As I head out today to meet up with a bunch of local fabric enthusiasts (albeit for the most part in dress making form) I’ve been pondering the customer service that we receive at our fabric shops both in store and online.
Now Mandors, where we are meeting today to spend some Itison vouchers we got recently, is an Aladin’s cave of dress-making, home decor and, to a lesser (and very line-limited) extent, quilting fabric. They employ a large number of staff members to deal with the cutting and pattern finding and phone answering and till ringing-up, and for the most part I can trust that I get at least what I have requested, length wise, usually with at least an additional inch or so just to be on the safe side. When cut, they fold the fabric fairly neatly and efficiently, and stack it up as they go. They don’t bat an eyelid as you haul more and more bolts to their table, and are often genuinely curious as to what you’ll be creating. This would be a good customer experience.
With exclusively online shops, it’s not like you can pitch up and physically add the bolts for cutting, but for the most part I’ve had good customer service from these places, the only true exception being Fabric.com. That was awful – weeks late, half the order missing, and what was there was badly hacked about. Usually though, the fabric arrives nicely packaged, sometimes in layers of tissue paper as well as a plastic ziploc type bag to save the fabric in the event of the parcel being dropped in transit in a puddle. Often they include little scraps or samples of other fabrics that they stock, and usually a wee thank you note as well.
Here is an example of a lovely parcel I received a couple of years ago now from Dragonfly Fabrics in the UK (unfortunately since then I’ve tended to tear into my fabric parcels too quickly to record the beautiful packaging!)
These days quite a few of the online shops that I order from have gone to a bricks and mortar shop as well, but they still seem to retain that level of customer service that they had before they ‘made it big’, and have managed to pass on to their additional staff the ethics that they started with.
Why have I been pondering this so much? Well that’s because this is just a sample of one of 3 fabrics that arrived in a parcel this week from Remnant House in Harrogate (apologies for the phone pic, I wanted to get it refolded and put away, it was giving me a nervous twitch!):
That is 3m of Klona cotton that has been generally scrunched and chucked in the vague direction of the ‘envelope’. They never fold it neatly, they never pack it carefully to protect it from the elements, and it is always just shoved directly into a Parcelforce polythene bag (that has that lovely petrochemical smell to it). Now Parcelforce does require the bag for their transport purposes, but most other companies that use them put in some additional packaging inside, be it a box or a ziploc type bag.
Remnant House is a bricks and mortar shop that went online, rather than the other way round as far as I can gather. I have been buying Klona from them as they are the cheapest stockists of it, and I actually like the sizing on the fabric which leaves it effectively starched, saving me from having to do it! It’s also about 8″ wider than its Kona cousin. What I don’t like is that over the past few years their service has got worse and worse. This time is the last straw, as apart from the terrible ‘folding’, the fabric arrived ripped off the bolt rather than cut (although their cutting has always been fairly dire too), which of course strains the fabric near the rip, and leaves it stretched, ruffled and unusable for a good inch or two.
When a rather more generous friend of mine, who also received an appalling parcel from them this week, e-mailed them to complain, sending a photo of both her own and my parcel contents, the reply she received implied that quite frankly they had far too many orders to fulfil quickly to be bothered with the niceties of actually presenting things well. It quite pointedly did not contain anything along the lines of an apology, just a vague, thank you for bringing this to our attention, and that the sender would keep an eye on the folding. Please note that it generally arrives far more slowly than ordering from other shops too, so the ‘getting it out ASAP’ implication rather made my jaw drop!
So here’s my question for you. Have I been spoiled rotten by my nice local shop and my hard working online suppliers in the past, or should I actually expect to receive things in a usable manner? In the future I think I shall pay the £1.50/m extra that Klona is elsewhere, as obviously that pays for nicer staff with a better work ethic.
Yeah this is ridiculous. And the way they responded to the email…I'd certainly find another place to shop. I feel badly for all the ironing you'll have to do to get that to a usable state. 3m worth?! 🙁
I hope you email them the link to your blog post, I expect the best way to get folks to change is for them to understand that you will share your experiences with others.
And if you are "spoiled" so what…you are PAYING for the fabric it's not out of kindness that the retailers are "giving" to you because they like you. The small, local shops are the way to go if you can find exactly what you are looking for. Online shopping – good and bad, and we all have our horror stories.
Happy Weekend.
Very true! Maybe I need to work on my local shop's fabric buying :o)
Absolutely agree, I keep going back to the online stores who take a wee bit extra care, frumble fabrics is a favourite, VeryBerry too, lovely careful thoughtful packaging
I dont need the pretty packaging, but i do need good customer service, and no mean cuts! I havent ordered from remnant house for a while, the last batch of 3m lengths i bought arrived like yours, and even 3 washes at 90 hasnt softened them 🙁
I agree with you. I want my fabric to arrive looking like they cared when they were putting it in the package. I dont mind if it isn't in a lovely wrapping ( like yours above ) although when it is – I'm delighted. Having something beautifully presented is part of the experience. Most of the B and M stores I visit here wrap your things up in a lovely paper bag with a raffia handle. I feel very special when they do that.
I HATE it when my fabric is ripped rather than cut.
I guess the only thing we can do is vote with our dollars, pounds or euros and shop at places that give good customer service.
My nearest B&M shops aren't so fun to shop in. One is snooty and unwelcoming and the other is a big chainstore and the staff just seem disinterested. Online shopping is my savour, but I do pick shops that seem as though they care. It really doesnt take much longer to fold fabric properly. I always appreciate a couple of handwritten words on the invoice/packing slip, somethng as simple as "Enjoy you fabric" makes it so much more personal.
What a shocker! I wouldn't be giving them my money either.
I really do prefer to order online as I can't afford to pay for large tracts of fabric locally (so expensive in Australia). When I do go to a real store, I find the service a bit hit and miss, with cranky shop owners, which really puts me off. (although maybe they're cranky because we are all buying our fabric online.) I go to a store to have a nice experience and a smiling, helpful shop worker is part of that. Online, I love a pretty package but am not upset if it's just nicely folded in a zip loc (let's be honest, the fabric looks stunning on its own anyway). I really get annoyed if it's a mean cut – and I am super happy when there is a generous extra inch there. Postage is a biggie for me too – there are some places I want to shop at but their postage is expensive and I don't understand why – they all can use the same flat rate envelope, so why does it differ? I also don't like it when they won't stuff the envelope full for me. I've seen max capacity declared at 7 yds up to 10.5 yds. I understand they have to make sure the envelope arrives in a good condition and doesn't burst open, but that is a very big variance and the 10.5 yds is going to win my purchase.
I love shopping with Etsy fabric stores as they are usually just the sweetest, always ready to do whatever they can to make your order great and also very fast. The only trouble can be they often carry smaller amounts of stock (understandable) so it can be hard to find everything you need at one store (which I need to do to avoid paying 2 x $24 postage). So it's a juggling act between stock, service and price for me.
Speechless! And that's saying something! 😉 I get far better service from the online shops, than I do from three of our four local quilting shops. The fourth having outstanding service and encyclopedic knowledge of their stock. I actually frequently feel badly that my online orders are so gorgeously and carefully wrapped, with thoughtful extras, because i know that these folks are running the business out of their homes and that they all (that I buy from) have small children to feed otherwise expend upon! And that's why I frequent them, even though their price might be very slightly higher than the big online shops like fabric.com (who charge extra for shipping to Alaska!!! The Gall!!). And I cant stand and watch them cut fabric at JoAnn's (supersized store), because it irritates me so badly that they do not know how to cut fabric or how to change fractions to decimals….
oh yeah, and I have to ask especially for items to be packaged in waterproof bags, because the post office leaves the postal cargo out on the runway in Seattle, before sending it along here. I just don't.. ack, argghh, URRGHH!!!!
I think it pays to buy from your local stores. It helps keep them in business and you build up a frienship with the. They get to know the fabric you like and altogether a good experience.
Hugs Kay
I have never received an online order in the condition that your order above from Remnant House is in. I would not ever order from them again! Especially after the non-apologetic email your friend received. I do like the comment about sending them your blog link. I just checked out of interest in relation to that comment and you have 650 bloglovin followers. And that's just one feed reader. That's a lot of quilters you can reach. They should be sending you free fabric – in mint condition – and begging you to promote them! (Just my opinion. LOL!) I try to shop at my local shops (which for me are 20 and 40 minutes down the highway) but if they don't have what I want I do not hesitate to order it online. So far my online experience has been pretty good. 🙂
yikes. I order from a variety of online shops and have never received a package in such disarray, and no 'deal' is worth it.
We live kind of out in the boonies (who would have thought when we moved from south coastal Texas to west, coastal Florida, we'd be leaving all our shops behind???!!), so fabric shoppin adventures are a little more limited than previous…as a result, I've had to rely on online shops more than usual. My first choice has always been Fabric.com, so I was really surprised to hear of your experience; thankfully, all my experiences have been great so far. I am a seller of sewn and embroidered items on etsy myself, and I always wrap my products first in tissue paper, then insert that into a plastic zip-lock, for just the reasons you mentioned – I want my customers to be thrilled with what I create, regardless of any abuse or weather they may have gone through on their journey. I can only imagine how disappointed you must have been when you opened up your Klona squishy. I'd be spending my money elsewhere, for sure, from now on!
Oh gosh, that's dire! I do like it when online ships make it easy to reorder, put a sticker on the fabric or sonething as I often forget who I got stuff from, a pain if I want more!
I'd never heard of Remnant House until now. Guess I won't be buying anything from them in future! I've never had a problem with packaging or cutting and I buy all my fabric online
I've only ordered from RH once and didn't notice the state of the fabric when it arrived as I was completely distracted by the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde which emanated from the Klona; hanging it outside for a few days did nothing to help so in the end I washed two or three times. It's nice when fabric comes wrapped in tissue paper but it's also nice if you get a little handwritten note and no tissue paper – just something that makes you feel as though someone has taken care when processing your order, that you're not just 'yet another customer' and that your custom is valued. I don't think that's a lot to ask for…
Like many of us, I buy most of my fabric online and I don't think I ever had real bad experience. Fat Quarter Shop seems to mess up every time I order from them but always fixed it. I have been a regular customer at fabric.com for years and to this day, never had any problems. Beautiful packaging and writing notes are nice but definitely not a must, let's be honest bigger companies don't have time for that. The bottom line is, we are free to buy where we want to and Thank Goodness! There are a lot of stores to chose from. When shopping online, I always look for free shipping or low shipping cost first. When I need small amount of fabrics, shops that cut less than a half yard always win…(Thank Goodness for Etsy!)
Oh wow that wrapping from Dragonfly fabrics would make me feel like I was opening a present!!!
I think presentation matters and I do love going to my local shop and she is wonderful, but just doesn't have some of the really new/different stuff, which makes me shop online more!
I love getting fabrics from The Intrepid Thread as they always add in a charm square or two of fabrics and a note on your order form, which I think really makes it seem more personal and for them makes you order more fabric as you generally love one of the charm squares!
On a side note of customer services, I had to call myfabrics.co.uk about a size of dot query and the man on the phone though very helpful didn't seem to know the difference between mm and cm!! So was telling me the spots were 6cm instead of 6mm!! I have to say I've not come off the phone so baffled about polka dot sizes before!!
Sorry to hear of the horrible way that your fabric arrived tell you what I wouldn't be a happy camper either however I'm with KC I live in Australia and order regularly from fabric.com and can only say I have no complaints with their quick postal service and the way my fabric and notions arrive. Always happy with my purchases and their service.
I think it's appalling. I would not buy from them ever again. I second everything that Kirsty@Bonjour said. It is expensive for fabric here in Australia, and I would like to support my local bricks and mortar store, but quite often they have limited stock and also the service is often less than stellar. I generally buy online, but have been finding more and more, that some companies are far more generous with their postage than others,and are also far more accommodating and willing to do their best. It means I tend to go without rather than purchase from a store that I don't think will deliver the service that should be expected by any customer.
Woooow, that looks awful! heh, it looks like packages I used to get from fabric.com — before they started charging for shipping to Hawaii and I stopped ordering there. :P:P:P
What a crappy experience! But I wonder if shopping in the actual shop is just as bad as they might just generally have a bad attitude. My experience of UK based online-only retailers has been very good with parcels sent quickly and beautifully presented (M is for Make springs to mind plus Eternal Maker I think).
I've had an order that looked like that from fabric.com. I ordered maybe 10 yards of fabric all up (different ones in different quantities) and it looked like they had balled up the fabric and played "fabric toss" with it, and had thrown the balled up fabric into the box. I also ordered from Hawthorne threads once for me and once for my mum and both of our orders arrived looking like that too, which surprised me since I've always heard good things about them; so it made me wonder if they treat international orders differently to domestic. I've not ordered fabric from either since. Even though Fat Quarter Shop costs a little more, I do appreciate how they pack items and that I don't have to both ironing it all straight before putting the fabric away! Who wants to do excess ironing?! (also I've not found anything at either site that I want that I can't get at FQS, so FQS is always my choice anyway. I have looked at the other sites as they have different ranges but I’ve never seen enough to fill up a whole cart).
I actually want to play Devil's advocate because I used to work in online fulfilment and I find there's a lot that I "get" because I understand how the industry works which I've noticed is lost on complaints like this. I'm not saying it's not a valid complaint! I judge too! (paragraph above this!) but when certain things happen, I can understand why, and I know how hard it actually is. The note you received about "being too busy" I can sympathise with because I know what it's like, but I do think there's a better way of wording it; even then it could all come down to someone being way too tired and making snap judgements.
One of the biggest things people forget: there aren't always 100 workers actually fulfilling orders, for all you know it could just be one or two because that's all the business can actually afford (obviously talking more about smaller stores and not amazon type places, but it can happen there too), and there's more than just packing that counts into the time dealing with an order. Pink Castle Fabrics posted a behind the scenes look on their blog a number of weeks ago now I found myself nodding my head to because it was familiar reading through their steps, but you've also inspired me to write up something of my own. Online ordering is only fairly new in the scheme of things and I think people and businesses are still trying to work a lot out 🙂
My local shops are lovely, for the most part. Friendly, neat, generous (with an extra inch). With the exception of Joann's. I detest going there. I've actually had better cuts from Walmart, if you can believe it.
As for Fabric.com, I've had great experiences and not so great ones. The most recent was that they cut and sent the wrong fabric – don't know how you confuse green taffeta with an aqua Riley Blake home dec, but there it is. When I called, they fixed it right away and shipped it out. That was nice. The packaging isn't always pretty, but then I usually get things smooshed into Priority mail envelopes with more tape than I use at Christmas. That makes me a little nuts. Since I'm cutting through the tape to get to the fabric, I'm always fearful that I'll cut my beautiful fabric in the process.
Don't know if I answered your question, but those are my thoughts.