Does "Lotus Trumpets" exist, or a scam-company?

Martinagge · New Member Joined: 06 Mar 2017 Posts: 1 Location: Denmark

Does anyone know if Lotus Trumpets actually exists, or if Adam Rapa's name has been used in a scam-company named Lotus Trumpets?

I was in good faith when I ordered a 2L brass mouthpiece from www.lotustrumpets.com on March 17th.
The payment through PayPal happened on 22nd March (134.30€)
I have since emailed the company several times to figure out what is going on, and when I will receive the mouthpiece I paid for.
I receive polite replies from a Charles Wagner, but so far no mouthpiece, 5½ months after ordering....

Charles Wagner wrote:
15th April ".... we are getting nearly all L and L2 cups at the moment and hopefully one will be on it's way to you in the next week or so."
26th April "The final stage of production is in full swing right now." (Henrik Grahn)
15th May "I do know for a fact that 100+ Bronze mouthpieces are being worked on today (and yesterday) and the expectation was that they'll be sent to the shipping team on Monday."
2nd June " I will ask the shipping team to move your order into the VIP section so that it will be near the head of the line for any new stock that comes in and matches your order."
24th June (after I informed them I would be away for three weeks)" We are really making some good progress on getting deliveries out the door and I hope we can have that mouthpiece for you right away when you get home."
28th July "We will have a big pile of them next week and I will put your order in the VIP section to ensure that it is in the first wave of customers to be checked for their model."

Today is 5th September, and I really can't be bothered writing them another email, just to be told that I am "on their VIP list", or that "hundreds of L2 brass mouthpieces will be shipped next week"...
However, I would very much appreciate if someone could tell me whether Charles Wagner is a real person, whether Lotus Trumpets really exists, or I have been scammed

Cheers,
Martin
Aalborg, Denmark
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gregplo · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:33 pm Post subject:

You may want to read through this thread which has a good bit of info. Others have waited, and are waiting as well. Those who wait say it is worth the wait...I have ordered a 3M, and will wait patiently for it to arrive. I’ve waited weeks for back ordered mouthpieces in the pre-pandemic past…the pandemic has made things much worse across the board. Even our grocery stores are having trouble getting stock.

https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=155906
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Jon Kaplan · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:07 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately YES they are a real company, and not a scam.

The owner and creator, Adam Rapa, is an insanely incredible trumpet player and people seem to be responding very well to his Lotus mouthpieces HOWEVER Lotus has clearly hit a MASSIVE amount of logistical issues following a big change in their supply chain in the last 12 months. Read the above thread to get caught up on what's going on with that. I really don't believe there is anything malicious happening here, but for those people who ordered mouthpieces just after the aforementioned change, many of them have been completely left out to dry just like yourself.

For the sake of the trumpet community I hope that things get sorted out soon. Clearly the product is good and worthwhile to produce, but consumers also don't deserve to get jerked around like this just because they wanted to try a new mouthpiece. I hope to try one some day, when it hopefully won't be such a casino game to try to get my hands on one.
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trompette24 · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:04 pm Post subject:

I ordered a 2L in May and got it about two months later....
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Trumpetingbynurture · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Nov 2015 Posts: 898

Hey,

There has been this little thing called a Pandemic you know...

I have an order for a trumpet part with a reputable American company. Have been waiting since about April now, still no firm eta.

The last 2 months have apparently been waiting for it to come back from the platers.

Different places have had different delays depending on how long they were shut down and how much of a backlog there has been.

I believe they have also moved their operation to a new country in Europe so there was new set up times, and I know AR Resonance also had some delays with orders because the plating companies keep closing when there are lockdowns and then reopen with a backlog.

I find it weird that in the other lotus thread no one seemed to so much as acknowledge that the pandemic could be slowing things down. If you can't be patient and give people the benefit of the doubt during a global pandemic, when can you?

cfarmer · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:35 pm Post subject:

My Friend and instrument repairman Jimmy Lingenfelter is doing assembly work for them on the west side of Houston. He currently has 3-4 horns in stock at Collins Music in Katy TX.
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improver · Heavyweight Member Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 1455

I dont care how good of trumpet player Adam Rapa is 51/2 month wait on a mouthpiece isnt a business. He should refund the OPs money.

raynjtrumpet · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 6:19 pm Post subject:

I ordered a 1L mouthpiece from them in early August and received it in less than two weeks. This is not to comment on any of the other stories that have been posted here, but just to say there is recent evidence that they are delivering.

BTW, I do like the mouthpiece a lot.

Ray
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JoseLindE4 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 791

I don’t know the details of Lotus, but lots of companies are running into insane wait times right now. Everything is backed up, which compounds.

I ordered some percussion equipment last winter. After a few times of being told that it’s backordered until the next month, I start calling around to see if someone else could get it. They all told me the same thing — it’s an industry-wide problem and I’ll just have to wait. It finally came in about 8 months after the process started. It seems like unless something’s sitting in a warehouse ready to go, you might have to wait quite some time.

acritzer · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:06 am Post subject:

A local music supply company told me they ordered horns from Yamaha I think back in January. They’re hoping to get them in October.

trumpetchops · Heavyweight Member Joined: 29 Jun 2003 Posts: 2644

I think everyone is missing the point. Well, my take on it anyway.

The company is allowed to have delays. Every company does at some point but,
they should tell the truth. Not just send generic emails back. I'm thinking we wouldn't be reading any of this if the company wrote back, "We're having supply problems because of Covid. Please be patient, it's worth the wait. We appreciate your business and support through these tough times."
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anrapa · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:15 am Post subject:

Trumpetingbynurture · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Nov 2015 Posts: 898

Hi Antonio,

I remember you posted something on Facebook at.one point about a delay due to something to do with the platers and covid, but I should have been clearer in my post as it was only a few weeks I think, not months.

It's incredible to me that you have time to do all the stuff you do! I have some of your mouthpieces and they are excellent.

anrapa · Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 12:43 am Post subject:

Ciao!
Yeah, we had a few hiccups along the way but nothing major, the worst that can happen (and it did happen in the past, mistakes do happen) is that you make a mouthpiece, you send it for plating 3-4 weeks later, the mouthpiece is dropped by the plating company, they don't tell me, it gets here damaged, I have to make it again and this can result in a total of 2 months or more of wait.

But this is something that happens to companies making mostly custom work or that offer a huge variety of plating options or materials.
Companies that make only a handful of sizes don't (shouldn't?) have issues like that because they have the luxury of making tens or hundreds of copies of the few models they have in their catalog.

What makes a product hard to make or deliver is the number of variants or the custom work that is required by a client.
I easily exchange 10-20 emails with each single customer to get to the final specs of a mouthpiece and this is a huge time investment that only partially pays in economical terms.
When you don't have that part of the work and/or when you don't make the products yourself life is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH easier.

(right now I'm making mouthpieces at the lathe, polishing a handful of them and replying to some emails, all at the same time, that's the normality here

)
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SMrtn · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:43 pm Post subject:

Jay2015trumpet · Regular Member Joined: 29 May 2015 Posts: 74

No, they're not a scam. I went back and forth some with Charles and posted a bit in the linked thread in here. The first mouthpiece had flaky silver and wobbled, the second was great but the wrong size, and the third I ending up cancelling after waiting an additional 3 weeks past a month long quote I believe. They do make some good stuff, but the business side of things is screwy. I did get my money back, though. So no, not a scam. Think indie tech startup that can't quite get started...

kehaulani · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:42 pm Post subject:

It's just a fact of life that, in addition to an excellent product, now more than ever you need:
*excellent PR
*excellent QC
*timely correspondence/transactions
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acritzer · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 3:28 am Post subject:

It is really too bad that they seemed to have rushed their roll out and/or are still having consistency issues with production times. The mouthpieces are fantastic!