I recieved my order today, of lace blocking kit and some yummy yarn. The yarn was fortunately undamaged, but the lace blocking kit was.
I am unsure what to do really. If you have never seen the lace blocking kit, it comes in a LOOOOOONG thin tube, because the wires and the yard stick are so long. When I got it there was a huge break in the tube about 1/4 from one end. When I opened it, I took out the yardstick to find it was broken in two about 1/4 from one end.
The wires are all in good shape and nothing is missing, but I am a little annoyed. I don’t have a safe place to keep the wires now because the tube is broken. I don’t have much use for the yardstick anyways as I have a plethora of measuring devices… but I am still annoyed that it was broken to begin with.
I probably won’t bug knit picks with it, because the stuff I did need is intact and perfect, and it isn’t their fault the post office sucks. If the wires had slipped out and gotten lost, or were damaged then I think I’d be on the phone yelling at someone 20 min ago. Just needed to vent.
I just placed a very similar order today, the blocking wires and some lace weight yarn. I hope they don’t break mine. Once my mom sent me a large envelope, I can’t remember if it was a book or pictures. She wrote, “Please do not bend” on it, and they literally folded it in half and crammed it in my mailbox. I could hardly get it out. I HATE my mail lady.
Stuff happens. It’s certainly not KP’s fault and may or may not be your mailman’s fault.
Even if you don’t need the tool I’d contact KP because they need to know. If they get enough complaints about things like this they may change they way the ship certain items.
I just recieved my KP’s order. Books & some KP Risata sock yarn. It was in fine shape. I have had to call and have replacements sent out before. They are very nice about it too.
I agree, definately give them a call. All the girls I’ve talked to there are so nice and helpful, and like everyone else said, they would want to know if a particular service that they use to ship is breaking their things.
well, I had already called earlier as I was not aware that the blocking wires shipped separately, (It is noted below the description on the website, but I didn’t read that… just clicked “add to cart” :doh:) and I was wondering where they were. The chick I got was really rude actually. I wasn’t mad, or yelling, maybe the person before he was? :shrug: I was put off though, considering I had always heard how awesome and nice they are.
About 3 hours after my yarn arrived the post man arrived with the wires. I was happy, because she said that they could be a few days behind. I was anxious to start blocking!
I will probably email their customer service to let them know the shape it arrived in. I don’t want a replacement, the item is expensive, and it more than likely wasn’t even their fault. Plus I really have no need for the yard stick and I can get another tube from the hardware store for cheap. But you are right, they should know how things are arriving. I am just grateful nothing fell out, and it wasn’t the yarn that was damaged.
SBG - That sucks SO much about your package. Did you call the post office to complain at all? That is awful! What if it had been wedding pictures, or a priceless painting!? Even still that isn’t cool at all.
My husband just got a package last week through FedEx. It was a Black and Decker wooden work bench and circular saw. The box was damaged and there was a gouge out of one of the wooden slats that makes up the surface of the work table. He just figures on using some wood putty and sanding it smooth.
It does seem that as we order more online that shippers are not as careful handling packages.
That really sucks that they damage the wood, but I am glad your husband is crafty enough to fix the issue himself. Sometimes that is just so much easier than trying to replace the item…
I sent an email to knitpicks letting them know of the damage, but also telling them I was not interested in a replacement item, and just wanted them to be aware of the damage.
I have been impressed with KP customer service in the past - they replaced some cables I had (needle cables) where the metal join bits came off.
However, I think they are currently really busy (?) because of the book sale (??) and I recently had a phone call which was a little less great… I prefer to email companies like that, but I sent them an email and got an automated response - “We’re weeks behind in reading our email so really you should just call us.”
SOOO, I got on the phone. This was to change my address for an order. Oops, I didn’t realize until I placed it that they had my old address. How can I not have ordered from KP in the last 4 months? Anyway, since it all auto-fills in, I missed it. Maybe that was a dumb mistake, but I know the package hadn’t shipped yet! The person I talked to [I]scolded me [/I]and told me to be more careful in the future. WTF?
Ya that was kind of the situation when I called about the lace wires. It was a mistake, but even going back to the website, I didn’t find the note about them shipping seperately to be very noticable. It was under the description which I had already read MONTHS ago and knew it was something I wanted. I would have figured a notation about shipment would be made next to the “add to cart” button and even on the invoice… Unless it’s literally plastered everwhere in big letters, impossible to miss, please don’t scold me. I made a mistake, I called and inquired (nicely) and got the info I needed.
I know customer service is NOT fun (been there done that) and I payed for it dearly, as I spent a good 15 min working up to the call (I have anxiety related to calling people)… being scolded didn’t help. lol, but I just tried to let it go and keep trying to remember how crappy it is to field complaints all day.
I didn’t get an auto-email from my email about the broken package. I did get a very nice reply from a Kate Perry, who thanked me for informing them, and said she would do something with the warehouse/shipping to try and ensure proper care is being taken with the shipments, and if I wanted any replacements to please call the toll free number etc, etc.
Hi - I’ve just got to share this with all of you. Today I went to a welding supply shop and bought a tube of stainless steel “tig rods” for just under $16. The tube holds about 25-30 1/16" rods which is more than enough for blocking my largest afghan. They came in a nice, heavy plastic tube with a loop at the top for hanging!
Also, I stopped at Lowe’s and spent another $16.88 for a big package of those snap-together floor mat tiles (the ones for kids with letters of the alphabet) that will make a perfect base for stretching the afghans on the rods and then pinning them down right into the mat tiles.
For under $32 I’m set to block almost anything. So maybe go hang out at your local welding supply shop, too! :happydance:
That’s a great idea. That one could be posted under the tips & tricks too because it could save all of us time & money. I love this site because we get to share some fantastic ideas.
Not to worry, Linda - I posted this on Knit tips & tricks, too! I was so thrilled with it that I want EVERYBODY to know about it! I first heard about it from a woman in New Zealand while I was browsing knit topics on the net, and so checked it out:happydance: I was appalled at the high cost/small amount of product in the kits they’re marketing.
Oh, and the welding supply shop also has spools of flexible stainless steel wire. But they’re very big (I’m not sure how many hundreds of feet long!) and cost about $25. BUT, if several knitters went together on a spool, the cost would be very reasonable and they’d have enough wire to block all kinds of things that need a flexible wire to shape.
I’ve been looking for this article for awhile now and I tripped over it while organizing my bookmarks. It’s about blocking with string/waste yarn, particularly lace pieces.
why wouldn’t you want a replacement?? i do realize that it might not have been KP’s fault, but as a customer, you deserve to get what you paid for.
as a business, one of their responsibilities is to make sure their product is correctly and safely packaged and recieved by the customer in the same condition.
