Blick Art Materials, LLCReviews of dickblick.com

I have been ordering supplies from Blick for some time with no problems except slow shipping. Until this last week when a collection letter was received at my business address, not my mailing address. Turns out the payment never went through, and I see there are others this has happened to. Blick is trying to say these orders are declined but mine IS NOT. It still shows pending on Paypal. Now they want me to figure out how to take care of this and are treating me like I scammed them. HERE'S A THOUGHT, DON'T SHIP TILL YOU RECEIVE PAYMENT LIKE EVERY OTHER BUSINESS ON THE PLANET. I've had many, many transactions that have gone through fine that day and since. Now they will not accept Paypal from me, which I never agreed to pay another way. No one will answer my emails, and I keep playing phone tag on the telephone. And they still act like this is my fault? Blick, my card/Paypal didn't decline it, it's a problem on YOUR end so how about a sorry for your mistake and figure out how to make it right and convenient for me? Like I want to spend my afternoon fixing your mistake? Last order from me because I'm not risking dealing with this mess again.

I wanted to cancel an order 5 hours from when I submitted an order and was told the order had already processed (on a Saturday). Give me a break. I have had this happen even when I immediately asked to cancel an item. Blick you suck. I won't buy anymore from you.

Mask mandate lifted, however masks still required and limited capacity. I took my business elsewhere. I choose Michael's now.

The shipping is incredibly slow! I ordered a similar package from Jackson’s in the UK and it made it to me in Nashville, TN faster and for less money than Blick coming from Illinois. It’s just laughable.

The second worst customer service that I have ever encountered. Avoid at all costs.

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.