Hi everyone. I should have posted this first, but didn't. I just ordered from them. Would you all post your experience with them? Thanks, Pat

I've only ordered from them once, but no problems. I was happy.

I buy from them all the time!! They're the best there is for selection, service, quality, everything! Don't worry...you did good. ;)

I've had good reliable service from them. Excellent quality as well.

They are very well known for good quaility fabrics and reliable service :D:D:D

I have never ordered from them.

I've ordered from them - no worries. Very reputable and reliable. Also www.equilter.com - but they are not a discount place so keep that in mind if that's what you're looking for.

ordered many times, never disappointed. Good sales on clearance items! quick ship too!

I have ordered from them many times over the last few years, never a problem, excellent quality fabric.

I have ordered from them for years. Very good service, just expensive compared to some others.

I've ordered several times from Hancocks of Paducah and had one minor problem -- the sent the wrong shade of one fabric. When I called, they sent to correct shade out right away and told me to keep the original one they sent. I've also have very good luck w/ connectingthreads.com and 5bucksayard.com, among others. All three have awesome sales, and connectingthreads.com has free shipping on orders over $50. Check out their thread -- on sale now, and their fabrics are nice. And, no, I don't work for them...LOL!

I have ordered from Hancock's a lot, and have always had very good service and results. I've never gotten a bad piece of fabric from them - unlike some other web sources!! :)

Only ordered once but the service and the fabric were both great.

I love conneting threads!!

Connecting Threads has good fabric and Threads, I have bought both. Never bought from Hancocks.

i ONLY ORDERED FROM THEM ONCE...AND THAT WAS ENOUGH!! I am in the minority here. The fabric shipped quickly, but the fabric quality was awful!! The fabric was very flimsy and constantly frayed. I almost threw the entire project out I was so frustrated. Instead it sat as a WIP for three years!! It did eventually get done, but I hesitate to try it again. Maybe it was just that particular line, because multiple fabrics from the collection did the same thing. Maybe I will try them again one day.

Since they only sell fabrics made by well known manufacturers, I'm sure the quality issue had nothing to do with HofP. What was it that you ordered? You aren't confusing them with Hancock Fabrics are you?

no...it was from them. I'll have to look and see if I have any left. I think i threw it away though. my gf in CA picked out the fabric from their website (we were on the phone together looking for fabric.) anyways, they were the only site that had been recommended to me at that time..this was 4 yrs ago almost.

A few years ago I ordered fabric from them. I received all my order, except for the piece I wanted the most. When I ordered it, the website showed that it was in stock. When I get the invoice, it says the fabric was on backorder. I had ordered several yards of it, so I decided to wait because I didn't want to buy from somewhere else and then have them get the fabric in and I'd end up with twice as much as a wanted. (At the time, several other sites had the fabric as well.)

So, about four months after my order had been placed, I get an e-mail from them stating that they cannot fill my order. I immediately start searching for the fabric. I called at least fifty quilt stores (from the manufacturers' retail list) and not one still had the fabric. I searched extensively on the web looking for a store in the USA that carried the fabric, to no avail. I found one in England that had it, but it was $15.00 a meter, plus international shipping. Because I wanted the fabric, I ordered it. It ended up costing me substantially more than I originally would have paid had it come from Hancocks of Paducah or another place in the States.

Since then, I haven't ordered from them. They should not have advertised it on their website if they could not procure more. I didn't want to order something again, only to be told it was on backorder.

MistyMarie,

I've never ordered from Hancock's of Paducah myself, but I can think of a couple of ways that a fabric can appear to be "in stock" on a website, but actually out of stock.

First... most websites are not synchronized, in real time, with what's actually in inventory. It's typical for the website inventory to be updated once a day (probably at night). If a webstore also has walk-in customers, or takes orders by phone, then as soon as they make a walk-in or phone sale, then they're going to have less inventory than what their website thinks they do.

Also... we all know that sadly, you can have a brand new, full bolt of fabric, and when you start to unroll it, there's a repeating flaw that goes through several yards, and guess what that does to your inventory amount? Since you're not going to sell those flawed yards, you actually have fewer yards available than what you thought. So you have to adjust the quantity on hand to reflect what is actually salable (sellable?) but that's not going to happen instantaneously.

My guess is that for whatever reason, Hancocks of Paducah came up short on the fabric, went to reorder it, and then found out much later that the fabric wasn't available. Most likely the manufacturer decided not to reprint it. And the manufacturers don't communicate well with their customers and/or distributors, in that if they run out of a fabric, they don't bother to take the time to tell their customer or distributor that the fabric isn't going to be coming after all, they just don't ship it. And so the quilt shop doesn't have a clue that this fabric they've been patiently waiting for is unavailable, until the order becomes overdue and they wind up nagging their supplier about it. We spend several hours a week doing this nagging process, so that we can let our customers know ASAP if a fabric turns out to be unavailable. Any of us wearing this "nagging" hat get the job title Procurement Expedition SpecialisT. PEST, for short.

Hope these insights are of some help. I'm sure that Hancocks didn't intend for it to turn out the way it did.

Oh - and by the way - a quilt shop doesn't know that a fabric has gone out of print until they try to order more... and can't get it! The best a shop can do is make a guess, as to whether a fabric is from a collection that's old enough that it's unlikely there's more available. It's still a guess, though, as sometimes a fabric will be already all sold out by the time the manufacturer receives it from the overseas mill.

Thank you for giving me that explanation. I have never had to be a purchaser for a retail business, so now I have a much better understanding.

My LQS at the time was just getting started out and she often ordered fabric from discontinued lines because they were cheaper. I didn't know this when I purchased several yards of the coordinating fabric to the line. That is when I started searching for it. I was thrilled to find it on the web, but because it was an older line, I bet that is why so many places sold out and did not restock.

Next time, if I find that the fabric I want is back-ordered, I will try to get it wherever I can and then cancel the back-order. Thanks!

(I believe wholeheartedly in "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" so keep squeaking away and being a PEST! Your customers will thank you.)

I have ordered from them, and never had a problem. I have a friend that uses them all the time, depending on availability and when they post - sometimes we receive our parcels within the week. Can't complain about that. :-D

I ordered from them one time and it was the worst online ordering experience of my life. They sent the wrong fabric, and initially offered to have UPS pick it up or for me to buy it at 30% discount. Then before I had even read that e-mail, they sent another e-mail recanting their offer and saying that I had simply ordered the wrong fabric. Which I found rather stunning, since it's obvious from looking at what they sent that it was not what I ordered. They finally did say that I could return it, but it would have to be on my dime. Which I did. I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever order from them again.

I have never ordered from them.

I have never ordered from HOP, but if you are looking for batiks, go to Mary Jo's Cloth Store. They have a HUGE selection and all are a little over $6 a yard. I have found their fabric to be of excellant quality.

I ordered 2 bolts of their nice Muslin from them. They sent the wrong stuff. So I called & they arranged to have it picked up at their expense & the right Muslin mailed to me. Within a few days I recieved 3 bolts of the right Muslin but I had only ordered 2 and in 2 diff. widths. I called them and they wanted me to send the one bolt back at my expense. We chatted & finally they said to just keep the bolt. I did. Since then I have ordered once and they got my order correct but I was very leery. I prefer to order elsewhere actually.

The best thing about them is the catalog you get. WOW can you drool over it for hours.
I like them very much and have had no problems with orders.
But most of my shopping is at http://quiltinaday.com
They have an extensive area called fabric frensy with alot of 3 dollar a yard good fabric.

I have purchased from them several times and I am very very happy.

I ordered 3 yds. of backing on Feb. 12. It is on back order and can "take as long as 30 days" for them to get it. Web specials are NOT back ordered if they are unavailable, but this was not a web special, so I am counting on getting it. It's the final piece of the puzzle, which means that I have all the other fabrics that I need to make my yummy French Braid quilt.

This is my first HofP order and will determine if I order from them again or not.

Got my 3 yards of backing fabric today, with an extra 6 inches. They shipped it by FedEx just 2 days ago, so that makes the $10.00 S&H easier to live with. Plus, they enclosed a nice fat 2010 catalog; my old one was from 2002. So I am happy with my first ordering experience with HofP.