I'm posting this here instead of in the
oberon picture thread because I think it's less off-topic here.
OberonDesign.com said:
We are unable to customize due to costs. We are a very small company. The dyes are expensive and they are ordered to fit the plates for each item. So if you order a cover and you are the only one who ordered it in red we are stuck with that dye.
We simply can't keep every dye for every design. So we limit the colors to three and in some cases two.
Also to customize other items takes time. If it's one person it seems easy but add thousands of custom orders to our small staff it's not something we feel we can do in a timely manner.
I hope this clears it up
Actually, not quite. I mean, I understand what you are saying but your answer doesn't really match the question...
To be honest, sometimes when you answer questions about customizations I get the feeling that you have a pre-made text (the one about the cost of dyes) and do not properly read what people were really saying.
People were talking about leaving the pewter button and bungees off. That would actually save you money and time, so those factors shouldn't be an issue. It doesn't appear to be a problem to leave off the wool, why not the button/bungee, too?
Regarding color customization, since you brought it up: I get that you cannot customize covers for free - but from what I've read online you don't take custom orders even if people offer to pay for all your extra costs. I don't mean to be rude but when people say "Well, I would like to order cover xyz and I wouldn't mind paying the extra costs" it does feel like a bit of a slap in their face to go "we don't do that because it's too costly", you know? If the customer wants to pay extra, why not let them? Or at least give them another reason, one that makes sense to them. Such as "We get so many orders in every day that we just don't have time to do customizations like that as it involves a whole lot of extra work, such as calling the dye supplier, ordering the special dye and cleaning the drum we dye our leather in more often than we usually do" or whatnot. Those are reasons that people would get. But saying "it's too costly" when people would happily pay for all the extra costs is just a bit meh, you know?
I think a few people misread other people's posts. Here as well as in the other threads discussing Oberon's customer service.
People aren't necessarily miffed about not receiving plastic inserts or not being able to order their covers with custom colors, without pewter buttons or bungees. They are miffed because they feel that their concerns are not even read properly, they are being brushed off or not taken seriously.
I mean, I was one of the first people (if not the first person) to point out that cardboard was a greener alternative to plastic inserts and that I personally liked the change but I still think customer communication may be a bit of the weak point of the company. But from what I've read on these forums, this only applies to web communication though. People appear to be very happy with the results of their phone calls. So I can only assume that the medium leads to problems with the message here.

The subject of my final examination in linguistics was online communication and you would be surprised how badly things can go wrong just because you're talking on a forum instead of on the phone or face to face.
That said, I think think that Oberon certainly never intended to deceive the customers. Their products are outstanding in every way - even I can tell, and I haven't seen their work in person yet.

Plus, to be honest, I'd rather work through a few miscommunications than receive a product I'm not happy with. So even if there are misunderstandings, the mere fact that Amy(?) posts on the forums explaining company decisions and answering questions (some of them over and over) all the time shows that Oberon do care about their customers.
Oh my, this turned into quite a rant. I'm sorry. I promised I'll try to be better. And I promise I'll order at least one Oberon cover before the summer's over.