are saying, Tancho, but, as a customer, those issues aren't our problem. I say that as a former small business owner. Sometimes thinghs do slip through the cracks though. The big issue, that repeats itself, is the failure to communicate. Most customers can understand backlogs and errors. It's the failure to communicate that's the problem. Having said that, my experience with AC has been great. I have only ordered the airbag sticker covers, but they responded immediately and fantastically to my "issue." I have also had an ongoing e-mail discussion with them regarding potential stripe purchases. It seems ronmichael's issue is isolated and not indicative of the way AC works.

 

Unfortunately, I have had a less than pleasant experience from AC and have refrained from posting because I'm trying very hard to be patient and understanding, but it's wearing thin.

I ordered pink puffy S side and back markers from AC the end of March and was given the impression that I would receive them prior to MOTD. When I hadn't received them a month later, I PM'd him and asked him what the progress was and I was informed that all the pink had been used on another project (probably one that pays more than my $11) and that I could pick out my own pink at MOTD. I was obviously disappointed and felt that a quick PM or email would have been nice to let me know that it would take longer than expected. When I went to the booth at MOTD, I felt I was treated very rudely by Mike, but understood that he was extremely busy as most of the vendors there were.

I was told on May 14 that he would get to them by the end of the week.

I pm'd him again on June 5 and was told that it would be to me by last week and I still haven't received them.

Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed in the lack of communication on his part... my having to prompt him on all requests of status is ridiculous... and I will be shocked if I actually receive the S's at all at this point.

I understand that I did place a custom order and he was more than fair in only charging me the stock price for the custom order, but I feel that having to wait this long for something is obsurd.

 

It sounds like you are criticizing me for actually expecting them to deliver what I asked for within some kind of reasonable time frame.

I didn't order from them with a Nordstrom mentality. I don't mind waiting, and I understand how long the process takes to make a centercap (Mike explained it in an email). If I had received the correct center caps after my first month of waiting, I'd have been happy. If I'd have received prompt responses and promises to deliver a replacement quickly after the first mistake, I'd have been happy. Each minor delay or mistake in and of itself did not upset me; all of them together and a lack of common courtesy have just annoyed the hell out of me.

It took a little over 3 months for BMW to build and ship and deliver my MINI; should I have to wait that long for a set of centercaps?

 

I must say ron, you got a good point there

 

Tancho, I've waited over two months! I thought long and hard before I posted this issue publically. I've given them lots of time to deliver.

I order ALL THE TIME from online, small, private individual businesses that produce custom or special products. I am a small business owner myself. I don't expect the items to ship out the next day in a nice custom box like Amazon. I do expect them to be courteous and respectful and communicative.

It is quite easy for small businesses to thrive on the internet. Just communicate well with your customers. Manage expectations - be very clear on your site about how long it takes to make and deliver the product. If you've suddenly got a billion orders and are totally back logged, or if you are going away on vacation, just post something on your site to warn people. Yes, some people may still be annoyed, but not because of anything you did or didn't do.

If you don't want the buyer to see you as just another strip mall store selling generic junk shipped overnight, then don't treat your customers like they are just an order number.

 

I've had good dealings with everyone at AC as well, but that still doesn't help this customer feel better about their order. I've heard some things here and there here on the forums (totally unsubstantianted -- might just be lack of sleep -- that happens to me) that seem to indicate that he's just swamped right now, but again, I know that doesn't make you feel any better.

For what it's worth, I'm sorry it happened to you and I'm sure that a vendor of Mike's reputation will do what he can to make things right.

I honestly don't think that he takes the attitude of "customers are just generic order numbers" (at least I never felt that way) - I think it's just that this is the busy season where lots of people come out of the woodwork and do their MODs and they got swamped. I've ordered a few other things form NAM vendors since the Dragon and they, too, took a bit longer than I'm used to to fulfill my orders. Some have been better than others about communicating the delay back to me, but I unerstand that some of these operations are literally a family affair with minimal staff, and so I try to be patient. I don't think it's on purpose...

I completely understand the desire to have an online order ASAP - after all, you probably spent days or weeks deciding on just the right design prior to pulling the trigger and ordering - and having to wait even longer is indeed frustrating, but lots ofpeople here really have had great dealings in the past with AC and I hope that all this works out ASAP.

 

one of the reasons why i have not ordered my CF bonnet stripes... they
look kinda cool though.

 

"I've found that relying on email is one of THE WORST ways to resolve issues. With all of the spam/email eating filters in today's electronic world...pick up the phone and do it the old fashioned way. You might get better results."

"The Nordstrom mentality (I want exactly what I want, and I want it right now) doesn't work with every online business. Sometimes you have to wait for the best results."

"Calling people and having that personal touch never hurt.... "

"...Keep an open mind, he may be at a MINI meet or possibly vacation..."

"Call him before you post such a nasty venting and putting a blotch on his reputation..."

First let me say I have never been a customer of AC. It appears many of you have and some of you haven't. It appears some may have missed the point of both of our fellow MINI owners who have posted their frustrations with AC...it sure wasn't about a time element that caused the frustrations...it was the degree of inititive and lack of communications from AC to these members, the customer.

We all want to make things so complicated sometimes when it's usually the simplest of things to do...AC, email or call your customers when you know you can't do what you told them you would do. Most of us will understand but some might need to make different arrangements for a thousand different reasons. Always let your customer decide if a change in plans still meets their needs. If it doesn't then they have a choice...hang on or go elsewhere...but it should always be the customer's choice.

I've been a self-employed businessperson for over 28 years selling a product my customers could get just about anywhere. It's what I give them at no extra charge that convenences them to buy from me over and over again...service, service that they can't get anywhere else. I fill a need they can't get satisfied anywhere else. And it isn't by luck I haven't gotten my last customer yet.

Call

 

Ron, you are absolutely right. You, Mrs Skurvy and Call all make excellent points about communication. My apologies for questioning your patience. The rest of my opinion of AC still stands.

 

Micheal is a e nice guy but that doesn't help to get your order any earlier. He is so busy he has a hard time getting orders out on time. I waited almost a month for my boot stripes and when I called him he said he would get them out right away. He did, the only problem was, they were black instead of white. 15 days later I recieved the white stripes. My Brother in law had a worse exprerience, it took more than two months to receive his boot stripes..

Oh well, Micheal is a nice guy but he better get his act together!

Micheal, are you listening?

 

Being a friend of Mike. Give the man a break. He works tirelessly to create unique and totally original items for the mini community. If you could see his house its a shrine to everything minis (and transformers, and dragons, and thrash metal). Not only is he producing but he personally designs the majority of the items. Being a commerical artist myself, that takes time.

I can understand that you can get frustrated with not getting your items on time, and yes things can fall through the cracks. But bad mouthing Mike is not the way to get the solution (not to mention bad karma). I personally waited for over 2 months for a euro plate i ordered from a vendor. It finally came and I was happy, no harm no foul. Is it really ruining your motoring life that much? Sure when your mini is up on blocks because a part hasn't arrived is a different story.

This man goes to all of the national events (AMVIV, MOTD, MOTM...etc) to support YOU the mini-nuts! Give him the benefit. I talked to him earlier. He was sifting through 115 emails. That would take a normal person a couple days to get through, let alone designing, producing, being a husband, and a father. He also works into the night fulfilling orders.

Rock on Mike! Rock on!

 

I met Mike at the Dragon also, nice guy, but don't for one minute think he is only going to support the MINI owners, he is supporting his family with this company. It just sounds like he takes too much work in at once and then has to struggle to catch up. The fastest way to loose customers is poor service. Just my 2cents
Mr. Jim

Also waiting for some small decals, but none the less I'm a customer

 

haha, well stated. And I agree. I had similar problems as stated in this thread, email, response time, etc. Took nearly 3 months for me to get my custom center caps. Yes, they are WELL made and he does a fantastic job, but the wait can be bothersome. Some people just seem to not have their orders processed quickly.

I wonder how long the doming process actually takes...the total number of actual manufacturing hours involved....even for something custom like a puffy sticker....that might shed some light on things...but still, I agree, 2 months is too long to wait for a sticker, regardless of how complex it is.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=101842

 

Emails and PMs have been sent.

We are working on new forms of communication to make sure that ALL our beloved MINI customers are taken care of. I'm now down to 83 of 115 emails to go through today.

Some of you may have noticed that in the past week or so you get an automatic order conformation and expected shipment dates of your order from my one AND only lovely assistant Hannah. She will now be adding weekly updates to the many lists of things she does for me(Website, accounting, customer Service, Shipping and packing, Mothering, cleaning, cooking, laundry, Oh and yard work) so that I can do what I do best( Designing, printing, cutting, doming, Customer care, marketing, car shows, installations, MINI events, Custom graphics, Fathering) and somehow still finding time for friends and family.

This and since AMVIV our business has tripled. We were already doing the work 10 people and now we have the work of 20. So we will do everything in or power to make sure that each customer is taken care of in a timely manner. But it helps to understand that it's just the 2 of us and wee can make it if weee try.


OK you get the point.

Cheers