Customer ReviewsforBlick Art Materials

I made an order yesterday using exactly the same shipping information I always have, which has consistently resulted in speedy delivery via ***** to my home address. The last time I successfully made such an order was less than two weeks ago. This time, the website seemed to be experiencing a glitch and wouldn’t allow me to select any shipping options other than USPS, with the earliest possible delivery being in two weeks. I put the order through and immediately—I’m talking within minutes—contacted customer service to expedite shipping, as I need these materials next week for one of the biggest job opportunities of my career and live rurally. I was told that my order was “already locked” and that even though it will be weeks until I see the materials and clearly quite some time before the shipment could possibly be put together and leave the building, they couldn’t make any changes to the shipping details. It’s obvious that there was a problem on their website preventing me from choosing better shipping options, a fact that the bureaucratic drones I spoke to via email and later on the phone confirmed without apology or any attempt to get around the “lock” on my order. Beyond frustrating, costly for my little business, and an insane way to conduct online ordering.

I'm sorry for the experience you had on our website. While a physical address and a PO Box were provided, our system recognizes the PO Box and will only provide USPS as an option. There is a point where the order is in process where we are unable to make any changes to it. I can only assume this is what happened with your order when you indicate it was locked. To prevent the USPS option, please provide only the physical address for shipping. We do offer ***** Home Delivery to a residential address for a small upcharge, and delivery would be much faster. I have left a voice mail for you as well as sending you an email, we can reship this order for you, but want to confirm you would still like the order. Please respond at your earliest convenience.

I have ordered from Dick Blick for many years. The employees are friendly, but their system is the pits. It took 17 emails back and forth today to place an order using a quote request, because of site workflow glitches. It has been this way for years. They told me today to NOT log in before shopping, THEN shop, THEN add my login information or the proper price is not reflected in checkout. Ridiculous. I asked who I could talk to in IT or web development and was told to fill out the customer service form on their site, which in itself has duplicate boxes for comments and duplicate boxes for user data. I filled out one set of the boxes, put notes in the duplicate boxes to see the first boxes, submitted it and got a note from an employee that they are sorry for the problem with my order, but that I left the box describing the problem blank! So I sent them a screenshot showing all the duplicate boxes on their customer service form. I got a reply saying "sorry for your duplicate order, which products were duplicated" bla bla bla. Crazy making! Horrible experience every time. I took a screen recording of my order experience to send to IT but no one is really interested in fixing the problems which have existed for years. You have to use the telephone and read out item numbers like it's 1985, or memorize workarounds so you can do an institutional order on dickblick.com

Thank you for the order, we do appreciate your business. We are sorry for the problem you experienced with our contact us page. We did have an issue and it was resolved shortly after you contacted us.

After ordering, my order was packed and then sat in the warehouse for an entire week. I tried in vain to cancel the order but was told it was too late since it was already packed. It arrived 9 business days after I ordered it which according to Blick is just fine and I'm not owed anything. I've never ordered anything online that took this long. It was, in fact, too long and I had to buy all the supplies locally before the class I ordered them for. Now I have twice as much as I need. I'll never order from Blick again if I can help it.

The order was placed on our website on January 15, 2024, and we offered several options for shipping. The shipping that was selected was Economy, with an expected delivery date of January 25, 2024. Faster options were available, but not chosen. We did start processing the order on January 15th. There is a point in the process where we are unable to cancel an order, and when you contacted us, the order was too far along to stop. The order did ship on January 19th, and was delivered by ***** on January 25th, the date provided when the order was placed. Our apologies that our service was unacceptable to you. If you wish to return the merchandise, please contact our Customer Service department at 800-723-2787, we will be happy to pay for the return.

We agree on the details. Did you also look at the numerous times I asked customer service if they could do anything at all to help me and they could do absolutely nothing for a solid week? Worst online shopping experience I've ever had. I suppose it's on me for not checking the shipping speed, it never occurred to me it could be as long a 9 (!!!) business days. I've only seen that on stuff that has to ship overseas.

I am mortified at my recent experience of an online order of open stock pencils from blick art. I placed my order on January 8th, 2024. The order arrived within a reasonable amount of time. The problem is I order over 177.00 worth of open stock pencils. 57 of the pencils were placed in a loose plastic bag. 12 pencils were placed in a pencil box and 6 other pencils were place is a pencil box. I do not understand how an art supply store packaged 57 expensive pencils improperly. The pencils were all damaged, tips broken and cores damaged. I called customer service and spoke to a nice lady to stated she would send me a return shipping label and also send a new order of the 57 pencils. She assured me the new order would be packed in proper pencils boxes. New order arrived after about a week but THEY LITERALLY DID THE SAME EXACT THING. PACKED ALL THE PENCILS IN A PLASTIC BAG. This time the put the bag inside a large box (not a pencils box as promised) there was no bubble wrap or cushioning around the pencils. Then they put the large box inside a larger box. I immediately called and was shocked with the rep proceeded to argue with me for 20 minutes claiming that this was proper packaging. I ended up letting her go but so dissapointed. She literally said, how are we supposed to put them in pencil boxes if we don't have one. I said, I dunno you are an art store, figure it out. Her response was we are a warehouse!! Not sure what she even meant by that. DO NOT ORDER SUPPLIES FROM BLICK

Thank you for sharing your experience, and I'm sorry we did not meet your expectations for shipping the open stock pencils. The pencils that were received inside the pencil boxes, quantities 6 and 12 are because they are case picks. That is how we receive them from the manufacturer. We do ship the loose pencils inside a plastic bag, this prevents them from rolling around so much inside the box. Within that box should be filler to prevent movement, and it appears this did not happen. We have been shipping pencils as stated for quite some time. We may have tried other methods, but putting the pencils inside a bag and then inside a box with filler has worked best for us. We have shipped the order twice, if you are not satisfied, please use the return label to return both shipments for a full refund.

Thank you for the response, for clarity, the entire order has not shipped twice. A partial order of the pencils inside the bag were shipped a second time. For the first shipment the order only place in an envelope and not a box. Your information states to report damaged orders immediately, which I did. The first rep I spoke with assured me the pencils would be shipped in pencil boxes. For the second order the pencils were still in a bag and inside a large box however, there was no filler material inside the box to prevent movement which is what I was trying to point out to the customer service agent. Additionally, the second order did not even contain the correct pencils, there was random pencils from other brands. Placing pencils in a bag inside an envelope or a box without filler material such does nothing to protect the core. Blick is an art supply retailer and should understand that pencils core are damaged easily. I will send a picture to your customer service email,

I love the diversity of products but returns are a pain. Why do they not include a return label? Would make the process easier.

Thank you for recognizing the merchandise we offer, we hope to be able to provide products to fit every artist's wishes. Our return policy dates back to the start of our business in 1911. While it is very lenient our returns are very minimal, so providing a return label on each order seems needless. When a return is necessary, please email, call or chat with us, we will be happy to assist with the return of the product.

Today's threat from a store employee on *** **** in *** ********* is the last time I'll be shopping in this chain! I had already picked out some items, was them trying to find some embroidery thread colors to purchase, there's a very unprofessional looking employee dressed like a homeless person who started hovering over me because I was trying to pick colors out, didn't really need or care for this person's 'help'. I'm local to the Bay Area, but I really don't appreciate being threatened with comments about being kicked out! For what reason? There wasn't one!!! I'm not a thief, never given these ridiculous looking people any reason to speak to me that way. Let me clarify something to the corporate staff & CEO of Blick--- your stores are empty because of the staff, especially out here! I used to go in there weekly, I buy a lot of art pens, but it's looking like I'll have no other choice but to go to some other chains like ******** or even ******* if prices continue to remain high in these stores! It's pretty disturbing to be stalked inside a store by an employee when they're neither qualified or customer service minded in any way! Go work out your personal problems back wherever you came from! Go to another state, threaten people that way & see how it works out for you!

Thank you for reaching out to us. At Blick, we always strive to give every individual the best personalized and top-notch customer service. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you would like to discuss this further. You can reach me by phone at 415.409.1359 or by email at BlickVanNessGM@dickblick.com. E D*** – General Manager

I was the victim of fraud, and the perpetrator made a sizable purchase from this online store that I had never heard of prior. I spoke with a chat representative named Isaiah and the interaction was appalling. Not only was I expected to PAY to return the purchase I didn't authorize, but I was basically accused of lying. What reason would there be to lie if I want to cancel the order in the first place and not have it sent at all? There was a general attitude of "sucks to be you" in how he handled the situation. I have extensive experience in customer service, and this is not how you do it... even when the customer is being unreasonable, which was not the case.

Our apologies for the lack of support and empathy regarding your situation. Our chat team is not trained to handle fraud, and we should have requested that you give us a call. We have a special team that handles payment issues and are trained to help in situations like this. It appears that you did contact us by phone and we were able to assist with the package.

Jenn, a "goth" assistant manager at the Downtown San Diego location, treated me very badly. I have been a very longtime customer since well before the store was overtaken by Blick Art. It was ** ********, then the Art Store before it was Blick Art. She told me my Educator status had to be renewed and she couldn't give me my discount unless I showed her proof of being employed as an Educator. I formerly taught Art at several public schools and private academies. I still teach art at conventions across the country and have spent well over $5000 as a walk-in patron of Blicks. I told her I didn't have a business card on me as I was never notified that I had to renew eligibility. She scoffed and belittled me as if I was a liar. Yet, just prior to my sale, she happily small talked some goth customers and gave them a student discount even though they clearly said they weren't in school. It was clear prejudice. Her associate sitting next to her on a chair didn't even step in to say anything. All other employees were extremely helpful and kind to me. Jen was the worst employee I had ever dealt with at Blicks.

We have reached out to Mr. ****** regarding his recent visit to the San Diego location, and want to emphasize that we do take all customer feedback seriously and use it to educate our team and improve the level of service we provide. It is always our goal that every customer have a positive shopping experience while in our store.

Love their products but their coupons are a scam. Going to look for another retailer. Tired of dealing with coupon scammers.

Our coupon promotions offer our customers the opportunity to earn specific dollar amounts off on a future order. Orders that qualify will have the coupons sent approximately 15 days after the end of the promotion. The coupons are used as payment on the order, decreasing any amount left to pay. Since the coupons are good for one year, it’s a chance to save them throughout the year to apply toward that special item you may have been wanting.

This place was amazing for getting me the supplies I needed for my art. 10/10

Thank you for sharing with us, we appreciate your business and hope you will continue to look to us for your creative needs.