Heliman's never; Excellent Alternative Provided

[jpbingham]

Interesting comments - I will never deal with Heilman's.

Why.....

I received a very rude condescending letter, returned with my seat pan, minus shipping funds from my $400.00 money order deposit, actions absolutely uncalled for. I was expecting a finished seat!

To this day I am still puzzled to what evoked such an unprofessional response…

I have scanned the letter but decided not to post, giving the Heilman's a chance to reply to this posting....if they feel warranted.

Basically the given reasons for the return of my untouched seat pan was that I am "perfectionist" and I would NOT be satisfied with their final product, as I would be a very “hard person to please”, that “leather has natural faults”. Very odd comments given my correspondence.

All I asked was for a choice of thread samples and leather to ensure that it matched my frame paintwork – sounds reasonable to me and not unexpected.

Now if I am going spending good money, I expect my requests to be meet, that people work together to get the item finished to a level of achievable satisfaction and that expectations are met.

As for "perfectionists", we in the antique/vintage/veteran motorcycle hobby strive to be perfectionists, to restore and replicate our machines of yesterday, to what they were in that by-gone era.

Meanwhile, I found an alternative person who does amazing work, who provided input and suggestions to give me a prefect seat for my Shaw Auto cycle. Thumbs up on an excellent job well done. Their details are below:

Chunk and Jo at the Saddleshop:

Saddleshop

20 Harris Circle

Edgewater, FL 32141

Phone: 386-690-3797
Email: chucknjo@saddlerestoration.com

They get my business!
I’ll give them a personal recommendation and reference if required.
I’ll post a few pictures of their work these will speak for themselves.

Sorry Heilman's rude behavior does not get my business.

[jpbingham]

A job well done - Saddleshop

Here's a picture of the finished seat and tool roll.

Chunk and Jo at the Saddleshop:

Saddleshop

20 Harris Circle

Edgewater, FL 32141

Phone: 386-690-3797
Email: chucknjo@saddlerestoration.com

[jpbingham]

seat - from saddleshop

seat from saddle shop + tool roll

[jpbingham]

Side of saddle

Side view of pan seat - for my Clutch Model Shaw

[jpbingham]

Undercarriage of seat

A very happy customer!

[jpbingham]

Primed seat pan

Same seat pan returned from Heliman's and then forward to the Saddle Shop - no metal work required

[LarryHeil]

Reply to Mr. Bingham

I am glad that Mr. Bingham had a seat made for his Shaw motorbike.
I have attached a copy of his letter to me.
He sent me his seat pan before I agreed to make this seat. I have no photos or drawings of this bicycle size seat. I could have put leather on his pan but I had no way of knowing what was correct for this motorbike. I would rather turn down an order than make it wrong.
Also, I only have black and one color of dyed brown leather available. I get my leather in a natural un-dyed color then dye it black or brown. It is not practical to try and color match dyed leather since each piece of leather takes the dye a bit differentlyand comes out a slightly different shade of color.
I can make many types of seats, but there are still many that I do not make. (BMW, Triumph, Honda, just to name a few) I do not feel that it is fair to be criticized for not making ALL motorcycle seats.

[Ohio-Rider]

Just my opinion,But.......

These types of threads should not be allowed.
If two brothers in a club have a problem between each other, the club shouldn't give them a place to argue about it. That is something that is between those brothers. Let them find their own method of solving the problem between themselves. That ain't what brotherhood or vintage cycles is about. So it don't belong here.

[Paquette]

AMEN------

[George Greer]

Ditto...........

[Chris Haynes]

Personally I feel good when I am warned about a not so good business. I also like to hear recomendations about places who do good work.

[George Greer]

Chris,

I too like to know who does good...and who don't.

But this is going to become a on-line bitching contest.

George

[INLINE4NUT]

GEORGE if this forums had moderators we would not have that problem! That being said Its a sad day when two people in the hobby have to get down here! there again misunderstandings can sometimes be aired and resolved by talking it out! Lets alll hope for the best!!!

[portagepan]

What happened to my post on here the other day? I saw it on the site, but the next time I looked, it disappeared. Hmmmmmm................
Mike

[schmittm]

The other side of the coin

Steve, George, Chris,

Is it OK to say something nice? I agree that this is no place to hear about a one-time complaint about a specific transaction that didn't go the way the customer thought it should. If the vendor is consistently bad about always delivering substandard products or services, and its documented, that's a different story. We need alerts about bad vendors, it helps us all.

Now I'll try to balance this particular arguement a little, I have 2 of Larry's seats and I couldn't be happier. I'm not saying that the Messinger #3 Cushion Saddle on my '31 VL is as rare as that Shaw Motorbike seat, but you have to admit that there aren't many around let alone many guys that know how to restore one. Its perfect, I'll post a picture if you like.

Craftsmen in this day and age are a rarity, most of them are specialized and focus on what they know. Asking somebody to do something that they are not familiar with is unreasonable in my opinion. You wouldn't ask a proctologist to do a tooth extraction, why ask a Harley & Indian seat maker to do a one-of-a-kind bicycle style seat?

Mr. Heilman is good at what he knows how to do, at least from what I've seen.

jmho

mike