So I am going on vacation for 3 months. Sort of an epic journey across Europe with my bike. I want a good bag, cause I cannot stand the uncomfort of my timbuk2, so I take a look at Seagull Bags, I see they take 4 weeks to make. That is great, cause I am leaving in a month, so I call them to double check this, they confirm the time, and I place my order. A week before I leave, I give them a call. They tell me that it is going to take another 4 weeks, and that I should give them my address in Europe, so I give them the address of one of the hotels I am staying at. I go and I leave from that hotel, and give Seagull another call, and they say they have just started on it, and it will be another week or two. A couple weeks later, I update my address to my Apartment in Sweden, where I will be staying for 2 months. After another couple weeks, I call them to see if the bag got lost in the mail or something, and they tell me that it is 90% done, and they will have it shipped out by the end of the week. A week and a half later they told me they had it shipped to an address in to US, so I say "No, I wanted this to Sweden." They said "Let me see if I can stop the package" A week later they said, they stopped it and had it shipped to Sweden. That puts us where I am now. 2 weeks later, I find out it got stuck in customs, and now I am having to pay another 100 dollars on a bag that I originally paid way to much for. The Swedish post wont mail it back to the us. They wont give me a break on all these taxes. They tell me that I have to contact customs to see about the fees, which tell me that I have to contact the post to see about the fees. So here I am with an overpiced bag that I dont even really want any more, which I get to use for the last 2 weeks of my 3 month vacation. Horray. That is sarcasm.

Ouch. That's pretty bad CS.

That really sucks, man. its a shame too. because they really are nice bags and pretty good people. i dont think they were really prepared for this amount of business. they have a total of 5 employees. so im sure they are super overwhelmed. it is pretty ****ty they didnt give you any discount for that though.

I think they could have done more to make it right too. You gave them notice that you would be in Europe, they said it was ok, they should have been organized enough to make it happen. Everyone makes mistakes though and from what I hear they are a stand-up company. You might contact them to see if they are willing to do anything to make it right. I don't think they should eat the customs tax as neither you nor they had an idea it would happen, but they might help offset that cost since they caused several delays.

if my math is right that's 3.5 months to get a bag, was it stock, no special stuff? In any case that is a lot of delay yet, why not get a different bag before you left if you needed one for travel. Had you already paid for it, before it was ever made?

I had a guy craft me a custom rack, he had me pay when it was ready to ship. I like that feature of small businesses that do craft style work, it isn't exactly "cash on the barrel" but it works the same way. Yeah and I measured wrong for the rack, but it'll get fixed someday, by me, shipping is terrible

I had similar experience if you saw my thread. In the end I got my bag and I like it. Once they get more people hired and get a better ordering and e-mail system set up they should be better.

The bag was custom, so I can imagine it would take a little bit longer, but I just dont like being told it will be done soon, when it wont be. I understand the small businesses and how they work, and that is my draw to a company like Seagull. If I could do it over again, I would forget my needs for a big, and just buy a R.E. Load custom stock. I considered doing this after submitting my order, but Seagull makes you pay before they will even look at your order. The bag is really nice, and I like it alot, but no bag, no matter what you say, is worth 430 dollars. I also think that company's shipping over seas, and the post office should should warn people that that isnt the shipping cost. Its the US shipping cost. After a couple phone calls I found out you have to pay plane fees, taxes(a whopping 25%) and then the Europe post fees. Why cant they just make it so its 1 fee, and then they divvy up the money.

I had a similar issue when someone in the states sent me a guitar. It really sucks and I recommend always using the post office and declaring that there is nothing of value in the box.