Simplicity Lost

I don't generally rant.  More like seethe quietly and sulk when things don't go my way or I get let down.  But this, I thought, this has to do with sewing and it calls for a blog post.

Around the Fourth of July, Simplicity had a sale on their website.  They never put their patterns on sale (unlike McCall's who has a sale every other week it seems).  I like Simplicity patterns as much as the next person and ordered three of them for $3.99 each.  What a deal!  Here is what I ordered.

My youngest sister is getting married next summer in a casual backyard affair.  I thought this would be really cute.

Love this little jacket and the wide leg pants.  Thought this would be great for August when I am already back at school and sweating it out in non-air-conditioned schools.

Again, love the wide leg pants and they can be made in wool blends so it is perfect for fall into winter.  Those blue flared capris are also super cute!

My first red flag should have been the seven dollars in shipping.  It just seemed a bit outrageous for three patterns.  That brought my total to about $20 for the three patterns.  Suddenly not such a great deal but when you live hours from any pattern store, you can't be picky.  My order took more than a week to ship.  Maybe I am being prissy here but when you are running a mail-order business, you get those orders out.  I will have to say, whenever I have ordered from the McCall's company, I generally have them in my hands within a week.  I followed the tracking number like any eager girl would and my patterns were delivered on Friday.  To Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Notice my user name of Jen in Colorado.

I dutifully called the 800 number for simplicity and got a recording that stated to send an email.  I wasn't going to get to talk to anyone.  What happened to actual people answering phones?  I sent off my email explaining that my package had been delivered to the wrong address and that I wanted a refund (if it takes over a week to send it out the first time, I wasn't willing to wait around for them to try a second time).  I did get an email back very promptly stating that my refund had been issued, the tracking number attached to my order was wrong, it wasn't in Kentucky.  It was undeliverable.  And that it was basically my fault for not putting my PO Box in the shipping address.  Firstly, Simplicity was right about that.  I didn't put my PO Box in my shipping address.  That is one tough thing about not having home mail delivery.  You have to hunt for how the company ships and put in the corresponding address.  Simplicity's website said "ground" shipping which in my experience is synonymous with UPS and you use your physical address.  However, Simplicity did have my PO Box in my billing address.  They also had my email address and could have contacted me when my address turned up undeliverable by USPS.  Furthermore, they had my phone number and I certainly would have been happy to answer any calls regarding my address.  So I am sans patterns and sans my $7 in shipping costs.  That portion of my bill was not refunded.  And I am slightly bummed that my wardrobe this fall will not have any lovely wool blend wide leg pants.

I am not saying that I won't order from Simplicity again.  I really enjoy the printable patterns, being an instant gratification kind of girl.  I am just really disappointed that they could not spare a few moments to try to contact me to rectify the problem.  I will order from Simplicity again but I will think twice before submitting that purchase.