Caramel company issues?

Iulia

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
324
Reaction score
1
Location
Ruislip, UK
Hi

A friend ordered a Caramel soprano uke case recently - I'd seen one and thought it was very decent for the money. A week later they hadn't received any updates and the order was still saying 'processing'. They wrote a shirty email and got a response a couple of hours later saying item out of stock and was refunded.

So far so crap.

I just had a look at the site and noticed that loads of the models they used to sell are currently unavailable (and apparently stuff that is listed isn't even in stock like the above).

I didn't want this to turn into another pointless 'nasty China' thread, but wondered if the company was in trouble, and just a warning perhaps be wary in case the company is about to go belly up.

Just a thought may be wrong.
 
That doesn't look good, does it. I've run into a situation where an item I had ordered was out of stock, but the company always took quick action to give me a refund, offer me another item, or give me credit for a future purpose. I've never heard of Caramel, and I doubt I'll be ordering anything from them.
 
On the positive side, you have been refunded. Don’t take too much from the response—there is definitely a language barrier in play.

At one point, I had 60 Caramel Ukuleles for my school. Those have been donated to another school as I was allowed to buy new for our new building, and I chose Outdoor Ukuleles (which offers a discount to schools). The Caramels were good for the school environment, but I am not in love with Zebrawood and the sound wasn’t anything special on those ukuleles. They did take a beating, though.

Caramel has been dropping models for a while, and their social media presence has disappeared.

Meanwhile Enya and Kmise have really emerged as Chinese manufacturers in a similar price point.

And perhaps Barry Maz’s reviews have more reach than we ever thought?
 
This seems to have happened in the last six months or so. I looked at their website I think at the start of the year as was toying with trying the acacia soprano. Since then its gone unavailable, as have most of the electro acoustic models.

Doesn't look healthy.
 
That's ok, these generic Chinese uke companies are like Hydra from the Marvel universe:

Cut off one, and
tumblr_n3w6wdOfl01t0xz7jo3_250.gif
 
That's too bad, if they are having problems. I have seven Caramels/Rubin ukes an I really like them, but I have frequency selective hearing loss, fortunately I can hear my uke but not my wife's voice.:eek:
 
Top Bottom