When I first posted about Reckon, the Austin poet-slash-awesome-Onesie*-silkscreener in 2006 and then again in 2007, it was because his etsy shop had the awesomest-looking Gena Rowlands, Buckminster Fuller, Krysztof Kieslowski, Wittgenstein, Robert Smith, and Jon Stewart Onesies on the market. Hell, they were the only ones, and they pretty much still are.
Unfortunately, those posts brought in a steady stream of comments and emails from dissatisfied customers who never got their merch, even after months of waiting and emailing.
And yet, to look at Reckon's full-on corporate website, and to see links for retailers and wholesale, and then to see Reckon's Dylan Onesies getting fluffed by Cookie Magazine, you'd think that maybe Reckon has finally got his shit together and is running an actual business now.
It's hard out there for a poet, I know. And the only thing worse than a poet who can't make rent by selling a well-curated selection of hand-screened Onesies is a poet whose bootleg Onesie empire grows so vast, he doesn't have time to write poetry anymore.
Still, as much as I want to support the arts and the indie production, I don't want to inadvertently give people scammy headaches by sending them to makers who can't deliver the goods before the kid outgrows them. So can anyone--retailer or civilian--who has dealt with the New & Improved Reckon Inc. let the rest of us know how it went?
Reckon Worldwide shop, gallery, blog, etc. [reckon.ws]
Previously, 2006: Spectacular, Brainy Onesies from Reckon
2007: Reckon shirts I reckon I'd buy
* You know, it's like the second-oldest gag on DT that Onesie is a trademark of the Gerber Baby Corporation, but when a random blogger is more concerned with making the trademark distinction than Gerber's own lawyers seem to be, I say screw it. The Mob has spoken, and the Language has won. The prize: a thoroughly genericized trademark for your use and enjoyment!
We are some of the dissatisfied masses. We ordered a Beckett onesie before our son Beckett was born (let's hope it was us you saw at the zoo, though there seem to be a ton of little Becketts running around Park Slope). He's nearly two. The charge went through immediately, back in 2007, but no merchandise appeared. It took months to get ANY communication from them. Last week we finally got a replacement order, that Magritte one above. It's cute. But it sucks that we didn't get what we originally wanted.
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I gave you a blog award of my blog--just a small token of appreciation!
oh my gosh, i missed the first two posts on reckon. i too had an unfortunate experience. chris was SO SO SO NICE -- he found an old josephine baker shirt from back-stock; he whipped up a couple of sample scans of lenny bruce...but then he never delivered. he promised a free shirt for my trouble, but that never came either. i got the vibe that he was not TRYING to scam me -- he seemed like a truly sweet person who should be doing art, not commerce. (and yeah, i DO know it's hard to tease those two things apart.) but nonetheless, i really, truly would think twice before ordering from reckon.
I really wanted to order some shirts from Reckon but after emailing to get some questions answered about color options, etc. and it not going so well (long time to hear back, not clear answers) I decided not to order. It's too bad - the stuff looked really cool! I second what Marjorie says about about Reckon not having bad intentions. I just didn't want to sign myself up for headache.
Same story as marjorie here at our house. 2 years, many emails, credit card went through, and no products delivered. Wish I could at least get anything from them at this point!
After numerous attempts to get this guy to send me the t-shirts I ordered over a year ago (no, I'm not kidding), I've given up. I've already wasted too much time and effort. I filed a complaint with BBB, which initially got his attention, but he never followed through on the promises that came about from that either. I guess he will forever have my $50 and I will never recieve my shirts. He is a thief and a scam artist. There are numerous tales like this all over the internet about him, which often include his crazy, rambling, self-important manifesto e-mails. Frankly, I don't see how he has not been shut down. The products are great, but avoid this guy like the plague.