Cautions on ordering from the levamentum project

[aleon515]

Often products are suggested from this company. I don't think they are able to handle a business. I won't say that they don't eventually complete the orders, maybe they do. But this company is really amateurish.
I ordered in early January this year. They charged my VISA and they are out of stock. Companies do not generally charge the card until they fill the order. They contacted me early but haven't continued to contact me. They didn't respond to a complaint. This is already almost two months since the order was placed.

I have filled all sorts of online orders since then, many months or weeks later than this one and gotten items filled and shipped. Tranzwear has the same kinds of things and ships.

--Jay

[Nygeel]

One of the things that I think I see happening is trans guys will create a site and offer products as a means to get a little extra cash on the side for top surgery (or something like that). What ends up happening is that little side project becomes something big, and even after you've had surgery, you still get orders. They stop putting in the effort to get things done because their individual goal has been achieved. I know this one guy who had a site for pumps and other devices. I sent him a message through his website, got a response to my question about a week later, sent a follow up question that day, and never got a reply. I even sent a reminder about 3 months later (I was told I would get a response quickly). It's been about 8 months, I'm pretty sure he's given up on that project.

So...guys...if you ever think about making a product for other trans guys, please stick with it.

[Kreuzfidel]

Thanks for the heads up, Jay - and Nygeel, that's sound advice.  While things can get busy IRL for anyone, it's setting a lot of people up for disappointment and discrediting oneself when you start something like that which you really don't have the means to finish.  I'll certainly not be ordering from them.

[greypeacock]

I can double the OPs statement here. Now I'm prefacing this with the fact I made mistakes too in this process.

I ordered a simple packer, order went through, and I swear I paid for it on checkout. I was trying to get my order before I visited Canada for a couple months (family). So all seemed good, but time was ticking down. I didn't hear anything for weeks and finally had to do an emergency order with someone else, which arrived within days of me leaving (thank god).

Fast forward a month or so, the order hadn't been billed like I thought, and when they eventually did bill me, it threw my bank account into the red because I didn't know to keep the cash in there. I was unaware because I was in Canada. Long story short, by the time I came back, my account had been in the red (less than 20$) for 2 consecutive months and got closed. I.. don't think the packer ever arrived.

I chose not to give a damn because I was in the process of changing my legal documents and just figured I'd wait until I had the new name to reopen a bank account. The entire company is slow and inefficient. I can respect what they're trying to do, but save yourself the trouble and go with another company, imho. I order from tranzwear (Boisland Enterprises) these days. Good company.

I have a pump in the mail. I'm pretty..heh.. pumped for it to arrive.

[aleon515]

Coincidence? I don't think so, but they filled my order and are shipping. I credit that with them being essentially honest.

I agree with Nygeel. I think the little fund raising project becomes a full fledged thing and they don't understand about stocking and so on. I feel that some of these folks don' understand about how hard it is to run a business. About 15 years ago, i tried to run a tutoring business. I'm an excellent tutor but a terrible business man, let's just say.

In serious cases, it gets like TUP. Though I think there is a little more going on, perhaps someone who is not particularly honest, and doesn't understand there are real world consequences to dishonesty as an adult.

I have ordered from tranzwear and also what is now http://www.ftmessentials.com/  (I believe this was underworks) as well as babes in toyland, early 4 bed, and toolshed toys. I had a good experience from all these, though I think the last 3 are over 21 only.

--Jay

[overdrive]

Good advice. I contacted them several times over the past 6 months or so and have never received any type of response other than the automated one from their website. I found someones blog from early 2013 talking about TLP saying they were "back in business again" with a lot of peoples comments saying to stay away for these same reasons. Sounds like it is very much on again - off again and not a priority to run.  They had an item I couldn't find anywhere else which is the only reason I continued to try and reach them, thanks to Nygeel I found exactly what I was looking for somewhere else and I had since placed my order with TranzWear as well.

[notyouraverageguy]

I had the same problem when ordering from them, it took over a month when they said it would only take a couple of weeks. No contact from them explaining any delays. And when I told them I wanted to cancel my order they said it was impossible. I contacted PayPal and was going to open a dispute, then they finally shipped it coming really close to the 45 days. I could've ordered from tranzwear for just a bit more, but was trying to save money, it wasn't worth it.

[aleon515]

They aren't really that much cheaper than tranzwear, tbh.

--Jay

[Bimmer Guy]

Just looked up the site.  It is temporarily closed, under construction.

[aleon515]

Just looked up the site.  It is temporarily closed, under construction.

I have trouble believing in coincidences. Perhaps the person(s) running this, took the criticism to heart. In which case, I think it was a mature decision which I hope helps your fledgling business. Good luck to you.

--Jay

[overdrive]

I think the owner actually is a member here on Susans. I remember reading a post by someone (don't recall who) that referred to TLP as as "our store, we, us" etc. Hopefully they read this post and realized how their current business practices was affecting others. In any case, I'm glad they made that decision so people can go elsewhere for what they need instead of feeling like they're being strung along and prolonging delivery.

[Jamie D]

Here is what their tumblr says:

Weve moved! IMPORTANT INFO

We are now located at
14660 El Monte Rd
lakeside CA 92040.

With this move has come a hault in our shipping process, we have over 60 orders that need to be shipped. To do this we need internet(cannot be done via mobile device) which unfortunately will not be available until wednesday Saturday. As soon as it is available we will ship all of the orders we have waiting. Similarly, if you have been trying to cpntact us via our support page/email, we have not been able to access these as we cannot do so from mobile (its a 3rd party webpage that does not allow mobile editing/access), all inquiries sent to our support email will be answered wednesday/thursday.

If you cannot wait, you can reach us at transyouthhelp@yahoo.com and your inquiry will be answered as soon as possible (this email is accessable via mobile).

Almost all stp/3n1 orders from december and january are included in the shipment that will be going out at the end pf the week. Half of it was supposed to go out last week but was unable to due to the move.

Also, we have received several complaints lately about delayed orders (most of which being the stp/3n1 orders) despite the notifcation we had regarding orders. Money has been returned to these customers, But we will STILL be shipping their orders. We are doing this in good faith to show that we were not attempting to "steal" anything, but simply suffered from a delay.

Please keep in mind that we do NOT do this for a living. There are only 2 members of the TLP team and we both work and go to school full time, normally we are only able to ship once a week. We usually try to keep it recurring on wed or fri. We also try to keep the site updated with the current processing time. THIS IS FOUND ON THE NEWS BAR.AND ON THE FRONT PAGE. Currently it is 4-8 weeks, though we expect it to decrease after this batch. Whatever estimate is posted on the site voids the confirmation email. Confirmation email is individualized for every products processing time under undelayed conditions. It does not change when a change on the news bar occurs. It would take us way too mich time to update it for every product every time there was a delay. We would much rather spend that time working on packaging orders.

hope this post helps with your questions about order delays.

We appreciate all of your support and thank you for your patience.
-Alex & Leilani

Alex is 18 or 19 years old.

[av1]

I was just going to order in a week or so but now won't. Any alternative site for the sohoeva binders they have? do sohoeva.com  and some ebay sellers selling it ship discreetly?

[greypeacock]

Despite my complaints I really WANT this store to work. It's a good idea, and a good option for those just starting out. The prices are great. I think if they got just a couple more people on board working the orders and replying to emails it would pick up again. I think that having such a long wait process be the norm is the main thing they need to fix.  I really do wish them well.

[Nygeel]

I was just going to order in a week or so but now won't. Any alternative site for the sohoeva binders they have? do sohoeva.com  and some ebay sellers selling it ship discreetly?

I used eBay. Packaging said it was clothing and included my eBay screen name.

[aleon515]

Despite my complaints I really WANT this store to work. It's a good idea, and a good option for those just starting out. The prices are great. I think if they got just a couple more people on board working the orders and replying to emails it would pick up again. I think that having such a long wait process be the norm is the main thing they need to fix.  I really do wish them well.

Since they might be reading here goes:
I want it to work too. I am not sorry I posted though. I think it can serve as a bit of a wake up that they need to get their act together. They should NOT take money before they are able to ship, esp if the wait is in months. It may not be dishonest, but it is the appearance of dishonesty, which good businesses want to avoid. I think they need some experienced person to help them out, take them under their wing so to speak. Running a business is serious and people who have bad experiences could sue them and so on. It is really serious to charge a credit card and not deliver. It's fraud. I'm not saying they committed fraud (as they delivered), the ramifications are serious.

Look at the people who do this right (perhaps like tranzwear, a Lion's fears, etc. ) and copy them. Perhaps seek a mentor for their business.



--Jay

[Kreuzfidel]

Since they might be reading here goes:
I want it to work too. I am not sorry I posted though. I think it can serve as a bit of a wake up that they need to get their act together. They should NOT take money before they are able to ship, esp if the wait is in months. It may not be dishonest, but it is the appearance of dishonesty, which good businesses want to avoid. I think they need some experienced person to help them out, take them under their wing so to speak. Running a business is serious and people who have bad experiences could sue them and so on. It is really serious to charge a credit card and not deliver. It's fraud. I'm not saying they committed fraud (as they delivered), the ramifications are serious.

Look at the people who do this right (perhaps like tranzwear, a Lion's fears, etc. ) and copy them. Perhaps seek a mentor for their business.



--Jay

Hear, hear.  Quite true.

[aleon515]

Bump, might be useful to someone.

--Jay