A shift in shipping policy at Craft Supplies USA

[David Tackett]

Well, you can probably place some blame with the carriers. It seems shipping prices keep increasing and are getting very expensive.

[Roy Turbett]

Its not the one dissatisfied customer they should consider. Its the twelve people the customer is going to tell about their bad experience. Always remember the cardinal rule of business "the customer is always right".

[Nathan Clark]

I'm a local customer of CSUSA, I must say they have the best customer service of any company I have ever dealt with EVER. Among the benefits I have received. Replacing a part I lost through their lifetime guarantee, Gave me a set of replacement pen tubes for free after they noticed they forgot to ring me up for that item, price matching, encouraging me to buy a lathe from the classifieds rather wait for theirs to go on sale. I expected none of these benefits except the advertised price match, and don't expect this treatment every time I go in. Their prices are excellent and they have done such a good job with CS that I'd feel guilty buying anywhere else. with There ad says they can end the offer at any time. I think that is fair, they piloted a shipping program, and it didn't work. Would you rather they had not attempted to see if could work?
As far as the pen kits are concerned, I'm OK if they added 7 PSI kits to their existing lineup heaven forbid you have more choices. If you don't like them, don't buy them. It's amazing sometimes what people can find to complain about if there looking for a bad experience.

... I'm trying to find something less than appealing to say to them to have a balanced opinion, but honestly the worse thing I can come up with ends up being a positive, one of their advertised new products went out of stock after a month or so. A thread reducer adapter (they let me know that PSI had it in stock at only $1 more!)

To look down on CSUSA for cancelling a promotion they had every right to cancel is ridiculous. I ain't gonna to lie, I'd be disappointed, but I wouldn't hold it against them.

[Duane Meadows]

Its not the one dissatisfied customer they should consider. Its the twelve people the customer is going to tell about their bad experience. Always remember the cardinal rule of business "the customer is always right".

Reminds me of a sign I saw years ago. It read something like this...

If we give you double your money back, replace the item for free, and have the manager shot. Would you be happy?

Unfortunately, with too many customers, the answer is no! Some folks you are just better off not having as customers. Even more true it seems, when it comes to shipping charges. I truly believe it's best to mark up the price, advertise free shipping, and just avoid the issue completely. Still won't please everyone, and some will still go elsewhere because that $1995 item is $0.50 cheaper somewhere else. Then complain about the CS!

Shipping charges may end up being the Achilles heel of the online industry!

[john snowdon]

Raising shipping costs is due to the price increases being charged by their vendors. Even Amazon is looking at raising the cost of their Prime service.

On the other hand, lowering the quality of the inventory they are stocking is the fault of management and is not smart business. We all have ordered from them based on quality products and excellent CS, however, even great CS and free shipping will not keep customers when the product quality drops.

[Dan Hintz]

Reminds me of a sign I saw years ago. It read something like this...

If we give you double your money back, replace the item for free, and have the manager shot. Would you be happy?

Unfortunately, with too many customers, the answer is no! Some folks you are just better off not having as customers.

The very first thing we were taught in small business class was "Sometimes you have to fire a customer." I'm happy to deal with 98-99% of the customers who have come my way... but life is entirely too short to deal with that remaining 1-2%,so I send them along their merry way (to my competition ).

[Stan Smith]

Raising shipping costs is due to the price increases being charged by their vendors. Even Amazon is looking at raising the cost of their Prime service.

On the other hand, lowering the quality of the inventory they are stocking is the fault of management and is not smart business. We all have ordered from them based on quality products and excellent CS, however, even great CS and free shipping will not keep customers when the product quality drops.

I'm pretty sure that Amazon will raise the cost of Prime. It has saved us hundreds of $$ in shipping costs. Even if they double what we are now paying, it will still be a bargain for us. We don't use the prime movie feature hardly at all, but we do watch some of the old tv series which is great without commercials. We still pay shipping for items that Amazon doesn't sell since there's no other choice if you want that particular item.

[Dan Hintz]

I was always happen to wait for their Free Shipping option... I simply don't need my stuff NOW. Then they jumped up to a $35 minimum order, and the free shipping became more difficult to attain. SWMBO broke down and bought Prime... and since you can attach others to your account, I've been using it a lot. It has changed my shopping habits, which is what they are hoping for. But if they raise the price on Prime, I may find myself in the same situation I was in earlier... it may have the opposite effect, forcing me to shop less.

[Josh Bowman]

You know since this has flowed over to an Amazon thread, how is it that they can make free shipping for $35 and the one thing I really want is not enough and the think I pick to close the gap to $35 is just short of that. So I have to dig up another item to get free shipping. Very cleaver marketing and pricing!

[Joseph M Lary]

I had an order that was a flat rate of 7.00 shipping . I had to go to to post office and pay a postage due to get my order . wasn't very happy about it .
Over the years I have been doing business with them I have had NO problems . They are a great company they have things I use a lot , I hope they get things turned around .

[Rob Price]

I had an order that was a flat rate of 7.00 shipping . I had to go to to post office and pay a postage due to get my order . wasn't very happy about it . Over the years I have been doing business with them I have had NO problems . They are a great company they have things I use a lot , I hope they get things turned around .

That's just not cool. There's too much online competition for that kind of behavior.

I'm in the camp that says you should honor what you've advertised. Sure- things can change. But good customer service is keeping your customers happy and keeping them as customers. You can fire the unreasonable folks, but asking them to honor a print ad is not unreasonable.

[Prashun Patel]

I have a problem with threads like this.

What is the point of posting something you already feel strongly one way about? Take your well-crafted argument to the Supplier and give them a fair chance to respond.

It would be highly informative and valuable to go through the resolution process with the supplier and then report your results so we'd know what to expect if we should order from them. But these kinds of posts in the middle of the trial just engender all kinds of flames from people who don't have complete information.

And another thing... to anyone who has never had their own business and had to deal with the issue of how to pass on shipping costs to their customers (I have), try doing it before you have an opinion. Many customers have a myopic view of commerce. It's one thing for a business to abide by 'the customer is always right'; it's dangerous when the customer starts abusing that privilege. I highly doubt that the company took their decision to charge flat rate shipping lightly. If they got the formula wrong, I just believe it was innocently - but not blithely - done. Help them help you by writing to them, not by starting a thread that will cause others to flame.

[John Altberg]

Well said, Prashun. As a business owner, it pains me, too, to see threads like this. Things change and as consumers we must adapt. Even with this change, CS still seems to have very favorable shipping costs when compared to other vendors.

[David Weaver]

Regardless of how many customers they helped in person, whose lost stuff they brought back, I'd be in the same position as the OP. If you want to cut your shipping discounts, you should have the business sense to do it after your ads have run out, wait a month or two and then change it.

That's all part of the deal that gets you in the door (or on the order, or on the phone, etc). It's not a princple of the amount of money, it's a slap in the face, especially when they don't have the sense to say "yeah, that changed, but we'll give it to you for this order".

And to send out packages with postage due? I'd look around as a customer, even if what happened to the OP was the only thing that happened to me - I'd probably not have completed the order, just a principles issue that really irks me.

[glenn bradley]

This would not be the first outfit to try a promotional campaign only to find out that there was something detrimental about it and change methods. I agree that anyone willing to contact them and ask "what's up?" should be given the promotional fare as a matter of proper customer service. The $6.95 they may have lost on Don's order could never repair the tangle of discussion the action caused. This doesn't make them bad guys, it just means someone on this particular phone call made a sub-optimal decision for a business trying to survive in our current climate.