Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Company knowingly sent out a cosmetically damaged product and refused to pay shipping for the item to be returned to them. Told the customer they would have to pay over $150 for shipping back to the company and then pay shipping to the customer for the replacement saddle. Even though they offer free shipping on new saddles. At that cost, the shipping totals alone would amount to nearly half of the saddle's proposed worth.
  
  When confronted, the company refused to come good for the saddle's shipping and refused to try and offer any compromises. Emails did not follow proper grammar, customer service over the phone was less than stellar, and they are knowingly sending out damaged products.
  
  It is not the consumer's job to pay for the product and then pay for the shipping when the product they received was incorrect. And then pay shipping for the new product!

  Business Response

  Date: 12/27/2023

  Hello and thank you for sending us a way to respond to complaints BBB. I am **** ***** the owner of Sheridan Saddle and Buckle and I remember talking to the customer and we did explain that if she did not like the saddle please send it back to us.  These saddles are handmade and all of the decorative designs on the saddles are all engraved into the leather by hand and used to enhance the look of the saddle from merely only leather. We add these designs to enhance the look of the saddle by engraving flowers, basket stamping, lines and other ways to enhance the overall look of the saddle from a pure leather saddle with no tooling. We actively show our processes on our ****** and advertising accounts to show the beauty of hand engraving on the saddles and buckles and to show the amount of time it takes us to do this process and the beauty it brings to our products. This is a common practice among saddle and buckle makers to enhance the look of their products by offering different patterns and making them look how they want them to look. It is basically like art on saddles and buckles engraved into leather and metal to make the our products beautiful. These designs are engraved into the leather and metal with specially designed tools such as swivel knives, embossing stamps and a lot of time. The image the customer provided here has shown here is a design we cut into the leather, by hand, to edge the leather and stop the tooling to give a clear edge and line. We do not send out damaged products, as this is merely a line we cut to enhance the look of the saddle and give the hand engraved tooling a solid stop line. With this art of tooling saddles and hand tooling leather, lines might not be 100 percent straight, flowers might not be exactly the same size as the others but it makes it beautiful because it makes the saddle show beauty that is was not just pressed by a machine. We do understand with shipping these saddles all over the USA  that our customer cannot see them in person until it is right in front of them and there is a chance they will not like the saddle however we do take the chance as we feel we make beautifully saddles that bring many people joy and share the processes and photos and videos on our social media to show they are handmade and the amount of time it takes to engrave and tool our products.  These boxes are shipped with the box measurements of 30x28x28 inches with a weight of 30 lbs. Shipping this large of a box is expensive and we can only go by rates that *** and **** present to Sheridan Saddle and Buckle when shipping any order as well as returns. We do handle our reviews and customer satisfaction seriously and try to make everything right. I cannot upload vides here to show our process but check us out on ****** under sheridanbuckle and sheridansaddle as well as our ******** and ********* accounts to enjoy our process and promotional videos and just because I only have 30 minutes to respond here I have attached a screenshot of reviews from our Sheridan Saddle and Buckle ****** account to show that people how people are willing to take time and post their pictures of their saddles on their horses and specifically mention the beauty of their saddles and boast about the workmanship and they feel like they got a good product for the money they spent with us. I hope this customer will read this reply and visit our social media accounts to enjoy the videos we post showing our employees working hard to make beautiful and unique products.

  Thank you for the chance to explain and respond

  **** *****

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/27/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  
  
  Better Business Bureau®:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********. I simply do not want to continue to banter with you as you clearly do not understand the situation so I will mark this as resolved. 

  The issue is not just the handmade leather design. The issue includes the fact the front of the seat was not aligned (as indicated in the original claim with photo evidence). Over time this open area is subjected to advanced aging and leaves the tree more exposed. I have asked around in my horse community and all agreed that this is not fault of mine and I should not have to pay for it. I should not see the screws in a brand new saddle like that near the seat. Nor should I be able to move the front of the seat back and forth since it wasn't attached appropriately. The main issue is the fact you sent this saddle out and were not willing to to pay to have it returned. If I simply did not like the product that would be another story it would be on me to pay to send it back. This issue results from an already damaged product you will not come good for. On top of that, you wanted me to pay shipping for the replacement. I don't understand why we could not come to a equal deal here is I really did want to order another saddle from you guys. 

  Also, I did not bring up your social media as an issue here. I had actually been sent some videos of your work a while back which made me feel like you were a trustworthy company to order from. I loved the chocolate rough out you guys have and I really do wish things had been handled differently. I bet you guys do make some better saddles than what I have received, and I am sorry I ended up getting one that isn't your best quality. Please do better for us western folks, word travels fast when a reputation is on the line. 

  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ***** *******