REVIEW MONDAY!

Well I must say I am un-prepared for review Monday. But I will do my write up now, and then if I am not super lazy after I get home, I'll add photos! I may have a cell phone pictures on my Photo bucket.

Today we will be looking at A Little Crafty. It is a custom embroidery store. I am not sure if they have a B & M, due to I purchased through their (her) E Commerce site. I do know that the "Store" is located in Greece, New York. Right outside of Rochester.

Just so you know, this is not going to be a favorable review of the store. In fact I will most likely be bashing the whole time. Or at least very negative.

On with it!

Here is my mock-up

Here is a cell phone shot of my jacket.

Not bad. A computer did it.

The quick answer, they plug your JPG's into their software and the compute figures is out and does it. They can change things like thread color and they set the size, but it in the "hands" of the computer to do the real work.

Now I made my images. I took the picture of my actual scooter
and found rockers online and used them as a template. I found a Keystone and made the SC patch as well. For the Rockers, I am sure it is just a pre-set template. Type in the words and it embroiders them.

The Back Patch, if I had not done all the work then Sherri would have had to do some graphic design. In my case, she did none.

Moving forward....again. I get side tracked a lot.

Pricing:
A Little Crafty was by far the cheapest and most place around. It was also the only place that would make a run of ONE. Every one else was 4 minimum for Back Patches and 2 ea. for Rockers.
My total cost was $150 with shipping (it was like $153, but I don't remember exactly). Every where else was $75-$200 just for the Back Patch, and I would have had to buy 4. Sherri, at A Little Crafty, gives discounts on 5 or more, but will do runs on one.

Customer service:
I found the store through eBay. I cannot find the eBay account now. I guess I never saved it, just watched it for a while. She (Sherri) had one or two negative feedback's, so I was skeptical. But over all she had positive feedback. All of the negative was about her not communicating with people. So I emailed her, and wouldn't you know, within the hour she got back to me. so a few more pleasant emails went about that day. Very prompt responses. Now I was feeling good about moving forward.

As I moved forward I sent out some JPG for my Quote. The next day I got an email with said quote in it. I thought it was reasonable. So to move forward I gave her my credit card information and was suppose to have the "Final Renderings" in a week for approval. These being, she plugged them into her program and said white thread on black background, DONE! Well a week came and went and nothing. So I figure, maybe the shop is busy. So I let a few more days’ laps, nothing. So I email. Not so prompt with a reply, a day or two goes by, nothing. So I email some more. Nothing. I call the store, nothing. I leave messages, no returns. I try the "online chat" feature on the web site, NOTHING! Now Sherri has $150 of my money and I am getting avoided. Oh did I mention that the online chat said "available" but as soon as I sent a message with my name in it is immediately became "Unavailable." Hmmmm fishy.

I did some digging. I went to the Better Business Bureau, and I was going to see what action I could take through them as well as file a claim with my CC company. Turns out there were there other complaints filed against them. So I call again, nothing. Click here to read their BBB report.

Finally I threaten to get my CC company involved and the BBB. Wouldn’t you know! I got an email back! I’ll be damned! No phone calls though. Now I get some responses. The excuse, “I sent them (the renders) a week ago.” “Oh I have problems with Gmail. So I give her my work email, nothing, I CREATE NEW EMAIL! Now I know this is not hard and takes almost no time, but I had to do it. Another week goes by and nothing. No emails, no images, just nothing. Again I call and call.

Finally I demand a full refund by 1 p.m. that day or I am filing a complaint with the BBB and my CC company. Then again I get a response. I get accuse of threatening her. I return the email stating these are not threats but the actions I, as a consumer, can take against a business who fails to provide me with the services I have paid for. Wouldn’t you know that at 2:30 in the morning I get an email with two images.

I approve the images and two weeks later I get my patches. I give A Little Crafty an F- on Customer service.

The patches were supposed to come in a week of approval.

Time table:

It was suppose to be 2-2.5 weeks. One week from me sending my artwork in to JPG renders. One week from approval to printed and 3 days or less delivery. It took 5 weeks when all was said and done. Not timely at all. I give A Little Crafty an F – on turnaround time.

Quality:

The quality is pretty good. Just as good as all the other Back Patches and Rockers I have seen.

Final Product:

It is OK. Not worth the little over $150 I paid. Certainly not worth all the haste I had to go through to get the patch. Oh did I mention, she was going to give me a refund- $50 for labor! What labor!? She just never did the work. Plain and simple, she never “Got around” to making my patch. And she gave me the run around.

Closing:

Do not shop/buy from A Little Crafty. Sherri will rip you off and or take double the time to finish your work.

I don't know why my fonts are different. I kept getting an error when I tried to change them. Oh well.

That is all, carry on.