The Crafty Shop 

Good experience on my recent order. One of the items arrived damaged but this was dealt with swiftly.

If I could leave a zero star rating I would .
After successfully ordering products last year I went back to re order in March . What a mistake that was !
After almost 6 months and 5 unanswered messages I am still waiting for a refund or replacement products for the original ones which were never delivered

Lots of lovely pieces and the handmade items are great.

Absolutely appalling, I do not recommend.

Have had to battle with the shop to get refunds on items they never had in stock to sell in the first place but I was being charged for through clear pay, which was followed by repeated requests for a refunds on orders which never arrived.
The tracking for my order was “2 Parcels” which obviously wasn’t a genuine tracking number and unsurprisingly did not elicit any delivery info on the Royal Mail Website although the tracking link went to their page.
What I received in my solo parcel added up to £31.10 of items and yet I was still expected to pay over £100?
I had to nudge the seller ‘Zoe’ repeatedly through Clearpay to respond as she repeatedly ignored all communication (both direct emails to her & via the website’s contact page) unless it came through a 3rd party - ie Clearpay and I issued a final statement that I’d be taking the complaint to Trading Standards.

The items, few in number though they were, which did arrive were absolutely lovely and if it wasn’t such a farcical experience then I would have been a regular customer as I really do love that style of gifting, but I do not understand the poor customer service and unprofessional practices of The Crafty Shop. It doesn’t make any sense, especially when the gift wrap etc isn’t even cheap - the price implies a quality merchant but they have been a nightmare to deal with if I’m honest.

I purchased through Clear Pay, thought the website was ok and the reviews on the site were complimentary about very pretty cards, ribbons and wrapping etc, but I should have put the name into here and checked for more balanced reviews and experiences. Definitely something to practice before purchasing in the future!

If you can get what you ordered to be delivered at all, let alone have it arrive on time then I would say take the risk as the products are lovely, but if I hadn’t ordered through Clearpay who had the ability to ‘nudge’ Zoe on my behalf then I have no doubt that I’d still be here trying to get my money back weeks later with zero response from the seller.

My suggestion to “Zoe” would be to please get some professional advice or support in running a business and always give valid information regarding tracking etc, don’t lie to customers and don’t have contact email addresses which bounce back or ignore your own contact page. Be honest and communicative and people would be more understanding, but behaving in any other way looks at worst unprofessional and at best - just really dodgy.

Such a shame because I love the sorts of things being sold on there, but it’s taken so much energy and effort to claw back a refund, I don’t think The Crafty Shop is worth the stress.

I am sharing my experience with The Crafty Shop and Zoe who runs it as after speaking to others in a cross stitch group on Facebook they experienced the same level of customer service.

I ordered a few things from the website mind April and then made a second order a couple of days later. I attempted to make contact through the website, by the email given in order confirmation and received nothing. I needed to check whether it was in stock. I tried this for about a week and half and nothing whatsoever until a random refund for one of the orders. There was no reply to my messages or an explanation for the refund.

I then found the shop on Etsy and attempted to make contact there, nothing again. In order to force contact, I made a small order from the Etsy order as if nothing else I could leave feedback there. Nothing. Messaged on Etsy again and got some excuse the website and emails were playing up but it would be looked into. Ok I thought getting somewhere. I then had a dispatch notification from Etsy and thought both orders had been combined.

Couple days later it arrived and was just the Etsy order, messaged Zoe on Etsy about it, got nothing. Waited a few days and sent another message. Got a reply basically blaming Royal Mail and that she will speak to them but refund me in the meantime. Hmm the only way you can check with Royal Mail was if it was sent tracked and I was not given a tracking number. I waited day no refund appeared so chased again with a comment that I would raise a complaint and dispute through paypal else as I knew the items had not been dispatched.

I completely understand shops are under pressure due to the current situation and always take this into account. However in Zoe's/The Crafty Shop case the complete disregard for customers, lack of communication and constantly ignoring messages is quite simply poor customer service. I think someone needs to go on a training course as communication is key to working in retail. I would have been happy to wait as long as I knew what was going on. As it was I was already waiting for three weeks...