The shadiest customer service I've ever had…read more I went in for a last minute purchase (and to be perfectly frank, had I prepared in advance I wouldn't have gone in at all because they tend to grossly overprice items that you can find for much less online), but alas, they are the monopoly in town for art supplies and last minute Lucy here went in and bought a pad of paper. I went into the store, spoke directly to the sales rep and asked for exactly what I was looking for, professional soft pastel paper. The rep showed me a pad of paper that had a flimsy plastic wrap on it, stating that it was special paper designed specifically for soft pastels, as it had a groovy texture that gripped the pastel. To which I excitedly replied, "Like a sandpaper?!" to which the rep said, "yes!". Great! Sold! Keep in mind that I was not shown an example of the paper inside the pad before paying for it, even after I had given a detailed description of the type of paper I was looking for. The exorbitant price of $80 for the 8" x 10" pad of glorified craft paper was a price that I was sucking up to pay because of my last minute Lucy blunder. It saves to prepare in advance...literally. When I got home and opened the pad, I saw that the paper wasn't even remotely what I had asked for. As it was still in perfect condition, not bent or used in any way, I assumed, like every other art supply store, that I would be able to return it. I read the receipt to make sure and the receipt simply stated that the product had to be in the original condition, which it was. When I went to return it they didn't accept the return because the plastic wrap wasn't on it and they claimed they couldn't resell it in this condition. To claim that the product is no longer sell-able simply because the plastic wrap was removed is asinine. What do they do for online orders? I'm not returning a sterile medical cup that's been tarnished, it's a pad of paper that is perfectly in tact, exactly like new. Accepting this type of return is typical policy for every art supply store I've ever visited. I'm a professional artist, have been creating art for 40 years and a professional for 20. I've lived in 8 different cities and travelled around the world and have been to art supply stores in every city and country I've been in. I also worked at an art supply store in my 20's. In the end, it isn't even about the stupidly expensive tiny pad of paper. In the end, it's about integrity. A small business that has the monopoly on these products in a small town where people don't have any other options, to charge what they charge and not accept a perfectly reasonable return is egregious.

They sent fragile art supplies with very poor packing, and yet they charged a very high amount for…read moreshipping/packing/handling. They should have known better, and because of their careless packing, one of the items was damaged during transit. I was shocked at how carelessly packed the items were. For this particular type of item, there's actually a special foam insert that is customarily used as protection during transit, but they didn't use that. Instead, they used cheap thin materials and wrapped the items in my receipt - so the receipt became part of packing materials. When I advised them of the damage that had occurred, rather than replace or refund the now unusable item, they refunded what they called 25%. But it wasn't 25% because they didn't include the tax. And there was no attempt on their part to find an amicable resolution with which I was comfortable. Instead they just sent the miserable pittance, without any confirmation from me, and wrote 'thank you for your understanding", which is nothing more than passive-aggressive manipulation. When I followed up with them, they proceeded to ignore my requests for a reasonable resolution. I have since reported them to PayPal. Very disreputable handling of what could have been a minor dispute. I was shocked as their business practice is drastically different from most art supply stores. If possible, I would suggest going elsewhere, especially for anything online that needs to be shipped, as they clearly will not stand behind their merchandise.