My Vaja case came today. It sucks!

[Wrxified]

Pretty dissapointed. I've owned Vaja leather before for my Compaq Ipaq PDA. I loved it.

My excitment as I tore open the box was quickly extinquished as I looked at what appears to be a patent type leather. You know the shiny stuff you would expect to see on a set of shoes rented with a tuxedo. Yuck!!!

I realize that it's reasonable to expect "minor" variations in "tone and colour uniformness". But the pictures clearly display a suede like soft leather. Not spat shined millitary leather.

I guess I gotta suck it up and pay my hard earned money to send it back due to what I feal is an obvious mis-representation through their pictures.

You decide. Am I right?

Here is link to what I thought I was gettiing

http://www.vajacases.com/vaja/catalogo.nsf/htmlmedia/668_comb/$file/vjean_azabache.jpg

And here is what I paid $100 for.

My shiny leather iPod case. (http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=34551)

[JazzyMac]

Wrxified,

I understand what you mean. The pictures are extremely misleading. I thought the same thing when I hit that website. It wasn't until I looked closer that I saw the difference. It didn't look like they came in the 40gb, so I'm glad I didn't get it.

Sorry it didn't work out for ya.

[Wrxified]

So it's not just me?

What really stinks is that I contacted Vaja already. The person who emailed me back made it seem like I should've know that Vitelino Azabache is a polished leather with a cracked surface. Like "boop-de-doop, silly me, I forgot".

She said if I would have checked the "leather info section of their website" I would have known. How about instead of relying on the customer to dig through the website for leather defintions they instead you put a diclaimer when the picture comes up like "Warning this picture looks nothing like what you are going to receive other than the colors are somewhat similar"

To top it off I went to plug in my fire wire connector in my car. Not gonna happen with the case on. I tried everything short of cutting the leather and hitting the fire wire connector with a hammer. It's not plugable with the case on.

Looks like there are no returns because I customized mine by picking a unique color.

:mad:

[Mac Brat]

In time once the leather gets broken in, you will evemtually get the rugged /suede look you werre hoping for...The "polished" look will eventually go away...That happened to me when i purchased the extrememac deluxe leather ipod caes...it swas so military shiny "new" looking, but after a few weeks of handling, the case had more of the duller look that i was hoping for...That will happen to your case eventually. Your leather is new thats all. It will eventually lose its shine once u handle it more.

[Wrxified]

It looks ghetto. I feel like I need to buy some gold chains to go along with it.

[Mac Brat]

Originally posted by Wrxified
It looks ghetto. I feel like I need to buy some gold chains to go along with it.

:D :D :D

[BigPicnic]

Maybe Mac Brat is right, I guess. But I mean, theres obivously a difference between patent leather and suede and theres no way you were the only one mislead by that picture.

[honeybee1236]

Thanks for the post because I was planning on getting one to start with to see what they looked like and to make sure that they fit the iPod right, before buying more. I thought they were suede cases. The pictures on the web site are very misleading.

Sorry about what happened to you but thankful that you shared your experience with the rest of us.

[iPoD15]

HoneyBee....I got the Vaja AP41 and it was EXACTLY as the picture looked! Perfect leather no patent Sh*t. Looks like the picture. Well recommended!

[poliobomb]

you got an ugly case... haha

[mdobilas]

Sorry to hear about your case... you could always try selling it on ebay

[Wrxified]

Originally posted by mdobilas
Sorry to hear about your case... you could always try selling it on ebay

Yah, anyone want a case with my name inscribed in it? I'll throw in my engraving at no charge.:D

[raze11]

yea man, that sucks. so, as the vaja case doesn't look anything like suede, does anyone know a case which does or is made from suede?

[mdobilas]

rotflmao

[Mac Brat]

at least noone will know u have an ipod in that case and i highly doubt you'll get mugged.

[ginalee]

They won't let you return it cos of the engraving?

But shouldn't they still have some kind of return policy if defective? Isn't there a life long guarantee?

If you can't live with it, I'd demand they take it back. I couldn't stand to pay so much money on a case and then not like it.

We did have someone a while back get another colour Vaja as ordered...

[Wrxified]

Well I thought they would allow returns too. I specifically went to the the policies section. This is what I saw.

RETURNS
Direct Orders
Should any item fall short of your expectations Vaja will honor a 30-day money back guarantee on all products sold on its website upon receipt. In all cases the refund of the money will NOT include the shipping cost. Under no circumstances will a refund be granted after this time.

Period. End of story right? As a matter of a fact if you were looking for a return policy and you read this, wouldn't you just stop reading right there? I mean it's pretty black & white huh? Well when I saw that I didn't read any further down.

So 5 paragraphs later I see this yesterday.

Custom Cases Returns and Exchanges
If we have not received any request from the customer within the 24 hours after entering the order, we process it and then we start manufacturing it. Once the case enters the first manufacturing step, it belongs exclusively to the customer who ordered it and nobody else, (i.e the customer is the actual owner of the case even though it has not been shipped yet). We cannot accept any case returns or exchanges once the case has been produced because of the extensive process involved in manufacturing custom cases.

Long story short I feel I got bamboozeled. I felt in my head this was the best place for a case. The leather is exquisite. There is no doubt about that. It feels and smells incredible. I just think Vaja's Web Development team, Marketing team, and manufacturing need to sit down in a room and make sure that what they are picturing on the site is at least close. And when you click on a type of case and color in the "Customize your case" section it needs to pull up a brief description like

"If you're really the Pimp you think you are then this shiny cracked leather looking iPod case is the foschnizell fo you!"

[mumanoff]

I have the insert case in black and it is beautiful...I am afraid I may scratch it.

[JBF]

I would raise hell.

[BillClinton]

I would look at it from the firewire issue - if you can't connect it while your iPod is in the case, then the case is defective - I would probably use the term "flaw in the craftsmenship" when emailing the customer service (I have to deal with people, and when they start bit**ing, I become less helpful). You might include a quote from their website.

Good luck.

[jaypod]

No offense but you should have paid greater attention to the website and the information Vaja provides. When you select your case colour, it clearly states the following underneath:

"Important Notice: Vitelino Leathers may present variations regarding tone and colour uniformness. "

At the bottom of this same order page BEFORE you click "buy", it asks if you accept "all the terms and conditions regarding Custom cases purchase detailed here". If you had clicked the link, you would have understood Vaja's return policy before you agreed to purchase the product. Admittedly, your case isn't what you were expecting but its tough to feel your pain when you didn't read all of the information that they provide, especially when you are willing to spend a pretty penny for such a case. Here is hoping you find what you are looking for.

[Wrxified]

Originally posted by jaypod
No offense but you should have paid greater attention to the website and the information Vaja provides. When you select your case colour, it clearly states the following underneath:

"Important Notice: Vitelino Leathers may present variations regarding tone and colour uniformness. "

At the bottom of this same order page BEFORE you click "buy", it asks if you accept "all the terms and conditions regarding Custom cases purchase detailed here". If you had clicked the link, you would have understood Vaja's return policy before you agreed to purchase the product. Admittedly, your case isn't what you were expecting but its tough to feel your pain when you didn't read all of the information that they provide, especially when you are willing to spend a pretty penny for such a case. Here is hoping you find what you are looking for.

No offense taken. :D

But read all the posts. Everything you said is noted before.

I went to read the return policy as you suggest. I admit I should have read 5 paragraphs lower. But when you read "Should any item fall short of your expectations Vaja will honor a 30-day money back guarantee on all products sold on its website upon receipt." you typically feel you've found what you're looking for in terms of a return policy.

As far as "tone and colour uniformness". Gimme a break. I'm talking about pimp leather vs. a picture of what obviously appears to be a different type of leather.

I will also say that this case, once the initial shock has worn off, is kinda warming up to me. I still would've rather it been more of what was pictured but the case is of outstanding build quality. It fits perfect. And I also noticed that the connector that comes with the iPod (standard firewire) does connect with the case on. The Belkin dock cable I use to connect to my car it slightly wider and doesn't work.