John Arbon Textiles - listen up to this experience
John Arbon supply yarns and fibre tops. For a very particular joint project a colleague purchased a specific wool top from this company. We had already looked at other suppliers and the one sent to us by Arbon looked excellent.
We requested another 500g of the very same wool top, with my colleague checking that it would be sent from the same lot.
It arrived and it was not from the same lot. I contacted the company - they eventually got back to me to say that the first order had been processed through further machinery and was not the standard supply, and that they would not supply any further amount of it as they were not going to be further processing any, other than if I were to put in an order for some huge amount and doing that would be massively costly to me.
Having agreed to take the 500g back, they made a refund to my colleague. I then contacted them to request that they pay the return postage for the goods which did not comply with the original order.
I was contacted by Sonja to say that she realised we were upset. I had said that we were. She went on to say she was not minded to refund the postage. The company has a policy of not refunding postage.
When I pointed out that they had sent 500g which was not the same as had been requested and which they had confirmed they would supply, she said, it was the right lot, the first supply was the right lot. This of course is nonsense because it had been further processed and was not their standard supply.
When I persisted, saying that the second order did not comply with the first order even though my colleague had specifically been in touch and they had given their confirmation - and having now learned that it had been further processed while the second lot had not - then Sonja agreed, yes, it wasn't the same.
However, no refund is forthcoming even though every other company repays postage when they send goods that do not comply with an agreed order.
Hey ho, I will never use this company again, nor will my colleague. And neither of us can in good faith now recommend this company - they have given us every reason not to.
Bear in mind if something goes wrong - if you decide to purchase from John Arbon, that these senior personnel have little idea of good customer service. How they conduct their business is nearer to a moody adolescent who doesn't want to be called out. - Sonja says she's 'not minded to repay postage'. And this for the return of goods that aren't the item that was agreed on and confirmed. That's not a good look, nor how good customer relations can be established and maintained.
An utter 100% waste of time and energy this whole episode has been. Good service and customer care? Forget that, it's not on offer.