- Art Leather, manufacturer of Leather Albums for wedding photographers everywhere, came out of bankruptcy a couple years back looking stronger than ever.
However, in the last few weeks, they seem to have disappeared again. One DWFer says when he (finally) spoke to customer support, they said they were “out of glue”. Another claims that the company has closed its doors, possibly for good, possibly to retool as a consumer album company.
Social media is of no help. The last post at the Art Leather Twitter account was in March, while over on the Facebook page, there are no Art Leather reps to be seen while customers mill about in confusion.
One lucky photographer, Bruce Solko, says he finally got in contact with the company yesterday. Here’s what they told him:
I received a call from Art Leather customer service today. They told me that the material to make the inserts was damaged by USP and they had to have new material made. That it should be in on Monday and they will start to fill orders.
Also they are now going to take the money first, then make the album. Old was was take the order, make the album and then charge you just before shipping. They are redoing the website that why the you can not see your order page.
I asked if I would get my order in the next two weeks, “you might, there a lot of orders to be filled”. Do you think they are tell me the truth or just blowing smoke?
Out of glue? Damaged inserts? Are they really having supply issues, or is it something more? After posting that note, Bruce recieved a letter from a “former Art Leather Employee”:
I am a former employee of AL. Got laid off two weeks ago along with about 15-20 other people in the NY office. They moved their customer service to Florida and are supposedly splitting the company in two and will probably be selling their products to the general public soon-like many album companies are starting to do. I was there only 9 months but that was long enough to see that the owner of the company has no connection with or to his customers at all. While working there we were told that some of our vendors were having trouble with getting materials-but I believe that money problems on AL side were to blame. Many of us who worked there feel terrible about what they are doing to their loyal customers, as well as former employees-they are not paying us for our last two weeks of work, it’s just not right.
We have been unable to reach Art Leather for Comment. You can discuss the curent Art Leather situation with your fellow Professional Photography Peers in the DWF Pro Album forum in these threads (not a member yet, trials are FREE):
UPDATE: Shortly after this went live, this post showed up in the DWF Forums:
A lot of you may know me, my name is Sharon Clark and I have been working for Art Leather for 14 years. As you all know the industry is rapidly changing – and so are we. We have recently moved, and our new corporate offices are located in Daytona Beach. Here we are going to be able to bring you a state of the art web site, on line ordering systems, a newly trained, friendly customer service dept and new marketing programs that will help you create more revenue. Truly, I am more excited about our future than ever before, and I know you will begin to see the changes quickly.
I know there have been some interruptions along the way with our new phone system, new order processing system, and our newly trained team; everyone is learning a new job. Shipments are on the way. I can assure you you will love our new systems and as always, love our top quality products at fabulous prices. I am here to assist you with my team in any way we can. Feel free to call us at toll free number 866.302.0278 and toll free fax 866.302.0277. Look for our email next week with our “Back to School” special! We continue to have the unsurpassed quality products in the industry.
Thank you -
Sharon
art leather productions
national sales manager
sharonc@artleather.com
Make of that what you will.
21 Comments at "Wherefore art thou, Art Leather?"
Always like their albumns but such a shame, if you can’t get good cusotmer service. Any ideads of a good replacemetn for similar albumns?
Always like their albumns but such a shame, if you can’t get good customer service. Any ideas of a good replacement for similar albumns?
I have been calling, emailing Art Leather for DAYS now, nothing! RIP AL! Switching to Zookbinders!
Terry
Art Leather, are you kidding me? I can’t even count how many orders they’ve screwed up with us over the years. THE WORST customer service to be found on the entire globe! I don’t know what the “we moved to Daytona” stuff is all about. Did cheap cross the border and move to FL? If they sell one book to the general public, we as photographers, starting with PPA, should file a class action lawsuit that makes their heads spin in disbelief. Our businesses have become difficult enough to sustain, with the “mommy photographers” and the “shoot-n-burn” copy cats, the last thing we, THE VERY ONES who kept your company in business this long, deserve is for you to pass your products on to the everyday Jane. Just do us a favor and shut your doors down, sell the inventory and take a vacation. Enough with the excuses. There are several great ProLabs that now do albums for their clients, photographers ONLY, and that quality is what your clients deserve and what you deserve to be able to count on and deliver every time. Those who can’t keep up, I say good day!
you should check out Azura Albums http://www.azuraalbums.com for your replacement album.. they make very nice albums.
Terry… they are located in Atlanta
I got the same excuses about damaged mats in June. It took two months for them to send the correct ones. I placed a new order last week and got no response to the order, to two phone calls or to emails. I’m sending them a notice to cancel the order and will find another album company.
I am a retired wedding photographer who used AL exclusively throughout the 90′s, generally with satisfactory results.
But, a few days ago, when I retrieved a couple of albums I had put together for personal use, I found that the covers were basically dissolving. They were very sticky with two albums stuck together and when separated, parts of the covers pulled off. A third album stored on the same shelf shows no such problem.
Storage conditions have been good, stored in a cabinet in our family room. I haven’t tried to contact AL yet, but am about to do try to do that. From the sound of things here, I’m pessimistic.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen this problem and what may have been done about it.
CK
Art Leather has shipped my albums and I have them in my hands. Still can not get hold of Customer Service at Art Leather.
[...] photographers have been hung out to dry with unfulfilled album orders from other album vendors (click for more info…) and we wanted to [...]
Renaissance is a great album company with distributors across the US, I am with B&C Photographic Supply I would be happy to walk you through pricing and help you transition to Renaissance. Give either Ryan or Ann a call 1-866-888-0663. We are as a TAP, and Bon Match Distributor.
Add mine to the list of no response, already paid and now almost 9 weeks after the online order. Can PPA attorneys help?
Have used AL for 6 years with no problems until….
I also have had no luck in getting a hold of anyone at Art Leather!
Have orders in for over 2 months with them but have no way of knowing if the orders will be filled!
The last batch that i received from them the quality of the last 30 years was not there!
they no longer have a order check on their website!!!! looks suspicious to me!!!
and now all my Brides think i’m the one putting them off!!
Art Leather is a nightmare. They lost my original order, told me they’d expedite my corrected order, 6 weeks later I find out it’s ordered and coming so I asked for 2 day shipping….didn’t happen. I did speak to a cs rep there, Thomas…who I felt sorry for. I’m still waiting on my album and I hope that it’s of good quality.
We Have had a hell of a time with AL. They took 3 months to fulfill one order and then kept repeateing the order. A second order was shipped twice icorrectly. Even after our orders were finally fulfilled they still keep sending us product we didn’t order. A $800.00 order was invoiced for $3000.00. I would avoid them.
Art Leather really screwed me up this past year. I had two album orders in that they did not complete except for one parent album. They charged my credit card the full amount and then refused to complete the order. They refused to reply to emails and telephone calls for three weeks. Finally, I had to call the credit card and put in for a rvearsal of the charges and start all over with another company. I was a customer of Art Leather for 25+ years and I would never use them again no matter what. I have never been so humiliated in the treatment I recieved. I also tried to talk to the new company that bought them out, but they would only forward the calls to the old Art Leather number. Bad news!
Anyone know if there is a class action lawsuit against Art Leather? I’d like to join in on it if possible. The albums were made out of a bad material that becomes sticky of the years. There is supposed to be a lifetime warranty; however, they want to charge $45 shipping to replace it. I’d rather spend $45 toward a good product somewhere else.
Art Leather has bad customer service.
Some of the same problems others are having. Returned sticky album back in November and cannot get them to send replacement also do not understand the shipping charge.
Cannot get them to return phone calls or e-mails. I finally did get someone to answer the phone last week and she claims they never got album. I have shipping information and proof of delivery. I am calling every day until someone gets me a replacement album.
This company started going down hill many years ago when Mark Roberts took over the company from his Dad.
I am filling a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I just everyone else do the same. We also might be able to file complaint with the State Atty. general if we know for sure what state they are in or possible with atty general of each state that we are in.
Art leather closed the manufacturing facilities in tijuana about 3 weeks ago …no word on whats going on
Somewhere back in the ’90′s AL had a bad run of their better grade vinyl and within several years it got sticky and was a general disaster. Years ago because of their ” lifetime ” warranty they replaced any such free. I had a bride/client bring me back her album a bit better than a year ago and I returned it to Al to be told it was going to cost me $30.00 for shipping and handling of which in Mexico that should have easily paid for the replacement. I wrote the check. It took them around eight months to replace it and I had made numerous phone calls which were never answered until one day I got a call from someone in customer service explaining how busy they were etc…. lol…!!! They simply are not the company they used to be and my advise is to avoid them.
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