BrambleBerry policies

[Susie]

I have to tell you that if I ordered something from someone, and they did not have it, the FIRST thing I want to see offered is a refund. I want other options like 2 of something else, but offering a refund first is the mark of someone I want to do business with more often. It means that they are more concerned about customer service than the almighty dollar. Same thing when I get something that is damaged/leaking/not working/etc.

I am glad that newbie took folks' complaints to management of BB. Owners/managers need to know what their employees are doing that affects their bottom line. They need to be given a chance to make changes. I never hesitate to ask to speak to supervisors if I feel I am getting brushed off by lower level employees. You just need to be polite, but firm. You often need to get up to the levels where people who can make decisions are.

 

[PuddinAndPeanuts]

What would be the point of picking 2 day air with BB? I payed Amazon extra for 2 day shipping, however they waited 4 days to ship it. I was refunded my money when I made a complaint.

I have been kicking myself recently though because I have been ordering from BB and NG, paying a lot for shipping for a year and I just found a place here in Texas called Starrville that would cost me nothing in shipping, and their FO,s are really inexpensive. I havent ordered from them as I am WAITING on an order from BB.

I cannot find any reviews on Starrville though and that concerns me.

Love Starville!!! Fantastic customer service. After a truly obscene amount of time researching prices online, I can say with some confidence that their prices on my jars can't be beat!

 

[PuddinAndPeanuts]

I've been happy with their customer service. Expensive, slow shipping, but good customer service. They had some jars that they said were good for sugar scrubs, which had about a 20% leakage rate for me. When I complained, they offered some solution or other that wasn't totally acceptable. In the end, they ended up agreeing to refund price, shipping and return shipping on any unused and USED jars that I had left. And they left my negative review up. Now, I never followed through on returning the jars, so no idea if they would have given me problems with actual follow through, but I felt they handled it really nicely.

 

[BugSoap]

I have been kicking myself recently though because I have been ordering from BB and NG, paying a lot for shipping for a year and I just found a place here in Texas called Starrville that would cost me nothing in shipping, and their FO,s are really inexpensive. I havent ordered from them as I am WAITING on an order from BB.
I cannot find any reviews on Starrville though and that concerns me.

Referring to Starrville
I'm not very impressed with their website at all. I went to look at it after reading your post since I am looking for places to order stuff.
It looks nice, but free store software often looks nice also. I would try a sample order, but they do not take paypal, only credit card and I don't care to give them that info at this time myself.

None of their products have any good info about anything, bare minimum details at most and those are even very lacking! I see they have some nice SHAPE molds I may want, but it's only 1 picture of a rose soap, no picture of the mold, and the info is only
" 5 cavities, 1.75 oz. each "
So is that a 1" rose soap or a 1.5" or 2" or what?
Same thing with the molds for kid shapes and the cowboy boots etc... no real info and only 1 picture of a soap no picture of the mold.
There is not even any info of what type mold it is, is it a cheap plastic candy tray type mold or a good silicon mold, or some stamped metal?
I would have no confidence in a company that does not even provide basic standard info!

I made a sample order, went to checkout and could not find any shipping info. I went ahead and entered fake info to get through the cart, it NEVER gave me any shipping info like price or carriers etc.. only a total for the items in the cart.
I could not find anything about shipping policy, like if it's free shipping. I doubt they can sell a decent mold for $7 and ship it free.

If they are a good store to deal with they may have some good items at decent prices, but they need to do ALLOT of work on the store site!

OK, you now have 1 review of the store for what it may be worth, and why I'm not going to buy there now myself. LOL

 

[BugSoap]

Love Starville!!! Fantastic customer service. After a truly obscene amount of time researching prices online, I can say with some confidence that their prices on my jars can't be beat!

Referring to Starrville
I just posted I am not so thrilled with their store site myself.
So did your jars ship free or did shipping costs get tacked on somewhere in the billing?
I never could find anything about shipping and I went as far through checkout as I could without actually entering my card info!

I just looked again, I see I could buy 12 16oz jags for about $7, but I am pretty sure they can't be shipped free at that price, so where does it ever tell the shipping cost??

 

[Logansama]

I've never, never had a problem with Brambleberry, so it always surprises me when people do. Shipping is usually by ground when they ship FO so that does slow down things if you're not on the west coast. I always know that if I order on a Monday, I'll have my order by the end of the week. The one time an item was missing from my order, they shipped it out next day, no questions asked. I've never had an item leak or broken. They always respond quickly when I have an issue. I really, really appreciate that they use glass instead of plastic bottles.

I've been soaping for almost 15 years so I do have quite a track record with them.

 

[Logansama]

I never could find anything about shipping and I went as far through checkout as I could without actually entering my card info!

You can calculate shipping right at your cart, the form is on the right hand side of the page where it says "Shipping Estimate."

 

[Jstar]

Think BugSoap is talking about Starrville Belinda

I looked at them too..but they don't have many products {FO's} so I just decided to stick with my Mikes Fragrances n More

 

[BugSoap]

It was an interesting read.

I checked BrambleBerry earlier for some silicon molds. I'm about Middle USA.
I'm not too sure what to think about the shipping prices yet myself.

1 silicon mold $8.50 shipping
3 of same mold $12.50 shipping.

Ok, now a days just shipping an empty box cost a fair bit LOL :x
So maybe I can see the $8.50 for the box size and distance for the 1 mold.
But 2 extra molds should fit in the same box and not weigh hardly anything, so I don't see $4 extra for shipping there!

I'll have to watch how shipping adds up I guess if placing any orders.
I ended up buying lye elsewhere tonight instead of molds.

As far as offering coupons or store credits for leaky or damaged items, yes a refund is best or ship out a new item free! But it's allot of trouble to send stuff back also, and someone has to pay that return shipping so it costs money!
If I got a 4oz bottle of oil and 1oz leaked out, yes I'd be upset too. But if I don't have to send back that bottle then I got 3oz that did not leak out! So if I got a coupon for a free bottle on next order then actually I'd come out ahead and no-one has to mess with paying shipping to send back a leaky bottle!
Perhaps they look at it partly that way also?

It's not fair, but many stores do require you ship back at your cost anything they replace or refund. If they do pay return shipping they often do not make it well known! So maybe look at it that way also, if a decent coupon to make good on a bad item is offered, and you get to keep the bad item, and you do not have to mess with or pay for return shipping, then the coupon offer may not be so bad.
Of course if you want a refund or new item you should tell them such and they should do that with NO arguement! But then you should also expect to have to send back the bad item.

 

[BugSoap]

You can calculate shipping right at your cart, the form is on the right hand side of the page where it says "Shipping Estimate."

Sorry, I was Referring to Starrville not showing any shipping info. I went back and edited and put that in the posts now to avoid confusion.

 

[BugSoap]

Think BugSoap is talking about Starrville Belinda

I looked at them too..but they don't have many products {FO's} so I just decided to stick with my Mikes Fragrances n More

Yes, thanks, I meant Starrville so I edited now to put that in.

I am looking at Mikes also right now.

 

[reinbeau]

I've never, never had a problem with Brambleberry, so it always surprises me when people do. Shipping is usually by ground when they ship FO so that does slow down things if you're not on the west coast. I always know that if I order on a Monday, I'll have my order by the end of the week. The one time an item was missing from my order, they shipped it out next day, no questions asked. I've never had an item leak or broken. They always respond quickly when I have an issue. I really, really appreciate that they use glass instead of plastic bottles.

I've been soaping for almost 15 years so I do have quite a track record with them.

You're in Northern California - of course it's quick to you. Most of those who are complaining are on the East Coast. However, this is reported over and over and over on many different platforms that the BB shipping policies are a disaster. Perhaps after two steady years (since I've been reading about them) they've smartened up, finally, because only now am I reading of quick shipping from them. I will say it was marginally quicker the last time I place an order, at the beginning of January. I didn't have to wait a month to get the mold, only about 12 days. That's frankly still ridiculous, but it's better than a month.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[TRBeck]

I have ordered quite a bit from BB and had good experiences for the most part. Long waits to be sure, but nothing on the order of 2-4 weeks as some have experienced. I placed an order on the 4th that will arrive today, and I knew that I was in for a wait due to the note at the top of the site's main page that always gives an idea of the lag time on filling orders. I have had longer waits from other companies who only sell FOs and don't give any indication of lag/shipping times on their sites. I do wish that BB was as fast as Oregon Trails and Sweet Cakes to ship. Can't complain about the packaging or quality of goods I've received thus far, though.

 

[Logansama]

Yes, location makes a lot of difference. I ordered from NG and though they shipped very quickly, it took 10days for the product to arrive. And when I ordered from Bulk Apothocary, over 3 weeks. So I guess the moral of the story is if you're in a hurry, order regionally.

 

[PuddinAndPeanuts]

Referring to Starrville
I just posted I am not so thrilled with their store site myself.
So did your jars ship free or did shipping costs get tacked on somewhere in the billing?
I never could find anything about shipping and I went as far through checkout as I could without actually entering my card info!

I just looked again, I see I could buy 12 16oz jags for about $7, but I am pretty sure they can't be shipped free at that price, so where does it ever tell the shipping cost??

When I bought jars from Starville, I placed my order, but it could not calculate the shipping for the jars in the cart. I had already spoken to them re:what shipping would be for them, so I placed my order, then called and had them run my card a second time, to cover shipping. Only too an extra minute, and the guy there was so nice!

 

[BugSoap]

When I bought jars from Starville, I placed my order, but it could not calculate the shipping for the jars in the cart. I had already spoken to them re:what shipping would be for them, so I placed my order, then called and had them run my card a second time, to cover shipping. Only too an extra minute, and the guy there was so nice!

Thanks.
I may order something later from Starville? I gave them a call and not too sure if I want the molds now or not that I was interested in. They are plastic molds, supposed to be good heavy plastic, but I don't really want plastic. Looking more I found some good molds in heavy plastic I like as well as what I was thinking of from Starville and only $2 instead of $7, so if buying plastic molds I think I'll go with good $2 ones. Get 14 molds instead of 4 for my $28 LOL