Hannah B.

I wish I had looked up reviews of this company before I decided to buy from them. I had the same problem that a lot of the other 1-star reviewers reported - I ordered 2 items from flaxlinens: a fitted sheet and a duvet cover set. The fitted sheet arrived a couple weeks later, and I was surprised to find that it had shipped from China, since I thought these were made in Belgium. Turns out, the flax is grown in Belgium (supposedly), but all the linens are actually sewn in China. The bag it came in reeked strongly of outgassing plastic, and the stench had permeated the sheet to the point where I had to launder it twice in hot water to get the smell out. The quality of the product, once cleaned, was fine, but my faith in the organic claim is shaken by the discovery that it was made in China.

But the real saga began when the second package (the more expensive duvet cover set) failed to arrive by the date stated in the tracking page. In fact, to this day the tracking page, which is just a page on the website where you enter the order number (no actual tracking number from a third party shipper) STILL says it's on its way and due to arrive by Feb 13 (it's now March 3rd). When I first realized the tracking page wasn't updating, I tried emailing the company, but got no response. I then tried calling every day for a week, and each time I was given the run-around. Every customer service agent I spoke to did the following:
1) look up the "tracking information" using the same page I did, and confirmed that they saw the same out of date message that I did, and
2) promised to leave a message for one of their "specialists" or "someone in shipping", who would call me back (needless to say, I've never gotten a call back to this day).

After leaving at least 4 "messages" for the "specialists", including a couple which were marked "urgent," and receiving no calls back for days, and after I'd found this site and read all the negative reviews from people who had had this same experience and in some cases never got their products, I finally told a rep that I wanted to cancel my order and get a refund. I was told that they didn't have the power to do that, but that she would leave a message for a specialist who could do a return for me and they would call me back! I asked to speak to her supervisor, and the supervisor told me the exact same thing.

I pointed out to the supervisor that as "customer service reps" they seemed unable to do any of the things that one would expect from a customer service rep, namely, tracking down a lost package, issuing refunds, offering any information that I couldn't already access on my own, or solving any customer issues of any kind. All they seemed able to do was to leave messages for actual customer service reps who never actually called back. I said that selling a product and charging me for it, and then never delivering it, and being unable to account for the missing item, to tell me where it is or even access someone who could, or to issue a refund for something that is clearly their mistake, is essentially fraud, and that if she couldn't get me my money back or put me in touch with someone who could, I was going to talk to my bank about reversing the charges on account of a merchant dispute. The supervisor said that she would include all this in her message to the specialist who would call me back.

It would be hilarious, if I wasn't out $200 waiting for this sheet set that I'll probably never get, and which may not even be what it claimed to be on the website. These are some sketchy business practices. Yes, there is a real product that sometimes gets made and delivered, and maybe it even is what they claims it is. But the complete lack of accountability along the supply chain, the outsourced customer service line (one rep answered the phone "Flax Line-ins" - clearly not an employee of the actual company) that is clearly designed to keep people in limbo when they have a problem instead of actually trying to solve their problems, the total opacity of the way the company is run, and the apparent disregard for preserving their reputation by writing off anyone who has a bad experience with them, all suggests that this company is engaged in some underhanded business practices. I have already submitted the request to my bank to reverse the charges but I don't know if they are actually capable of taking back the money FlaxLinens already took from me. Sure, I'll probably get a refund from Mastercard, but FlaxLinens still got away with ripping off another customer, which frustrates me to no end. Don't be a sucker like me - avoid this company at all costs!