Bellagio Designs? Coulda fooled me!

[pusfarm]

I finally received a case from Bellagio today for my Treo 650 - nearly 3 months after ordering (sent UPS Ground; I guess after 3 months, why hurry?). But I doubt it's even made for the 650. Bellagio never bothered to reply to my numerous emails (approx. 10-15 over 2.5 months) after a single canned email saying there were problems with the cases; I only received a tracking email saying it was on its way.

The case itself is a disaster - sent, I'm sure, just to shut me up, probably one of the early "problem" orders they received from their distributor. This is 180 degrees away from the way they used to do business. They deserve to get smacked by bad reviews if this is part of their new business philosophy.

The case is not cut the same way as shown in the pictures on their site. The volume key is mostly exposed, but the side key is completely covered and the bottom cutout isn't wide enough to expose all connectors (though when I force them through it does sit nicely in my Seidio InnoDock). The earphone hole is also completely covered.

The bottom cutout part is so flimsy and ill-fitting that the bottom of the Treo could possibly fall out of the case when the flip cover is open.

The camera hole is nice and big, but the speaker is mostly covered.

In a word, the workmanship is crrraaappp! :mad:

After a few years of satisfied repeat purchases, courteous personal email responses and 3 great cases, this experience has destroyed my support - I gave plenty of it on Cliesource - and I will NEVER purchase from them again. As for sending the case back, I think it will be less painful to call it a loss and go back to my Sena case (which I received in 2 days via Ground, though to be fair, Sena and I are both in CA. But that's still about 90 days quicker than you know who.). Not that I'd even expect to see any money back.

[Jayman]

That stinks to hear, I gotta admit I have been very found of Sena cases for a couple of years now. I got the Red & Black one (no belt clip) for my Treo 650, and just love the way the phone fits in my pocket, I feel that Sena has been very consistent over the years, they deliver a great product at a reasonable price.

[Tam Hanna]

I use a softcase from ProPorta for protecting my T3. It also fits on other handhelds like the V, but e.g. not on my Vii. So, I am not sure if a Treo fits in!

[crazy_smeggie]

That's really a shame. Richard from Bellagio was always very helpful and responsive with me. I wonder what happened???

SMEGGIE :D

[pusfarm]

That stinks to hear, I gotta admit I have been very found of Sena cases for a couple of years now. I got the Red & Black one (no belt clip) for my Treo 650, and just love the way the phone fits in my pocket, I feel that Sena has been very consistent over the years, they deliver a great product at a reasonable price.I had a Sena for one of my Clies a few years back and liked the design, but it started falling apart pretty quickly. The one I recently got for my Treo appears to be made much better and is obviously designed for the device.

[pusfarm]

That's really a shame. Richard from Bellagio was always very helpful and responsive with me. I wonder what happened???I wonder the same thing. It's especially disappointing because they were so good to me in the past with my Clie cases, even replacing my NX80 case for free - which is still holding up beautifully - when they redesigned them to include a screen cover flap.

Being almost completely ignored for nearly 3 months suggests something's seriously not right. I got kinda sarcastic after it had already reached the absurdity level, but I was never rude or abusive in my emails.

I'd be interested in hearing - through the forum - from anyone that has ordered the Treo 650 flip case - did you get it? Was it well made? Any Customer Service hassles?

[Paraba]

My name is Peter Weiss, I am the owner of the Manufacturing facility that created Bellagio and several other brands, including OEM work for large US and European corporations.
Macaws SRL is the name of the company (www.macaws.net), we are the only factory in the Americas that is fully certified (that is why you read in our description ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:1999). The certifications can be viewed on our corporate site. What this means is that we care about quality, people and the environment. We are permanently audited and thus it guarantees transparency with our clients.
I am using Paraba as the nick name, because Paraba is the name in Spanish for Macaw, the bird is the symbol of our company, not only because is beautiful but because it needs to be protected.
Macaws created Bellagio and other brands to bring to the market new refreshing designs and offer not only a standard case, but a fully functional concept, we have now 300 employees in our facility.
The site www.bellagiodesigns.com was registered by my company and the content was created and maintained at all times by our in-house staff. Naturally at the beginning our pictures were not good at all... we did invest a lot of time and money to bring it to world class standards.
We had an in-house issue with our distributor of cases in the US. Why? Basically because he was taking my designs to have them copied, from what we learned, in China. I have no issues with China, I think is an incredible country we all need to visit. But I do have issues with copying. Knock-offs... that is not acceptable in any situation and not paying their bills is the other issue.
Saying that I am former employee and/or that we high jacked them, is not only absurd but also very sad, especially when I trusted them as I did. I thought I had gained friends... how mistaken was I.
We do have the designs for all the new PDAs now in stock, it took us a while to rebuilt stock and distribution... about 2 months, we are now in Florida. I read a comment from a member... I hope this helps clarify the location.
We are not going to engage in any sort of lies or insults, we believe that customers should select the best and we are not afraid of competition, I personally think it is good, it brings creativity and thus good solutions to the designs.
FYI, at the site that does not have the (s) or you can see 3 girls... guess what... it is a copied version of our site. Copied illegally - this is being investigated -. The girls are: a former employee of my company that currently works in a bank in town (Bolivia) a foreign student from France that was completing her logistics master in our facility (she did the translation for French speaking customers ) and finally a friend of my wife... thus anyone can make their own assumptions of what has happened. I am sure they will change the site they illegally copied when they read this ....
We are also launching a new improved (based on all the feedback we received in the last 10 years) collection for PDAs, Smartphones, Gaming & Music, Handhelds, Cellphones and any OEM work at www.fortte.com
Sorry for the long explanation, boring but necessary. Happy to respond to any questions. Thanks
Peter
PS. Finally, once we started the distribution on our own in Florida, the first thing we did is to ship all pending orders for FREE. Those were orders taken by the previous distributor and never paid to the manufacturer. They were shipped for free to show our appreciation to the clients that trusted us.

[starshipxm]

I bought the case for my 600. When I upgraded to a 650 I tried that case on it. The fit matched your description perfectly. I'd bet money they sent you a 600 case.

[au4100]

I had the same thing happen on the TREO 650. I received a TREO 600 in error. I called Bellagio in NJ, where I see they have always been, and they sent me a beautiful new Treo 650 case...even better quality than in the past years.
I'm sticking with the people I know best in NJ...always known for exceptional customer service and they understand the business....not comfortable dealing with a company based thousands of miles away in Bolivia.

If I want to speak to a principle, I'm not calling Bolivia.

[Jayman]

That's a great point about sticking with people that you trust. I wish that more businesses would understand that trust is very important to their customers. They have to know that it takes a lot of trust for us to spend our very hard earned money on any product. Without trust they can only sell the product once, and miss out on a large opportunity to sell more of the item. With trust the company can earn a customer for life. I will likely be a Sena customer for life, just like au4100 will purchase his Bellagio Cases from NJ.

[Paraba]

Thank you all for the support we received in the last few days. !
www.bellagiodesigns.com manufactures in Bolivia but ... distributes now from Miami, Florida, no need to confuse anyone...
The good thing is that you all know now who is the manufacturer www.macaws.net and if anyone wants to get in contact to ask anything is more than welcome.
also... the fact that the manufacturer has Leather ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 guarantees the operation. Thus always review the certificates.
Finally www.fortte.com is the upgraded collection of premium cases and is launching a new campaign with several government and non profit organizations based in the US and Europe to promote the highest standards in quality and social responsibility.
We congratulate companies like Sena, Vaja, Proporta, EB Cases, Krusell and others that have worked hard to create on their own solutions to the case market.
Thank you again! Peter

[dragonsgames]

I heard some one hacked the site or something :confused:

[BFC]

I have been quietly watching all of this unfold and wanted to weigh in with my comments.
We have been one of Bellagio's largest distributors from the very beginning. This business was built by the people in NJ and grew due to their exceptional customer service and responsiveness to customer needs and requests. It's quite clear that this manufacturer saw what they had created and decided to take the website and business for himself after all the groundwork had been put in by their sales and marketing people. Anyone familiar with the company can call NJ and the same people are there, and running the original company.

How strange is it when the company suddenly has a "Peter" claiming all rights.

I've been in this industry for a while and have seen this happen many times before. Greed is a horrible thing. A company's reputation is built by the staff that interacts with customers. My colleagues and I will continue to support the original Bellagio Designs......based in NJ and hope that one day, justice will be served.

[Jayman]

Wow, we have two different companies actually explaining themselves in our forums... How cool is that? I will still stick with SENA though... Hehehehe