WTF?
What the hell kind of store has a great relationship with a customer for years, to the point where that customer moves across the country and still continues to do business with them even though it would be easier and cheaper to order direct from the manufacturers online... and then just stops returning the customer's phone calls?
I absolutely loved the needlework store we found in Ontario when we lived in Guelph. I recommended it to everyone I knew who was into that sort of thing. I bought all my supplies there, even though it would have been faster and easier to go to Michael's for floss. The woman who runs it has a deal with some of her customers, that if we let her hang our finished stitching in the store as a display for a year, she'll give us any frame we want for free. Jess and I had at least five different pieces on display in her store before we moved and took them with us. Since then I've sent her four more, and she sent me pictures of them in the frames and entered them in her yearly stitching contest. She mentioned several times in our emails that she appreciated me doing business through her.
Then I placed an order in June, received half of it along with a little note that she was waiting for the rest to come in from her suppliers and it would be sent within a week... and then nothing. I emailed repeatedly. When I didn't get a reply I thought maybe they were going to her spam folder - that had happened once in the past - so I called. And called, and called, and left messages, and gave her my cell phone number, and called some more.
JUNE. I've called at least once a month since then and left messages pleading with her to call me, usually more often than that. Yesterday I called and *gasp* someone answered the phone, but it wasn't her it was the clerk who works for her part time. The clerk said she was out of the store but would be back today, took down a message, and said she'd call me for sure.
Nothing. So I started calling once every two minutes or so, hoping she'd finally pick up just to get the phone to stop ringing. It's been half an hour, and still nothing. The store closes in seven minutes.
WHY? What could I possibly have done to be ignored this way? What the hell kind of shop owner - especially in a specialized and very much word of mouth industry like needlework - would suddenly dump an incredibly loyal customer?
I just want my stitching back. At this point I don't even care about the rest of the order. Hell, I don't even care about three of the four finished pieces she's got. I just want my dragon back. Teresa Wentzler's Celestial Dragon - the hardest pattern I've EVER done, and it took Jess and I combined three YEARS to finish it. The other ones I can all stitch again if I REALLY want to have them... but not that one. There's no way I'd put myself through that a second time. I want it BACK.
Even if it somehow impossibly turns out to have been one massive misunderstanding - and I can't imagine how it COULD be, not at this point - I'm never ordering from her again. I'm certainly never sending her any of my stitching again.
Why would she DO this? It just doesn't make any sense. And it hurts... I thought we had a really good relationship with her.
...okay, it's five o'clock, the store is closed. I left one last message saying that if I don't hear from her in the next two days I'm going to the Better Business Bureau... though gods know what if anything they can do. Hopefully she'll call, but I'm not holding my breath.
To all stitchers on my flist, avoid the Needle Gnome in Acton, Ontario like the plague. Jen, Steph, anyone else I've ever recommended her to, I take it back. This is ridiculous, and if she'll treat me this way there's nothing stopping her from doing the same to you - except you guys are close enough to drive there and confront her about it, and I'm not.
So much for customer loyalty. I'm ordering online from the suppliers from now on.
I absolutely loved the needlework store we found in Ontario when we lived in Guelph. I recommended it to everyone I knew who was into that sort of thing. I bought all my supplies there, even though it would have been faster and easier to go to Michael's for floss. The woman who runs it has a deal with some of her customers, that if we let her hang our finished stitching in the store as a display for a year, she'll give us any frame we want for free. Jess and I had at least five different pieces on display in her store before we moved and took them with us. Since then I've sent her four more, and she sent me pictures of them in the frames and entered them in her yearly stitching contest. She mentioned several times in our emails that she appreciated me doing business through her.
Then I placed an order in June, received half of it along with a little note that she was waiting for the rest to come in from her suppliers and it would be sent within a week... and then nothing. I emailed repeatedly. When I didn't get a reply I thought maybe they were going to her spam folder - that had happened once in the past - so I called. And called, and called, and left messages, and gave her my cell phone number, and called some more.
JUNE. I've called at least once a month since then and left messages pleading with her to call me, usually more often than that. Yesterday I called and *gasp* someone answered the phone, but it wasn't her it was the clerk who works for her part time. The clerk said she was out of the store but would be back today, took down a message, and said she'd call me for sure.
Nothing. So I started calling once every two minutes or so, hoping she'd finally pick up just to get the phone to stop ringing. It's been half an hour, and still nothing. The store closes in seven minutes.
WHY? What could I possibly have done to be ignored this way? What the hell kind of shop owner - especially in a specialized and very much word of mouth industry like needlework - would suddenly dump an incredibly loyal customer?
I just want my stitching back. At this point I don't even care about the rest of the order. Hell, I don't even care about three of the four finished pieces she's got. I just want my dragon back. Teresa Wentzler's Celestial Dragon - the hardest pattern I've EVER done, and it took Jess and I combined three YEARS to finish it. The other ones I can all stitch again if I REALLY want to have them... but not that one. There's no way I'd put myself through that a second time. I want it BACK.
Even if it somehow impossibly turns out to have been one massive misunderstanding - and I can't imagine how it COULD be, not at this point - I'm never ordering from her again. I'm certainly never sending her any of my stitching again.
Why would she DO this? It just doesn't make any sense. And it hurts... I thought we had a really good relationship with her.
...okay, it's five o'clock, the store is closed. I left one last message saying that if I don't hear from her in the next two days I'm going to the Better Business Bureau... though gods know what if anything they can do. Hopefully she'll call, but I'm not holding my breath.
To all stitchers on my flist, avoid the Needle Gnome in Acton, Ontario like the plague. Jen, Steph, anyone else I've ever recommended her to, I take it back. This is ridiculous, and if she'll treat me this way there's nothing stopping her from doing the same to you - except you guys are close enough to drive there and confront her about it, and I'm not.
So much for customer loyalty. I'm ordering online from the suppliers from now on.