A few days ago we discussed this shop and the time it has taken to receive our orders.. A long time which is not too unusual since they are having a major sale..However.....

Although I loved the fabric...I had to pay and exta $5.05 postage due. They stuffed the fabric into a $4.95 priority envelope and my postmaster took action and charged ME with the extra postage. When I emailed The Cotton Loft they told me to take it up with my Postmaster..well they just lost my future business...

Sorry that happened to you. I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with them in the future. I won't either. I think that is just shoddy business practice.

That sucks.
So they stuffed the fabric into the priority envelope, it made it all the way to your post office, and THEN your postmaster charged you more???
How can he do that?
If it fit the envelope, where does the extra charge come into it??

Oh, no! I emailed them, because I never heard anything! So, this is what they said---

We are swamped with orders. They are running about 7-10 days out.
Please be patient.

I hope they don't over charge me!

Well I guess he figured it didn't "fit" because the envelope was overfilled and heavily taped. The sorry part is that even if the Postmaster is wrong...and like it would probably not help to scream at him LOL..I felt the sender should be made aware of this. I did not expect them to say "OH WELL!"

It is weird that your postman would charge extra like that. I have taken in things to my post office and they have stuffed them in the small priority where they had to tape it shut and sent them for me.

Maybe my PM was having a bad day...my Postman was so apologetic..he said he questioned the PM, but was told to collect the $$.

I have tried contacting Cotton Loft several times to ask a question about my order and have gotten no response - either by phone or email so at least now I know it's not a scam. Was afraid I had just lost my money!

Dealing with the Post Office can be tough!

How many yards of fabric were in the envelope? We've been able to send 8 yards in an envelope. Since we don't quite trust the adhesive on the seal, we run a single row of clear tape along the join, just to be sure.

And we did have to have "a serious discussion" with the Post Office about how much we can put in the envelope. We've sent many thousands of envelopes out, and only once did we hear from a customer that they had the same problem you did.

What can be a problem, I think, is if too much tape was used to seal the envelope. The PO sometimes objects to that.

I really think that was the case. It only contained 5 yards but it was clearly overly taped. I have received many "taped" packages before and never had this problem...I just think the sender should have been a little more sympathetic when I told them about it or maybe I'm just whining...but being unemployed just now...my $5.05 could have been used in a better way.

I would be very upset with the quilt shop and the postmaster. I would want to know from the postmaster, why he is charging the extra. The attitude at the quilt shop shows very poor custmer service. If a quilt shop does not have great customer service, I do not deal with them. There are too many shops around that appreciate my business.

Cotton Loft, welcome to my "Never Shop At" list.
That is terrible that they would reply to you that way! Whether or not the Postmaster should have charged you extra is beside the point! Good CS demands that they make good with you and take it up with their post office who allowed the package to ship in the first place!

One has to wonder who the person was to whom you spoke at the shop. I can hardly imagine an owner saying such a thing (then again?); perhaps it wasn't an owner but a disgruntled employee; do you know for sure?

Also, I thought the shipping post office was responsible for deciding the charges. The way this one sounds, anybody along the line could tack on whatever they wished. And, the fact that the delivery person questioned the additional fees demanded by the PM makes me really suspicious of the PM's actions. Hindsight says you might have needed to ask for an official receipt in case the extra was going into his pocket!

Bad karma all around! Sorry it happened to you.
Jan

I think I would take it with the postmaster and not trash this (small) company
who did everything in good faith. Imagine if you had a fabric business and
every customer start calling you because their PM charged them extra.
What would you do?

I think I would take itup with the PM. They should not be able to tack on extra chrges!

I did get a "paid" receipt from my postman, and the responses were from the company's owner. So "trashing"??? Really! I would want to know if one of my customers had to pay extra postage on something I sent to them, AND I would do something as a gesture of good faith.

So as to not let some believe that I am "trashing" a business, I will ask the moderator to close this discussion.

My friend just ordered some decorative collars for mother-daughter dresses for the holidays.One day I got the mail and this huge envelope was in it but one of the corners was torn off!You could see that the collars had been stuffed into it with no room to spare.If it had rained that day the material inside would have gotten wet.The door on the mailbox falls down from time to time.This isnt good business is it to send packages that are stuffed to the breaking capacity?

Since I have several orders coming from Cotton Loft, I contacted my PM. I was told if you can pack it in and it is not just covered with tape to hold it together, it goes for the special rate. He showed me some that were 3" thick in the middle, all were clearly extremely well packed, more than I would have done. He said the postage you pay at the time of shipping is THE postage period. You should go to your PO and complain. When I mentioned this to one of the girls at CL, they said they had been doing this for years and never had a pkg. come back for more postage or rejected by USPS.

I think you should contact a higher-up in the Post Office system and tell them that your local PM is charging extra fees. How do you know the "extra" went into the till???

I wonder what the higher official would say about all that!!

Locked per OP's request.