PAA General Thoughts?

Hey Marko,
Our 3.0 and Crown King formulas have been available since we switched to our new tubs...8-9 months back(maybe more?)? I personally enjoy all our formulations too but find myself always tweaking the recipe...I'm a tweaker by nature. I really enjoy the post shave feel currently, especially on the CK formula. I'd also like to say we are super excited to finally have our soap (CaD), EU certified! Not only will this put us back in Europe, it will also, hopefully, stop folks from questioning my ingredients. That fact alone may have been the driving force more than selling in Europe! lol, totally worth all the money, testing and arduous paper work over the course of the year!

It's funny, some folks accuse me of advertising too much, others, not enough. When 3.0 and CK came out I tried my best to spread the word but still folks missed it.lol!
I got an angry email a couple months back from someone who had just found out about CK and gave me hell for not telling anyone! he even gave me advice on how to get the word out using social media....love it.
Thanks for the comment sir and I hope this answers your question.

One last note.
As for the "meh" ratings. Totally YMMV, not everyone is gonna love you, i get it...or sometimes it's just bias. It seems some people have an idea about me or have heard something in another place and let's this cloud their judgement. Like they want it to fail, so much so it becomes psychosomatic. Being a reviewer myself I try to approach every product wanting it to succeed and then I chip away at it constructively if need be. But again, some seem bias and will never like a PAA product. Usually this comes through in the rest of the comment...they'll just never allow themselves to enjoy it. That's fine.

As for reviews on my site, we have a mish mash of ratings, not all 5 star. People genuinely enjoy our products that buy from us or follow what we do. All we ask, and this is stated on our site is that you reach out to us first if you are having an issue, give us a chance to help out or fix the problem. On a rare occasion you can get a defect that was overlooked (hardware), or it can be simple user error (hardware/software). We are here to help, this is what we live for. Some reviews are not really reviews but customer service moments instead where they skip the "reaching out to us" step and just blast something. The "Frost Byte" being too cold comment somewhere in here is very reminiscent of something like this. First off, It's called Frost Byte, it's marketed as a cold mentholated soap...yet someone may leave a trashing review based on this kinda experience. Similar to buying a black t-shirt then leaving a review burning it because it's black. I don't consider these "reviews" or helpful to anyone.

Amazon is a whole other animal. We don't do self reviews, we don't mess around with Amazon at all, that's one way to lose your account. If ever you suspect a review is untrue or fake, click on the reviewers name and see what else they have reviewed in the past, are they real? Rather than to jump to conclusions.

The thing is, we are very passionate about what we do and the products we produce. At the end of the day its the quality of the product that speaks and that's why we are still here. We work our butts off to deliver a killer product. Marketing can't help a crappy product, no matter how flashy it is. This isn't a part time gig for us but a full time, 7 day a week job that we love and are very grateful to be able to do. Again, the quality of the products are the reason we are still around. Like anything else, they may not be for you but that doesn't mean they are subpar. Just some insight from this side!

Thanks again for a great thread and a chance to participate! Shave on folks!

D
PS- and just a heads up, this Saturday on the Round Table we will have Neil Jagger as a guest!!! Cheers!

Amazon is a whole other animal. ...If ever you suspect a review is untrue or fake, click on the reviewers name and see what else they have reviewed in the past, are they real? Rather than to jump to conclusions.

Run the URL through http://fakespot.com/ It will tell you if the reviews are bots or fake.

PS- and just a heads up, this Saturday on the Round Table we will have Neil Jagger as a guest!!! Cheers!

Suggestion. Get your audio levels all the same. Trying to listen to it tends to be a mishmash all over the place. Just an idea

What a difference a day makes... when this thread kicked off I had familiarity with PAA but had not actually used an of Douglas's products.

I am very happy to say that has now changed and I have picked up (8) tubs between PAA and CK.

Performance is great, scents are cool, at times quirky, always interesting and the service has been top notch. Not sure what else I could ask for or expect in an Artisan and would rate my experience two enthusiastic thumbs up.

I saw anise and I couldn't do it lol.  I think sandre de drago has oud in it.  They have another oud scent also I think.  I haven't tried any new formulations from PAA though other than Crown King which I thought was freaking awesome.

Oh it has plenty of Anise scent man, Anise and Licorice.

I have my sights on the Sangre de Drago. Ouds man, love it.

Did you ever try any Oud scents from PAA? I have now tried Sangre de Drago, Coconut Oud, Enigma Machine, and Oud Spice. I can tell you that if you like Oud you have to try all of those because they are all awesome. There is also an Orange and Oud scent. I just bought the aftershave cologne samples for $1.00 each. You can get up to 9 for $1.50 shipping, and I think it goes up to $3.00 after 9.

This is a great opportunity to talk a little about the shipping cost. The shipping prices currently are lower than the actual label cost for the samples in small quantities. The lowest possible first class package postage, for anything 3oz or under is $2.45. The samples, though light, still have to ship as a package, as opposed to a letter, and the cost seems to increase at least once per year per USPS. Currently the shipping is a great deal, we'd like to keep it this way as long as we can but the increase from $1.50 to $3.00 is based on weight changes and there is a threshold for that lower weight that we have currently set in our system. $3.00 is a more realistic number for 10 samples to ship than $1.50 for 9. The tricky part is accounting for the box weight but then fairly increasing the weight per item for multiples. Probably a little more info than you wanted to know about shipping but take advantage of the low shipping price while we have it around!
D

Thanks for the reply CaD314, I appreciate the input!

 
Amazon is a whole other animal.  ...If ever you suspect a review is untrue or fake, click on the reviewers name and see what else they have reviewed in the past, are they real? Rather than to jump to conclusions.

Run the URL through http://fakespot.com/ It will tell you if the reviews are bots or fake.

PS- and just a heads up, this Saturday on the Round Table we will have Neil Jagger as a guest!!! Cheers!

Suggestion. Get your audio levels all the same.  Trying to listen to it tends to be a mishmash all over the place.  Just an idea

Good call, use Fake Spot! As for the show, we just switched to a new platform as of last week and the audio seems to be leveled. Live streaming can be wonky so we work with what we got. We have gone from free platforms; google, blab, to a new one I bought. As with anything else I do I am always trying to make it better! Thanks for the tips Grim!

CaD314

As the OP of this thread I need to make it very clear that I was not "bashing" your products. I have your products. However, for me, there are many other artisans out there that are making products that perform as well as yours and cost me less money. That was my point. Your soaps are not overly egregious on price compared to other soap makers, your aftershave is a different animal entirely. Performance, scent, and price are all important. You hit the nail on the head in the first to category, but price is where you lose me in this day and age where a plethora of makers exist.

I would agree with your assessment that your staying power in your aftershaves set you apart a year ago or 16 months ago in the wet shave market; that claim is no longer valid. There are a lot of aftershave makers in the market who make a product that has amazing staying power and feels great and has all the properties of your aftershave, yet they cost less money.

What goes into you making your product, to be blunt, is of little interest to me. I don't care if an aftershave is aged 100 years. When I buy aftershave, I look at these things in this order

1 Does it smell Great
2. Does it have longevity
3. Does it make my face feel good post shave
4. What does it cost an ounce?

If I can check points 1-3 and spend 15-20 for 4 ounces of product why would I spend 25-35 for 3.5 ounces? That was my point and I don't think it's a ridiculous one. No one is claiming your products aren't good, they are good and they perform well. But I think the point I references in the OP and the one I lay before you now is valid constructive analysis of your product range. You have done a lot for the wet shaving community but don't take every complaint as a personal attack because they aren't.

BadDad is right. The moment you mention PAA as a reviewer, legions of trolls suddenly surface from the underworld, intent on dragging you down into the muck of rumor and hearsay.

Anybody that doesn't believe this?  Go make a thread on reddit and see what happens.  If anybody does make sure and give me a link to it.  Hours of straight comedy.  

Sadly this is true, ironically it drives so much traffic a day to our site! So thanks reddit.

I will say it odd that people call my ethics into question have us on the "bad gear" list...I have never sold bad gear and would never, ever do that. Oddly again, this bad gear list has a LEGAL disclaimer claiming it is edited by the community, thus freeing them from any backlash...yet, if you look at the "history" of the wiki, you will see it's been locked for almost a year (11 months). Yet one guys who has been making edits has had access to it recently as of 9 months ago. ethical?

I admit I made a lot of dumb mistakes in the beginning and I have apologized for what I actually did...never for the wacky bs I was accused of. I was excited and learning as I went. A fine example is my ingredient label for my 1.0 formula that was called into question in a certain forum. But we had caught that error long before that was posted, the op had the old label...i don't even think he bought it from us but it was given to him. Ingredients were out of order, however they were all in my soap. By this time 1.5 was already out and the ingredients in proper order. So by the time it was posted it was a moot point. I did respond to that post as soon as I was aware of it on pg 4 of that thread(within 24 hrs)...but seldom do people get that far it seems. I also did interview myself years ago too...that was dumb. At the time, htgam, the blog was new and I was writing 3 articles a day trying to beef it up with content. I had already reviewed many other artisans and done some interviews...I figured lets give Fran's PPF a spot. Mind you, we were not on anyone's radar and htgam was not selling anything at the time. I thought it was humorous, I now realize how incredibly dumb it was and would never go there again. Anyways, time went buy and I forgot all about it...until i was reminded. I'm still embarrassed by that and deeply sorry for that. My excitement for Fran's soap and a desire for a fat blog at the time got the better of me.

So again, I made some bad decisions and I own them. I never wanted to be a bad guy or be perceived as evil, controversial or nefarious...my mom still loves me and I try to be a good human, especially when I have such a love and passion for wet shaving and the community. Since day one PAA has been nothing buy clear and transparent in all we do in an effort to show folks we learn from our mistakes. People make mistakes, it's a given. We just ask for forgiveness just like anyone else if we offended anyone. We also welcome PMs, emails, phone calls, smoke signals, etc, with questions or concerns. We intentionally make ourselves very easy to contact.

Thanks again for a chance to hopefully provide some clarification!
D

CaD314

As the OP of this thread I need to make it very clear that I was not "bashing" your products.  I have your products.  However, for me, there are many other artisans out there that are making products that perform as well as yours and cost me less money.  That was my point.  Your soaps are not overly egregious on price compared to other soap makers, your aftershave is a different animal entirely.  Performance, scent, and price are all important.  You hit the nail on the head in the first to category,  but price is where you lose me in this day and age where a plethora of makers exist.

I would agree with your assessment that your staying power in your aftershaves set you apart a year ago or 16 months ago in the wet shave market; that claim is no longer valid.  There are a lot of aftershave makers in the market who make a product that has amazing staying power and feels great and has all the properties of your aftershave, yet they cost less money.

What goes into you making your product, to be blunt, is of little interest to me.  I don't care if an aftershave is aged 100 years.  When I buy aftershave, I look at these things in this order

1  Does it smell Great
2.  Does it have longevity
3.  Does it make my face feel good post shave
4.  What does it cost an ounce?

If I can check points 1-3 and spend 15-20 for 4 ounces of product why would I spend 25-35 for 3.5 ounces?  That was my point and I don't think it's a ridiculous one.  No one is claiming your products aren't good, they are good and they perform well.  But I think the point I references in the OP and the one I lay before you now is valid constructive analysis of your product range.  You have done a lot for the wet shaving community but don't take every complaint as a personal attack because they aren't.

Not at all, I just wanted to break it down what you are paying for and you Pay For What You Get. As for the "OP", i wasn't, i believe, referring to you. For what you look in a AS that is fine, just wanted to make it clear to the thread, that went all over the place, that I am in no way price gouging. I also don't take what you say as an attack at all but a chance for us to explain why things sometimes are the way they are from the artisans side. Shave On!