Blick Art Materials, LLCReviews of dickblick.com

I ordered an eGift card on April 9th as a birthday surprise for a dear friend, with the Blick website promising to send it within one day. After a couple of days I checked with my fiend -- no card. I emailed Customer Service and the Orders department, and was assured it would be resent. A few more days, more emails, another assurance. Ten days later, my friend still does not have the card. I've had excellent experiences shopping in Blick stores, but I wish I'd just Googled before trying to buy a gift card from there. Currently, I'm waiting for them to email it to me. If it's not here in a timely manner, I'll file a PayPal dispute and a BBB complaint.

I'll preface this review by saying that I am loyal by nature, but even my loyalty has limits. Such is the case with Blick Art Supply, a company I've been a steady customer of since 1982. That long-term business relationship was terminated last summer. A growing trend of corporate greed, incompetence and discourtesy is what put the boot in for good. Based upon what I've observed and experienced, the executive management at Blick Art Supply thinks that loyalty is a one-way street. Allow me to disabuse them of that particular illusion. I've been a professional commercial artist for 34 years. It is very deadline oriented and so I place a premium on reliability. I can't deliver to my clients if I can't get the materials I need on time and in good order. This has been the first blow in my relations with Blick Art Supply. Damaged items became the norm since they were often shipped in over-sized boxes with a bare minimum of packing materials or none whatsoever - all of which was done to save on Blick's overhead. Recently an order was even cancelled without my knowledge or consent to "streamline" Blick's shipping so they could "focus" on shipping out the pricier, big-ticket items. Another irritant was the rude, lazy, poorly-trained customer service associates who would fumble through the process of taking my phone orders and would attempt to charge me much higher prices than what were listed on their website. Accordingly, a telephone order could take anywhere from a half hour to multiple calls to get anything done. And that's just the phone orders. The times I've visited Blick's downtown Portland, Oregon store were a debacle. I had to spend several minutes tracking down an associate to help me and when I finally did find one I was met with irritation, passive-aggressive resistance to doing his job and a near total ignorance of the stock. (One associate smirked at me like I was crazy when I requested a package of X-Acto blades and a #4 sized Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush. He claimed he'd never heard of such exotic items and that they most likely didn't exist - not that he would know because he couldn't be bothered to check.) And then there's the greed. Up until very recently, Blick's policy was free shipping on all orders over $35.00. As of a few weeks ago that policy has been increased to nearly double at $69.00. In summary, I am paying far too much for increasingly less and less. Cutting ties with Blick Art Supply and bringing my business to where it is appreciated makes far better sense. For instance, Jackson's Art Supply in London, England not only offers my favorite brand of oil paint (Schmincke Mussini) at approximately 10 - 15% less than Blick, the customer service is excellent, AND I receive my items more promptly too! (How is it that items shipped from Blick's Galesburg, Illinois warehouse to my studio in Oregon takes TWICE as long as something from Jackson's in London, England?)

I ordered an E-gift card online. After waiting for 45 minutes and not having received it, I followed up with customer service, who voided the first transaction. We ordered another one over the phone. I waited for another 45 minutes, not having received it, only to find out that the representative had misspelled the email address. The department that handles these matters had left for the day.

They ship via the slowest possible method, despite charging for shipping. Their shipping page makes it look like they ship via FedEx Home. Nope, SmartPost which is absolutely the worst method. The likelihood of a package being lost or delayed for weeks is very high. Don’t order any that you actually need from here.

Shipping takes forever, my original order arrived after 4 weeks. And then it had defective Liquin Light Gel. Liquin Light Gel was so chunky I could not take it out of bottle.I thought it will become liquid after keeping it indoor and waited for quite some time but it did not change texture. I called customer service in Jan 2021 they said they will send replacement and I should throw away the defective material. I threw out the bottle as I was promised new bottle to arrive within 2 weeks and when it did not arrive even after 4 weeks I called them and they said now you will get it in April 2021 or later. First no one called to inform me that it will be delayed delivery and second I cant paint until April 2021. And I am not sure if I should wait for it or not. But it surely is depressing to wait to oil paint for so long.

Shipping is horrible!!! I ordered on Feb 22. picked up on Feb 23. Went from New Berlin, Wisconsin to Southhaven, Mississippi then to Indianapolis, Indiana, back to Southhaven, Mississippi. don't know where it is now. FedEX sent message saying it was scheduled for delivery on Feb 26, then new message for scheduled delivery on Feb 27. now it says no date for scheduled delivery. When I called Dick Blick they said to give it 10 business days then call them (Dick Blick) back if I didn't get it. I live in Arkansas so from Southhaven MS it should have come here. It's five paint brushes. could have been sent us mail and gotten here in 2 to 3 days. When I talked to Dick Blick customer service they said I could pay an extra 3.00 and get quicker service. I ordered enough brushes so I could get free shipping! NOT HAPPY!!

HORRIBLE return policy. I ordered 22 sets of tempera paints for my children at school and then it turned out a parent had already bought them. I was thrilled to not have to pay the $130 some dollars out of pocket, as covid has made teaching art very expensive. I went to return the two boxes of paint today and they charged me almost $50 for shipping. This means I am basically paying for the paint I just sent back to them. Blicks is not worth it, this return policy is inhumane.

I placed my online order shortly after the holidays, so a couple of items were back-ordered, but everything else arrived about a week later. One item was missing from my order and when I emailed Customer Service about it they responded promptly. Not only did a real person respond (a rarity these days), but she was also friendly and informative. Overall, great customer service! :)