I have delayed my trip to London waiting for him to resurface. I know one customer of his who lives near London has not been able to reach him either and got a similar answer from Scabal. I hope he is doing well and that the witch hunt didn't cause him much trouble.

Will, Darren had a similar episode last summer that resulted in a major blow-up on Ask Andy and elsewhere.  There was certainly an aspect of politics in much of the reaction, and certain people did have an axe to grind against Darren.  However, it wasn't a witch hunt in the classic sense.  Darren was in fact incommunicado for an extended period of time, which justifiably alarmed anyone who had a suit in progress and was trying to schedule a fitting.  He also cancelled US visits on short notice which doubtless caused people grief.

Darren for his part came back, apologized, and caught back up on his work.  He is the first to admit that he is not an operational businessman.  So blocking and tackling things like keeping up with customers is not his strong suit.  And I believe the root of his problem was taking on so much new business, probably as a result of forums like this, that he simply got buried under the load and was unable to keep up with the committments, a not uncommon occurence for a small business.  Darren is, after all, basically a one man shop.

While he no doubt lost some incremental business as a result, I believe most of his existing customers stood by him during that time.  Not least of which is because Darren is a charming and nice guy and people really want him to succeed. Plus, he made quality suits for a very reasonable price let us not forget, and has been a great educational presence on these boards as well.

Still, I find it difficult to believe that, whatever is happening in his life, he can't find someone who can return phone calls to customers.  Given that he has no physical shop and doesn't have a long track record in business, preserving the trust of his customers is paramount.  Nothing compromises that more than a lack of communication.  I think people are willing to be very understanding and cut some slack to businesses who are having delivery problems.  I certainly am.  But it requires frequent and forthright communications to make it happen.

I hope Darren is able to come back quickly, return some calls, and get back on track with customers before this becomes another incident.  I also hope whatever is wrong with him, that he's able to make a speedy recovery as well.

Last edited by arenn (2006-08-02 13:45:07)

I managed to get hold of Darren today. He is in the middle of moving house so things are a bit difficult. The good news is that he has replaced his laptop and should be accessable by email again although he says it may take a day or two to get an answer. For those awaiting his visit to the US; the dates should be posted on his web site shortly but it is looking like the second half of the month subject to flights.

I think doing all the work himself has turned out to be a bigger job than he first thought as some of the tailors who were doing work for him promptly demoted his jobs to the bottom of their pile since they were getting no further business. Consequently he had to take back a lot of work that he had expected to have sewn by others but the backlog is just about cleared now. This is good news since I have just ordered another two suits.

It's been 3 weeks and I still haven't heard from Darren. Anyone here knows how's he doing?