Monday, 7 May 2012

Buyer's remorse - online


*Reader beware: ranting ahead!”

Have you ever had buyer’s remorse when shopping online? I have.
I was searching for some beautiful yellow wool with which to knit a cardigan for Miss J. Yellow is her favourite colour, and has been for about 2 years now - a surprising consistency from a little person! And I found the perfect wool and colour online – ‘Butter’ in Tosh DK by Madelinetosh. But no one seemed to have it in stock.
My search continued for a few days, and then, one night, tired and just a little bit grumpy, I settled for another yarn and placed my order. I also added in an order for Miss E’s next cardi at the same time. May as well save on postage, right? Done! Yay!! All sorted.
Except.....
I realised, three hours later, that I had ordered yarn with the wrong ply. Argh!!
So I dutifully contacted customer service. “Sorry”, was their reply.  “I am afraid that your order has already been packed and scanned ready for sending out” - which means that I had to wait until the order arrives here and then send it back again, even if it is coming from the other side of the world....and using all those air miles....and adding to the greenhouse gases.
Wouldn’t it have been much easier and less costly to just pull the parcel before it left the warehouse? Oh, of course.  Silly me. They make their money on the handling fee, not to mention the possibility that I might just think it was all too hard and not bother to send it all back.
But I will, along with a pleasantly toned letter expressing how unimpressed I am.
And then...... the very next day after placing the doomed order, I discovered one of my favourite blogs/online shops, Purl Soho, has the Madelinetosh I wanted, both colours for both projects. Oh, hooray!!
And guess what arrived today??



Lovely, lovely! Is it as gorgeous and soft and colourful as I expected? It most certainly is! So, no prizes for guessing what I will be casting on tonight!

And the moral of this story? Don't impulse buy online, Samantha! It won't work out. It never does.

Lesson learnt - I hope!

Sam xx

2 comments:

  1. It's the Quantities that buying online have been a downfall for me...I always feel I have to justify the freight (esp. from overseas!)

    I think I need to look out my crochet hooks after reading your wonderful post - the weather is another trigger that inspires woolly related activities!

    Off to look at more of your lovely blog,

    Cheers,

    Cindy

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  2. I am glad you eventually got what you wanted, I have some MT in winter wheat on my wishlist, just not sure what ply I want.

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