Marianne Schultz

I just wanted to say that I did get a response from Dots Gloves to follow up on the email I sent over the weekend inquiring on the status of my order. I received the exact email I’d found over at TUAW.com that I quoted a couple of days ago here in my blog (look down 2 posts). I’m glad that I got a response at all, but I would have appreciated a little more detail on when I could expect my gloves. An average of a month-long wait until an order is shipped does give me a ballpark, but an average means that it takes longer for some orders and less time for others. I just can’t think it’s that hard to figure out when a pair of gloves will be ready and shipped. A supercollider made-to-order, yes. A pair of knitted cotton covers for my hands, not so much.

Oh, well. I’m still looking forward to receiving them and still plan to do a review. Until then, my non-iPhone-compatible North Face gloves will continue to suffice.

So, you know those Dots Gloves I said I’d ordered a couple of weeks ago? I still haven’t gotten them, and I emailed the company over the weekend to inquire about when I can expect them. I haven’t heard a response yet, and don’t expect one quite yet since I just emailed them over the weekend and today is the first business day since. But, I thought I’d Google for the experiences of others with ordering these gloves, and found the following quoted email from Dots Gloves in a comment by MoBUrkhardt posted over at TUAW:

There’s currently been an average month-long wait until items are shipped. This is of course too long, but we’re a startup company. We have no muscle.

Full and immediate refunds are of course available, so just let us know. We don’t want to lose your business, but these gloves are handmade in New York City — we can’t compromise quality for speediness.

This is a temporary hiccup of growing Dots Gloves. In the future, it will not happen. We will be streamlined, beautiful.

Take care, and thanks for your time — and I know that phrase takes on extra weight in this context,

DOTS

(Please disregard if you have already heard from us, or your order has already shipped.)

Other comments indicate that people have been waiting well over a month for their gloves, many not receiving any communication at all to update them on the status of their order.

I will say this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine – if you’ve already paid for something and there’s going to be a delay in getting the product to you, the *least* a company should do is let you know. I didn’t receive the above email, though I do hope to hear something back in response to the email I’ve sent. And there’s nothing whatsoever posted on their site to indicate any back-order status at all. The offer of a refund is nice, but I wouldn’t know about this option unless I’d received this email.

So far, this isn’t a good introduction to this company. Start-up or not, communication with your customers when you already have their money is essential in my book. And while I’m at it, why does the fact that they’re hand-made in NYC make a difference here? It’s one thing if they’re hand-made in Burma by 2 elderly women with one pair of eyeglasses to share between them and then shipped here, but NYC? Come on – that shouldn’t impact the time it takes to produce them at all.