Fendrihan. So done with them.

[Arkamedius]

Not sure if I posted this in the right spot or not.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a hard customer to please.
To begin it started with my first wet shave purchase, I used Fendrihan for the purchase of a nice straight razor TI and some Trumper soap and a decent strop. I ordered it and paid extra for shipping. It arrived late, and after correspondence with customer service they refused to reimburse the shipping costs. I don't know how many of you deal with Canada Post, (not many as I gather most of the members of this site live in the US) but Canada Post sucks.. its slow but they refund automatically when you complain about them being late, all it takes is a phone call. Either way I decided to let that experience slide.

I found a local place.. rasagepoulin oh man I miss that shop.
Didn't take much to have me as a 100% satisfied customer, I sent people I knew there who were just interested in buying soaps and such because I could trust they were taken care of, for a small shop they had your item shipped same day, if it arrived late or if you had problems all you had to do was contact them. They had a large selection and were very friendly with feedback on any questions.

Well I just recently decided to give Fendrihan another shot. My purchase total came to almost $900.00.
What I got was late package, customer service with this place again not going to deal or guarantee shipment, ok all they had to do was say ok we will call and even if they didn't wanna refund that money was apply that discount to a future purchase. Hey I would have been 100% happy, nope their response was and I quote " WE do not initiate claims with Canada Post for delayed deliveries". I get the package a few days later (7 days vs the 3 days express I paid for) and inside the box no samples.. nothing to entice me to shop there and purchase anything else. SO I give them one more shot.. that last package was 2 weeks ago and over the past couple of days Ive been in emailing them back and forth asking questions regarding soaps and strops and pastes. My cart was another $500 for purchase so my total this month would have been $1400.00 worth of shaving items. Again I could pay for a courier or get 10% off, I had to choose one not the other save 50 dollars or receive standard 10+ business day shipping.. no eta on strop pastes, gave me one sentence response on my paste questions.

Really I am just so disappointed, maybe rasage poulin just went that extra mile with customer service.. not sure what do you guys in the US get from your vendors.. do they include little test packets? do they offer you a satisfaction guarantee.. would they refund your shipment if you paid for express or expedited shipping and didn't receive that service? I am not expecting them to kiss my *** or give me items for free. I do expect when spending money at a place you do receive some sort of customer service, which with what I have there has completely turned me off from using them and looking somewhere else.

So I'll be making purchases probably from a US vendor from this point forward. I see there is a list of vendors here who I would be glad to send business their way.
Ark

 

[gaj90027]

Never dealt with Fendrihan but I have dealt with another Canadian Vendor multiple times with no issues - check out italianbarber.com (Joe / RazoRock company).

This is not a paid endorsement - just a happy customer on multiple transactions and I can't remember hearing or reading a bad word about them any where.

 

[Pebcak]

I'm not sure why you expected them to refund your money or give you a credit for Canada Posts issues. If you should be mad at anyone it's Canada Post and not the folks at Fendrihan.

 

[inspiringK]

I appreciate your frustration, but to sum up, you are upset because Canada Post took too long to deliver your packages and because Fendrihan didn't include freebies?

 

[Arkamedius]

I'm not sure why you expected them to refund your money or give you a credit for Canada Posts issues. If you should be mad at anyone it's Canada Post and not the folks at Fendrihan.

I needed them to initiate the refund process, Canada Post will only refund the shipper not the receiver, and even then its not just the fact that it came late but more over their response and dealing with them. I don't go into shops expecting to be catered to hand and foot or be treated like royalty. I do expect customer service complaints to be handled with more compassion then just outright saying "too bad! even if you paid for it we don't give a damn but thanks for spending money with us".
For example I was in a shop today which I found carried some shaving supplies, I was remarking on the experience with Fendrihan and the shipping in particular.. the guys response was "are you kidding me?? Canada Post is soo easy to deal with, I ship knives everywhere and anytime their late all I have to do is call them up tell them they were late, give them their tracking number and bam I get a refund within a couple of weeks".

 

[Swayz]

I had a issue with them also. I ordered a Thater brush and when it arrived it was not the brush they had pictured. It was a new model Thater brush which I have and specifically ordered it cause I wanted the older one. I called them and they told me they wouldn't refund my shipping and I had to pay for shipping back to them. They did say they had the wrong picture up and it was there fault but there was nothing they would do at all. So I as well will never be doing business with them again. Horrible company and customer service.

 

[Arkamedius]

I appreciate your frustration, but to sum up, you are upset because Canada Post took too long to deliver your packages and because Fendrihan didn't include freebies?

Actually more over the customer service I received via email, as for the freebies I guess rasage poulin was blessed with a abnormal amount of samples they gave away.

 

[inspiringK]

Actually more over the customer service I received via email, as for the freebies I guess rasage poulin was blessed with a abnormal amount of samples they gave away.

It comes and goes with most vendors. I know I have received some swag from Fendrihan in the past, but am also sure that I have made purchases without receiving any. The same is true for the other vendors who I have made more than one purchase from. I think it is usually best to expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised when there is something.

 

[Arkamedius]

It comes and goes with most vendors. I know I have received some swag from Fendrihan in the past, but am also sure that I have made purchases without receiving any. The same is true for the other vendors who I have made more than one purchase from. I think it is usually best to expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised when there is something.

Yea I know, it was the whole experience that got me soured not the free samples, doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. Swayz's experience made me look at what I ordered and in fact they sent me the wrong soap. I just won't be sending them business and I certainly won't be using them again.

 

[blzrfn]

I don't expect companies to go outside of their own policies nor do I expect free samples. I also don't repurchase from a company, let alone twice, when I am not 100% satisfied. There are too many vendors out there offering the same products and if one doesn't want my business then I will move on to another. I always ask questions before I order and the quality and swiftness of the answer are just as important as the answer itself.

I can also highly recommend Joe at Italianbarber.com, great products and quick shipping (probably no free samples)

 

[syngent]

of all our vendors i would bet Fendrihan keeps the highest overhead by far for what he keeps in stock,... rasage went out of business Alfred is still keeping stock and sourcing new stuff thats hard to get for us canadians like Klar products,... he gives samples when he has them to give, i think the lesson here is Canada Post sucks, so stop paying for express when CP cant deliver, I would hardly blame Alfred for that,... BTW they arnt a big business, as far as i know its all one guy who gets his orders out fast

 

[Sejanus]

Canada Post only refunds if the shipment is time guaranteed. Perhaps the express method Fendrihan uses is not time guaranteed? Even time guarantees can be bunk if Canada Post says there is a 'good reason' for why it was late. Headache to say the least..

 

[Swayz]

Funny thing I just checked their website. After I had a huge blowout with customer service a few weeks ago , they still have the wrong pictures up on the website for Thater brushes LOL. They didn't even change them!!! That's some deceptive business practice right there or they just don't care enough to do the right thing.

 

[rockviper]

The only knock I have against Alfred is that many of his prices seem to be a little high. My correspondence with him has been professional and prompt, as has been his customer service (replaced a shedding brush ~4 months after purchase). Shipping times for me has never been an issue, but then again, I'm only ~50miles away.

 

[Arkamedius]

Canada Post only refunds if the shipment is time guaranteed. Perhaps the express method Fendrihan uses is not time guaranteed? Even time guarantees can be bunk if Canada Post says there is a 'good reason' for why it was late. Headache to say the least..

IT was guaranteed I paid extra money to ship that method, in fact if there was a way I could deal directly with CP I probably would have. Realistically if he had offered to pay part of the shipping and given me a discount on my next purchase (like I said I was looking at buying about 500$ worth of stuff its not like he would loose his shirt and I really wouldn't have been as irritated and in addition to that he would have kept a customer. For that $10 that he has saved out of the happy customers he must have I am sure he could have written it off and continued to make money. Its not like I request discounts or refunds on every purchase, the last two purchases were full price and I paid extra money for shipping.

The only knock I have against Alfred is that many of his prices seem to be a little high. My correspondence with him has been professional and prompt, as has been his customer service (replaced a shedding brush ~4 months after purchase). Shipping times for me has never been an issue, but then again, I'm only ~50miles away.

Must be a practice for those close to the area. If I want to return something I pay to have it reshipped and loose initial shipping. As for the prices, I know someone said the same thing to me in the past and I did look into it and now that I think about it was another reason why I switched to the local vendor.

 

[KodiakAttack]

Thats it. Im opening up a shop in Canada.

 

[Dalejr]

Canada Post does indeed suck. Overpriced shipping and horrible service.

 

[Timo]

Rasage may have gone out of business due to giving away too many samples and refunding too many things that was not in there control. Something to think about.

 

[rxonmymind]

Sorry to hear of your disappointment. I really recommend IB. Joseph is spot on with service and his RR is awesome.

 

[BallisticBurrito]

I've bought all of my stuff from 3 different vendors on here(outside of 2 things from the BST) and never received any samples at all from any of them. Meh.

Also never paid express shipping in anything ever..and never have any plans to.