Oriental Trading Company

My business has been a customer of Oriental Trading Company for many years. Today it took me two hours to place a simple online order because the system wouldn't accept the code in the OTC magazine. Eventually a nice woman on the phone named Ashley helped (she was very hospitable and that's why I gave 2 stars instead of 1), but the incredible rudeness of a Chat "customer support" rep ruined all credibility OTC has with me and I will likely never make a purchase here again.

It took THREE chats before I had to make the call to try and get this resolved. No chats were able to do what took Ashley barely a minute to accomplish, but the real issue is the third chat person by the name of "Geneva."

I was already frustrated with the process and instead of sympathizing or apologizing for the wait and extra hoops I had to jump through, Geneva was rude, condescending, and made excuses about how they were busy and apparently that took priority over the hours I spent trying to get this done.

In the end I asked for the reference number of the chat twice and she refused to give it to me (knowing how rude she had been and probably not wanting to get in trouble).

My last communication to her in regard to asking for the chat number was: "Are you denying a customer access to their own chat reference number, Geneva?"

And she responded: "I am obligated to help you with this order. You have a great rest of your day - I tried to assist you -bye."

Then she hung up the chat. Worst customer service experience of all time.

If OTC is able to track a chat convo that was picked up at 2023-10-26T12:56:01-05:00 and trace it to Geneva, please ensure she is terminated as an employee.

Do you have any idea how upsetting it is to spend such a long time trying to accomplish such a simple task, have patience for three separate support requests, and then have someone treat you without any compassion whatsoever?

Customer service means that when a customer is already frustrated and has gone through multiple steps to achieve a goal, you don't make them feel worse and you don't make excuses. You apologize, get them what they ask for as fast as you are able, and you certainly don't hang up on the customer.

I have always been a fan of OTC, but in January, I made an online order, and was entered into a recurring charge of 15.94 per month as a result of not reading some sort of fine print. Apparently, they entered me into this fun zone as a part of placing an online order, and charged my card from January to Sept (2023). I called to inquire and they immediately reimbursed me, but for only 4 charges. So again, I'm fighting them to get the other 5 reversed. Buyer beware! Internet scams are everywhere. I would never have thought that OTC would have sunk so low, but they did, and now I'm inconvenienced trying to get my money back.

I ordered supplies for my daughter's birthday. I paid $32 dollars alone for the fastest shipping to make sure it got here in time not including the supplies. UPS physically went into my garage and put the carboard box it was in next to other broken down cardboard. They refused to give me at least a partial refund for the shipping I paid because they expected me to not just track it on their website (which I did) but also the UPS website.

Ordered Valentine's, order was short.
A month later 16 dollars came out of my account for a fun rewards program I never signed up for. Will not be using them again or recommending them to anyone.

Purchased the 10$ oversized soccar ball for my 5 year old son for Easter and after inflating it on the night before it was not only egg shaped, IT WAS DEFLATED 30 MINUTES LATER! Order arrived before date specified but I'm out of a replacement present as Easter is tmrw. No time for replacement present.

Have had to talk to customer service twice about being refunded the $16 the randomly charged me over 2 months after I had purchased one costume from them. They tried to say I signed up for a subscription but I know I didn't, and why the hell would I? I never planned on buying anything else from this site and I didn't get anything from them to warrant a subscription. Plus the charge came almost a full two months later, they didn't charge me for any "subscription" the previous month. I'd be very wary of this site. I got my costume but also paid a arm and a leg for shipping, $40. If you do purchase, I'd make sure any card you used was removed immediately after you purchase.

They also try to use "business days" as a way to act like 2-3 days is somehow longer than a normal day? They had told me 2-3 days for a refund, so when 3 days later (today) I still haven't received it, I called and was told now it's 3-5 business days. It hasn't been the weekend so I'm not sure why she even empathized business days twice. As of now I still haven't received a refund, so we'll see if that even happens.

Up until this month, I was a regular customer who was happy with my purchaes. The company did not charge me sales tax and delivered a letter in February saying I owed sales tax. They provided little information so that I am paying tax on exempt products in my state because they mixed taxable and non-taxable and provided false tax information to my state. I will now buy from Amazon who can probably handle state taxes.

Ordered 200 glow bracelets for event. Several of them broke, leaked filling or didn't bend. Have been satisfied with this prooduct in the past, but will not re-order for future events.

They send promotional emails with 20% off and free shipping over $49, but it's actually one or the other- and the shipping is so inflated that it doesn't actually matter which one you use, it's going to end up being the same price. Better off using Amazon Prime and get FREE shipping plus discounts! Plus I called customer service, and she was rude and not helpful at all.

Used to love their items and their fast shipping but can't believe their business practices. Just placed an order and was never told that part of the order was sold out until I got the confirmation email. I would not have ordered the other items if they would have told me that part of the order is not available. But the most unbelievable thing is that they charged me for the full order, even the item that's sold out. Now I have to spend additional time having them fix their mistake! What a scam to not inform people about the status of the order, I feel like the want to dupe you into placing the order even if they can't fulfill all of it!