Let me just say, I wish it were possible to give half a star.
Also, I have chosen to come here after reading the reviews on Yelp; I don't want to waste my time posting to Darn Good Yarn's site, if they won't even allow honest bad reviews. Any company (or indie seller) who doesn't like getting poor reviews, clearly knows there is plenty they need to fix, but doesn't want anyone to know (until they go through it and find out for themselves). Poor reviews should give those companies or individuals motivation to BECOME BETTER; screening reviews and/or retaliating, shows just how unprofessional they are, and that they shouldn't be in business. Period.
Now that I've gone off on a tangent, let me tell you all about my experience with Darn Good Yarn.
First, I recommend a name change. The yarn is not that great, y'all. I'm not being hateful, I'm being honest. Whether or not you like it, you can take it or leave it. I have bought so many different types of yarn, from so many different companies and indie sellers; DGY is nothing special, and almost as bad as the crappiest yarn I have encountered.
Second, my very first order with them was fine. I'd placed two orders, within two days of each other; the first shipped and arrived smoothly, and I still have that product. As stated above, the yarn isn't that great, but I'll probably still make the pattern that came with it, with the yarn. It will probably be awhile, though, as I don't even want to look at it after what I've been through. (I'm getting to that, I swear.) The gift wrap bag I bought with it, was ok. Not worth the extra money, but hey. You live and learn.
Now, for the worst stuff. My second order was supposedly shipped a week after it was placed. I waited almost two weeks before trying to find out why it was just sitting in New York (the tracking I was sent, showed it literally had not moved once it got to the post office). At that time, I contacted USPS, whom I honestly thought was at fault, I won't lie. They told me they had no further scans or movement on the package, PLUS several other packages were mailed off with mine - only all of those had further scans and movement, and had successfully arrived at their destinations. What?! They advised me to contact the seller, so I emailed Darn Good Yarn. I even forwarded the email from the USPS lady that called me, to DGY, so they could see I wasn't trying to pull a fast one on them or something (since people do that). It happened to be a Friday when I emailed DGY, so I didn't hear from them until the following week, on Tuesday. The response?
"Thanks so much for reaching out! We apologize for the confusion. We unintentionally printed a batch of shipping labels, which automatically generates the tracking information that you are currently seeing when you pull up the link. Amanda (Operations Manager) is hand packaging all of your orders and we are making sure they are shipped priority. We fully expect for your order should be shipping out by the end of the week though so stay tuned because as soon as it does the tracking information will update to reflect that."... which makes NO SENSE, as a label printing error doesn't make the package physically arrive at the post office, right? Anyway, I didn't buy any of it, but told them I'd watch for the update. Six days later, I had to email them again, because *surprise, surprise* - no update to that tracking. I get a response the next day, saying:
"Thanks for reaching out! I am checking the status of your order with our Operations Manager. I will get back to you with an update soon!"
I didn't hear anything by two days later, so I emailed them again, asking what the issue was with this order, how it didn't make sense how the package made it to the PO, yet they claimed it was a label printing mishap, and that I was very disappointed because I was really looking forward this order (which I had been, until I really looked at the first yarn I had gotten not long after I told them that). I never received a response. Another two days later, I get one of those auto mass emails about free yarn, and reply to that (I was obviously beyond over the whole issue), saying I'd like the yarn I paid for. I never hear anything back from that, either, aside from the auto-reply message about how they respond in 24-48 hours, Monday through Friday. Which, by the way, is crap. They can send out emails wanting more business and post on social media during the weekend (I had been following them at the time, so their posts were in my feed), but they can't email people back and/or try to fix their own mistakes? Ugh. A few hours later, I decided to send a refund request email, as well. I explained I was tired of getting the run-around, and I wanted my money back. I was officially done waiting.
A few days later (aka: a month since my order had "shipped," had passed), I still hadn't heard anything. So, I forwarded the refund email to them, with a note saying I hope they didn't ignore it twice. I decided shortly after sending that, that I would take the issue to PayPal (which is how I paid, and I AM SO GLAD I went through them). I opened up a case there, in hopes it would help get things fixed. Two days later, I finally get a response to my refund email (but not to the PayPal claim, hmm); it said, "Hey! I am trying to get someone in the warehouse to cancel that order. It doesn't look like the tracking is moving so we should still have it. I will get that taken care for you. Thanks for your patience and Ill be in contact soon!" I replied with the following (you can tell I was just not having their BS anymore):
"Well, yeah. It hasn't moved since it was supposedly shipped June 6th, which you told me was a mistake and was just a label printing issue. So which story should I believe - that it was shipped, or that it wasn't? It wasn't shipped when promised over two weeks ago, either. Anyway, I'll be waiting for that refund to hit my account. I sure hope that doesn't take another month."
Oh, and "soon" never came - I was ignored again.
A week later, after sending another note through PayPal, I FINALLY get an email from DGY, telling me my order has been cancelled and a refund has been issued (which also closed the PayPal case). This was over a month and a half after I had placed this order, by the way. The email is as follows:
"I do apologize for the delay. I have issued you a full refund for your order. Your label had already been printed by the time I got a response from someone in the warehouse so if you happen to receive a shipment from us, please refuse the package. Once again, I do apologize for the delay and I hope you have a great day!" I replied with a thank you for finally taking my PayPal claim seriously and cancelling my order, and assured them that I will absolutely refuse the package IF it actually made it here, because I DO NOT WANT it. Just last night, the refund hit my account, and I sent them another thank you for that, along with how I hope they learn from this, how I'm glad to be done with them, and a demand that they improve as a company.
If you read all of this, you rock! I know it was a lot, but I feel it is absolutely necessary to put the truth out there, so others can be warned about this company before they make a purchase. I have seen lots of good reviews for DGY, mainly on their site (since they only allow the super good ones, apparently), but I have seen a lot of reviews like mine on Yelp. It saddens me to know others have been screwed over the way I have, and in other ways; however, it's good to know I'm not the only unhappy customer, so it doesn't look like I'm just one of those jerks who leaves bad reviews just because they're miserable in life. My experience with Darn Good Yarn was an absolutely horrible one, and I am happy to be able to finally move on from it.
It's just terrible to think: out of all the yarn purchases I've made (I buy yarn online quite often, from all over the world), I've only had two bad experiences; this was the worst one - and that says something, considering the other was with an indie dyer who continues to stalk me online, and talks badly about me to others for [indirectly] giving their yarn a bad review. I truly hope no one else has to go through this, with DGY or anyone.