Once Is Enough

Over the years, I've bought a lot of fabric on line. During my taupe phase, I bought and bought and bought from pinwheels.com and was always pleased with speedy, friendly service. Then there was equilter and they, too, were speedy and friendly. I'm getting antsy looking up the links at the moment, but trust me when I tell you that Pink Chalk Fabrics is a lovely place and Fabric Worm has the very best hand-picked bundles, and Glorious Color puts all of them to shame with speed of delivery (and don't get me started on their scrap bags -- be still, my heart!). No complaints about the on-line fabric giant -- Hancock's of Paducah -- either.

Someone had told me not to mess with Fabric.com, that this was a giant company whose goal was to put all the others out of business. I had enough places to spend my money, and never really thought about shopping there until December 5.

On that day I needed a particular fabric. None of my regular vendors had what I wanted in the quantity I needed. Google led me to Fabric.com and I placed an order. What I needed fell just a little short of the total needed to get free shipping, so I added a little something more. Each day I was filled with anticipation as mail time came. But mail time was all that came and went. No parcel from Fabric.com  Yesterday morning, December 13, I received an email telling me that my fabric would be shipped on December 15, ten days after I placed the order. We'll see when it ultimately arrives. I'm glad it wasn't something I needed to finish a Christmas gift.

And it's back to the little guys, the independent fabric vendors for me.




Comments

LizA. said…
BTDT -- have you tried using quiltshops.com for fabric searches? I've usually had very good luck finding obscure stuff I'm looking for thru that search.
Pat said…
That's insane. I have purchased from them, and they are slower to ship than many other vendors, buy not THAT slow. Good grief!!
cynthia said…
Fabric.com was bought by amazon, and they seem to be having lots of problems--slow shipping and inaccurate online inventory. I keep hearing about people getting contacted days after placing an order that the available yardage is shorter. I agree completely about the independent vendors--I order a lot from Hawthorne Threads, and most of the time they ship the same day I order. I loved Pink Chalk, too, but sadly they have liquidated their store.
Quiltdivajulie said…
Hawthorne Threads is good, so is Delta Patchwork, and e-quilter (most of the time -they can be slow during their sales). I also like Canton Village Quiltworks.

SO sorry Fabric.com let you down!
stitchinpenny said…
I too have had this sort of luck from them. The order arrived, but if I didn't want it for over 2 weeks, I wouldn't order it for 10 days and now would buy from anyone else. I just had the same problem with an ETSY shop. The owner didn't ship for nearly 2 weeks and then somehow managed for the shipping to take 2 weeks from OH. She also will not get another order. I suspect that she didn't have the fabric in stock even though she said she did.
floribunda said…
apparently Amazon bought Fabric.com back in 2008. While googling around about this, I also discovered that amazon owns audible.com! pretty soon they'll own everything...
Nancy, I saw recently that Pink Chalk Studio closed & I sent Kathy a note telling her I would miss her shop & got the sweetest note back.
Janet O. said…
Obviously I don't get out enough (on the computer). I hadn't heard of most any of these shops. Thanks for the warning!
Judi said…
Goodness, even in the UK I would consider this poor service!

One of my favourite online places to shop is the Fat Quarter Shop. They are based in Texas, have a huge inventory, and really go out of their way to help.

I have been brave enough to ask them to choose co-ordinating fabrics for me (you know how hard that is on a PC monitor) and they have done a great job!
Anonymous said…
I shop at Fabric.com all the time and have never had any problem with them sending my order in a timely fashion. I usually get it in just a few days after I order it. They always give you more than what you order and if there is less than a yard left after they do your order you get that bit. I have no complaints with them.
The moral of the story is, don't shop online from a large fabric store in the month before Christmas if you're under a time crunch. Not only do I have an order from fabric.com that took two weeks to ship, but that was a replacement order for something I'd purchased at Hancocks of Paducah that also was slow in shipping and ended up going out of stock. I've had no problems with either company in the past and will order from both again.
Gloria said…
I too live in the UK and have ordered from various on-line stores for delivery to US friends when I am staying with them. Imo the best for speed of delivery is webfabrics.net. Glorious Colour is another good'un.

For UK deliveries, webfabrics understand the UK HMRC system very well....
Anne Simonot said…
Until USPS rates went up I regularly bought from Thousands of Bolts. Discounted, name-brand quilt fabrics, and always very quickly shipped. I recommend them.