I placed a very simple order of two items on Dec 15 in hopes of making jewelry for my mother for Christmas. My economy shipping times were quoted as "2-8 business days." Yet, 13 days later (three days after Christmas), and, alas, still no package.

The terrible free shipping at Artbeads might have something to do with their asinine shipping method, which is to wait two whole days to fill the order (which is exactly what they did with mine), then ship it through UPS, and THEN have UPS forward it to the local post office in the customer's area, who quotes an additional 3-7 days for delivery. Funny, they mentioned NOTHING about this on their checkout or shipping page, because what customer in their right mind would be okay with this?

Right, so let's do some math. It takes Artbeads 2 days to fill an order, UPS another 5+ days to get it to the post office, and then the post office up to 7 days to ship. 2 + 5 + 7 = up to 14 days... if you're LUCKY. Am I missing something here?

Okay, so let's be fair and take off 4 days to account for 2 weekends and/or holiday shipping delays. 14 - 4 = 10 days. Hmmm, still more than 8 days, unless I've gone insane in the last 10 minutes? Although, after being subjected to their customer service, I feel like I might have. Which you can read all about below.

When I contacted online customer service about this, I was cursed with a rep named "Michelle", whose chat responses were so apathetic and boilerplate that at one point I stopped to ask if I was, indeed, chatting with a live human being and not a robot. Apparently, I was. Silly me for expecting a customer service representative to, you know, provide customer service.

In a futile attempt to offer a solution, I suggested that they cancel my order and overnight me a new shipment, to make up for their error. Well, Michelle was having none of that, and she told me that I'd have to wait until DEC 30th before they could begin to look into sending out a replacement. Oh, and that I should wait a little longer, as my order "might" arrive next week. Might.

Even better, after I explained in very plain and clear language how long my shipping had taken so far, she sent me a link to their shipping page, which she probably intended to prove some kind of point. And guess what? THE SHIPPING PAGE ALSO SHOWS 2-8 BUSINESS DAYS.

I... I... just... can't with this place.

Moral? If you want a simple two-item, $12 order to arrive in a timely fashion, be prepared to shop someplace else.

Artbeads used to be so reputable, but now their service is simply awful, perhaps because of a new manager or owner? (Whomever it is, they should quit or be fired. Immediately.) Whatever the case, it doesn't matter, as I will never shop here again.

This is the first time I ever ordered from ArtBeads.com
I placed an order at ArtBeads.com. During a recent major sale event. It took almost 10 days to get my delivery. Tracking system is hard to figure out, unless you have online shopping experience & know the long azz tracking number is with United States Postal Service, you may get frustrated when you get no email follow up after the shipment is made & find no info to navigate where to look on their website for tracking info. After 5 business days went by waiting for an email update to track the package I finally put the number in to Google search & was redirected to USPS, that's how I tracked the package. When the package arrived all items where in the box.

Ripped off! Really ripped off! Just days after I got my package, I got a call from a fraud protection service I use. There were two "suspicious charges" made using my bank credit card, and some other attempts to use it. 2 transactions went through my bank account, 1st one was stopped (declined) at the site where my bank info was used. However, the 2nd one was used to made a gift card purchase at a major dept. store's website. My bank info was used (in a different state I don't live in) through the dept. store's website, the frauder(s) had created an email address with my personal name, home address & phone number. The frauder(s) used the same email website I have "my email address" at. (I had changed my business email address a month before I made the purchase at ArtBeads.com, so it had very limited use. No purchasing emails until I used ArtBeads.com.) The frauder(s) had the gift card sent to their fake-$#*!-fraudulent created email address, so they could use the email gift card or sell it. So yeah & for real, this all happened within 10 days after using the ArtBeads.com website.

Some employee(s) working at ArtBeads.com are internet personal ID & banking crime committers. Never again will I buy from there. I make jewelry and sell it as a part time job. My items are sold through art galleries & small trendy stores. I would have been a very steady customer, ordering a couple of hundred dollars of supplies every few months, because they do have unique findings for jewelry making. But screw that now. I have other jewelry supply websites I've ordered from for 10+ years. Never I had any issues with identity theft & hacking my bank account until I used ArtBeads.com. The dept. store is tracking down the fake email address, IP address of computer that was used to make the the email with my personal info because the email gift card was sent to it. I told the fraud prevention this crime happened after I placed on order with ArtBeads.com. I hope nobody else gets ripped off in the manner I did. If they do report it to the police, fraud prevention, file a complaint with the bank so they can report the activity on a bank account that's been hacked, file a complaint with the better business bureau. Most of all never order from ArtBeads.com ever!

I will never order from Artbeads again! Horrible! Every time I order it takes 10 to 14 days to receive my package and I am only 3 states away, all because of the way they ship. Little shipping envelopes should ONLY go by USPS 1st class mail and NOT UPS. It's stupid business practice with the way they ship. The owner has no clue how to run a business. No other bead websites ship like this. This is the stupid way on how they ship... Artbeads has UPS who they call 3rd party to pick up their packages then UPS drops off the packages at USPS which takes 4-5 days for UPS to drop them off and then it sits at USPS for another 3-4 days until USPS around to two scan it as received and then it starts to track, USPS says they will not ship the bin of UPS packages until they have enough to go out so they just sit there in the mailing room for a few days until they have enough packages piling up to make it worth what ever the client is paying them (at that point UPS pays USPS) then it takes another 3-4 days before it's delivered. How crazy is that and what a stupid way to ship! So UPS needs upto 7 days then USPS needs upto 5-7 days to deliver. This is all because Artbeads owners (husband and wife) is too LAZY to drop off the little envelopes at USPS directly. They rather inconvenience their customers and make them wait 2 weeks then inconvenience themselves, that's TERRIBLE!. I called UPS about this type of service they offer (drops off at USPS) and was investigating on the price difference and UPS is always more expensive then USPS first class mail even if they drop off at USPS its still more expensive... so don't let them tell you it's a cheaper way to ship. That's is a big LIE! So it's all about Artbeads convenience and NOT customer service. They don't care about their customer service, they only care about their convenience and making money. The owner needs education in retail business practices and customer service.

As for all the complaints on many websites... why doesnt Artbeads owners do something about it so they dont go out of business and lose customers? Well I guess they just dont care :( I dont shop at websites who dont care about their customers service. Never again.