About to order a Wested

[eazybox]

Yes it's all bigrex's fault. He started the derailment

Good luck, a little luck can never hurt when dealing with Wested, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, a bit of a gamble at times, but they do bend over backwards to try to accommodate the fans.

Jack

[Yojimbo Jones]

Crazylegs, do I understand you're not speaking from any experience of having bought a custom jacket from Wested?

Maybe you need to be like a few of us "critical of Wested" people, and have actually been in the position of having spent hundreds of dollars for something we didn't get in order to understand our pain.

To me it's very understandable that such people would want to warn the OP of what he may be getting for his money. The point of my post, for instance, was to point out that he may be making the mistake on focusing on the wrong issues (such as dictating the "right" measurements), as many of us have. (See my "Important Questions" thread, amongst others people have posted over the years.)

He is, of course, free to take or leave that advice.

[crazylegsmurphy]

Crazylegs, do I understand you're not speaking from any experience of having bought a custom jacket from Wested?

Maybe you need to be like a few of us "critical of Wested" people, and have actually been in the position of having spent hundreds of dollars for something we didn't get in order to understand our pain.

To me it's very understandable that such people would want to warn the OP of what he may be getting for his money. The point of my post, for instance, was to point out that he may be making the mistake on focusing on the wrong issues (such as dictating the "right" measurements), as many of us have. (See my "Important Questions" thread, amongst others people have posted over the years.)

He is, of course, free to take or leave that advice.

No, I have only ordered a cotton Raiders that I had customized slightly. I got what I asked for in a timely manner.

Did you not have the option to return the jacket if you felt it wasn't correct?

It seems more understandable that people would respect that he seems to have made his choice based on his own research into the good and bad, and help him by offering up advice that will help him get the best bang for his buck. I am in the same situation myself. I am in the UK, and I have wanted a Wested for a long time. I am aware there may be issues, but I will deal with them if they come up.

I'm not saying I don't appreciate advice, and I'm sure the OP does as well...I just think there is a time and place for such things and if someone is asking for advice on one thing, and everyone fills up the thread with advice on another, it really doesn't help.

[Holt]

dont be scared away. just get the wested. you will be happy. first raiders jacket needs to be from the original maker...you will be measured up and down..not many people have the chance to do this...

get a todds someday too... maby a nowak too if you have the cash.....

I will, I love'm all

[Yojimbo Jones]

Did you not have the option to return the jacket if you felt it wasn't correct?
...
It seems more understandable that people would respect that he seems to have made his choice based on his own research into the good and bad, and help him by offering up advice that will help him get the best bang for his buck. I am in the same situation myself. I am in the UK, and I have wanted a Wested for a long time. I am aware there may be issues, but I will deal with them if they come up.

I've gone into this in the aforementioned thread. It was too late by the time I realised I felt ripped off. But there have been NUMEROUS people, such as RC mentioned about the ToD (as well as other jackets), that have received dodgy jackets that either were told "tough", never received reply emails, or were forced to pay return postage for something that wasn't their fault - it was Wested's.

It's great you are in the UK and are in a better position to clear up any issues should the arise. For the average overseas buyer, however, if you run into trouble, AT BEST you have to pay postage. For that reason, amongst many other, I believe Westeds do not offer best bang for the buck. That's why I mentioned Todds in the first place.

[Yojimbo Jones]

dont be scared away. just get the wested. you will be happy. first raiders jacket needs to be from the original maker...you will be measured up and down..not many people have the chance to do this...

get a todds someday too... maby a nowak too if you have the cash.....

I will, I love'm all

So what happened with that jacket of yours Wested messed up with the stitching, Holt? Would that have been resolved if it weren't for your position on COW?

[eazybox]

dont be scared away. just get the wested. you will be happy. first raiders jacket needs to be from the original maker...you will be measured up and down..not many people have the chance to do this...

get a todds someday too... maby a nowak too if you have the cash.....

I will, I love'm all

So what happened with that jacket of yours Wested messed up with the stitching, Holt? Would that have been resolved if it weren't for your position on COW?

I must confess to wondering the same thing myself, Holt. After all, you made a big issue out of that defective jacket and posted photos until Wested didn't have much choice but to fix it for you. Then you deleted your thread, and suddenly Wested can do no wrong in your eyes, and you can advise someone to "just get the Wested, you'll be happy"?

Is keeping him in the dark about potential problems really serving the member's best interests?

Jack

[Raider S]

Easybox raises questions that have been hanging for a while now.

With the info all over this board people have the option of reading through it and coming to their own decision what to buy. That's a great service!

Suggesting things based on individual experience is helpful but telling where their jacket should be from isn't.

There are also a number of examples of a fan buying multiple jackets from one place, in hopes to get what they want, and spending more money than if they'd gotten a more expensive jacket in the first place. That's why the constant jabs about price get so frustrating! There's more to cost than simply the price tag.

[Holt]

Yojimbo: I dunno.. you ask me, I ask you... I know I am a ''profiled' person in here...but I sure dont abuse my status when it comes to this or anything else. that I dont want, nor do! I know you didnt say that, but I just want to draw the line there so people know. it was Peter decision to take it back. I didnt force him... if my ''status'' had something to do with it, then you have to take it up with him.. he took it back after we spoke in a few emails afterwards. I know I was wrong not to contact the maker first and that I told him that I was sorry for... when I opend that thread I was to ask the crowd a few questions, thats all. I needed a little help... If you remember correctly I didnt open the thread sayin ''hey! if you wanna take a dump on wested then here is the place to do it'' I not a sworn member of that gang.


eazybox: I deleted my thread for a reason. then I reopend another. yes I can tell them to get a wested. why? becasue one they are good jackets and two, wested screwed up my order one or two times out of the many times I have ordered from them. one order when they sent out the wrong jacket and one with the bad stitching job etc. each with a long period of time between them.... its not like they screw up everytime. we are human and humans can make mistakes. I for sure can say that cuz I make ALOT of them. but I must admit that I sure get edgy and irritated when it comes to their email comunication sometimes. so I sure do understand where the people are comming from who has this problem. that was/is BAD. but lately Gemma has been better... I must give her that. PLEASE for the love of God Gemma keep it up..it would make my job so much easier in here

But there has been a few emails to Gemma were I have said.. ''what the .... is going on!!'' etc. blah,blah,blah.you fill in the blanks but its just that I like them as people...and we have sorted it out...I kinda have created a bond with them over time.. I do this with alot of people.. same with Magnoli. I like him as a person. we speak alot in emails. not only jackets or props. and I am sure I will create some bond with Nowak too...when the time comes for 3 or 4 jacket from him...its just me..

But please dont tell me that wested cant do no wrong in my eyes. wested CAN do alot of mistakes in my eyes, and I have told them that big time...so dont tell me what I think or not. if I want to say go for a wested then I will. I am the man enuff to say that I dont hold it against them if they made one or two mistakes on my jacket..if they screwed up 6 out 8 westeds? then yes.. you bet!

okay enuff said from my side..

please keep it civil in here.

[eazybox]

Thanks for the information, Holt, and I sincerely hope that Wested has indeed sorted out some of the issues since I last dealt with them. I don't know what Wested's percentage of "hits" versus "misses" is, but I believe the "hits" must be greater or they could not stay in business. There are still too many complaints about the screw-ups, though, compared to the complaints other vendors receive, in my opinion.

I do strive to keep things civil and did not mean to put words in your mouth. I do appreciate your candor in this post. I think you and Tony will get along just great, too.

Jack

[Raider S]

I say go for a Nowak!

[Holt]

eazybox:

[Yojimbo Jones]

Yojimbo: I dunno.. you ask me, I ask you... I know I am a ''profiled' person in here...but I sure dont abuse my status when it comes to this or anything else. that I dont want, nor do! I know you didnt say that, but I just want to draw the line there so people know. it was Peter decision to take it back. I didnt force him... if my ''status'' had something to do with it, then you have to take it up with him.. he took it back after we spoke in a few emails afterwards. I know I was wrong not to contact the maker first and that I told him that I was sorry for... when I opend that thread I was to ask the crowd a few questions, thats all. I needed a little help... If you remember correctly I didnt open the thread sayin ''hey! if you wanna take a dump on wested then here is the place to do it'' I not a sworn member of that gang.
...
but its just that I like them as people...and we have sorted it out...I kinda have created a bond with them over time.. I do this with alot of people.. same with Magnoli.
...
But please dont tell me that wested cant do no wrong in my eyes. wested CAN do alot of mistakes in my eyes, and I have told them that big time...so dont tell me what I think or not. But if I want to say go for a wested then I will. I am the man enuff to say that I dont hold it against them if they made one or two mistakes on my jacket..if they screwed up 6 out 8 westeds? then yes.. you bet.

Ok, first, you don't get sworn in to the gang. There's a membership fee of one Wested jacket.

But my point wasn't to accuse you of asking for special treatment or to poop on Wested for the sake of it. I think I've explained where I was coming from re Wested clearly enough above.

What I'm saying re your situation Holt is that there should be some sort of full disclosure as the relationship you enjoy with Wested is hardly "normal" or indicative of what the average person could expect.

And even still, as you say, there was a pretty bad job done on that one jacket. You've made a habit of coming on the boards and criticising misc. other ones (your own and that of many others), saying this or that isn't accurate. It just comes off as odd that you are both one of their harshest critics and a big advocate.

[Holt]

yes, its true, I can see why you are lost sometimes....It all comes down to my mood... I am a hard critique when it comes to wested jackets, they NEED to get their QC in order. DONT send out jackets when Peter is on holliday. that must be the first rule of QC! that is when the crappy jackets are sent out....Second rule: Gemma needs to take the keyboard and computer with her home to answer our emails. she must not get any free time. NO!....

And yes, I can be the nicest guy when it comes to wested jackets too.....

when its good its GOOD and when its bad its BAD!...

I like them as people, we talk sometimes.. but I can be P off many times with them too..just like with my wife

and you tell me what is normal...l'll give you a trillion bucks if you hve the answer to wat IS normal or not normal........

[Yojimbo Jones]

...and you tell me what is normal...l'll give you a trillion bucks if you hve the answer to wat IS normal or not normal........

Deal! Of course I require a 25% upfront deposit...

[JRabbit]

Wow, I was out of town for the weekend and came back to see a good bit of activity here!

I've read through the lively discussion, and I'm not at all one to turn a deaf ear to advice that may contradict my original decisions. I'm also one to take anything read on the internet with a grain of salt. All that being said, I do still plan on buying a Wested.

One point someone brought up was the question of the ratio of completely satisfied customers to unhappy customers from Wested. That's a very good question. People who place an order, get their jacket in a timely manner, and it's right, probably don't go out of their way to come on here and post. People who have problems with their order are WAY more likely to post here. So how skewed do our perceptions become based solely off of posts we read here? I'd like to hope that the success of Wested isn't solely based on the fact that he is the original maker of the Indie Jacket. If every jacket he made was @#$%, he'd go under, no matter.

And for clarification, I was asking more for advice on what specifics I was missing from my order before I pulled the trigger on it. Lot's of good advice there, and thanks for that.

I'm going to place my order with Peter TOMORROW!!!! I can't wait. Hopefully things will go smoothly and

As to the other jacket manufacturers, I'm sure they are all top notch, but due to budget and other things I've already mentioned, I'm sticking with Wested.

JackRabbit.

P.S. As soon as my jacket gets here, I'll be sure to let everyone know how it went, with pictures as well!

[TheExit148]

To be honest, I was in the same boat as you. Read all the posts about the good Wested jackets and the bad, but everything fell into place with my jacket. Took a little longer to arrive due to all the orders with the Wolverine Origins jackets, but everything fit perfectly. I think the one thing that YOU need to send is your own personal measurements and it looks like you have them ready. That is KEY to having it fit you properly. That is the one thing that I find is a little odd with Wested's ordering; all the specifiy in the form is jacket size, back length and sleeve length. They should have something like Magnoli or TN does with his jacket ordering. Those are key measurements with ordering something custom like that.
My Wested was my first time out with them, made sure that everything was good measurement wise etc, and called everything few weeks for an update, and it worked out perfect, I couldn't be happier with the jacket.

[JRabbit]

Thanks Exit,

I've made my poor wife take measurements three or four times now to make sure I'm happy with the numbers I'm sending them. Because I want the jacket to be a little shorter in the body than many of you, and I want to make sure the arms aren't too short, the difference between those two measurements has me a little worried. I've been comparing my "ratio" or arm length to jacket length to others I've seen here and I have to keep reminding myself that my "ratio" is greater due to the fact that I'm not looking for a fit that's like most here. If anyone looking at my original post sees a glaringly obvious mistake I'm about to make, PLEASE, tell me.

I know that on the Wested site, in the custom order area, there's a text box to add specifics, but I don't know that it will allow enough characters for me to get everything in there, do most of you just follow up with an e-mail to them with all the specifics? I was thinking I'd fill in the drop down boxes with my order info, then put something like "Please see accompanying e-mail with custom requirements" in the text box. Is that the best plan?

JackRabbit

[TheExit148]

If it makes you feel any better, my back length is 24" and my sleeve length is 26.25". For the custom requests, I just put in the box, please see accompanying email for requests. Then I sent them an email with the Order # in the subject line with a title like Custom Rola Specs Order ####### for Name and that was it. Then called them an hour or so later to confirm that my email was received with the specs/details.
And don't worry, I made my girlfriend measure me a lot, plus I was measuring other jackets constantly and she just laughed and said I was crazy for constantly measuring the same jacket. Its all good! Measure a lot, cut once!

[RCSignals]

Wow, I was out of town for the weekend and came back to see a good bit of activity here!

I've read through the lively discussion, and I'm not at all one to turn a deaf ear to advice that may contradict my original decisions. I'm also one to take anything read on the internet with a grain of salt. All that being said, I do still plan on buying a Wested.

One point someone brought up was the question of the ratio of completely satisfied customers to unhappy customers from Wested. That's a very good question. People who place an order, get their jacket in a timely manner, and it's right, probably don't go out of their way to come on here and post. People who have problems with their order are WAY more likely to post here. So how skewed do our perceptions become based solely off of posts we read here? I'd like to hope that the success of Wested isn't solely based on the fact that he is the original maker of the Indie Jacket. If every jacket he made was @#$%, he'd go under, no matter.

And for clarification, I was asking more for advice on what specifics I was missing from my order before I pulled the trigger on it. Lot's of good advice there, and thanks for that.

I'm going to place my order with Peter TOMORROW!!!! I can't wait. Hopefully things will go smoothly and

As to the other jacket manufacturers, I'm sure they are all top notch, but due to budget and other things I've already mentioned, I'm sticking with Wested.

JackRabbit.

P.S. As soon as my jacket gets here, I'll be sure to let everyone know how it went, with pictures as well!

Good luck with your order Jack. I hope you get all that you want and ask for. It will be an interesting jacket with your personal specs.

As a note on this "People who place an order, get their jacket in a timely manner, and it's right, probably don't go out of their way to come on here and post." I think you'll find most people here post up about their jackets, with photos. Good and bad, but I would suspect more/some with bad experience say nothing out of embarrassment.

[JRabbit]

The order has been placed!

Now, as Tommy Petty said "the waiting is the hardest part"

[crazylegsmurphy]

JR, when is it due to arrive?

[JRabbit]

JR, when is it due to arrive?

umm, I don't know yet. It's 3am in England, so I got a canned confirmation e-mail. I hope to get another tomorrow with an ETA.

I'll let you know.

JackRabbit

[crazylegsmurphy]

Yup, it is....and it's hot.....:S

I'm up watching old Anime films that I never knew about for some reason. Let me know when you know. I'm curious to see how your jacket turns out since I'll be going in to Wested myself in a month.

Gemma told me 14 working days, so I hope she was right because I sure would like to take it home with me.

[JRabbit]

14 days would be great. I hope that's the ETA for mine.

Old anime huh? I'm not much in to it, but I do own Ghost in the Shell and Akira on DVD.

[Clutters]

Well good luck and I hope you get what you ordered.
I have ordered three Wested jackets, and of those three, only one remains with me due to numerous problems. I think if Wested simply did a quality control check before the jacket left their warehouse ie: check the specs of the jacket produced against the customer's order as well as the leather quality and stitching, then people on this board would be more likely to agree in unison to newbies that they go with a Wested.

[JRabbit]

Well, it's been about 3 weeks, so I hope to see a package on my doorstep this coming week from Wested....

I've been patient but the wait is starting to kill me. Coming here and reading about your jackets, and seeing all the incredible pics, it makes the wait easier AND harder at the same time.

At least it's not cold here yet. I couldn't wear it anyway.

Pics as soon as it comes in!

JRabbit.

[zigmo]

Well, it's been about 3 weeks, so I hope to see a package on my doorstep this coming week from Wested....

I've been patient but the wait is starting to kill me. Coming here and reading about your jackets, and seeing all the incredible pics, it makes the wait easier AND harder at the same time.

At least it's not cold here yet. I couldn't wear it anyway.

Pics as soon as it comes in!

JRabbit.

Any update on this??

[RCSignals]

He already has it zigmo. He just didn't post about it in this thread.

[zigmo]

Alrighty, I ordered my Wested, and am totally excited about getting it!

More info as things develop

[JRabbit]

Congrats Zigmo! I hope you're as satisfied as I was with Wested. Everything came out perfectly with my order, and I'm loving my jacket. Here's the thread where I posted pics:

http://indygear.com/cow/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43122

Keep us posted on yours!

JRabbit.