My relationship with Contempora Fabrics, facilitated primarily through one of their associates, Tonya Kinney, began wonderfully. Tonya was great at correspondence and with keeping me posted regarding all of their progress and most delays. No complaints there. Good work Tonya!
However, things did not turn out nearly as well as they begun. Contempora Fabric's first attempt to match my sample was a miserable failure. My sample was a simple %100 polyester single-knit in white. And, they told me that this would be no problem to match. However, the fabric (their first attempt) that they sent me was nowhere near close to matching my sample. Their fabric was way too sheer. So much so, that you could tell this discrepancy even from across the room. (Honestly, there is no way that you could have guessed that Contempora Fabrics was trying to even match my sample.) At first, they blamed the sheerness of their fabric on the dye house (Carolina Cotton Works out of Gaffney, SC), saying something about the dye-house pulling the fabric too much in the dying process (?). However, the president of the company, later, revealed to me that the sheerness was their fault. I am not sure why they didn't admit that in the beginning.
Their second attempt wasn't much better than their first. Overall, the fabric was still far too sheer. I am not a fabric specialist. All I know is that I had a sample that I liked, they said that they could match it and their second attempt was much better than their first. How far off was it? Well, if I held my sample up to my computer screen, I could see a glow through the fabric and that is all. But, if I held their fabric (their second attempt) up to my computer screen, I could read articles through it. It was that bad, not to mention that it took them much longer than estimated to get their second attempt to me. (If was several weeks late.)
When I called them to talk about the discrepancies between my sample and their second attempt to match it, the president told me that what they sent me was "a good product" and that if I couldn't make it work (I could not), they were not going to try to make it right--they were done with. Now, was the fabric that they sent me "a good product?" Sure, in and of itself. But, was it what I asked for and what they promised, what they delayed my manufacturing by several months for? No, it was not even close.
I know that my company is not a major clothing manufacturer and that my company would not require as much fabric from them as other larger companies. However, I don't think this is a good excuse for the way that they treated me and made me feel (they made me feel like all of this is my fault, in the end, for not accepting the "good product" that they had sent--I couldn't believe that they wouldn't acknowledge how far off their fabric was from my sample). Now, I know that my voice and influence are small. But, in today's day and age, everyone matters because, through the internet, everyone has a voice. Here is mine. Do with it what you like.
Kevin Moore