Nope, I agree. Cutomer service is getting better, but still way below what I've got used to. Shipping to UK is ridiculous. We recently ordered off the new website & got charged $31.75 for EACH item. Took a lot of emails to sort that out - also had £90 custom charge to pay! When you're paying over the odds for a pair of cotton lycra pants anyway, that's too much. I miss our old tribe when we would chat, find out about new ranges, swap things, sell our pants...I miss Bonnie...and Amanda of the Many Pants.....and posting pics of our new pants...was never sure why we needed THIS tribe, to be honest, when the other one worked so well.
I still check the tribes to see if anyone's selling an older pair, but I'm not buying from the shop anymore. I'd rather trade with other sellers that engage with their customers & answer emails. : ((

I thought it was strange too that the updates were not showing up here. I am glad it is not impossible to get her stuff now. Being 2000 miles away I am never where they vend. It seems most things are getting crazy expensive. Even the knock offs are expensives. I have only bought Melos when I can get them on sale. Choices are more limited but its either that or pay way too much.

the fact that a representative of the company has not spoken up here to apologize/explain/defend themselves also says something.

i miss the old days too.

I had planned to buy a pair of theorganics, but if they are made in China, I will not be purchasing any. I have been trying to minimize the amount of product from China that I purchase down to zero and won't be spending my $$ with a company that outsources to provide an inferior product at inflated prices.

My one piece of feedback for the Melo team is that I wish the website reflected what is actually in stock. When they were selling on the eBay store, I could see with one click what pants were available in my size, so I could see on what screen what colors/fabrics were available for me to buy in my size. Now on the new website, I have to click on each style, and select a color/fabric, and try to add it to my cart to see if it is in stock in my size or not.

I recently ordered pants from the site and I did notice that the pants were a lot lighter weight fabric than my older Melos. I wasn't sure if this was an issue of them going with a cheaper, less durable fabric or if they were going with a lighter weight so that they weren't so warm when you dance in summer heat.

But, what does bother me are the shipping charges. I know it doesn't take $40 to ship me 4 pairs of pants. Now that they have their own website instead of just using eBay, they can set more appropriate shipping charges for orders.

& I do wish they actually still visited and commented on the tribe. I think it did a lot for customer loyalty. Melodia Designs is starting to feel less like a specialty store/community and more like any other corporate clothing entity. They still have time to turn it around, but I don't like the way this is trending.

About shipping costs...$10 per pair is a lot? What would you say about $35 per pair? That's the cost of shipping internationally... But still me and my friends from my country and others abroad buy pants because we love the look and comfort.

There are alot of other pants we can choose. Hopefully they will understand this and fix some of these problems.

Yeah. Quality down, customer service down, costs up. I still love the pants, the most flattering thing i've ever worn, but i miss Bonnie. And i miss the specialty lines. I've been off for a while though, ever since the post-Bonnie people came in and started the "official" tribe. That was the death knell, in my opinion. And now i hear stuff is being made in China? Forget it.

How sad.

I totally agree. I haven't bought a pair in a couple of years since the prices went up.

Well, so much for being a potential costumer!

I just recently purchased a pair of fringes from the website. They shipped them to the wrong person (same last name as mine, but that's all). Once I found the error, I wrote them, the response was fairly prompt, they said they sent the person a label to forward them to me when she received them (question, why should I have to wait to get them forwarded, it was their mistake???) She received the pants on 10/5/09 and the new tracking number has never been scanned in the UPS system, so obviously after 14 days, she intends to keep them and not forward them on. I have written asking for another pair of pants, (after all the fault was not mine, why should I be out my money??), or my money back or I would have to file a claim with mastercard to get my refund, after 5 days have heard nothing from Melodia, so I guess a fraud claim through mastercard is my only option. By the way, Kathy Alexander in South Carolina, if you are on tribe, keeping things that don't belong to you is STEALING!! I hope you wear them for a performance and have a blow out on stage and your rear-end gets seen by all.........how's that for bitchy??? LOL.......anyhoo.....customer service is definitely lacking and I guess that's the last time I'll purchase anything from Melo. I'll stick with buying used from ladies on tribe who've obviously have had better luck than I.

This makes me really sad. I have been wanting to buy some melo phoenix for as long as I've been dancing, but I've never had a large amount of money, seeing as I am a full time mom/college student, and only only work part time. I just got my first full time job in four years, and now I hear something I admire is being outsourced, and made of cheap product.
I suppose I will have to look else were for unique pants.... firefly, KC, and suhaila?

My biggest complaint is the quality. The top stitching seems to be coming out of all the new ones! The ones I bought at Tribalfest started unraveling in short time. A friend bought a pair that started unraveling the first time she wore them, while we were still AT TRIBALFEST! She brought them back to the booth and they exchanged them, but the new ones are now unraveling. And I don't like the kind of elastic they use at the waist now, which is more binding, and the fact that it's not covered, so it's itchy.

The pants still look fabulous for the most part, but it is disappointing that they don't hold up better. I'm just not into $80 disposable pants.

why hasnt some type of representative person commented on this yet ?

this summer i bought my first two pairs...thinking they would last me quite some time. no probs yet but this thread makes me nervous as to their longevity =(

UPDATE FOR MY PREVIOUS POST!! Someone from Melodia is apparently checking tribe because they have contacted me and shipped me a new pair of pants by UPS second day air and they will be here tomorrow. So take heart, they are apparently listening (er watching!!)

I went to order my 1st pair in August for my birthday from the website, but EVERY single pair was out of stock. I e-mailed them asking if I could place an order, and if they could let me know when they were in. About a week and a half later someone e-mailed me back saying I was on the list to be notified when they came in... hmmmmm still waiting for that notification.

I have since put my loyalty in Moondance. They are reasonably priced, and are comfortable, and good quality. As for melodia, her pants look fabulous, but my 1st and only experience as left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. I don't need her pants that bad. I am also very disappointed to hear that she is using labor from Chine tsk tsk!

I was way excited when I got a job this summer that continued throught the school year. I've always wanted my own melos. So I saved and recently decided I would purchase them. Thanks for all of your comments because now, I will not be shelling out $50 for some pants that won't last past 5 wearings. Now that I'm looking harder, even in the pictures on the website, the MeloPheonix pants heaver and there for more durable. I guess I'll be dishing out $40 more to make sure my pants last. Or perhaps I'll just pay the $130 from pheonix rising. Do they have a Tribe?

after reading everyone's comments I must inject my two cents....

1) Most of these speciality pants run small. XL or XXL will be only a 14/16 and that sucks...especially since so many dancers I know have large muscular thighs (I know I do).

2) I think there needs to be a tribe started just for good finds on esty, ebay and other tribes. Information can include good fit, selection of sizes, costumer service and stuff like that. Appearently Designers these days aren't giving a crap because they are still way popular.

3) YES! PANTS MADE OF LOWER QUALITY FABRICS WILL FADE AND MAY TEAR IN THE INNER THIGH. Generally if you have larger thighs, this may take a while, but it will happen sooner rather than later if you encounter a cheap fabric.

.:Jade:.

this post makes me sad, too.
i have a pair of desert dancer flare pants that i've worn for a year, they wouldv'e been totally fine if i hadn't 'accidentally cut them with scissors, so now i need to replace them =p
but other than that, they were okay.

i guess i'll stick with them
or tribe nawaar

Hello Everyone.

I have read through all of the replies to this post and would like to address many of the issues discussed here. First, I would like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for being such amazing customers. We are taking every comment and complaint to heart and will do everything in power to resolve these issues, if they haven't been already.

As far as Tribe goes, there was a long stretch of time that we could not even log into Tribe. That made it very difficult to keep up with everything. Due to log in issues and connection issues, we started using other avenues to communicate, like Facebook and email. In this process of moving forward, we stopped checking Tribe and for that we apologize. There are 2 of us here everyday, Susan and myself, and that is it. We try to stay on top of everything, but it also gets quite confusing when we receive messages through ebay, email, Tribe, Facebook and even voicemail all from the same customer. We have been trying to streamline and work just through email and Facebook so that nothing slips through the cracks. However, we realize from this posting that we need to keep Tribe in the loop and we are very sorry you have felt neglected here. We would like to encourage you to join our Facebook fanpage as well. As far as joining our mailing list goes.... please follow this link to the website, scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email address: www.melodiadesigns.com/faqs.html. We are now sending out Newsletters and frequently send out coupon codes through this mailing list.

Shipping charges and customs..... We know that there was a price increase in shipping, especially for international customers as we switched from the postal service to UPS. Please know that we do not make ANY profit on shipping. We have been working hard to lower the rates to match the postal service, but with all the service benefits of UPS. It is no exaggeration when I tell you that we had a stretch of time this past summer when DOZENS of international packages went missing with no reconciliation from the postal service. This is not to mention the dozens of other packages that made it to their destination but took 2-3 weeks to arrive. We felt that it was in everyone's best interest to switch to a more reliable, faster service like UPS. For those of you in Canada, there is an option on the website for "UPS standard" shipping which is very close to postal service rates with guaranteed delivery dates. As the business grows, we also have to be very careful that customs documents are filled out properly. We know this means more money out of pocket for many of you, but this out of our hands. We have been running more sales and incentives to try and make up for some of these extra charges.

Quality... Our cotton/lycra pants have always been made here in San Diego (and still are), and we have used the same fabric supplier and sewing team for years. I am not sure how the quality could have changed with this line. We would like to hear from people individually that had problems with these pants. We did do our first Organic Bamboo production in China, because that is where bamboo fabric is made. At this time there is no bamboo fabric being produced in the states. However, we are proud to tell you that we are now having fabric shipped to us and bringing our next production back home to Southern California. We have also sourced a new supplier for the Organic Bamboo Cotton Lycra Fabric and it is a heavier, more structured blend like the old cotton/lycra. The new line available on the website is made from this fabric. We are really pleased with it, and know you will be too! Please check it out! The price of the bamboo pants is higher as this fabric is considerably more expensive. We feel it is important to continue to move forward with green business practices. Hopefully as the demand for new eco-fibers increases, the cost will go down.

We hope that this gives some explanation to what has been going on. We wouldn't be here without you and thank you all for your support over the years. We will be sure to keep up with posts on Tribe, but again encourage you to check out Facebook and also join the mailing list. If you have specific questions, requests, issues please direct them to melodia@melodiadesigns.com. We hope you will give us another chance to outfit you in the Original Tribal Bellydance pants and many new designs as well as provide you with top-notch customer service!!!!!

Love,
Tina and Susan