Tango J.
Declining customer service, uncompetitive pricing, slowwww shipping.
I've been an Artbeads customer for over a decade. Today's a sad day for my once high regard for this store. My latest package has gone into the ether after some system glitch going to an old address from 3+ years ago despite going thru the usual paypal checkout process which populates the billing and shipping address in the order. Since I desperately need the supplies for an upcoming show, I've been trying to get in touch about the missing package with no reply from them beyond the initial (and incorrect) one. Three phone calls and three emails over 4 weekday after the supposed delivery date has me disappointed and scrambling for replacements with Etsy vendors. In recent years before the pandemic they went to a 3rd party shipping vendor in Salt Lake for the supposed "free shipping" that often takes as long as free shipments from India or China to my midwest city. Their prices also really went up 15-30% before the pandemic at the same time as a pricey new website they launched at the beginning of the pandemic. They moved warehouse off site and this increased the length of time to fulfill an order before it even got to the 3rd party shipper who would transfer it to USPS...eventually. Maybe Artbeads has grown too big, has too much overhead and has lost focus on customer service in its attempts to expand. Its rewards program changes are too confusing to keep up with, and the weird website quirks have lost search functionality to find specific items. Its more suited to just browsing, than searching. I will have to seek other vendors for JBB findings and a few other niche items they carry. A sad end for a once cool family business.