Condescending Customer Service and High Shipping Made Me Say Once is Enough!
Gualala Trading Company & Nursery Online Store
I hate when I get a gut feeling about a new to me online store but go through with the order anyway. I was not at all impressed with the way Gualala Trading Company & Nursery Online Store was set up, their lack of descriptions, and their super high shipping charges but I went through the order anyway.
Although I received four of the five things I ordered, I won't shop there again because I don't like their customer service and their shipping costs are through the roof.
What the Site Sells
This site sells a mish mash of products. I went there for Soap Rocks, soaps that look like genuine gemstones. They also sell candles, animal shaped heating pads, clocks, a full selection of Burt's Bees products, and garden items. As well, they sell a $3000.00 "floating bed". I really don't know why they have that inventory but I just wanted the soap and a Google search wasn't bringing up many results.
Navigation and Ordering
The site is poorly laid out. There are links on the site of the page to each category and there are small photos. However, there are very short descriptions at best. The soap I bought had no description at all — no scents, no ingredients, nothing. I had buy by looking at the small pictures and hoping for the best. They have out of stock items which are marked in red but the rest, in theory, is in stock for you to buy.
Add items to your cart. You will not see your shipping charges until the final steps of checking out. When you are finished shopping, you go to the checkout area to pay. You must create a user account and pick a password to get to the pay area. At last, you will see your shipping charges. Be prepared to gasp. For ONE six-ounce bar of soap, shipping is over $9.00 for the cheapest method. There are several higher priced shipping methods to choose from.
You can't change your order without navigating back to the shopping pages, changing or adding items, and doing the sign in thing all over again. That is a real hassle.
When you are ready to buy, you pay with a Visa, MasterCard, or Discover card. You can phone the order in but must leave a message and they will return the call to take your details which they say could delay the order while they try to get a hold of you.
Once you pay, you will get an automated email. You will get a shipping email eventually with a tracking number. Your order should arrive on the date stated on the shipping email.
My Experience
When I saw the shipping charge for one soap, I should have just left the site. I mean, I pay less to get large, heavy order from Canada than that. But, instead I backtracked and bought four more soaps. I figured, if I was going to pay THAT much shipping, I might as well get the soaps I wanted and hope for the best. They really looked beautiful (and they are). My shipping went up to $10.30. Yikes. But the soap was beautiful and I'm an impulse shopper.
The soaps themselves were only $7.99 each and around six ounces so we're not talking about a hefty package here. But I digress.
I got a confirmation letter and several days later, a shipping one. The shipping time was quite a while but there was nothing I could do but to wait for the products. A day or two after that, I received a notice that I was being refunded for one of the soaps because it was out of stock. They refunded me $8.55, meaning that soap brought my shipping down just 56 cents.
I was upset! I wrote a letter asking why they didn't contact me and tell me they were out of stock and ask if I wanted a different soap instead. It would have taken a moment for me to respond and say yes, of course I did. They responded that I should have left a note saying for them to call me if anything was out of stock. HOW could I have possibly known that they would be out of stock when they clearly said they were in stock? I don't order from stores and give alternatives or make pleas to call me if my order is incomplete. I assume my items are in stock and ready to go. They also responded that shipping was high but they don't set the prices. That is true but how do other retailers manage to ship small parcels for so much less?
The letter was cold and basically said it was my fault for not leaving a note and that it is what it is. Right. OK.
I got the package at last and it was a very small box with the four soaps and some Styrofoam peanuts. No invoice. No paperwork at all. The soaps are lovely. However, I will not go back to that site because I don't like the customer service and I don't like paying such very high shipping costs.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is based on area and weight and the default is UPS Ground. You can choose from a number of other, higher priced options. Beware. It's very pricey. One girl I know was going to buy some of the same soaps I did and ran when she saw the shipping cost.
I don't see anywhere on the site that there is a returns policy. With them selling a $3000.00 floating bed, one would think they would be crystal clear about returns. But I can't find a thing. I don't even have an invoice if I wanted to return something. No paperwork was included with my order. I would call customer service and make sure before ordering anything that you may want to return. I didn't because, well, it's soap. I didn't think I would need to return it and I don't.
Conclusion
Ugh! Some sites have friendly, responsive customer service and others don't. Gualala Trading Company & Nursery Online Store site doesn't. The letter I wrote was replied to line by line within my letter rather than in an actual letter form and warned me not to slander them. I would never slander — and have never slandered — anyone. I just was unhappy with not having the option to substitute another soap considering the high shipping charges. There is NOTHING that says that consumers should let the site know to call if they are out of stock of items. They also said it is the law to call me once if they are out of stock. I don't know what that means or if they called but I didn't get a message. First they said I should have left a note telling them to call me if they were out of stock then they said it is the law that they call me once if items are out of stock. Yikes. Who's on first?
The site is hard to navigate, doesn't give descriptions at all, and is high priced. It's limited in its offerings and shipping is insane. I understand that shipping costs are high. I shop all over the net. But how is it that I can get a huge, heavy package from a site for $8.95 but have to pay over $10.00 for a 1.5 pound parcel? I think the site should employ the post office for light items like mine. It would have been half the price to send.
The site did nothing wrong per se. I got the emails and I got my order. It took 12 days from start to finish which isn't THAT bad and the soaps I did get are gorgeous. (They don't make them. I have no idea where they come from. There is nothing on the plastic covering to tell me anything.)
It would have been nice to know one of my items was out of stock and that they were sending my parcel without it rather than to get a refund two days after shipment. I also was not at all impressed with customer service and how they related to me as a consumer. They said to me that I am getting my order and four out of five items isn't bad. Sheesh. It's bad if you want five out of five items.
Anyway, I may just be ticked because I paid so darn much shipping when I should have backed out. The shipping brought the soaps up to an incredibly high level per bar. Maybe I didn't like the way I was talked down to by the site. I think it is just the overall experience. The navigation, the inability to change contents without basically starting all over again, the lack of any descriptions, ingredients, or scents and the out of stock items as well as the high shipping. Then the somewhat condensing letter from the site. (And this wasn't a customer service rep. It was someone very high on the food chain there but I won't name names.)
In all, I won't go back to the site again. However, I did receive four out of five items as described in the timeframe they gave me. I have no issues with the products.
If you are going to shop on the site, call them and see what their return policy is if you are concerned with the possibly of needing to return an item because there is no stated policy that I can see. And then hope what you ordered is in stock. Leave a note telling them to call you if an item is out of stock. I learned that lesson too late.
In all, I just don't like the site's policies and methods and give it 2 stars. Mind you, the products are probably fine. Mine were. However, if you can get them elsewhere, I would recommend that you do.
Recommended:
No
