I got my CCP about 3 weeks ago and wanted to order myself a holster for my Springfield XD sub compact 9mm. I was looking around for a holster and my wife noted some holsters from Northern Gunleather. They looked real nice. I asked a question on the web site which was promptly answered by the presumed owner and I placed an order for $125 for a holster and a magazine holder. That was almost 3 weeks ago. I have sent 3 emails with no response back. There is no phone number. I contacted my CC company and will file a complaint but that is no guarantee I will get my money back. Well live and learn will order from the people that post on here. Who knows maybe the guy died or something. Hard for me to believe someone would make a web site and just not follow through. Buyer beware!!

If the holsters are made to order, rather than sitting in stock, three weeks isn't even half the time most of us wait for a custom rig. The top custom makers often have waiting lists of patient customers who sit tight for 7+ months before receiving their orders.

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I'm with the banned ...

Interesting. On the Northern Gunleather website it says wait time is 8 days and add 3 days for drying, etc then shipped after 11 days total. So not really sure how to take that but if its 11 days from begin to end of process that's not bad. What you don't have here is a time frame of backlog. You can assume its only 11 days, but the site is not exactly clear. Odd there is no contact number. Hope things turn out well.

Lesson: Order from "[email protected]"
you can pay more but not get better,

Maybe that's a mistake and they meant 3 days for crying.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Yeah, its a well made site, the guy has a real personable bio page. The prices do not look outrageous and the pictures of the holsters are well made. Yes Jimmy I was going to originally do that but my wife ran into the site and we both thought it looked good. I have never been ripped off before on the web so I guess that's not bad. Mc5aw , I understand it takes time to make a holster but as the others have said it should have been done in the time he put on the site. He has totally ignored all my emails except for the 1st one inquiring information about the holsters.
I own a business and if I stopped answering pages or my phones it would quickly run dry. It's a lesson learned....

Some are worse than others about responding. I don't like it either but I would give them another week or so before I get too worked up.

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-Mike-

Your timing with the order may have just been bad. You ordered it, he started working on it then took a preplanned week of vacation plus the weekend on either side. Use another email address and ask a different question about a different holster and see if you get a quick reply. If you do, then it may be time to start worrying.

Doesn't look too promising, the guy lists his claim to fame as a Flash/HTML/CSS/JS developer and graphic designer. That would explain the good looking web site. No mention of any leather work that I can find other than his own site.

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Back to back World War Champs.

Once upon a time I called a gunsmith to see how long it would take to fix my gun. I was told one month. Three months later I called about my gun and they had not started on it. I reminded them that they stated it would take one month to fix it. They replied that it would take one month once they started on it. Maybe you should have also ask how long before they would start. Larry

Yeah Comrad, I saw that...didn't know if it was the same dude or not. I google'd him and did see a reference from another forum of someone recommending his holsters but it has been some time ago. Lesson I learned is to check out the individuals before I purchase, if there is no contact information besides an email I will stay away. (Noticed everyone mentioned the Lobo site and it does not have any contact information so I won't be ordering from there, no offense to anyone.)
I will probably just end up getting a mass produced holster like a Bianchi, have a couple already for my 627 and my GP100. What a shame that this has soured my experience.

I've known Ray at Lobo 40 + years. He's as honest as they come. Here is the link to his page. Lobo Gun Leather - Home

Maybe contact the local authorities in Cedar, MI. and ask if they are familiar with him.

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USN Submarine Service '66-'71

No offense taken but I would urge you to reconsider . . . don't rule out custom makers simply because they don't provide a telephone contact number.

The best custom work . . . whether holsters, stocks or anything else . . . is very labor intensive and often are done by one-person operations. Ray at Lobo . . . and Craig Spegel at Spegel Custom Grips . . . are two such examples.

Like others, I have been extremely pleased with Lobo holsters and find Ray to be very responsive by email. Rather than interrupt his work-in-progress to take phone calls, he sets aside time daily at a good stopping point and returns emails.

Russ

I would also suggest adamsholsters.com, he has a springfied XDM in stock. Be Safe,

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I BACK OUR BLUE

My wife's in lizard for 1911 Officers

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I BACK OUR BLUE

I have had good luck with these folks who make custom holsters and state up front their lead time is 3 weeks. The average time I have received my holsters is half that time but I believe it depends on the complexity of the customized features you ad to your order. Check them out! Very reasonable and produce a nicely made custom holster.

I completely understand your reluctance to enter an order with someone who has not published contact information (phone number, etc). Perhaps you will understand my reluctance to do so with a bit of explanation.

I take orders via website e-mail link. This regularly brings 350-plus inquiries every week, and I spend 30-plus hours responding to every one, 7 days per week.

Some inquiries are from people who demand that their orders take precedence over those place before them.

Some inquiries are from people who have an idea in mind for the "perfect holster" and they are looking for someone to turn their dreams into reality.

Some want to lecture me about how things should be done, according to them (or their brother-in-law, or their friend who knows everything).

Every customer receives a good-faith estimate of production time before the order is confirmed, and I have filled every single order within the estimated completion time for over 40 years.

Every customer receives e-mail confirmation of order completion and mailing.

Most customers are easy to deal with. Most customers are courteous and kind. A few are not.

Some start demanding order status updates weeks before the estimated completion dates. Some start to sound like kids in the back seat of the car on a long road trip (Are we there yet? When are we gonna get there? Are we there yet? When are we gonna get there?). All this accomplishes is adding to my e-mail chores and taking away from production time.

Quite frankly, if I published my contact information (phone number) there would never be any time left over for production work. I just won't take telephone orders, and I don't accept walk-in customers. I don't have time for that nonsense unless I'm willing to renege on promises to customers who got their orders on the production schedule before you decided to make an inquiry.

Over the past 6 years I have moved 3 times into larger production facilities, I have hired and trained an assistant, and I have worked every single day to stay current on orders and e-mail inquiries. No days off, no weekends, no holidays, no vacations. I have made a considerable amount of money, but not nearly enough to publish my telephone number on-line.

Best regards.

You will be short changing yourself by not placing an order with Lobo. Ray has probably sold thousands of holsters to Forum members and all with no phone contact. I'd have to open the holster drawer and take a count but I'm probably up to 10 or so.

It didn't take long before I began including on my GunBroker listings a note requesting that buyers don't call as I won't be answering the phone. This after dealing with a number of kooks, cranks, guys who call in the middle of the night, lonely guys who want to chew your ear off for an hour reliving old hunting trips and whatnot and assorted other time-wasters and annoyances.

I can imagine how terrible fielding calls from the general public must be for an actual full-time business and don't blame anyone for not listing a phone number when email is so much more convenient.

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SWHF #448

Ray as I mentioned in my post there is no offense made by my statement. I just recently got ripped off and its my fault. I am in a different situation where I live. I am a family practice physician and everyone has my phone number. I have been doing this for over 30 years. I don't make the kind of money I used to , although I don't need to work anymore but I still do for the love of the game. I am kind of busy myself but I still make myself available to talk to people if they need me. I think my patients appreciate it.
I am sure you are very trustworthy since I see that you post on here quite a bit. Understand; though, this is the internet and I just got burned. I don't know anyone here from Adam.
I appreciate everyone's input and suggestions, hopefully Visa will chase this down and if they don't I am not going to waste anymore time thinking about it.

How do you think Ray has earned his rock solid reputation? By mis-treating his customers? He over-delivers and under-promises...

Just like you as an MD. earned your reputation one patient at a time....

Should people NOT come to you because some other MD...screwed up?

Randy

Just a guess, but if the name of the company isn't Bianchi, Safariland, Galco, or DeSantis, it's likely to be a one or two person operation. As such, most of them have to decide whether their priority is making and selling product or answering emails and even worse, phone calls.

To the OP, you'll do as you think best, but if it were me I'd just wait it out. I've ordered from FIST holsters and found their work well worth the wait. Its likely that you'll find the same thing when you holster arrives.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Will have to say, never meeting Ray with Lobo Gunleather and just conversing with him thru emails and such he is a gentlemen of such high calibre. He will be getting my business from now on.

Their (Northern) holsters look good. Keep us posted when, or if, you get it. You won't be disappointed with Lobo though.

You sure they don't charge it back to the merchant and apply the credit to your account immediately?

You mean DEBIT card and not CREDIT card?

No hittman it is a credit card. You are protected if someone fraudulently uses the card but not if you place an order and it doesn't come. They stated they are almost 100% at getting the money back but there is no guarantee. Also this all has to go through snail mail to get it done. It's a Cabella visa card btw.

Good news, just picked up my mail and had a letter from Visa. They have refunded my money . There won't be a problem unless there is a dispute. It has worked out well.

Glad to hear this.

Now for all of you folks that think I take too long to fill orders, take note of the fact that I get my products delivered faster than VISA handles their refunds!

Didn't you get a holster as part of the SA package?

I got one with my XD45, not bad, but replaced it with Blackhawk Serpa.

I also got one with my XDs, works OK, but like most XDs owners, waiting patiently for Blackhawk to come out with one.

Glad you got your money back I had a couple of bad experiences and got my money refunded too.

(Walk-in) customers are not nonsense. But I know where you coming from. I too have only my email and P.O. address listed on my website.

Simply b/c I want it in writing. Then there is no "but you said" and "well, that sounded different on the phone" and so forth.

Email was a great invention and it works best for me. I can literally answer from almost everywhere...

EDIT:

BTW Scuba2do, when I ordered from Jason Winnie I was quoted 5-6 weeks. Merchandise arrived after 4 weeks.

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Jorge

[QUOTE=mrrick;138048319]Didn't you get a holster as part of the SA package?

Yes I did, plastic thing that doesn't hold a candle to Ray's holster. I will have to go look for it.

While my post will have little to add tho the others who have addressed this matter, I will weigh in only to say that many of the small leather craftsmen who contribute to the discussions here as well as advertise their products are well thought of and are excellent business owners. They are conscientious and are a credit to what we as gun owners believe are the ways to conduct ones life and business. I was burned by a firearms dealer on a shotgun. Got my money back after some time. Only after I involved my credit card company did I receive any communications that were worthwhile.

In any case, to close, I will say that Ray at Lobo does very, very nice work. I bought a K frame 4" OWB "Threepersons" style in a brown color, flowered design which is one of the nicest holsters that I have ever owned. And, you cannot go too wrong with a few of the old large manufacturers like Bianchi, Safariland, Shoemaker, Safety Speed etc. are also excellent and you cannot go wrong with one of these, especially the old ones done completely in leather. Hope your situation is resolved satisfactorily.