Chastity Manufacturers- RATE THEM!

[Pyra Gorgon]

The intent of this post (and Admin, it would be great if a new forum heading could be created for this topic due to a multitude of sub-topics to this) is to post customer reviews of the MANUFACTURER'S themselves, not just their belt designs and stuff.

There is much more to business than just the final end product usage.

There is also:
* Customer service
* Communicativeness and willingness to to communicate effectively
* Product marketing, such as offering valuable product descriptions, images helping consumers know fully what they are getting.
* Product support after sale
* Cost and Price controls
* Technical support for their products
* Reverse logistics (taking returns and making/ keeping channels of return open and accessible)
* Timely delivery of their products to consumers

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I have investigated EVERY chastity device manufacturer that is able to be found that has a female chastity device for sale. I have made inquiries to Tollyboy, Neo Steel, My-Steel, and Locked-in-Steel.

Those "Big 4" I give a FAIL on:
* Timely reply to emails. (after 3 attempts spaced over 6 months, I have given up on Tollyboy) My-Steel is so brief in their replies, I wonder if they are even serious about selling their over-priced belts!

Neo-Steel website is either under XSS attacks, or they have tried to over-complicate their web site to the point its coding is dithered up.

Locked-in-Steel I have not gotten any replies from either.

Keep in mind, I really do expect my ass to be kissed that is getting covered with one of these metal undies. If I am spending close to $1100 for all the typical options like you see on the belts these overly beautiful models are wearing, then I want and demand #1 customer service!!!

Given our current economy, and given the fact that a chastity belt is ONLY A LUXURY item, it would seem that business ought to be slow for such items. Common wisdom of economics and business 101 seems to say that these companies are failing in their professional callings.

If these companies are "artisinal quality", ie. they are artists moving at their own speed and leisure, then they ought not broadcast a false image that they are a chastity belt manufacturer, which implies contemporary corporate structuring and business modeling. (ever look @ Neosteel's legal mumbo jumbo and all their "board of directors, blah blah? who are they kidding? If you cannot buy publicly traded stock in Neosteel, then they cannot have a "board of directors")

I have the expectation that these manufacturers of chastity devices operate like any other company: to generate profit through revenues and continue to expand by developing consumer bases. I do not notice this with chastity manufacturers. Well, except for the Chinese manufacturers! They are following the model of free enterprise economic modeling.

And what is up with these prices??? Sweet Jesus! These companies act like their chastity belts are Lear Jets or something. Let's see what I am talking about here...
$1107 for My-Steel female Total chastity belt with ergonomic waistband, convex front shield, long slotted front shield, vagina insert, and anus locking plate. NO fancy chrome lock, NO D-RINGS (these fools want 40 bucks per D-ring! seriously?) THIS PRICE DOES NOT INCLUDE SHIPPING

~$1240 for NeoSteel Female SYSTEM chastity belt: ergonomic waistband, full bottom (includes long shield and anus locking system), vagina insert, shipping, silicone liner, two D-rings, and a partridge in a pear tree.

The Locked in Steel is substantially cheaper, but that company is so damned unreliable I would not risk purchasing anything from them unless monies were placed in 3rd party escrow and released payment only after product delivery and inspection for usability by customer.

Who cares how much for the Tollyboy? Those guys refuse to even bother to answer questions. And Tollyboy website is DREADFUL! Photos of their products are missing, or they are fingernail images that turn to pixelated muck when you size them to see. Product descriptions also suck badly. Willingness to communicate: SUCKY TOO.

IN MY CONCLUSION:

Chastity device industry is a JOKE. The products are VASTLY over-priced, the makers of these devices are snobs and have zero willingness to treat a customer with anything approaching respect for their time, and the balance of power is solely at the makers descretion as to shipping and delivery of finished goods. And for smething so expensive, it is criminal to not have a system of arbitration in place in case of product unusability or manufacturer defect.

I open this topic to the community to respond on these points. Please keep in mind, no discussion is taking place on which product is better than any other products or designs, but rather on the companies that produce these devices.

[Admin]

The intent of this post (and Admin, it would be great if a new forum heading could be created for this topic due to a multitude of sub-topics to this) is to post customer reviews of the MANUFACTURER'S themselves, not just their belt designs and stuff.

Lets leave these threads here until there is enough of them to justify their own subforum.

Keep in mind, I really do expect my ass to be kissed that is getting covered with one of these metal undies. If I am spending close to $1100 for all the typical options like you see on the belts these overly beautiful models are wearing, then I want and demand #1 customer service!!!

I agree with this and find it very unfortunate that this is not always the case.

Chastity device industry is a JOKE. The products are VASTLY over-priced, the makers of these devices are snobs and have zero willingness to treat a customer with anything approaching respect for their time, and the balance of power is solely at the makers descretion as to shipping and delivery of finished goods. And for smething so expensive, it is criminal to not have a system of arbitration in place in case of product unusability or manufacturer defect.

Chastity belts is really a craft of hands and requires a lot of manual labor. How much and what this is worth is up to anyone of us to decide. The limited size of the market surely makes it hard to specialize in creating chastity belts and make a living of it. The market is growing but it is still very small. It is a blessing that we have so many quality producers that we have and I wish them all a prosperous future.

But I personally think that the arrival of cheap mass market belts from China is a good step in the right direction for the chastitybelt culture. I hope that this will eventually cause the big brand names to come up with a similar cheap mass market belt. It is all very well to spend thousands of dollars on a top of the line hand made belt if that is what you want but what the market really needs is the cheap mass produced alternative. It will be interesting to see what the big names will do to counter this Chinese threat. I would say that a great first step in responding to the Chinese would be adding a great costumer service.

[virginitysaving]

Beside very inadequate prices, time is another problem of the "Big 4". If someone is supposed to be get belted, they will have to wait a least for few weeks.
It means they are not established well. They could probably have some standardized parts or blanks in stock to speed it up.
However I believe that's because they don't do a mass production due lack of demand, because
1. not many people know that modern chastity belts exist
2. prices are very high

So Chinese players have a good chance to warm up this market.

[Pyra Gorgon]

I doubt any of the "Big 4" have their own machine shops. Locked in Steel claims they laser weld their joints, and My-steel boasts of computer aided cutting of their 3-D supERgonomic belts.

They do not make their own locks. At most, they probably have TIG welders at location and whatever they use to glue that medical grade silicone to stainless steel. (which is driving me insane trying to discover the secret to this! Silicone is very hard to get to bond to anything if it is already a cured product, like the edging they use)

So basically, what they do is make patterns and out-source to a machine shop that has a water-jet machine, or EDM machine, or laser welder/ cutter. The cheapest machine is the EDM, water-jet machines start for a used one around $175000 USD. Laser welder/cutters are easily $250K + I doubt any of these "Big 4" chastity belt makers are that capital intensive. They probably do have buffers, grinders, and typical hand tools, but nothing industrial on site.

So maybe it is not their fault, but their out-sourcing affiliates??? I dunno...

Bottom line: there are no valid reasons for the issues us customers are experiencing. I bet they are home hobbyists with websites and lots of industrial connections.

Maybe this is why so many chastity belt manufacturers go out of business or never take off.

Like Access Denied.

Locked-in-Steel will be the next one to go belly up. I predict this.

[virginitysaving]

Locked-in-Steel will be the next one to go belly up. I predict this.

It seems, they are already.

My point was they don't have to have cutting machines in their shops, but assemble only.
Instead of making every single belt individually, they should store parts of 4-5 typical sizes/shapes and put them together for customers using simple equipment.

[Pyra Gorgon]

Okay, yes. I would agree with that, virginitysaving.

Seems that on a chastity belt, there are some measurements that ought to be very close to one another (dimension-wise) that all women share in common, like "center of vaginal opening to center of anus. (which would give the centers for the marque cut-out for solid strap rear belts and the bottom of the front shield slot. Taking mid-way length of that ought to give the bottom dead center. If I were making belts, THAT would be the point I would need measurements up to center back and center front. Then I could have all those crotch straps cut a few inches long, ends left as blanks...

then when a customer sent in measurements, just measure up from dead center bottom and cut off for length and punch holes for locking post or rivet holes. If doing a dropped waist belt, then add that extra drop dimension to your off fall length.

Straight waistbands could be cut long and one side with punched holes in it. Curvy ones would absolutely have to be made to order, I cannot see how those could be made in advance. And using jigs to punch all holes at once and uniformly would speed up things and professional fit immensely.

Shackle guards are standard dimension, so have an automated machine shop take the CAD program and do a several thousand run. Out-source to China and have them made on the dirt cheap.

Believe me, these "Big-4" are over-pricing big time, which is pricing many would-be consumers out of chastity belt play/desire/willingness to buy and try. Personally, I would LOVE to own a My-Steel, but not going to pay a grand for one! I could be enticed to pay $500 if the marketing and other customer services were there. Like My-Steel charges 24 bucks USD for a chromed padlock. Gee, go on DHGate and look up "chrome padlock" and you'll find you can buy them in bulk for around 4 dollars a piece. So My-Steel is making 20 bucks pure profit just on resale of a lock!!! $40 for a single D-ring attached to side of waistband? Highway robbery there! The vaginal insert they use looks eerily like the one I got from DHGate for $23 dollars...My-Steel charges $120 USD for theirs. Hmmmmm...

I think these chastity belt makers are screwing us consumers....ironic, given the nature of their products and what those products are supposed to prevent: getting screwed!!!! LOL

[virginitysaving]

Straight waistbands could be cut long and one side with punched holes in it. Curvy ones would absolutely have to be made to order, I cannot see how those could be made in advance.

Never understood advantages of curved waistband vs. straight, but manufacturer's excuse for so high price.

[Pyra Gorgon]

"virginitysaving" Never understood advantages of curved waistband vs. straight, but manufacturer's excuse for so high price.

Well, the curved waistband ~seems~ like it would be more comfortable. I cannot say with certainty because I do not have firsthand experience wearing curved waistbanded chastity belts vs. straight waistbanded chastity belts.

I doubt my near future has such experiences in the crystal ball. To have such disposable income as to afford both styles of c.b. is not in my foreseeable future.

If I win the lottery, I buy one of each and give you a serious detailed comparison.

...or maybe I'll get one of those super-indestructible chastity belts made for me like that "lockedupwife" has been in for the last year and a half non-stop. (tongue in cheek)

[virginitysaving]

...or maybe I'll get one of those super-indestructible chastity belts made for me like that "lockedupwife" has been in for the last year and a half non-stop. (tongue in cheek)

How about titanium one?

[Admin]

Believe me, these "Big-4" are over-pricing big time

I can not comment on the possible over pricing but it is clear that their business model works for them. People are obviously prepared to pay what they charge and their order books appear to be well filled.

, which is pricing many would-be consumers out of chastity belt play/desire/willingness to buy and try

Very true and this is why I welcome the cheap Chinese belts. They offer a low cost way to try out chastity but I do not think that they are suitable for long term wear yet. I hope that anyone who try out chastity with a cheap belt will go ahead and place an order for a higher quality custom made belt from one of the established chastity belt makers.

Like My-Steel charges 24 bucks USD for a chromed padlock. Gee, go on DHGate and look up "chrome padlock" and you'll find you can buy them in bulk for around 4 dollars a piece. So My-Steel is making 20 bucks pure profit just on resale of a lock!!! $40 for a single D-ring attached to side of waistband? Highway robbery there! The vaginal insert they use looks eerily like the one I got from DHGate for $23 dollars...My-Steel charges $120 USD for theirs. Hmmmmm...

I can not answer for MY-Steel or anyone else but it is not really fair to compare the materials used by the "big 4" and with that found on sites like DHGate. They might look the same and work in a similar way but workmanship and materials are often completely different. The big 4 must stand behind their products and guarantee a certain level of quality. The goods on DHGate might be good but it often far from it. It is also important to stress that the steel used in the Chinese belt is not the same as that used in belts from the "big 4".

Beside very inadequate prices, time is another problem of the "Big 4". If someone is supposed to be get belted, they will have to wait a least for few weeks. It means they are not established well

A few weeks or a month do not seem like a terrible amount of time to wait for something that is custom made. Instant delivery would be nice but it is hardly a realistic possibility.

The cheapest machine is the EDM, water-jet machines start for a used one around $175000 USD. Laser welder/cutters are easily $250K + I doubt any of these "Big 4" chastity belt makers are that capital intensive.

I am sure they have and use a lot of expensive equipment and this would be part of the explanation for their prices.

The "big 4" or how many they might be today, is a great asset for the chastity community and I hope that they will continue to prosper. The chastity community would not be where it is today without them. I hope that the "Chinese belts" will also continue to evolve, their price is good but quality is still far from adequate. Whoever is the first in designing the T-Ford of the chastity belts will profit from it, enrich the community and have my gratitude.

I would be very interesting in the chastity belt producers and our other members views the points raised in this thread.