REVIEW: Waldryk "Fancy Bascinet"

[Gregoire de Lyon]

My in-laws gave me a new helmet for Christmas last year. In a rather timely manner, it arrived in late October of this year for my birthday and an early Christmas goodie. Here is my review...

SERVICE:

Waldryk's webpage says that custom orders will take a month and a half to arrive. When I placed my helm order in December 2004, I was told that I would have it by June or July, most likely July. There was no communication for a month or two, and being an optimist about these things, I chose to write for an update. Snowlyne, the lady who handles Waldryk's communications, responded that the helmet would be ready in mid-July and that I shouldn't worry about having it for Pennsic. When July arrived and I still had no word, I began to worry. A week or so before War I was contacted and told that a key piece of equipment had broken and that I wouldn't get the helm until September. Imagine my surprise when I returned from Pennsic to find an email saying that the helm was ready to ship pending payment.

I dutifully sent my funds via Paypal and awaited a tracking number. After several days with no communication, I contacted Snowlyne again. Apparently the vervelles I had ordered had not been installed and the "finished" announcement was pre-mature. Additionally, the vervelles were outsourced and on back order due to Pennsic.

A MONTH goes by and I still don't have my helm. I start contacting Paypal and threatening nasty message posted here on the Archive. I simply want my helm, vervelles or no. I get a response to my nasty-gram: Waldryk has had a family emergency and is away from the shop, but a family friend will have it sent.

Weeks go by with no helm. Another nasty note and it turns out that the helm had been shipped to the wrong address and was lost in UPS limbo.

Once the helm was delivered, it is NOT the helm I ordered: No vervelles, no vervelle holes, and too big. Snowlyne is VERY apologetic and has me send it back.

Waldryk is baffled by it being the wrong size so custom makes a new one for me. It takes approximately two weeks start to finish to get a new one made and in the mail to me.

I would say that overall the service was good and the luck was bad. Snowlyne was always very pleasant in email and on the phone, even during times of family crisis. It would have been good to have communication initiated by their end from time-to-time.

PRODUCT:

Holy cow! I LOVE my new helm! The lines are sweet, the design is perfect, and the price was right. The helm, klappvisor and bar grill (all stainless steel), with 11 installed brass vervelles was under $500 shipped! Waldryk did not charge me extra for the custom klappvisor either - the design is different from the standard one displayed on his website.

OVERALL RATING- 3 out of 5.

If it hadn't been for the fiasco with the vervelles and the wrong helmet being shipped, this would have been a 4 out of 5.



[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/benzophenone/HelmFront.jpg[/img]

[T. Finkas]

When I do business with a vendor, I do not want "luck" to play any part in the transaction.

[Henry of Bexley]

The helm is freaking beautiful!

Did they give you a price break because of the difficulties, or would that price apply for any similar order?

[Rev. George]

When I do business with a vendor, I do not want "luck" to play any part in the transaction.

No one WANT's It, but everyone gets it. Especially if the vendor in question is making something from raw materials. But even for off the shelf (and NON SCA) stuff, I've experieced backorders, shipping problems, lost cargo, ETC.

When you look at everything it takes to make a item in a small scale production, its plumb amazing we get anything on time. Just looking at MY (pitifully small) business, I could have:

Personal injury (heaven forefend)
Personal crisis (death in family, etc...heaven also forefend)
Fabric back ordered (happened twice)
Catastrophic sewing machine failure (crosses finger)
Lost shipping: (has DEfinately happened...thank god for postal insurance)

I've also had incoming money go missing.

Yeah it sucks. Its also part of the reason I have an official delivery time of 7 months. No one has had to wait that long yet, but it covers my ass, and makes for happy customers.

-+G

[Murdock]

Whelllllll

Yer helm is to purty


ssooooooo


i'm afraid i'm gonna have to kill ya so you don't look as nice as me.

[Gregoire de Lyon]

Did they give you a price break because of the difficulties, or would that price apply for any similar order?

List price is $400. The vervelle purchase and installation added another $75 or so, and the rest was shipping.

If I received any sort of discount it was in the fact that the klappvisor is not his standard design and there was no extra charge for it.

Also, he had to remake his pattern to fit my mutant head. This was done with no shop fee.

[Gregoire de Lyon]

Yer helm is to purty

Thanks!

Not that it is any consolation, but it looks even better in person. Taking digital photos of a shiny object is harder than I would have imagined.

[Magnus The Black]

Very nice helm! I do like! Nice living room furniture also.

[BdeB]

Is that a christmas tree up in the second picture? Good grief! Didn't waste anytime did ya?

[David S]

This is encouraging news. I have a "basic bascinet" on order from Waldryk, which I placed in June, and have yet to hear anything. I called the other day, but was unable to reach the armorer, and was told I would be called back. That hasn't happened yet, and unfortunately I haven't had time to call again, BUT, from reading the above review, I feel some assurance that I will get the helm, and I will be satisfied with it.

And then it's a simple matter of attaching the vervelles and the aventaille, and I'm in business.

[Guy Dawkins]

Is that a christmas tree up in the second picture? Good grief! Didn't waste anytime did ya?

What did you do on November 25th?

[William of Otterton]

One of the members of our canton had a similar experience. Great product, but only after repeated delays and emails trying to find where it was.

Waldryk, overall from the few fighters and knights I've spoken with, all agree he does very nice work but is very slow. Like... glacial and/or evolution speed sometimes. Repeated email nagging is often useful too.

A few bits of hear-say from me.

GdS

[David S]

Hm, well. I can't seem to reach them by phone the last few times I've called, and they appear not to have an answering machine. Any advice? Just keep calling?

I really want to start heavy list by January, if at all possible, and I thought I was set for headgear.

[Gregoire de Lyon]

Hm, well. I can't seem to reach them by phone the last few times I've called, and they appear not to have an answering machine. Any advice? Just keep calling?

Have you tried email? Snowlyne was usually pretty responsive - within a day or two. In terms of phone calls, I usually got best results calling during the week at right about 6 pm their time. Home from the other job and about to eat...

Good luck!

[chef de chambre]

I'll just point out that vendors sell things other people make, and craftsmen make objects. If he was a reseller, then bad luck would be less excusable, but since he is the creator of an object, crap occassionally happens. It would behoove him to let people know when things are being delayed though, and why.

Please note I have never ordered anything from Waldryk, don't know him from Adam, and don't know any of his friends - my observations are based on dealing with other craftsmen making one of a kind objects, unobtainable in largest part (at least unobtainable in that level of fidelity to detail) from elsewhere, and having actually painstakenly hand-made objects myself, of high fidelity. I have had bad experiences, I have had great experiences, and I have had acceptable experiences in these dealings . I usually wait lengths of time in queues for these objects that would apparently confound or make extremely unhappy many of the posters I see complaining about armourers on these boards (please note, some of the complaints - especially the Hammerd Wombat ones and others are quite justified, but some of them are very much less so).

A year seems pretty trifleing to me, it usually takes me as long to save the dough for one of my projects - admittedly on a different scale than a decently shaped welded SCA bascinet of good quality.

My 2 cents.

Edited to add - This was not in reponse to Gregoire de Lyon's review (which I thought was well written), but in response to some of the other commentary. I found "glacierly slow" particulary amusing. A years wait is typical for my projects.

[T. Finkas]

Point taken, Bob.

[Edward de la Pole]

I would expect some communication from any vendor. If I knew it wasn't going to be ready when I promised it, I would make a point of making the contact, not just cringing and waiting for a pissed customer wondering if their helm was close to being done.

Every transaction has the potential for screwups, I rate someone on how they handle their screwups and not how they handle everything when it goes smoothly.

Example, I had a new (2 months old) cell phone for which I paid a decent sum. I don't believe in extended warranties because most warranty companies look for every excuse under the sun to avoid paying, also anything you buy will either die right away or last a good long time... either way I don't buy warranties. The screen on my phone goes berserk, I can't even see to dial the phone. I take it to the provider, dreading all of the way that they are going to give me grief that I must have damaged the phone somehow, or it was past the initial time they provide exchange and I need to deal with the manufacturer myself..etc... I go into one of their stores, I show them the phone and I am walking out 15 minutes later after an apology for the phone problem with my phone book and stored pictures transfered to the new phone without so much as anybody saying boo to me.

An armourer who takes more orders than they can reasonably hope to finish by promised dates should scale back their orders or push back their promise dates. They should keep the customer updated with the progress even if it is to say it is running behind and that it may take longer. I imagine if they had communicated with Gregoire his rating and experience would have been much better even with the same delays and missed deadlines.