Mark Rosenthal Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 (edited) In early October I visited the concertina-spares.com website with the intention of ordering new thumbstraps for an EC. I found the following notice in red at the top of the homepage: Illness Notice The website is closed for a Three weeks. I have been slowing down and have been very lathargic for some time now and after a blood test have found my blood sugar is high and my liver is a bit dodgy. If you are waiting for items sorry for the delay, the shop will be back up asap. Thanks Mark I emailed mark@concertina-spares.com to express concern, and to ask him to get in touch with me when he's feeling better. Not surprisingly, I received an auto-reply saying the same thing as his website. At this point it's been two months, so it's obvious that Mark's guess as to when he'd be feeling better was overly optimistic. Has anybody here been in touch with Mark Lloyd-Adey? Does anybody know how he's doing? Edited December 17, 2019 by Mark Rosenthal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiposx Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 There have been a number of notices on Mark's website going back over a year that I am aware of. The notices have mentioned his health, closure to do holidays and some other issues that I can't clearly recall. I have only bought one lot of spares through Mark in September 2018. I didn't find the transaction went very well, (I am being gentle here) but I did receive the order eventually. The materials bought were very good indeed, but I decided that I would not use this supplier again. This is a great shame, as I haven't been able to find suitable spares elsewhere. I wish Mark well, but this is my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Rosenthal Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Tiposx said: I have only bought one lot of spares through Mark in September 2018. I didn't find the transaction went very well ... I'm sorry to hear that. But thanks for the info that the notice is not new as of October when I first saw it. In contrast to your experience, my experience with him has been quite positive. It was about 5 years ago, and it did take a few months, but he fabricated some custom parts for me that ended up fitting perfectly, so I wasn't too upset that it took a while. Specifically, I have a George Case EC from sometime around 1850, and a few of the buttons had a nasty habit of popping out of their holes in the action board, which meant that you could no longer play that note until you'd stopped playing and fiddled with the button. After a great deal of examination, I figured out that the shape of those buttons was slightly different than all the other buttons in the instrument. I'd guess that sometime in the intervening 165 years, a few of the original buttons broke, and some repair person replaced them with whatever parts he had in stock, even though they weren't an exact match. I pulled out one of the original buttons, measured every dimension with a micrometer, drew a mechanical drawing diagram, and sent it to him. He was able to fabricate new buttons for me to replace the incorrect ones, and when I got them, they were an absolutely perfect fit. At the same time, I also had him make new thumbstraps for another instrument, and match up some endbolts of the right thread and length to fit yet another instrument. All the parts he sent were exactly what I needed and fit perfectly. So I wasn't too upset that it took a few months. Maybe we just have different expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Coles Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 I see you had a duplicate thread in construction and repair. In most cases we discourage this (Paul does have to buy the server space for this site). I've closed that thread and directed persons here. Hoping that Mark is better soon. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Pearce Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 Latest notice on Mark's website Feeling Better Thanks for the kind words I have had from people I am on the mend but it has been slow I imagined just changing my diet and being back to normal, but it is not so. I will be reopen properly after christmas (4th Jan) If anyone is in need please email and I will do my best Thanks Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Rosenthal Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 8 hours ago, Ken_Coles said: I see you had a duplicate thread in construction and repair. In most cases we discourage this (Paul does have to buy the server space for this site). I've closed that thread and directed persons here. Ordinarily I wouldn't do that, but I couldn't figure out whether the people in the General group or the people in the Repair group would be more likely to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Coles Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 No worries, folks will find this thread now. Keeping track of replies in two threads can be distracting. For something like this, I think folks who know Mark are likely to check here. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Taylor Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 On 12/17/2019 at 2:17 PM, Rod Pearce said: Latest notice on Mark's website Feeling Better Thanks for the kind words I have had from people I am on the mend but it has been slow I imagined just changing my diet and being back to normal, but it is not so. I will be reopen properly after christmas (4th Jan) If anyone is in need please email and I will do my best Thanks Mark So this is still the same notice on his website and it is now well into February. Does anybody know if Mark is actually back in business now? (I am assuming not, but I want to order some parts and I suppose that I must go elsewhere). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex West Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 I spoke with Mark just after the New Year about an order I'd placed a while ago. He was back in action and delivered it promptly so he's recovering although you might have to be patient Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcr27 Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 18 minutes ago, Alex West said: I spoke with Mark just after the New Year about an order I'd placed a while ago. He was back in action and delivered it promptly so he's recovering although you might have to be patient Thanks for letting us know, I placed an order a month ago and emailed him today but haven’t received a reply yet. Does he work on his own? It would be great if someone could work along with him while he is off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Taylor Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 I just visited Concertina Spares again and this time I clicked past the notice that I posted earlier. Now I see, dated 10 Feb 2020: Illness Notice The website is closed for a Three weeks. I have been slowing down and have been very lathargic for some time now and after a blood test have found my blood sugar is high and my liver is a bit dodgy. If you are waiting for items sorry for the delay, the shop will be back up asap. Thanks Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Stevens Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Hi Guys, I went on line and ordered some concertina spares on April 7th. Unfortunately I have received no reply so far? Although I don’t know him, I wish him well hope he recovers soon! Kind regards Mr. Mike Stevens Chester, England, U.K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 I see there's a new message on the front page (dated 30th April 2020): Quote I have finally found time to update this message. Firstly I hope everyone is staying in playing concertinas and other instruments in this time, keep yourselves safe. I am feeling much better due to taking advantage of the walks I am allowed, I am however still working and processing orders and you can reach me by phone or email. Thanks Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcr27 Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Last week I received my spares that I ordered back in January Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d.elliott Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 I spoke to Mark a couple of days ago, he seems in good spirits and if fulfilling orders. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Chambers Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 7 hours ago, d.elliott said: I spoke to Mark a couple of days ago, he seems in good spirits and if fulfilling orders. That's good news! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4to5to6 Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 (edited) I have not had a good experience with getting parts from Mark even though he’s apologized to me multiple times and promised to help me over and over. It’s been over 3 years, almost 4 and my Aeola project is still on hold. I mainly ordered some strap screws, end bolts, missing buttons, some felt and leather, etc. and paid a good amount which I thought was fair but I had to return a lot of the parts as they weren’t even close to mine even though photos and precise measurements were first sent. I then emailed more photos. I even posted him full size photocopies in the mail of parts along with the returned unusable items. I finally sent him my original sample parts at a very expensive high speed post rate but to date, I still do not have the parts that I am missing even though he has acknowledged receipt of the info and the returns. Not sure what has happened to my parts but I’m now afraid I will never even see them again. I remember explaining this fall that I really wanted to work on this project this winter. If anyone can help me, I would be very grateful as I don’t know what to do or where to go to get the parts I need. I can forget the money, but to be without my original parts that were sent is a hard pill to swallow. Update: I just sent Mark another email a few moments after doing this post and he quickly replied with an apology and a promise to sort things out this week. I am feeling a bit hopeful again. Maybe it was health issues or something. Edited May 18, 2020 by 4to5to6 Shorten post and give update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Chambers Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 15 minutes ago, 4to5to6 said: ... I don’t know what to do or where to go to get the parts I need. For Wheatstone parts I'd go to C. Wheatstone & Co.: http://www.wheatstone.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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