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Hopefully this will improve customer service at Altieri. My wife recently ordered a bag from them. They were slow, uncommunicative, rude and they made the bag wrong... Couldn't have had a worse experience.

Ken Crawford wrote:Hopefully this will improve customer service at Altieri. My wife recently ordered a bag from them. They were slow, uncommunicative, rude and they made the bag wrong... Couldn't have had a worse experience.

Just grabbed a bag myself in January. I thought they were a little non communicative. I ordered it at the end of October, I checked in in December and never heard back. Then a few days later my credit card was charged and the bag came in a couple weeks.

Love the bag though. I'm not sure what the acquisition means, but better service and maybe a touch faster deliver would be cool.

I ordered a bag in October.. I emailed them with my questions as I had never ordered a bag before. They were a little slow on responding but all in all I'm one happy customer!

Since I had a bag on order during the transition, I thought I would share my experience. I ordered a custom bag for my baritone on May 1. In an email conversation with Donna I stated that I needed it prior to some traveling I would be doing at the end of June. She said she could get the bag to me by the date I requested.

When I saw this thread I called JL Smith to see if the transition would affect delivery schedules. They said they did not think so, but would check. Within 15 minutes I had a phone call from someone at Altieri. She and I spent some time reviewing exactly what I wanted and she assured me that they could meet the schedule. About a week before my drop dead date I called Altieri and was told the bag was sewn and undergoing its final quality check. They shipped it the next morning and it arrived two days later.

Every interaction I've had with Altieri since the transition has been positive. One thing that's new is that they actually answer the telephone now. Some of you might remember the old answering machine message, "If you don't want to hear back leave a message. If you do want to hear back, send an email." That no longer seems to be the case and I believe their customer service is greatly improved since the takeover.

The bag itself is lovely; just what I wanted and very well made. It is a little snug since it is built pretty much exactly to my measurements of the horn. If you want a little "wiggle room" for easier loading you should either be a bit generous with your measurements or discuss it with Altieri. This is my second Altieri bag and I would have no hesitation ordering from them again.

My most recent experience with Altieri was... noteworthy.

A few months ago, I ordered a bag for my ophicleide, and sent in the measurements and paid for it. About a week later, I received an email from Donna stating that she'd had an extremely unpleasant interaction with another ophicleide player (we're a rowdy bunch, clearly) and was no longer making bags for unusual instruments and would therefore be unable to make my bag. However, she did have the bag she'd already made for this other unruly ophicleide scoundrel and offered to sell it to me at a huge discount, and threw in a custom bag for the bocal since our instruments had different measurements.

So, not just a discounted bag, but possibly the last Altieri ophicleide bag ever? I jumped on it. My payment was refunded, I paid the new amount, and shortly after that, I received that final Altieri ophicleide bag.

Aside from the size difference (the intended ophicleide must have been a bit longer, but with a smaller bocal), the bag worked out great. It's well-constructed and absolutely beautiful. I'd recommend it to anyone, assuming the weird instrument owners of the world achieve some redemption and Altieri has a change of heart. I love the bag (my second Altieri bag after my bass trombone bag in college, also a great bag), but I won't lie, the drama was pretty stressful.