Secret City Weaponeers

[masternave]

All righty…*

You are correct, I am quite new, but I have unfortunately bought quite a few holsters, from RCS to Comptac to Atomic Dog. Secret City is still my favorite.

You are also correct, I waited *long* after the projected wait date for my order, because it was lost in the shuffle for reasons I don't fully know. After I brought it back to his attention, he rushed it through for me.

[Irish]

Cool, now we have a reference as to what you're comparing your SCW holster to. I've owned all the same holsters and would agree with your assessment. The SCW conceals better for me than the ones you mentioned but I believe they're all of the caliber of quality in terms of build and construction.

[polymorpheous]

Been following the complaining with some interest. I will note I believe there might be two different emails. Use the one currently on the website... I was responded to in short order there after replying to the same dead email conversation for weeks.

So that's the secret!

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

This shit pisses me off. Not because of the bad Customer Service, not because of the lies or the cheating, not because of what almost appears to be stealing, but because Tony makes a ****ing rockin IWB holster for 4:00 carry. Because of all the things I mentioned above, I cant bring myself to ever order one again, and if/when one of mine breaks, then I'm SOL. Tony was one of a very few people to bring any innovation to the Kydex market after RCS, and thats what originally caught my eye.

I will say this: situations like this are what makes me so happy to be a customer of RCS. They treat me like I own the place, and they dont even know me. When I made a small remark on the forum that I wasnt 100% on love with their old beltloops, Tom sent me a pair of the new version RIGHT AWAY, without me even asking, and then refused any payment from me. When I worked the night shift and sent Tom emails about gear, expecting a reply in the morning, he replied right away, who the hell does that? When I needed an update on my gear, when I needed something changed, when I had a question, they answered me that day, sometimes that hour, and sometimes a few minutes after pressing "Send". Tom, Mike and the RCS crew have gone out of their way to make me feel like my money is the only money keeping them afloat, even if I'm only ordering a $30 product. If only all those copycat Kydex companies would just copy RCS's business model and not their products, maybe they would have more success. If Tony could have brought his innovative product that was in no way a copy of anything RCS to the market and combined it with an RCS business model, he wouldve gone far, and I wouldve been a life long customer of both companies, but now I am stuck with being a life long customer of RCS (but hey, thats about the best thing to get stuck with!).


There are lessons to be learned here for everyone involved, I hope we all can find them.

-Grant

[thatpanda]

I'm pretty sure I've sent emails to every account listed on his site, I will have to double check when I get back home. At this point I don't care how awesome his product is. What happens if it breaks? we all know anything can break, how will I get anything warrantied? a guarantee is only as good as the person giving it. Good product Is no excuse for poor business practices, personal problems are his problems, not mine. We had a business relationship, not personal. So far tony has failed on all fronts. Good guy or not, this is absolutely no way to run a business. It borders on fraud. Coming to an online forum and making excuses after excuses, while continuing to take orders, and still advertising a wait time we all know he has no intention of honoring is complete BS.

Tony if you are reading this, order 1949 I WANT MY MONEY BACK PERIOD!!! I DON'T WANT THE HOLSTERS NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS. JUST REFUND ME MY MONEY!

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[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

I'm pretty sure I've sent emails to every account listed on his site, I will have to double check when I get back home. At this point I don't care how awesome his product is. What happens if it breaks? we all know anything can break, how will I get anything warrantied? a guarantee is only as good as the person giving it. Good product Is no excuse for poor business practices, personal problems are his problems, not mine. We had a business relationship, not personal. So far tony has failed on all fronts. Good guy or not, this is absolutely no way to run a business. It borders on fraud. Coming to an online forum and making excuses after excuses, while continuing to take orders, and still advertising a wait time we all know he has no intention of honoring is complete BS.

Tony if you are reading this, order 1949 I WANT MY MONEY BACK PERIOD!!! I DON'T WANT THE HOLSTERS NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS. JUST REFUND ME MY MONEY!

I agree, there has been too much run around and deciet to salvage anything anymore. I hope he makes it right for you and refunds you, if not I suggest you file a claim through paypal and/or contact the police.

Also, when RCS says my wait time is 16-18 weeks, they deliver in 16-18 weeks, with updates along the way. EVERYTIME.

[thatpanda]

I'm going to give tony a few days to maybe see this thread or reply to my emails. If he doesn't reply to ME SPECIFICALLY I will take whatever legal action is required to get my money back. Even if that means spending more money. Its not about the money as much as it is about principles. I've already opened up a paypal dispute even though its past 45 days. And I'm going to start compiling emails I've sent to him as evidence. Hopefully he responds to me because I really REALLY don't want to have to take legal action. Hopefully tony man ups and takes some real responsibility for his actions. No more excuses, no more stories about his personal life. I truly do feel for what's happening behind the scenes with his family, but as I said before, its no excuse. Business is a cold world, either you succeed or you fail.

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[rm06]

On January 8th I sent an email to every address I could find associated with Secret City Weaponeers with instructions to either deliver my holster or refund my money no later than the 14th. I followed up with a daily email to "Please respond", all of which went unanswered.

For the record, I filed a fraud report with PayPal even though the 45 day dispute period had long passed, I compiled all communication I had both sent and received with SCW and was prepared to visit the local PD the following day to file a fraud report. Additionally I planned on contacting the Tennessee BBB even though SCW is not registered with them to see if I could get someone's attention. I experienced some internal strife with my plans but I saw no other way around the situation. I notified Tony of my intentions on the 12th and immediately received a response with the apologies we've all heard and know by now.

I told Tony that if he had a holster that fit my original order specifications, to ship it and I would expect tracking information no later than the following day, otherwise he could simply refund my money. With no further communication from Tony, I did get an email from USPS with the tracking information and received the holster a few days later. As everyone has indicated here and elsewhere, it is a nice holster - I've been using it as much as I am able and I like it so far. I also know that any future problems I experience with it will likely go unresolved.

I should also note that I ordered a quick ship holster from Raven on the 8th in anticipation of not ever recovering my money or receiving product from SCW. I have received no less than eight (8!) emails from RCS updating the progress of my order which is now in "Final Finishing" phase. That is less than half of the total number of emails I received from SCW, and most of those came the day I placed my order nearly four months ago.

I wish Tony and Secret City Weaponeers the best of luck. I do feel he has done significant damage to his reputation which is really too bad considering the quality and craftsmanship of the product.

[glocktogo]

I have products from Comp-Tac and RCS as well. Their customer service and comms are superior to most other holster manufacturers. I think it takes a small shop to have the design flexibility to create more innovative projects, but they usually lack manufacturing capacity once demand explodes. At that point, it would be nice if they could sell their designs to large companies that can turn the product out in a reasonable time frame.

[trinydex]

I have products from Comp-Tac and RCS as well. Their customer service and comms are superior to most other holster manufacturers. I think it takes a small shop to have the design flexibility to create more innovative projects, but they usually lack manufacturing capacity once demand explodes. At that point, it would be nice if they could sell their designs to large companies that can turn the product out in a reasonable time frame.

what bigger company has the expertise to scale up something like custom holster making?

it takes time to train workers on how to work molds and do quality control up to a connoisseur's exacting specifications. lose that quality and the whole brand takes a dump. then what happens to all the capital sunk into either purchasing the company or expanding it?