Blick Art Materials — Local services in Philadelphia

I ordered a $200 gift card on 6/30 that was due to arrive between 7/5 and 7/10. I received notice that it had shipped on 7/8. When it didn't arrive on the 10th I contacted them and was told I had to wait till the 14th to file a claim. "Unfortunately we are not able to track physical gift cards unless they are shipped with FedEx Fast 2 Day or Overnight services. Our standard shipping of a physical gift card is guaranteed in 7 to 9 business days via your local mail carrier." something they don't tell you till after the package is shipped. THEN on the 14th they tell me "Normally we are not able to issue refunds on gift cards." "If it would be a satisfactory resolution, we can certainly re-issue the gift card as an e-gift card, which can be re-issued in as little as 30 minutes to 45 minutes during our normal business hours (Monday through Friday, 8 AM - 5 PM CST) to your email or an email of your choice. Please let us know how you would like to proceed. We look forward to your reply." This gift card was a time-sensitive gift. Re-issuing would not help and I demanded a refund. It took 3 days to receive notice that a refund had been issued and 2 days after that it has still not shown up in my account. What makes this worse is that I have had this issue repeatedly when it comes to shipping from Blick. It NEVER shows up near the date they estimate for delivery. They have given me close to $100 in $10 coupons to make up for the delays but have done nothing about the delay. To send out gift cards without tracking and then have the gall to say they don't refund gift cards - sent me over the top. I know I won't ever shop at Blick online again. But I'm even wondering if I want to shop in their stores. And better yet, they won't let me submit this review - that...

$500 purchased and the clerk forgot brushes in the bag and the manager wouldn't send them so i had to return to the store.Returned a few items and purchased another $200 in merchandise and the guy forgot to give my credit card back. No apology and I had to go back to get it.Order skull ($35.99) online. Free shipping on items over $35. Says free shipping to I hit the "pay" button and BOOM it adds the shipping anyway. These are my last 3 experiences at Blick. I am getting extremely frustrated with the store and am about to stop shopping there. I love(d) Blick and prefer to support local business but I travel 45 to shop at Blick and there is an Artist and Craftsmen Supply two blocks from my home. This just is not worth the aggravation. I fear Blick is about to become a statistic. I hate to see it - I mourn the loss of all our great art supply stores. I am begging you to get it together!

Blick is a great art store. First problem, they are too often out of stock on specific items. Yesterday it took my minutes to find a size 12 Filbert brush. That's nuts. But my biggest complaint is the lack of follow through. Last month bought $400 worth of stuff. The brushes never made it to my bag. They didn't offer to send them to me - I had to go back. I went back - and of course bought more stuff. This time I didn't get my credit card back. WTF? Unfortunately, I have an art store within 3 blocks of my house. Blick is a 45 minute train...

So frustrating. I called this location two days ago to ask for a specific product and was told that they had plenty in stock. I asked if I could place some on hold (I needed a half dozen) and they said it wouldn’t be necessary. Today I went in and they only had two in stock. I spoke with the manager about this and he (Brandon?) told me at first that this is a high volume store and they sell things quickly. I told him that’s fine, but in that case, the person I spoke with, should have said yes, I should have them put on hold. The manager then told me that at this time of year, with them selling a lot of materials for back to school, they often don’t put things on hold. I told him that the person I spoke with didn’t mention that, that they simply said it wasn’t necessary. I said they should’ve told me that and he suggested that they did. He also suggested that the person I spoke with might’ve had a very long line in front of them. In the end, I drove a half hour to come here on the assumption that they would have what the clerk told me they would have, and the manager saw no issue with this, spoke over me, and accepted no responsibility for the faulty information I was given two days ago. I prefer to shop locally when I can, but I won’t be shopping at this...