Jerry's Artarama - first and maybe last order?

[LaLaLemon]

I'm fairly new to ordering my art supplies online (though an old hat at online ordering in general), and usually drive into Boston for supplies. Since recently I decided to get serious about learning to paint I've started ordering online.

I've received 3 orders from Daniel Smith so far. No problems, love 'em (really miss living in WA state and being 10 minutes from one of their stores!). The fourth was shipped this morning, so far, so good.

Yesterday I got an email from Cheap Joe's (I have yet to shop there) and it showed an Arches watercolor gift set for 70% off. Clicking through showed it to be $29.99 on the CJ site. Since I'd recently been looking at ShinHan watercolors and Raffine sketchbooks at Jerry's, I went there to see if they also had the Arches set and they did, for $30.21. I ordered a total of around $80 including the gift box last night from Jerry's.

Today I got a voicemail that there was an issue with the Arches gift box and the CS rep would follow up with an email. The email said:

"Unfortunately there is an issue with the pricing of item 85070 the ARCHES GIFT BOX SET. We discovered today that it was incorrectly listed at the price that you ordered it of $30.21. It has been corrected to the price of $71.57.
Due to this typo in price, we cannot allow the purchase of this set for the $30.21. You can continue the order and have the item at the $71.57 price, or we can simply cancel it off of the order for you. Please let me know how you would like to handle the order."

I thought about it for a bit and responded (nicely) that they should either honor the price or cancel the entire order, with the understanding that I wouldn't be coming back if I can't trust them to honor their posted prices (particularly since the cancellation of the gift box means I'm under the $79 limit for free shipping and either need to order more stuff or pay for the S&H).

I still can't figure out how $30.21 turning into $71.57 constitutes a typo. That's one heck of a finger slip there, guys. Some of those numbers are inches away on the keyboard. :P Maybe they have a warehouse cat.

Anyway, since this is my first order I'm now wary of continuing to shop there, and honestly, out of hundreds of online transactions over the last 15 years or so this is the first time I've ever had a merchant refuse to sell an item at the posted-and-paid-for-price (I have the confirmation email and the charge is pending).

My long-windedness aside, I'm wondering if this is typical for them? If they cancel the order, I'm canceling my relationship with them!

Thanks!
Meghan

[sashntash]

I've found Jerry's to be inefficient and slow slow slow and very unresponsive if you try to get a problem resolved.

My favorite online shop is dickblick.com. Good prices, fast shipping and excellent customer service.

I've also had good luck with Cheap Joe's and ASW Express.

Even though ASW Express is owned by the same family that owns Jerry's, I haven't had the same problems with ASW that I've had with Jerry's.

However.. as I said... my favorite... by far... is dickblick.com !!!

just my 2 cents........ :)

[virgil carter]

Meghan, I agree with you. An advertised price should be honored. I've shopped at Cheap's for over 20 years, with satisfaction. I've also shopped at Jerry's and DS with satisfaction. I have found their prices competitive and their customer service reliable and top-notch.

That said, I find it galling that such a price discrepancy took place. They may have made an honest mistake, but they should also honor their advertised price. It will bring them a lot more future business than they will lose for a few order of the gift box. If they are good business people, they will realize their reputation is the important thing, and this situation could be written off simply as "advertising"!

I hope they will do the right thing for you.

Best,
Virgil

[LaLaLemon]

Thanks for the validation - I'll post when I get a response and let you know what they do. I am really hoping they'll honor the price; I would like to be able to shop with them occasionally but not if I never know whether I can rely on a posted price! If I'd know they wouldn't honor the price I could have ordered it from Cheap Joe's but it appears to be sold out there now.

Fingers crossed!

[juneto]

Jerry's was OFF my list years ago ! Cheap Joe's is Okay . I Just never order when I am in a hurry for anything . I try not to run out of paper , etc .
Blick is Very Reliable .
They are pretty much my old stand-by.
Frequently, you will see a Cheaper price , only to have something NOT Exactly the same as what the other guy advertised .
I always stick with the Old Faithfuls .You can't go wrong with them because it is Policy to treat you right .
June

[MRSBB]

I agree with June. Dick Blick has a great reputation for their customer service. Their my #1 favorite...............Lenore

[Shirl Parker]

Susan said it all. I quit ordering from Jerry's.

[LaLaLemon]

Final result:

After I sent another email today asking for a status, I received an email from the customer service representative I'd been dealing with. He was very polite (and I know he's just doing his job), but said he escalated to his director and they would not honor the $30.21 price because the $71.57 was set by the vendor.

I told them to cancel the order and I won't be back. That was a really disappointing experience all around. Guess I'll be ordering some stuff from Daniel Smith or Dick Blick instead!

*sigh*

Meghan

[sashntash]

Sad, but not surprising.

I must say though..... I shop at the Jerrys Raleigh NC retail store which is only about 25 miles from my home and they are the opposite of the online operation.

All of the employees of the retail store are artists themselves. They know the products and they are always willing to answer questions and help in any way that they can. And in the rare instances where I have had a problem or needed to return something, they were always gracious.

The retail stores, of course, don't have the range of items that are available online, but I'm grateful to have the Jerry's store nearby when I need something. They also offer some great workshops !!!

I just wish the online operation was as good...... But the online operation and the retail stores are run as totally separate businesses.... so I guess that's the reason.... same family but different management groups ... different results...

[LaLaLemon]

I just wish the online operation was as good...... But the online operation and the retail stores are run as totally separate businesses.... so I guess that's the reason.... same family but different management groups ... different results...

I've seen that happen to a few brick & mortar stores that opened online divisions. It's a weird left-hand right-hand thing. :(

I'm disappointed about the way Jerry's handled it but from what I've been reading, I'm also not surprised now.

I do love Daniel Smith - I used to live fairly close to one of their stores and really liked wandering their store when I went there for supplies for other crafts. That's one of the reasons they were the first place I went to when I started looking for supplies online.

A big consolation about the Jerry's mishap is the order I have coming from DS next week - I placed it during their last 40% off sale. 24 tubes of paint, a brush roll, a bunch of paper, a sketchbook, two 12x16 Gatorboards, and I think I get a free Cosmotop brush too. All for $157.50, shipped quickly and with no "gee, sorry, we screwed up the price" email! That's more like it! :P

I also live within driving distance of a Dick Blick and will definitely order online from them too - I haven't, yet, but I've had a mile-long wishlist there for a while. :)

Meghan

[sashntash]

Sounds like you're all set..... a nice bunch of goodies to look forward to!!!

I do think you'll be happy with dickblick too when you try them... and also give Cheap Joe's a try. My only complaint about Cheap Joe's is that they are slow to ship.... otherwise, I've always been happy with their prices and customer service.

Enjoy !!!

[Bobar57]

You have another option:
ASW Express.
It's a company owned also by the same people of Jerry's but with lower prices,a flat shipping charge of $7.95 and a Price Watch.With this price watch you find an item they carry(ex.the Arches set you want) at a lower price at any other store online,provide them the details and within a couple of days normally you receive a reply matching the price and giving you a $10.00 off discount in your next order.
I have taken advantage of that quite a bit and will continue to do it.Shipping is not slow.

Bob

[watercolourfanatic]

I've read all this with great interest as I've always envied the vast range and good prices available in the USA. I've also read what Bruce McEvoy of Handprint has to say about suppliers over there.
Of course suppliers in the UK have only to send to an area that would fit in a small corner of the USA, although Great Art now supply from Germany having closed their UK warehouse a year or two ago. The three major UK firms are Jacksons, Bromley and Great Art. There are many others but these three are the most prominent and largest mail order suppliers. All three offer free delivery once the order exceeds a certain relatively modest figure. Service is also pretty good if not always perfect. :crossfingers:

Peter

[CJMonty]

Here in Australia, we have a couple of interesting " Sales" techniques. There are a number of Stores ( and infact if you ask and can prove price most reasonable size stores will do this), they have a thing where if you find the same item elsewhere, they will sell that same item for 10 to 15% less than the other store has it for. For most others, if you ask, they will at least Price Match.

However, if you are in a Store and you get to the till, and the item you are buying comes up onthe Cashregister as more than the Ad ertised or the Shelf Price, by Law, they are supposed to give you that Item Free, and if you are buying more than one of that item, then the rest you get at the lower price. Over the years, I have challenged this on items, especially if there is quite a reasonable difference. Sometimes there are a number of people waiting in the que behind you, and I have chosen not to bother if it is only a few cents. But really, we should all ( here in Australia anyway) be aware of this law, and even though it may mean holding things up for a few minutes, we should take advantage of it. About 4 years ago, an item I was buying scanned at $ 42.75, and it was supposed to be on Special for $15.50, so I most definitely made sure they upheld the law.

We should all be very aware, about anything and everything all around us.

Take Care, and watch out.
Lots of Love Carolynn. :grouphug: :grouphug: :heart: :heart: :heart: :) :) :clap: :thumbsup: :wave: :heart: :heart: :heart: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Frank Dawson]

WOW! i am glad i found this thread! If Jerry's cant honor prices from their own site, then i can't trust them! Ive ordered from Dick blick's in the past and had no complaints! I have been looking at Cheap joes for various items and will consider them also in the future! As for Jerry's, No! Ive seen this tactic before on the internet, Get you to order at a low price and then try various up-selling methods! Thank you for posting this!

Frank

[Mayberry]

In brick and mortar stores it is the law that the store has to honor the price on the shelf, even if the store made a mistake and mispriced it. (Maybe there are exceptions if the customer had good reason to know the item was mispriced.) Stores face stiff fines if the cash register rings up items for a price different from the marked price. The Dept. of Weights and Measures checks stores for compliance, and customers can turn stores in. Stores where I live are not perfect in their price tags, but they will bend over backwards to give you the lowest marked price because they don't want to get into trouble.

However, websites often have specific wording on their "terms and conditions" or similar page that lets them off the hook for pricing errors. I did a little Google search on the subject because I got curious after reading this thread. I found several places where lawyers were advising companies to make sure to put that language on their websites so they would not have to honor pricing mistakes. It doesn't seem quite fair that websites can get off the hook while brick and mortar stores can't.

Still, it would have been better for customer relations for Jerry's to honor the price. Jerry's had no reason to tell you that they can't because of a price set by a vendor. This doesn't make sense if Cheap Joes was offering it for $29.99. Jerry's should have absorbed the small loss for the sake of gaining a happy customer. If there was really some kind of contractual agreement they had with a vendor to sell the item for a certain price and no lower, they could have offered a special coupon to you to make up for the difference on your total purchase.

I have not ordered from Jerry's myself, partly because of earlier threads here on WetCanvas about people's bad experiences with Jerry's. I have done most ordering with Dick Blick, which has been wonderful. Plus I've ordered from Daniel Smith and Cheap Joes. They were both great too. Cheap Joes did seem a bit slow, but I was in no hurry. Dick Blick is FAST.

[Bobar57]

I agree with you 100 % Cathy.
One example is Cheap Joe's.If anyone has still the 2010 catalog(I believe the 2011 isn't out yet),you will notice that they have printed The Langton Prestige Watercolor Paper at $13.29 the pack of 10 sheets of 140 lb Cold Pressed or Rough,size 22"x30".
Then,again,there is the fine prints about volatile prices and typographical errors and the lie,blah,blah...........:rolleyes:

Bob

[claude j greengrass]

I agree with you 100 % Cathy.
One example is Cheap Joe's.If anyone has still the 2010 catalog(I believe the 2011 isn't out yet),you will notice that they have printed The Langton Prestige Watercolor Paper at $13.29 the pack of 10 sheets of 140 lb Cold Pressed or Rough,size 22"x30"
I received a Cheap Joe's Catalogue a couple of days ago. Must have been on the 5th or 6th.

[LaLaLemon]

Cathy, I would have thought they would have honored the price too, especially for a first time customer!

While Cheap Joe's also had the item listed at 29.99, I don't think I ever added it to my cart, and the Jerry's CS rep said that when he tried to he was unable to. I went back to CJ and also wasn't able to add it to my cart, so it's possible Cheap Joe's also had a problem with the pricing (it's completely gone now - will come up in a search but the link goes nowhere). I think if the item was actually purchasable at Cheap Joe's they might have honored it, but I am not sure. In any case, while the Jerry's CS rep was great, they didn't budge nor did they offer any other solutions (free shipping on the remaining items? A small discount? ANYTHING!) to make up for the error and really left me feeling flat as a customer.

The gift box set was an Arches 9x12 block, an Arches #2 brush, and 7 5ml Rembrandt watercolor tubes. It seemed like a great deal and I assumed it was an after Christmas clearance (and CJ's did say 70% off). I certainly didn't think the price was impossible.

Anyway, I turned around and spent the money at Dick Blick instead. My Daniel Smith order arrived on the 11th and everything was perfectly packaged and they did include the free Cosmotop brush. The order from Dick Blick came today and was also perfect, and I am absolutely in love with the two Escoda brushes and can't wait to try them. I won't hesitate to order from Blick again, even though I love going to their brick & mortar stores and will continue to.

I already unsubscribed from the Jerry's email list. :) It would take a lot for me to be willing to try them again.

Meghan