Now I'm not a person who bad-mouths, but this time I have to let you know what happened to me so the same thing won't happen to you.
The company this is about is called Treehouse stamps. They seem like a nice family owned company with babypictures and updates. They also have their own design team and a blog. Prices are great and the international shipping is only $6.50. Wow, right?
NOT!
I'm slightly embarresed to say that I have shopped there twice. The first time it took over a month before my items were even shipped. I thought that was just bad luck, maybe they forgot or my order got lost. With a newborn in the house I assumed these things could happen. I e-mailed several times asking if they had shipped my order yet and so on. I tried leaving comments on their blog thinking that maybe my e-mails didn't get to them. My comments never got published as they moderate them before posting. I almost gave up, but decided to leave one last comment on their blog. I wrote saying that I will post on my blog and every place possible warning people not to shop with them. Just a few hours later I recieved an automatic e-mail saying that my order has been shipped. No other messages, apologies, no nothing.
A few months passed and since I recieve their newsletter (which I can't unsubscribe from, might I add) I couldn't resist another sale they had. There were lots of whiff of joy stamps for about $4, but what really made me want to order was 6x6" Basic Grey pads for $3.25! I think I ordered every one they had, 11 different ones, 3 woj , 2 greeting farm and one imaginisce stamp.
I made the order at the end of march. After a couple of weeks I tried to contact them over and over again, through the blog, mail and everything possible (except actually calling as I didn't want to waste more money on them) I made sure to open a dispute with paypal before 45 days had gone. THEN all of a sudden I get a response from them saying that this was the first time they had gotten any messages from me. But the fact that I had placed an order and they hadn't shipped it totally slipped their mind? They also claimed the items were shipped already.
It took exactly one week for the items to get here, which is what it takes for US mail. This probably means that they saw the dispute and sent out my stuff and then claimed they "already sent it out". I asked when they had sent it, but they ignored me once again, just saying that they will add tracking information as soon as they can get their Stamps.com application to work. Apperantly it was currently offline. That never happened. I was annoyed and thought it was over...until I got the package. The package consisted of 5 stamps - no paperpads as they were "out of stock" according to the ordernote.
How the hell can they claim they already sent out the package knowing it was incomplete?! Why not mention it? If I had known I would have to pay full shipping for 5 stamps I never would've ordered them. For that price I could've supported any of my fav shops that are slightly more expensive.
Still no apologies or anything just a note (still through paypal as this was the only place I could get in contact with them) saying: "I need to send you a refund, but this dispute has to be closed before I can do so. Some of the items were no longer available! Thank you! :)" NOW they tell me the items were no longer available. Yes, I kind of figured it out when I opened the package!
I just wanted to get it overwith, get my refund and never ever look at that place again, so I pressed the "close dispute" button. But as soon as I did that I regretted it, thinking why do they need it to be closed? Let them make the refund first, then I can close it. So I pressed the stop button, but evidently the info had gone already as I got a message from paypal saying it was closed. I tried to re-open it, but I couldn't do that because they said that I already had a case like that with that number and it was closed (why I can't re-open it again is beyond me. But according to paypal if you've closed it, you can't take it back, so learn from my mistake) I e-mailed paypal explaining the situation and asking them to help me. Their answer was that I should give them a call. I don't want to do that as it's not so cheap calling abroad and I really don't want to waste any more money on this stupid company.Last thing I did was leaving a comment on their blog saying that I won't be treated like crap and that I'm still waiting for my refund. You would think that they MAYBE could find my order, or note or mail or anything and refund it with an apology, but noooo. My comment didn't get publish. I wonder if anyone read it?
The money they should repay me is around $37+part of the shipping at least! I don't know how things work in the US, but in Sweden many companies look after their customers. Just last week I ordered some beads where the colour wasn't as described on a homepage and the owner offered to send me new ones in a different colour free of charge. I'm not saying that I need to get stuff for free, but this is actually my money that they have. Money I could've spent on two spellbinders, a bunch of stamps or a whole lot of fabrics or beads. Since I'm not working and have no steady income, this is important to me. I can't waste money here and there like it was nothing. Everything I buy I think through several times, try to shop at sales or where it's the cheapest and so on to make the most of it.
This saying "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" has never been more true. Now I really know the meaning of it.
And to top it off I can't unsubscirbe from their newsletter, so a couple of times a week I'm reminded and pissed off (pardon my language) every time I look through my mail.
So, please, please, please learn from me. During several years of internet shopping, this was the first that I've been tricked like this. I've even bought several times from e-bay without problem. I like shopping over the net and will continue doing so, just never, ever over at treehouse stamps. You shouldn't either if you want to support me and the way I've been treated. They seem to think thay can do anything they want because I'm abroad. When I get more strength I think I'll give them a call. Just out of principle. But it will have to wait as I'm still struggling with my health and this is at the bottom of my to-do list.
I'm also working on a blog where I will give tips on places to shop, links to tutorials and so on. I will make a list where I have shopped and gotten great service. I'll also have places that are blacklisted and this will definately be on top! The blog is called crafter's guide and I have already put up some challenge links. I will put up everything that I can't fit on this blog, so it should be more extensive. You can go take a look and follow if you want, but as I said before, due to health issues I'm not on the net much and when I am I'm trying to fullfill my DT commitments.
If anyone has any suggestions to what I should do with this whole mess without it costing me, please let me know.
