Saturday, April 30, 2016

My online Fabric buying experience

Hoffman Spectrum print  Skyline
Because of peer pressure, I thought I had to have a particular fabric that I finally found online at E Quilter.
Click on any image to see it bigger, and read the selvedges to order any.

<==This seemed like the perfect fat binding around black for my thimble mosaic piece that's finished but I haven't shown.
Since I was paying for shipping based on value of order, I went ahead and ordered this sale priced fabric...



 again, click to see the specs along the selvedge.

It's a gorgeous striped organic colored piece. They only had 3 yards and I bought two at $6.48 /yd. And since I want to look into every artist studio, I got this sale magazine at half price too...



All of it arrived in three days, taped up by the US post office saying they received it damaged and open.
It was also soaking wet. Wet magazine, wet fabric. I called customer service right away. The nice person said she'd handle the report and save another magazine for me but the fabric I bought was gone.

I told her I could wash the fabric and it was probably not mildewed yet. She said they wanted my first order to be a happy one, and they would replace everything. That's the good news.
The other news was, she said they had to wait to see if the post office paid the insurance claim.
huh? that confused me.
 My replacement depended on whether or not the PO accepted the claim as valid?

Long story short, they did pay the claim, and EQuilter said I could choose more fabric to replace the original.
I chose this digital print at one yard for the same price as two yards of the sale stripe and a stonehenge...
It came packaged better this time, dry and no PO tape on it.
It also came with an invoice for the replacement cost. WHAT???

 I called the representative who said it was not charged to my card, it was just their way to get a replacement to me. We are trying to check paypal to make sure we weren't charged for this again.

Believe me, I will send it right back, and let you all know if that happens.

So the result was probably good, as I can now read the magazine, and have fabric.

The process was awkward in that I was led to believe my order would only be replaced if the PO paid for it. And I had to wait for a replacement til that claim was processed, about a week. And then wait for shipment of replacement which came in with an invoice.

I don't like dealing with these kinds of  issues that are annoying and take time and seem unnecessary.

I'll let you all know if they did charge me again. And let them know too.

This is why I shop in person.
linking to parties on my links page including
mollisparkles Sundays

19 comments:

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Hm-m-m- as I read this I really hoped this was just a one-off for you? I too have had a similar hiccough, but all was resolved quickly. And yes of course, so much less hassle shopping at your LQS... but {insert 'sad face'} here in NZ they don't always have what I want!

PaulaB quilts said...

You seem to be in a bad luck rut lately. It's so aggravating dealing with unknown entities. I don't have a choice but online buying, but the ones I've dealt with seem to be reliable. So far so good. Best wishes for a bright and flowery month of May, this being May Day we found paper woven baskets on our doorknobs with Hershey Kisses. Some secret persons do it every year in our building. So I'm passing it on to you.

easyweimaraner said...


I'm so sorry that this happened... but it seems currently onlineshopping is haunted somehow...it's annoying to have such aftereffects what need our time and our nerves :o(

Joanne said...

What an awful experience for you LeeAnna!
What could have been a joy to open delivery turned into weeks of corespondence frustration :(
Shopping in person at a quilt store is also great for their chance of staying open.
Here a lot of businesses have closed due to the amount of on line shoppers.
I hope for this experience to turn out good in the end!

Joanne said...

What an awful experience for you LeeAnna!
What could have been a joy to open delivery turned into weeks of corespondence frustration :(
Shopping in person at a quilt store is also great for their chance of staying open.
Here a lot of businesses have closed due to the amount of on line shoppers.
I hope for this experience to turn out good in the end!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

I am sorry to hear about all the trouble surrounding this order. I think that shopping in person is great but it is not always and option for me. Hopefully the store learned a lot about best practices for wrapping fabric inside of a package.

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

I have that city scape fabric........I LOVE it

I do a lot of online shopping and surprisingly have few problems. Once i ordered a lamp from amazon.com. It came in totally smashed. I called and they actually next day shipped the same lamp at no charge to me bfore i got off the phone! I was really surprised!

LA Paylor said...

and that's the way to do business. Now you won't think twice before doing another order with them. Whereas I am unsure....

Kitty said...

That sounds like quite the wild online shopping experience! Yipes! I'm glad at least you got some pretty fabric :) That rainbow city is amazing.

Linda Schiffer said...

I bought a big piece of that colorful Hoffman (?) city print last summer during Row By Row. Love it! Don't know exactly what I will do with it but almost certainly it will end up as a whole cloth something ... Maybe medallion quilt.

My experiences with online buying have been mixed. Some great, some awful. You and I are blessed to live in an area where we have real brick-and-mortar choices. Pity the folks who don't.

Linda

claudia said...

I had ordered a template once and it never showed up although the tracking on it said it had been delivered. I talked to the post office and all they told me was that yes it had been delivered, so maybe I need to get a locking mailbox! I called the company I ordered from and they said they would replace the template, but I had to get a police report done on it first! Which wasn't worth bothering with. Long story short, I got a notice that I had a package at the post office so went in wondering what it was, because I wasn't expecting anything. Lo and behold it was the template. It had been sitting at the post office for a month...NOT delivered! 'After' I had bought the locking mailbox. My mail carrier was written up for doing things wrong. Now she purposely delivers my mail to my other property's mailbox... Other than that I love ordering online.

quiltedfabricart said...

I've never ordered from e quilter and by the sounds of it I don't think I ever will. Customer service is the backbone of any good company so I doubt this one will be in business very long. So sorry for all your frustration:-(

LA Paylor said...

they've actually been around a really long time. They were very nice to talk to, and ended up replacing the merchandise. Many other people have no shipping trouble with orders... just lucky I guess

Sara said...

I prefer shopping in person too, but have had good luck with a couple of online fabric shops. Fat Quarter Shop is my favorite - great service and great quality. You sound like you were more than patient with this awkward process, and I'm glad to hear it's worked out for the most part.

Maria said...

That's definitely the disadvantage of online shopping.... The hassle if there is a problem. I hope everything works out in the long run!

Mary Huey said...

Interesting experience -- I suspect the customer service rep was telling you more (the claim thing) than she was supposed -- too much information that made for an uncomfortable experience for you. That Hoffman skyline print is gorgeous -- saw it recently made into a spectacular tote bag!!

JanineMarie said...

Sorry to hear about your shipping experience. I once received a demolished envelope of fabric from them, with no note of apology at all from the PO or indication of what happened. The envelope was torn open on both ends. Luckily, all of the fabric was there and undamaged so I didn't do anything about it. But now I wonder whether it was because the envelope was so stuffed and couldn't make it through processing machines. There was a lot of fabric in it. I have usually had a very good, personalized experience with that company (and I like their charity policy), but it does make you wonder what happens between packing and delivery. I do prefer to shop in person as I have a hard time visualizing colors or determining them from my monitor, but sometimes you just have to order.

Ann said...

What a frustrating experience. I had a friend who worked at e-quilter years ago and I thought they were good. But like you, I much prefer to buy in person. We make quilts because we like to fondle (I mean handle) fabric.

Ruth said...

I do like the fabric a lot and am glad you got to read your magazine - fingers crossed its all sorted now and no more hassle!