romera brush caution

Hi guys, I to had a problem. I waited 5 months for my Manchurian brush & that was only after I got PayPal in involved as there was hardly no communication(8 emails from me to his 1 email)When it finally arrived the workmanship was not great but worse of all it was not a Manchurian brush at all it was a silvertip. I definately would not recommend him.

I'm sorry to hear of the problems some of you have been having with him. I'm currently in a nearly year long dispute with him over a brush that was supposed to be replaced by July of last year and is still not resolved. All the problems I hear from people are unfortunately similar to mine, poor workmanship , horrific customer service and communication and many , many broken promises. The man is basically a charlatan in my eyes. I know there are some good news stories and that's great but with the sheer number of very similar stories I've heard from disgruntled customers who have basically been cheated out of their money by him I'm still surprised he is in business.

@"rogue13" during my complaint Gustavo agreed to send me an individual knot as compensation if i paid postage while he was repairing the brush the first time. He offered initially a 25% discount on further business and with his brushes running at around 100 euros at the time I thought if I paid the 10 to 15 euros postage and his 26mm manchurian knots at 41 euros that was fair enough. Like you when I received the knot it was in no way representative of the Manchurian I had received previously in the brush that was being repaired, It was scratchy with many thick spikey black hairs with poor backbone. I don't even think it was Silvertip, It was probably a knot that didn't cut the mustard from his suppliers and he palmed it off to me. The guy is just a liar, it's as simple as that. As for TSN , as long as he pays his dues to advertise there , they won't remove him. Cash is King!

I haven't visited this thread for a long time but when I last posted I had received my repaired Rustic Barber from Gustavo. Within a week the same flaking of the wood finish began again. I contacted him regarding this in July of 2016 and he asked me to return it for yet another repair , I did not agree to this and instead requested a new brush and I would send this defective brush back once the replacement arrived as the first repair job took nearly 2 months. He agreed and ever since , when he has bothered to reply to any emails I have sent he has given me excuse after excuse ranging from blaming family members for poor workmanship while helping him out in his shop , family relatives being in hospital and finally accusing me of tampering with the finish myself , presumably so I could wait months for the pleasure of a refund or replacement and in the meantime not have the use of the brush since every time it touched water more and more finish came off.

That was in July 2016 having initially ordered in March and receiving in May and here I am in nearly April 2017 and still no replacement and he ignores all emails except to occasionally insult me by giving me vague responses like "I will send soon" and more months pass by. The last time we spoke via email he said he could maybe make my brush when he gets his new supply of knots in , but he "doesn't know when that will be". All the while he is advertising new brushes on his website with the same spec knots that are required for my brush and he's advertising new individual knots and quoting when they will arrive! Does he think I'm stupid?
These are on the same social media platforms I have communicated with him on and he thinks I can't see the deceit in what he says to me privately compared to what he posts on public forums etc. He also claims that the emails I send him , the one's he doesn't answer are the reason the brush promised to be replaced in July for a 2nd time still isn't even on the lathe yet!

I think his intention is to string people along with excuses to then simply allow the PayPal claim expiry to run out and not resolve any issues and keep the money. It's basically theft. However I'm compiling what can only be described as a dossier on him and my experience and on Tuesday on the 1 year anniversary of ordering the brush I will post it online on all forums or communities I'm a member of to warn others who are considering giving their money to him in the future. I won't include the email evidence that paints Gustavo in a horrendous light and exposes him as a liar and a common thief but he is more than welcome to dispute any of my claims , which an honest man with nothing to hide would be demanded by his professional pride to do so but I doubt it because if he does I'll just post the timeline of emails that are irrefutable.

I told Gustavo I would not let this go and I won't until it is resolved to my satisfaction . I will post my experience with him after every public post he sends advertising his brushes so everyone knows what kind of "business" he is running.
*This is a copy/paste of my post on TSN today.

Wow. This is unreal 1morepasswill, I thought 5 months was bad, but a year is totally disgusting. If you paid by credit card you can contact them for advice they may even help. I had a problem will a purchase of a bluray player on line that after 3 months became faulty.
Tried several times to contact the supplier & no reply what so ever. So contacted my credit card to ask for advice, they were great they told me what to do & then they took the case on. The supplier soon quickly contacted me, from which he refunded me in full including postage to return the bluray.
It might be worth a try. Good luck.

Wow. This is unreal 1morepasswill, I thought 5 months was bad, but a year is totally disgusting. If you paid by credit card you can contact them for advice they may even help. I had a problem will a purchase of a bluray player on line that after 3 months became faulty.
Tried several times to contact the supplier & no reply what so ever. So contacted my credit card to ask for advice, they were great they told me what to do & then they took the case on. The supplier soon quickly contacted me, from which he refunded me in full including postage to return the bluray.
It might be worth a try. Good luck.

Thanks, unfortunately it was via PayPal and the time has ran out for me to raise a claim against him. I'm guessing that's what he was up to when he was stringing me along for so long because as soon as someone raises a claim against him he's all ears.

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I ordered my new brush from Romera in January. To date I have received/heard nothing from him despite sending him an email asking for an update.
Paypal has the dispute deadline in June, so I'll have to open a dispute in two months if nothing arrives.

Get your finger on the trigger but hopefully you won't need to resort to a claim. he seems to perk up when PayPal freeze his funds so if you really want a response a claim is certain to get his standard " I'll post out this week or next" response and you'll get it posted out a couple of months after that

Yes pull that trigger its the only way he does respond. My advice also is get a full refund & get a custom brush elsewhere.
1morepasswill shame it went over a year. But I think your right he does it know that &  I think he thinks you'll forget about it.

Terrible attitude to have to customers. Mongoose did the same when they started to really go downhill with their QC and subsequently their customer service became non existent. They seemed to feel like Romera that if the minimal effort is made to resolve anything then their job is done and on to the next mark.

Wow, i never expected this thread to get so much action. Obviously I am not alone.

The good news (for me) is that I got a notice from Paypal that I am getting my money back.

The odd thing is that a couple weeks ago, Paypal apparently got a tracking number from Romera. Paypal gave me that number. That package was mailed about 5 weeks after my order and according to the Spanish mail tracking site, it left Spain about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Where it went from there is anybody's guess. It certainly didn't arrive here and i do not expect it to. Paypal obviously doesn't expect that either or I wouldn't have won my case.

My guess is that it is just some random package to someone that Romera provided to Paypal to try to keep my money. In my experience, packages always arrive. now obviously there are exceptions, but it just hasn't happened to me yet.