Basically I have short but sad story to tell. Last August I ordered a subscription to Interweave Magazine. As I am based in the UK, it didn't occur to me that I could do it directly with Interweave. I now know that I can, and have done so here (in case you are interested). At the time though, I sought a place I could subscribe and ended up using the Woolly Workshop. I had heard good things about this website and decided to use them for my subscription. This was a mistake, that was further compounded by using a debit card to pay. The payment system was Sagepay. Sagepay take no responsibility if you do not receive the goods you paid for. Using a debit card means there is no insurance when you don't receive the goods you pay for. Do you see what is coming.....?
Yup, I didn't receive my goods. Along with a large number of customers,, I was most upset to have my emails and PMs on Ravelry ignored when I tried to communicate my displeasure. Then I found a thread on Ravelry about it and we all started talking about it to each other. There were a lot of other people who had done the same thing I did. It was revealed to us that the nice lady who owned Woolly Workshop had major life difficulties and she was trying to sort out all the backlog and please could we be patient. We were.... for a long time..still nothing.
Then we received news that the owner thought she had resolved all the outstanding issues. When we tried to contact her to tell her - "er, no, you haven't" we were ignored - again. At this point, I and lots of other people just had to accept that unless we wanted to go to the small claims court, we weren't going to get our money back. This disappointed, angered and saddened me. This is the first time I have been stung in this way on the internet and I've been buying things online for many years now. I thought I was being kind and patient and I have been ignored and taken for a fool.
Then sweeping in like a saviour angel has come Natalie at The Yarn Yard. This very kind and generous individual offered to send all the people in the thread, who had no reply, some yarn. It was very nice yarn too. She was offering to add us to her Yarn Club list for the month of April. I don't think I was alone in feeling a tug of the old heart strings. The Yarn Yard has no ties to Woolly Workshop, and the two owners don't even know each other. To decide to try and recompense a group of strangers in this generous way restores my faith in human nature.
Natalie said that she wanted us to know that not all internet purchases are a bad idea, and not all internet traders will take you for a ride. I already knew that, but having such a generous gift really rammed it home for me. I think there were around 40 people in that thread that she sent yarn to. Her yarn club normally costs £15.99 per month and I have to say now I have the yarn I would be tempted to give it a go (if I had any money). As I don't have any money, I decided to tell people about this kind gesture. Call it free advertising. Just look at this beautiful yarn!
Just to let you know, Woolly Workshop no longer exists on the web and all emails are being bounced back. I am now a little wiser about shopping online and will never use a debit card online again. It is Paypal all the way from now on. I may have been made out of pocket, but I've learnt a valuable lesson and received some lovely yummy yarn from a nice kind lady. I guess you lose some, but you can also win some!
