Monday, July 21, 2008

Oriental Trading

I have ordered from Oriental Trading Company many times, and not really had any problems, until this last order. My kids have recently gotten into painting, and rather than continuing to buy the 4 oz bottles at Target I decided to try to save some money.
The 6 gallon size paint jars that I ordered did not come with the first shipment, and instead I got a box FULL of flowers (the colorful, flat kind that you have to glue on to stuff). I called them, and they told me that I should donate the flowers to a preschool or something (anyone interested?), but the paints were on back-order, so I was told to keep checking online and call back when they become available. After a couple of days I decided not to wait anymore and got back on their website and wrote down each order number to order the paints individually, and called them back. After they told me the paints couldn't be ordered that way, and I gave them the item numbers, and they said my paints were on the way. A few weeks later here is what I got. Needless to say, I wasn't too pleased...

Who throws bottles of paint in a box that is too big with no packaging to hold them from banging into each other?? Anyway, I called them back and told them what happened, and my paints are on the way...again. I did, however, put on some grubby's and clean those bottles off. Although a few of the colors leaked BEFORE the white bottle busted I managed to get them cleaned (and taped) and I think we'll be able to use them. =)

...and the moral of the story is...paint does not ship well, buy them at Michael's where you can get the same size for about the same price (which I found out over the weekend in their store).

Update: OK...crazy! I'm at work and I get a phone call from OT and the lady says that she saw my blog and wanted to apologize for what happened. She said that they have talked to the ppl in shipping and talked to the person who didn't know she could order them individually. She said that paints are fairly new to them, so they have had some problems, and she is going to send me a $20 gift certificate for my next order. You might be saying what I said, "Um...how did you see my blog?" Well, they have some automatic thing where anytime anyone write's their name they get a notification. At least they really do care...I'll definately use that $20!

2 comments:

laurie said...

that's unbelievable. I can imagine you weren't too friendly when you talked to them. I sure hope they did something to make that up to you!

Anonymous said...

That's crazy! It's like they are the FBI of craft suppliers or something! Anyway, glad you finally are getting your paint, unbroken, and your $$$ certificate. If you really don't need the flowers I'll take them off of your hands! I teach preschool and we're always in need of craft supplies! Let me know!