The Crafty Cave

I wanted something a little quirky for my wedding favours and had a design in mind for wooden spoons. I spoke to Selina who was very helpful and I ordered a sample. When the sample arrived I was absolutely in love, it was so much better than I imagined.

I placed the final order and received it quickly. I’m so pleased with the service & product so thank you!

On the 13th Feb I made a very small purchase, second class delivery.

On the 20th Feb I requested an update
Seller responded by asking me to wait a 3 more days & that a few other customers had also been affected and left waiting.
I replied simply to point out that once 6 working days had passed it would qualify the sender (seller) for a refund. I also suggested that maybe it would be of some consolation to offer the customers affected a partial refund (postage), for inconvenience.
Seller replied rather rudely & took it as a personal insult. Claimed they would not be "held liable for Royal Mails delay" which was not how my email was worded at all. I accepted the fact that worded communications get misconstrued, apologised for the misunderstanding and allowed the additional requested time to pass.

26th Feb I alerted the seller that my order had still not arrived and requested not to resend, but issue a complete refund. Evidently I sent this message at the weekend when I had the time to do so.
Seller replied within minutes to inform me "As it is the weekend I am currently not working. If it doesn't arrive with tomorrow's mail please let me know asap and I will refund and chase up the order." Not working you say, but checking and replying to emails? I thought 'would it take that much longer to refund me straight away?' I guess frustrating and upsetting customers is priority.

28th Feb I once again fed an update to the seller of still not arrived.
Seller replied promptly to say sorry & inform me they would refund me as soon as they get to the laptop.
I replied just to accept the apology and point out it was not their fault the item got lost.

7th March (a week to get to that laptop) I was forced to follow up and politely request a refund.
Seller simply replied "I issued the refund on the same day." no greeting, no apology - I obviously, mistakingly thought we made friends again, but the abrupt rudeness said otherwise.
I simply replied to inform the seller that my statement did not show that a refund had been issued and to 'please check and confirm' as it would be 'very much appreciated'.
Seller replied and agreed to check, I even got an apology this time!
Surprise, surprise I got nothing back..............................

Monday 13th March and once again, all was silent. I logged into paypal, filed a dispute (which I should have done immediately after the 2 weeks had elapsed), Craftycave almost instantly initiated my refund. FINALLY!
Seller replied in the dispute to uphold the claim that a refund had already been issued. However I did also receive yet another apology, which was nice.

I suppose in the end it all worked out, but not without a lot of hassle and chasing up. Whilst the customer service was ALWAYS INSTANT, it was only sometimes polite; it was vastly lacking, mostly unhelpful and sometimes even rude. Needless to say that after one month to get my money returned with no order, I will not be deciding to shop with the craftycave again and I strongly suggest that anyone considering to do business with this particular website considers all other available options.

It is a great shame, as I know this business is most likely a small independent operation, but that is no excuse for poor service. The fact I was able to get replies quick, but results (refund) were delayed, leads me to think very curiously as to the reasons why. I simply can not recommend anyone to buy from here.