Unlike other bead dealers we are not selling common mass produced merchandise. What we are selling is vintage beads, vintage findings, vintage parts etc. Our products are in limited supply and cannot be secured again once they are sold. In order to run a succesful business, one must keep track of inventory, without inventory control the business will soon fail. It is not judicious to allow our inventory to be all over the country, inasmuch as every single item we sell is in limited unreplaceable supply. We do not have the luxury of being able to re-order when we sell down on something. What we have is all there will ever be. We welcome you, in fact challenge you, to look all over the internet. You will not find more than 5% of our products anywhere else. Some dealers have a few vintage beads to select from, we have thousands. Some have a few findings, we have hundreds and few if any have the variety of old pendants etc that we offer to you. Thousands of things to keep track of and know at any moment when something is about to be eliminated because it is sold out. We must remove these items immediately from the website as we do not want to sell what we cannot deliver. Think of the nightmare it creates when we remove an item, only to have someone return it a week later. The work involved in posting each item is considerable, we get back one or two lots of a removed sold out item, what should we do with it? The time needed to re-post it is the same time needed to post something that we have considerable inventory on. It is preferable from a business standpoint to spend the time where the greatest return will be realized. Returns do not fit into that category.
When we first went on the internet we had many unscrupulous people order thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, only to want to return large amounts for their own reasons. It was a nightmare and cut into our delivery time immensely, our help was busy re-stocking the returns, updating the databases etc. All nonproductive time-wasting activities. We found we just could not allow that sort of thing to continue as it was seriously affecting the delivery of our products to other customers. We now limit the time we will accept a return and how many items may be returned in order to discourage that sort of behaviour. There is also a re-stocking fee to help offset the costs of labor for returns (it really doesn't cover it 100%) as a stopgap to prevent inordinate returns. Our webmaster photographs every item, he has a degree in professional photography and has been engaged in the field on and off for over 30 years. Being in the jewelery business, he is an expert in small object photography, our pictures will bear that out. The photos are as accurate as the internet allows for, and what is missing is fully described in the descriptions. We strive very hard to put as much information into those descriptions as we can garner. There is no legitimate need to order and then return inordinate amounts of merchandise, what you see is what you get. Therefore we allow a reasonable amount of time for returns and a reasonable limitation on the number of returns. This policy is enforced exactly as laid out, without exception. Our only other option would be to sell "final sale" however we do also realize that sometimes the item you ordered is just not what you needed, hence we run our limited return policy to allow for that.
We realize the internet is not the same as walking into a store and seeing something firsthand but that is a limitation over which we have no control. When you order on the internet, that is a convenience you must be willing to forego, but the advantages of buying on the 'net far outweigh that small inconvenience. You do not have to get dressed, hire a baby sitter, drive into town, get stuck in traffic, drive yourself crazy looking for a place to park only to find out the store does not have what you need, then come back and find a parking ticket on your windshield for all your efforts!. You can shop on the 'net from the convenience of your own home, even at 3 in the morning if you so choose. Websites do not close down at the end of the day like stores do. Shopping on the internet is the modern way to shop and it is growing in popularity as every day thousands more join the ranks.
As far as vintage beads etc. go, ours for the most part are unique. If you sell your creations you will appreciate the fact that vintage beads and parts are the most beautiful available and you can usually command a higher price for your products. Although we have millions of beads, at the rate we are selling them they will not last more than a few more years, but when they are gone they are gone forever. We recently instituted a registration form on our site ("Customer Login") to make shopping easier for our steady customers but also as a way of keeping track of who has been with us and for how long in the event that we have to limit who can buy from us when our beads run down to dangerous levels.
Now you know why we seem so cranky when it comes to returns. If you understand our side of it then you will be a better bead shopper!!
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Thank you for taking the time to read this
Robert Bass
Webmaster