Sigh. I am yet another customer who ordered from Magnoli and received what I would consider to be, an awful service.
I should learn my lesson really, as a BTTF Marty Mcfly cap I bought from them was awful, as was an Indiana Jones Whip (both covered in glue marks, or inferior quality to as described), but this time I decided to buy the long awaited ‘Paranormal Jumpsuit’ because they were marketed as the most accurate there ever was.
When they announced these in Feb 2020, there was a host of issues. People weren’t receiving them until 2021 after long delays and many were arriving sewn inside out with the pattern the wrong side, stains all over the suits, black dye marks, wrong sizes, generally a mess. Lots of feedback on Facebook groups and this RPF thread and some humility from Indy and Magnoli who fixed a portion of it.
Later 2021 I ordered a suit which I later cancelled as they were still making so many mistakes, a chap I know ended up with 4 suits so many were wrong or damaged.
In January 2022 I decided to try one more time, I was quoted 5-6 months and after a bit of chasing to ignored emails (customer services is terrible), I got my suit in the second week of August 2022.
Upon opening it there were issues with mine.
Mine has staining to the crotch (brand new arrived at 11:49, opened and photos at 11:51 with stains on the suit), and the leg hose connector looks like a dog chewed it in the garden. There’s also a number of stitching errors, which for a cheap suit you’d live with, yet on a $250 custom suit that’s meant to be the best thing since sliced bread …
1) The seam is in the wrong place on the shoulder, on the screen suit it’s all the way over to the left, on mine it’s half way along the shoulder piece.
2) The zip tag is too long. It should be a name patch and a half high. Mines probably 2 name patches high.
3) The pocket angle is too steep on the chest. The screen used patch is 10 ripstop lines up from the pocket bottom on the right and 20 on the left. Impossible on Magnoli’s due to the angle, so mines 14 up on the right and 25 on the left.
4) The stitching style on the zip isn’t the same as the screen used suit, and the zip isn’t the same style. I appreciate the zip may be vintage, but given how many of these have sold now, Magnoli could have commissioned a custom zip for the suit with the right pattern to make it ‘accurate’.
I messaged Indy the owner to discuss the issues. I did email customer services too but surprise surprise no reply.
Indy’s first reply was to tell me he was busy and would reply when he had time. And then a day and a half later to tell me the suit was fine when it shipped and the variations are normal.
For clarity, the suit arrived at 11:49 on Wednesday, my CCTV shows the time the drivers at the door, as does the tracking. The photo showing the damage was taken at 11:51, I opened the package instantly. Yet Indy claims it was fine when it shipped. The packaging was undamaged; yet somehow he thinks in 120 seconds, I’ve opened it, stained the crotch, dried it and taken photos. The staining is identical to that of others that have had issues too, so it seems I’m not alone. No matter how many times I’ve insisted and shown him time stamps of photos, he insists it was not there on shipping (no idea how he knows this as he refused to send me pre shipment photos and they ship from Pakistan where they are made, Magnoli outsource the work, its not done ‘in house’).
Indy said he would send me a new hose connector once they have been redesigned and made, no idea how long that would take.
He also says the variations to stitching are normal and vary depending on suit size. Again untrue, some of the seams are in the wrong place. It’s badly made. He has this made at a factory in Pakistan (like most of his stuff) and he’s in New Zealand. So there is zero quality control going on, evident from how many issues there are. In a much later message he also says the suit is from the ‘’White Label line, which is a streamlined service which helps to keep costs lower than our other custom items’’. So in essence because he thinks it’s a cheaper item ($250), it’s okay that its poor quality?
After more than a week of messaging back and forth, what felt like begging on my part I have 2 options
- Send the suit back for a refund (this was at my expense for shipping, but after making such a fuss for a week he’s finally agreed to contribute towards the return postage now), and then have no suit whatsoever. Absolutely no offer of a replacement if I send the suit back, just order again, hope for the best and wait another 8 months.
- Keep the suit and accept its stained and the stitching ‘variations’ as he calls them. Zero offer to keep the suit and get a partial refund to account for the damage.
Overall the customer service has just been atrocious at best. I’ve seen customers galore say how terrible their products are yet a select few still treat him like a god in the prop world.
The suit is average at best. The material is fantastic. But the stains are awful, and the ‘variations’ as they are being called are poor. I’d expect it from a cheap costume suit, not a bespoke Suit that’s billed as being top of the line in terms of accuracy.
Magnoli REALLY need to work on customer service and quality control, if anybody has one on order; good luck; you’ll need it! - Will I buy from Magnoli again? - No.