Hi all, I know that a lot of you use sugarcraft. This is why I was compelled to do buisiness with them and orde a few things. Needless to say by my headline things didn't go to well. My husband looked this up on the better business bureau website and I thought I should share it with you all.


SUGARCRAFT BAKERY
2715 Dixie Highway
Hamilton, OH 45015
View Location Map


Local Phone Number: (513)896-7089
Membership Status: This company is not a member
TOB Classification: Bakers-Retail
Web Site URL(s): http://www.sugarcraft.com


The information in this report has either been provided by the company, or has been compiled by the Bureau from other sources.

Customer Experience

This firm first came to our attention in July 1993. The Bureau has sent two requests for basic information to this company but, as of today, has received no reply. Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaints and a pattern of complaints regarding billing and customer service issues. Complaints indicate that prices have increased after the customer has completed the transaction. In addition customers state that the company is difficult to reach in regard to problems with the products and when they do reach the company they are treated in an unprofessional manner. Regarding the billing issues the company references a disclaimer on their website that prices are subject to change at any time.

When evaluating complaint information, please consider the company's size and volume of business. The number of complaints filed against the company may not be as important as the type of complaints and how the company handled them.

The Bureau processed a total of 27 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 27 complaints in the last 36 months, 9 of those were closed in the last 12 months.



Thought this might be something you all wanted to know about, I don't want anyone to go through the stress that I did. I understand that a lot of you don't have any problems ordering from them, and I am happy for you, and hope you continue to have a good relationship with the company. Thanks for reading all.

Thank you for sharing that! After my recent issues from them I will no l onger order ffrom them. They STILL have not refunded all the money they owe me and the staff refuses to assist me on the phone. I am glad you posted this maybe someone else can avoid a bad experience!

Sorry you had such bad experiences. I've never ordered from them, but a company is only as good as my last experience with them.

Sometimes, it seems when a company gets too big (or gets a big head) they don't seem to care about customer service.

(Just ran into that when trying to order a sample wedding invitation for my son, but that's another story....

Guess I'll delete Sugarcraft from my list of suppliers to try.

Thanks for the heads-up!!!!

Hi, everyone. I had a similar problem last year with them. So I just haven't ordered from them again. I do get tempted to since they have the luster dust. But I just make myself not do it. I am sorry that you all have had similar problems. But there are some other places to choose form on the Net. Just look around. One bad apple really won't spoil the bunch. Just ask around the site for any positive places that people have found. You will get an overwhelmingly helpful response I am sure.

Tanya

I know nothing about this company Sugarcraft or its practices, but I do know about the Better Business Bureau. I have no idea why a lot of people believe they are on the consumer's side. First, they are a privately held company. That means they are nothing more than another business themselves with no regulatory power other than scamming other businesses.

They have a sales force that badgers businesses to sign up for their package deal, pay a yearly fee to become listed on their website and in return the company can display a nice "I am a member of the BBB" on their door, stores, websites, etc. They refuse to do anything about a company that is a member, ie customers. Some of the worst companies are on their members list.

So the next time you see a BBB member sign, think twice about what it really means.

I agree that the BBB is NOT a reliable source in all cases. I have seen them be quite hard on a business that refused to join.

As for Sugarcraft, I had good luck with them. I got what I wanted and in record time.

When you consider the hundreds and hundreds of orders they process, 27 complaints isn't a big deal. I believe that if you continue to contact them, especially in writing or by email, the issues will be resolved. Dolores has been in business a long time. Sometimes things go wrong.

JoAnn

I personally haven't had any problems with them - of course, I think I've only ordered from them 1x. I order mostly from www.cakedeco.com or www.cakecraftshoppe.com. Regarding the luster dusts, I do know that www.cakedeco.com has them, too.

After seeing the number of people on this forum whom order from them I decided to order a dozen tips and a wilton book from them. Two of the tips I ordered did not arrive but they did duplicate two of the other ones. I sent an email and they told me it must have been a mistake but I could keep they duplicated tips. Then I responded with another email that I would rather have the tips I ordered. I was told the owners were out of the country. I have been reluctant to order from them because of all the disclaimers they issue. Also the site is not set up well and I never could find a phone number to call them. The site is a mess. So I have no idea if they will follow thru on replacing my missing items. I kind of doubt it at this point because I believe I would have to pay for additional shipping and it wouldn't be worth it. Here's my email to them and the response I recieved...

I wrote:

I just received my first order from Sugarcraft and noticed 2 items were missing. My invoice number is ##### and was placed on April 28. I'm missing item number 402-353 / Tip # 353 and I'm missing item number SDT-84 / Tip # 84.
I did however receive duplicates on two of the tips I ordered. The duplicated items were SDT- # 83 and SUT-228. I was wondering if this was a mistake?
Thank you, ######

They wrote...
RE: ######
I apologize. I am out-of-the country until May 17th and will not be able speak with our sales staff. Our pickers are suppose to double check those before shipping. I will have them issue a refund for the missing items. You are welcome to keep the extra tips with our compliments.

I wrote...
I was wondering if they would send the tips that I did not receive instead of a refund? I appreciate your help! Sugarcraft came highly recommended by some of my fellow cake decorators on Cakecentral! The shipping was super fast!!! Thanks again!

and they wrote...
We won't be able to do that due to vacations. The people in authority are on vacation.
The Staff at www.sugarcraft.com


I think I'm gonna chalk it up as a small loss.

I haven't had any experience ordering from them because I thought their charge for shipping was way toooo much for me.

WOW--I order from them all the time and never have had a problem. The only thing I don't like is the cost of shipping. I used to order my boxes from them and shipping was either as much or more than the items I ordered. Now I get my boxes from Papermart.com. Got a case of 8" boxes and total cost with shipping was $49.00 (I think the boxes were $33.00). I go through 8" boxes like wildfire due to the kid's birthday parties. So it was well worth it to order a case.

I get a lot of my supplies from www.beryls.com. they have a ton of stuff that you can't find anywhere else and the customer service is great and they ship fast.

I haven't had problems receiving the items I ordered but I agree that their customer service is not the best. The first time I ordered from them I waited and waited to receive the tracking number for my order but never did. I wrote to them about it and the answers did not make sense at all. It seemed like they hadn't read my email and were responding to something else. I just placed an order with them a few days ago and had some trouble getting the invoice number. Their first response was clearly copied from a generic response so I wrote back and asked for clarification about MY case and Dolores answered the email this time.She was nice and to the point. I would say the other responses I've gotten from Customer Service have been in the borderline of rude and, definitely, condescending. When possible I get my supplies from my local cake store but I needed some specialty items that they had. By the way, my first order did arrive in record time.

Inma

WOW! Are they the ones that do things through email? I was going to order something from one of these places on the web & they said I would need to verify cc# or something via email. They didn't even have a secure website to put it on or something.

Maybe that was another place...oh well!

Sorry you all have had bad experiences.

Thanks for all the info. I am a customer service snob so i like to know things in advance.

the link here: http://www.cookscakeandcandy.com/RetailStore.asp

is really nice. If you live in wisconsin go in a check out the store. They let me taste satin ice and were really nice to my sassy kids that i had to bring into the store.....

I, too, am sorry for those who had a bad experience, but I agree about rodneyck's BBB comments. What does 27 complaints mean? Amazon.com had over 1400 complaints with many of them not resolved!

I have used sugarcraft.com many, many times with happy results and I just wanted to put my experience on the board!

One can find the phone number on the contact-us page on the website.

The phone number I'm seeing led me to believe it was the "store" and that sales clerks wouldn' t be able to assit with internet orders.

I didn't realize that the BBB was a privatly owned buisness. And I wasn't really pointing out the 27 complaints as I was the fact that Sugarcraft has been know to increase the price of orders after they were placed. To me this is just poor business. I am actually sad that I had such a poor experience with them because I really like their inventory. I do however hope that those of you who do go through sugarcraft continue to have a good experience.

I was just there a couple of days ago, and was told that the owners certainly aren't out of the country on vacation.

The woman who helped me was very nice, and said that if you have a problem that the person you call or email can't help with, to please ask for Delores and you should be able to get the problem resolved.

They process thousands of orders each week, and there are bound to be some mistakes made, just as there are at any other business that fills that many orders.

All of the people I've encountered in the store have been very nice and helpful, even though their walk-in business is by far the smaller part of their sales.

I hope those of you who have problems with them are able to get them resolved!

Laura.

Hi slejdick -

I hope you are right, the e-mail correspondence I've been having trouble resolving I just forwarded attn: Delores...I hope I get a response from her on it!

I have ordered from them and got wonderful fast service. I agree that 27 complaints are not manyw ith the size business they have.

I agree that the BBB can be harsh to business owners who choose not to join...that's just not cool, IMO.

BUT - I do believe that the BBB provides a valuable service to the consumer. What I perceive as their main objective, is to give a voice or public forum to dissatisfied or otherwise wrongly treated consumers - and a place for POTENTIAL consumers to do a little research into how a business behaves towards their consumer when there are problems.

Whenever I have accessed BBB records on a specific business, I'm not looking for the number of complaints against them only...though if that number is exceptionally high in ratio to their business volume, it definitely will have some bearing on my decision to do business with them or not. Instead, what is most important to me, the potential customer, is HOW THE ISSUE WAS RESOLVED (OR NOT) BY THE BUSINESS IN QUESTION. For those businesses that stonewall their unhappy customers with this disclaimer or another, or make no attempt whatsoever to appease the customer, I will probably decide to steer clear of...the only exception being if the customer's claim is totally unreasonable or obviously bogus. But for those business that are at least open to a dialogue w/the customer and try to make ammends, that bumps them up a few notches in my book.

It's just plain and simple GOOD WILL TOWARD THE CUSTOMER that I look for. And most businesses, I think, join the BBB for that reason alone. Most consumers believe if a business is a member of the BBB, that they most likely have the 'good will toward the customer' attitude. AFter all, it is the consumer that keeps these places operating, and that old saying of a happy customer will tell 1 or 2 people, but an unhappy one will tell 10 - is right! However, I do believe there are business out there who have no intention of ever really operating under that good will attitude, but join the BBB for no reason other than to look good to their consumer - some people think if they're a member of the BBB that they must put their customers first, etc....but that's not always the fact.

It's true that the BBB is not regulated by the govn't or even any laws. And there's really nothing, other than losing their membership in the BBB, that requires a business to follow any of their rules or recommendations in a specific complaint from a customer. And don't forget that there are people out there who abuse the BBB and svcs it offers to the public by complaining all the time about very minor things and even exaggerating their expericences w/a business, or even down right lie about it. You can only take it for what it is...experiences of a few of the whole. I use it as a 'tool' and not a deciding factor as to whether or not I do business w/someone. JMO, though

As for Sugarcraft...I've only ordered from them one time, some boxes. They had the best price on the boxes I needed, and though the shipping was high, I was in a rush. They arrived a whole day before I expected them...so that was a good experience. However, I wanted to order some things a few months later, but needed to do it by phone to ensure I was getting what I needed...had some questions. I have to say that was one of the rudest, condescending phone conversations I've ever had w/a business. And for that reason alone, I will not be ordering from them again. Of course, I didn't order that time...LOL. But, IMO, any business who acts as if they don't need your business, as this person did, is right...they don't need MY business! I'm happy to take it elsewhere to people who don't behave as if I'm beneath them and they don't have time to help me.

Okay, this post is totally freaking me out. I just put in a big order and I thought the shipping was outrageous (even for hawaii). I ordered anyway, because I really wanted the stuff. Put I wrote right on there that if the shipping was more than stated that she would need my authorization. They emailed me and said that the shipping was more and my order had been canceled. I emailed back and said that I just needed to know how much more so that I could decide if I still wanted to go through with the order. They said it didn't matter because the order had been canceled and if I want to order and need to do it all over. It took me a stinkin' hour to place the order because of the way they have the site setup you can't find anything. Not I'm definetly considering not replacing my order. I hope they don't charge my card on accident. I will definetly check before I reorder.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks their web site is a mess. I wonder if we can email a complaint about it. I just order from them the first time so I hope my transaction goes smoothly.

I just had to put my two cents in about sugarcraft. I ordered from them alot before last august. Everything came in a very timely manner and no mistakes. I was on a trip out to see my parents and sugarcraft was along the route so I thought to save shipping I would just stop in. On the way to the store I was in a hit and run accident about a block from the store. It wasn't major but I was very shaken up. Being the trooper I am I proceeded on to the store to do my business. I have never been treated so rudely in a store in all my life. I did not mention that I had driven 350 miles and that I had just been in an accident almost outside the door. I couldn't get any help from the two girls in the store and I was the only one in the store. I asked them a question about a cake pan I was looking for and was told the person that would know that wasn't there and wouldn't be back for a week. They acted like I was bothering them and seemed very glad when I left. Needless to say that I have taken my business elsewhere.

I recently placed an order with Sugarcraft. I received it quickly but...

I WAS ON EDGE THE WHOLE TIME IT TOOK TO PLACE IT!!!

I felt like they were yelling at me via the website. When I put my card number in I read the WARNING: Card must read exactly as you enter the address .ex: if it is all in caps on your bill it must be in caps on your order. It made me so paranoid that I found my latest statement to verify. Come on who knows how their statement reads? Stressful! I just needed a few things and it made me feel like I was in the principal's office. Next time I'll shop around at a more user fiendly site. Anyway I'm glad it's not just me who feels thier website is condesending.

I haven't had any problems with Sugarcraft and when i've had a question they've been very helpful. The BBB on the other hand - i'm not even going to get started on that one!

Debbie