Adeliese B.

I love this chocolate. For years I thought I couldn't eat chocolate because it gave me migraines. Organic chocolate free of fake vanilla and soy lecithin does not, and of all that's available, I like Theo's best.

Orders are shipped in the time frame promised, and with cool packs. I've ordered direct from site and through the Theo amazon store, which is the same thing as it comes from Seattle but sometimes has better prices.

Highly recommend them!

I first found a bar of Commonwealth's Patchouli Vanilla at a discount store. To my surprise, it smelled unlike patchouli or vanilla but like a very refined, expensive French-milled soap would. I tried it and it became a fave. I like it even more than Roger&Gallet soaps.

Since then I have tried other items and fragrances, but the bar soap is my favorite. It lasts a long time and the formula is non-drying and great for more sensitive skin.

They're a smaller company so they do offer fewer fragrances than giant corporations but the ones they have are well formulated and fresh, likely to appeal to many.

I've found them to be a good business that cares about what they make and provides outstanding customer care.

I've never been inside a Kohl's store. No reason why, just never have. But I did order several 1928 Jewelry Co. And Symbols of Faith gifts last year because Kohl's pricing was really unbeatable. I didn't have any difficulties at all.

Everything was shipped on time and packaged well and the gift boxes pristine. No tangled chains or items looking like something had been used and returned.

After this, I ordered some warm winter nightwear for an elderly relative, and once again, no difficulties at all.

Many of the bad reviews here relate to in-store returns and credit card issues. I can't speak to anything except placing orders at the dot com and my experience was ideal. Hope yours will be if you use it.

I've had many good experiences with FedEx in years past, especially with art supply deliveries, and several delivery drivers have been outstandingly friendly and helpful, but this last year has been a nightmare! What's going on?

It seems malicious and intentional to leave packages in the rain when there is an unobstructed porch six feet away, and this has happened several times.

The last straw was when they threw a heavy box of soap and personal care products from Commonwealth Soap Company off the truck at the road and bent the post of the mailbox. I saw this occur as I was doing lawn work at the time. There's no way to put a good spin on this. Even when you are right there to see it, and with doorbell cameras as well, they do things like this!

FedEx was of no help at all and Commonwealth Soap Company rep said they forwarded the info to their shipping dept. but they still use them as the default carrier.

I no longer order from companies that use FedEx exclusively without another shipping option because recent experiences have been uniformly bad.

It is utterly impossible to find AA and AAA shoes locally. Maryland Square offers these and other hard to find sizes. Shipping can be high, though there are promos, and returns easy. Ordering from them for years with no difficulties. There will always be fewer styles of shoes in special sizes, but as a rule Maryland Square offers a good selection of casual and work classics.

I've been fortunate not to have many issues with amazon and I've been a customer since they were mostly a bookseller.

When there have been issues, they have been resolved. For example, ordering a food item with a bad expiration date, or a package destroyed by a carrier.

When you get something that's damaged or defective, online returns have been effortless and they usually offer UPS pickup for these situations.

Prime has been a little dodgy. The two day shipping is not really a thing. However, many items are shipped far faster than they would be from many retailers. The annual Prime fee is worth it to me because I use amazon weekly.

Unfortunately the search results are full of third party fly-by-night resellers and trashy fast fashion and other sus products. Usually I only order items sold by amazon, not third parties, though a few third parties are trustworthy, such as Theo Chocolate and Neilsen-Massey. These are well established businesses not resellers going by weird made up word names.

Overall, I trust amazon and rely on them constantly for items not available locally.

I've had very good luck on ordering computers, dehumidifiers, and small durable goods from walmart.com. No complaints about anything. I chose walmart.com for these because they had the most competitive pricing at the time on name brand items.

However, I ordered a large Safavieh area rug one time which was clearly used and damaged along an edge, so I don't order any kind of home decor from the website.

The most frustrating experiences have been in ordering food, which I attempted twice.

Once I waited ages for them to ship a food item, a difficult to find condiment. When I ordered, it said the item was in stock and would arrive in two days. Turns out it was not in stock at all and was backordered. I cancelled the item without dificulty but wasted time waiting when I could have ordered elsewhere.

The worst food experience, and the last, was with organic mayonnaise. Having checked my local Walmart Neighborhood Market and two Walmarts, all the Hellman's Organic Mayonnaise was about a week from expiring.

I ordered it online, thinking it would be shipped from a warehouse and the mayonnaise would have a better sell-by date. I chose shipped, not local pick up or local delivery. This is important.

Imagine my surprise when I got a text saying a jar of mayonnaise had been delivered, and a photo of it.

It was the same nearly expired mayonnaise I had seen at the store!

I tried to cancel the remainder but only a partial cancellation was possible because two other jars of nearly expired mayonnaise were out for delivery!

All were nearly expired and left in the hot sun. Hot mayonnaise with no preservatives? Yeah, threw it in the trash not wanting a $2K emergency room visit for food poisoning.

I called customer service and while the rep was nice enough, he was apparently untrained. I was told these could be returned/refunded but this was not true. Half an hour wasted on nonsense. Out $15 for the trashed mayonnaise.

It was like a farce, refusing food at the market only to have it show up on your doorstep. Never again. I had no idea at the time that this was how they worked food deliveries.

Occasionally I've ordered some cotton t-shirts, and these were fine.

Because the negatives outweigh the positives, I'm not planning to use walmart.com in future.

I've never had a difficulty with any orders since 2014 when I started ordering my fragrances and skincare online. If you need to call in, reps are polite and efficient. Complimentary wrapping services are a plus. The only thing I'd change is of the manufacturer would bring back the old version of Azuree with the oakmoss.

I was a QVC customer for 20 years before closing my account so this review is based on extensive experience.

Today's fashion presentations are virtually unwatchable thanks to hosts such as Shawn Killinger breaking the cringe meter daily with embarrassing behavior, poor grooming, and lack of preparedness in sales presentations.

The clothing is overpriced and the fabrics are mostly environmentally catastrophic synthetics. Styles tend toward the matronly and out of date.

In the last few years, I received used items, such as clothing that had been worn and had body odor on it.

Quality of items is very low indeed. A Halston sweater pilled all over the first time it was worn and a Barefoot Dreams robe fell apart in the wash.

Likewise, jewelry is a joke. The last order I placed was for a pair of broken chrome diopside earrings. They arrived with dried blood and serum crust on the posts! Maybe they could bother to check for this filth before sending them out again?

When I posted about this on the community forums, I was banned from reading or posting by a draconian mod whose existence seems to be focused upon the immediate removal of any critical content.

Recent customer service via phone is the worst I've ever experienced. This was most definitely not the case even five years ago. It has declined inexorably. I understand it is outsourced to freelancers now. Possibly there's no training or supervision now.

Also, because I continued to be sent items that were worn, contaminated, or broken, and I dared return them, I got a letter saying I had made too many returns and might be banned from ordering if I continued to do so.

This is a well known QVC tactic: blame the customer for returning what they should never have sent out in the first place.

No problem, QVC. I closed my account.

I've ordered several items from ShopHQ and the experiences have been disappointing. I was a fan of Victoria Wieck and Dallas Prince from when they used to offer karat gold and nice grades of gemstones. Now their quality —- all that's available is featherweight sterling silver for mountings —- has hit rock bottom.

ShopHQ base shipping is outrageously high, though occasionally there's a promo if you can catch it.

If you do not pay still more for express shipping, you will have no tracking and an infinite wait. I learned this the hard way when my first order was lost and took six weeks to arrive after shipping.

Calling customer service was unhelpful and I was told I'd have to wait a minimum of 30 days after shipping for them to help me with a refund or replacement. Eventually the order arrived and the quality of the item, a Wieck pendant, was very low.

I decided to try a Dallas Prince ring for a milestone birthday gift. Paid for express shipping. When it arrived the stone quality was inferior and the design substandard.

There were reports of warehouse issues at this time, with customers reporting ShopHQ said they'd returned an empty box, etc. It seems very risky to attempt returns.

Following this, ShopHQ, which has never had a very clear branding of what they're about, seemed to become the all-Dr Dubrow channel with unneeded medical offerings capitalizing on the fear of the pandemic. Now they're the all-Invicta watch channel. Someone needs to get this company to focus!

Whatever happens, I'm unlikely to return for more as the qualit has been disappointing and the value low. Admittedly I've only ordered from the jewelry category. Maybe other departments are less problematic.

Even using specific search terms, results will be full of ads and items irrelevant to you. It used to be easy to find what I searched for.

Every other seller appears to be a "jewelry artist" these days, and then there are the resellers who drop ship manufactured goods but call them handmade. Overpriced items of inferior quality abound.

Many "handmade" sellers provide items made of mass market brass and bead components thrown together with glue and cheap wire or chain. They may look good in enhanced photos but in person, not so much.

To name but one disappointment, I gifted two jewelry items made by Pamela Diegert of Pamelia Designs. (Receipt provided to Sitejabber). They were very poorly constructed causing me great embarrassment in having given them as gifts. Diegert refuses to accept returns, which says a lot.

On the other hand, I've had some truly excellent experiences, such as ordering rings from Birka Scandinavian. The vendor, Marie handcrafts minimalist high quality sterling silver crown set jewelry.

It would be wonderful if Etsy had fewer "crafts made at summer camp" junk sellers and more trained jewelry designers.

The vintage category has been largely disappointing. Sellers frequently misrepresent items and do not pack them with much care, particularly porcelain pieces. One exception has been April's Luxuries, a top class vendor. But for every one like her, there have been twenty bad ones.

In fine, there are some five star shops but there are a hundred times more that sell trash. If you don't know a shop by name that carries what you want, you won't find it easily and are at risk from deceptive sellers.

Additional: There are many sellers who "can't take the L" when they get a negative review for selling substandard, badly made, or misrepresented items.

IMPORTANT: If you leave a less than stellar review, it will be aggregated instantly on an extension called EtsyCheck.

You may also be called a Karen and screenshots of convos may be posted on the Etsy subreddit.

You may be discussed in the Etsy community forums where dishonest sellers go to whine.

This did not happen to me but I have seen all of these things as they are readily visible online. Be aware of this if you leave a review.

Sellers so fragile they have a breakdown over a review have no place in any business of any kind.

March 24,2024 experience update.

It keeps getting worse at Etsy.

I ordered 12 digital download files from a shop with over 5K sales. The thumbnails and preview images were perfect. The images in the zip files were trashy AI.

Etsy is full of these shops which do not in any way disclose they are AI because Etsy allows it.

This shop was ForeverCuteUS.

See the fingers that look like sea anemones and the chopped off fingers on the images of the Virgin Mary. Sacrilegious and vile, not to mention unusable for prayer journals.

Below are just four of the monstrosities featuring weirdly uncanny faces, boneless hands, strangely green skin tones, excessive feverish coloring, and grainy textures,

Some shops use enhancements with great skill. For example PixieDustFiles and NostalgieGrafikland. Sadly, if you're not familiar with a legit design shop, you may get AI horrors.

Etsy will not reply to customers and ForeverCuteUS did not reply to my messages nor to three one-star reviews. This is what Etsy is now. Be aware of it.