[reelay]

Hi all,

I ordered some 7.5-8mm freshwater peacock pearls from integrity around the 7th of december... about 5 weeks ago. i know that they closed for the holidays to catch up on stuff and to ship out orders and reopened on the 26th. I figured I would get my pearls in at least 2 weeks. I send them an e-mail asking about the status of my order on the 16th.

On the 19th of december they send out an e-mail saying that they're having issues with their system and will ship out my pearls as soon as possible. They notify me on the 22nd that the pearls on on the way. On the website they say they ship using priority, and are based in cali. I live in GA. So 2-3 business days right? In the shipment notification e-mail they say that the pearls will get to me around the 28th, or the 29th at the latest.

January 2nd rolls by. Still no pearls. That's around 5-6 business days, more than enough time for the pearls to arrive. By this time I'm very worried about my order. I go to the post office 2 times to ask if they have a package that is mine that may have had a wrong address. I send integrity pearls an e-mail asking about the order and saying that I think that the order is lost. During this time around the I e-mail, call, and leave voicemails for them multiple times.

They respond with the e-mail attached below on the 11th of January. What I don't understand is they still have the same exact pearls that I ordered on their website. Does that mean that Everyone that orders these pearls is having the exact same ridiculous amount of delays to their orders? Blaming my order's delays on supplying issues from China is difficult to believe since they are still selling these pearls on their website. If they truly are out of stock of these pearls, then they would take the pearls off of the website and not sell them until they are in stock again, otherwise they're just creating a huge headache for themselves. I believe that my order was misplaced, and then marked as shipped, and then forgotten about until I e-mailed them again. 9 days later, they reply to me blaming shipment issues with China that are out of their control. I still have not received my shipment. It has been 5 weeks.

I really want to order some $70.00 pearls for my mom for her and my dad's 30th anniversary and make my mom a traditional one strand white pearl necklace. But with the delayed customer service that I have experienced I don't know if I want to go through with the 2nd order. If I don't receive the pearls from integrity, i will contact them for a refund and hopefully get a response before the end of the month. As for the 2nd order I am reluctant to purchase because I feel like it will just cause another headache for me.

Thanks for reading about my frustration,

Ray

__________________________________________________ _
Dear Ray,

We apologize for the delay of your order. A minor setback in delivery happened with our supplier, thus the delay. This is the last batch of orders out of China, and by next week our inventory will be back in the US. You will not have to wait again for weeks for you order to come, we assure you that.

Your order has been sent to our office in Los Angeles and will be forwarded to you over the weekend.

Again, we apologize for the delay..and thank you for being our customer...

Sincerely,
Rona, Integrity Pearls
__________________________________________________ _____

[SpaceNeedle]

I looked up the company on the BBBOnline website and here's the report on this company.

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Bu...nyID=100051485

After an unpleasant experience with AngelaCarolPearls.com, I only make on-line purchases from companies with satisfactory record and 0 complaints with the BBB. Here's the definition of 'Satisfactory Record':

To have a "satisfactory record" with the Bureau, a company must be in business for at least 12 months, properly and promptly address matters referred to it by the Bureau, and be free from an unusual volume or pattern of complaints and law enforcement action involving its marketplace conduct. In addition, the Bureau must have a clear understanding of the company's business and no concerns about its industry.

[Pearl_dreams]

I ordered some peacock pearls from them on eBay a few months ago with plans to make a bracelet that would match, more or less, a necklace I had already strung from pearls bought at a gem show.

From their photo showing multiple examples of the pearls being sold, I had every reason to think the colors and shape (they were circled pearls) would be a reasonable match.

The pearls arrived promptly but were different from the representative pearls photographed. The were far less colorful -- the photo showed nice blue, green and purple tones but the pearls that arrived were dull. I would not have bought them had I seen them in person.

Also, they weren't circled, so they would not have matched my necklace (I know their not being circled makes them a higher grade, but my point is that they didn't suit the purpose I bought them for.) Because they cost so little, I did not feel it was worth my time or money to return them for a refund.

I had been thinking of ordering their highest quality white round loose strand pearls to string myself, but have decided that for this item, I'm better off buying at a local show where I can see the pearls I'm getting.

Edit: I finally decided to go ahead and make a bracelet anyway this week out of the peacock pearls I got from Integrity. (Might as well, since I was keeping them!) There were enough somewhat colorful ones to make a bracelet. For the small amount of money I spent on the pearls, I am satisfied.

[Caitlin]

Sorry to hear your feedback about Integrity. I have ordered from them 3-4 times. I know from their newsletter that they have been struggling with the shipping thing. They seem to solve it and then they have to do it again. They were shipping from Canada at first, then LA.......But there should be no excuse for sending the wrong pearls! The main reason I haven't ordered from them lately is I haven't liked any of their pearls. I do/did like the ease of online shopping with them.

Pearl Emporium is a good outfit, but their eBay store has no pictures until you click through to the individual strands. I finally got fed up with it. I made a small order from pearllunar and I hope they have "integrity". Of course the shipping is from China and takes awhile.

Now if only Jeremy would sell beading pearls.........in at least the natural colors.......

[knotty panda]

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

Now if only Jeremy would sell beading pearls.........in at least the natural colors.......

Getting the beading pearls in naturals isn't the problem. It's the prices they want for beading strands!

I'm sticking up for Integrity here. They are restructuring. They are revamping. They are reworking. They are moving their operations back to Canada. Doug is a great guy. He WILL work with you. Give him a chance. We all need a second chance every now and then ... or a third ... or a fourth ...

If you have ever been in business, you'll know businesses are not like people. People can take a rest on their laurels every once in a while. Businesses have to keep moving. If they aren't going forward, they are stagnating. Real simple. He's working things to bring "more better" inventory, prices. I realize you work hard for your money, but time and patience go a very long way.

[jshepherd]

I have never heard anything on this forum but positive comments about Integrity Pearls. I believe a lot of our "lowly beaders" buy from them.
Slip-ups can be frustrating. No sellers are immune to them. But I am sure if you voice your frustration to them they will make it right in the end. I don't know Doug personally but all the comments I have heard in the past have been positive.

[jerin]

Hi Ray,

I just checked how much time the deliveries from Integrity take to Sweden and it is between 3 to 5 weeks. Integrity has very low shipping costs and pearl qualities up to AA grade compared with Pearl Paradise.

Sometimes they also have Super Premium Pearls, which are AAA to AA+ in my opinion!

I too would wish for a more speedy delivery but our vendors from USA have also deliverytimes of 3 - 4 weeks to arrive here in Europe.

Douglas has compensated me at one time for the delay. Email him and I am sure he will answer as soon as possible.

Have You thought about checking on the lower part of a certain pearl (in this case the black ones), how many are still left? It nearly always says "4 strands" or whatever there is in stock. The picture then should show you the actual pearls you can get, when seeing how many strands are left.

[knotty panda]

That is high praise, indeed, Jerin. And I know you know your pearl quality.

[jerin]

Originally Posted by knotty panda

That is high praise, indeed, Jerin. And I know you know your pearl quality.

Hi Knotty
and thanks for the compliment. Most pearls from Integrity are not quite what I wish for, but for beading and training they offer great prices.

[Pearl_dreams]

When I bought my peacock pearls from them, I inquired about their 8mm white premium pearls. This is what Doug replied about those pearls-- the information may help anyone wanting to buy these pearls and it may save the seller having to repeat himself answering more emails about the same items:

"You were asking particularly about the white 8mm "premium" pearls. Well, they are the best pearls that we sell, and so far, everybody who ordered them seemed to be pleased with the quality (no returns). I hesitate to "grade" them, but I think they would normally fall into the "A" grade - typical "acceptable" surface imperfections (the odd dimple, for example), but with excellent luster, smoothness and reasonably close to round. The price for 8mm's skyrockets the closer they get to perfect, but these are a very good combination of luxury with affordability; as a fininshed necklace, they would appraise at several times this price. I think the other bead sellers who sell pearls do not sell this quality of pearl. It's something we are trying to develop especially for our designer customers who want the premium quality."

[jerin]

Originally Posted by Pearl_dreams

When I bought my peacock pearls from them, I inquired about their 8mm white premium pearls. This is what Doug replied about those pearls-- the information may help anyone wanting to buy these pearls and it may save the seller having to repeat himself answering more emails about the same items:

"You were asking particularly about the white 8mm "premium" pearls. Well, they are the best pearls that we sell, and so far, everybody who ordered them seemed to be pleased with the quality (no returns). I hesitate to "grade" them, but I think they would normally fall into the "A" grade - typical "acceptable" surface imperfections (the odd dimple, for example), but with excellent luster, smoothness and reasonably close to round. The price for 8mm's skyrockets the closer they get to perfect, but these are a very good combination of luxury with affordability; as a fininshed necklace, they would appraise at several times this price. I think the other bead sellers who sell pearls do not sell this quality of pearl. It's something we are trying to develop especially for our designer customers who want the premium quality."

I just have to chime in and tell once again that I bought pearls called "Super Premium", they are very seldom seen at Integrity and cost a lot more than their premium quality.

[reelay]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I received the pearls this past
thursday in the mail through usps priority. It looks like they
were set aside for me in china and then shipped over here since
the package from china had my name on it and it was sealed.
I guess they were dealing with it from the beginning, I just didn't
know about it.

spaceneedle, I looked them up on bbb, and they came up good,
besides one complaint that was dealt with in a satisfactory manner.
Overall I like the idea of integrity pearls. And they seem to be
genuinely concerned about their customers.

pearldreams, I too am experiencing a discrepancy between the
pearls I was expecting and the pearls I got. the minimum and
maximum range of the pearls was from 6.1mm to 7.49mm. The
pearls I ordered were labeled as 7.5mm to 8mm. I would say the
average pearl size would be around 6.5mm. I have pictures of
the dial caliper that I used and also the sorted pearls. They're
now sitting in plastic bags waiting for integrity pearl's response
to my e-mail that I sent them.


As a side note, I wasn't trying to find fault in the pearls that
integrity sent me. I was just trying to measure and sort the
pearls so I could start the string them in an order that I liked.
As you can see, I'd hoped for 8.0mm+ pearls...
and the only reason why I had 6.25+ originally as a measurement was
because I eyed the smallest pearl out the batch, measured it, and saw
that i would need a category as small as 6.25mm+.

Here's the largest pearl out of the whole batch, with its
largest diameter.



Here's the smallest of all the pearls... around 6.12mm



This is all the pearls sorted out into .25mm increments. The
3 pearls on the bottom right are all above 6.0mm but below
6.25mm. I measured the pearls for sorting solely based on hole
to hole distance. But again, the maximum measurement on
the largest pearl was just 7.49mm as shown 2 pictures above.


Here's the zeroed dial caliper. I had put 2 layers of duck tape
on the calipers in order to keep the nacre from being scratched
by the hard steel on the caliper jaws. I accounted for a ~.3mm
difference between the actual measurement and what the dial
caliper was showing.


Caitlin, you're right about them doing a revamp of their company.
I also wish jeremy would sell beading pearls=) I will start to
search new venues for beading pearls if integrity pearls doesn't
come through. i have about 1.5 months to come up with a
relatively nice strand of pearls for my mom. I'll check out the
two stores you recommended.

knottess, you're right on all counts. I had gotten myself worked
up because I didn't feel like the e-mails coming from them were
personalized, more like bulk e-mails sent to everyone that was
having issues with their shipments. I had been scammed before
in this same manner and I was wary. But I received a very
pleasant e-mail from Rona this past week, and they definitely
did get the pearls to me very quickly once they had the inventory.
I have taken your advice and settled down to let them reorganize
and get back to me when they're ready.

jeremy, I had read many great things about integrity from some
of the threads in the forum, which is why I chose to purchase
from them in the first place. Plus they were in my price range
as well, and I'd always liked making jewelry. I've taken your
advice as well.

Jerin, i can understand the shipping delays to europe being 3-5
weeks... when I try to ship myself to europe, it is usually
delayed by a couple years=) The pearls the I got from doug
are of excellent luster and just a few surface blemishes.
There's only 1 pearl that I was not happy with, besides the
size, and that was because it had half a ring of non-shiny nacre
around it. The pearls were all semi-round, anywhere from
.1mm to .3mm in discrepancies between largest and smallest
diameters on a single pearl. I was pleased with them overall,
if only they were the size that I was expecting. I didn't have
any marking on the strand of on the package about how
many strands they had left. I believe that they had set aside
this package of pearls for me in china and shipped it over
with lots of other pearls. hopefully i'll be able to land some
super-premiums for my mom. But i'll have to hear back from
doug about that.

Thanks again everyone for your input, I'll keep you posted
about what happens regarding this in the future.

Ray

[jerin]

Hi Reelay and all other readers of this excellent forum,

I have to make a comment on the size issue, because I too have experienced that the pearls barely come up to the size I have ordered! I have written emails on that to Integrity but since the Chinese have got from a 0,5 mm to a whole 1 mm difference in pearlsize on a single strand, the only thing to do is being prepared to get the smallest size mentioned, that way you are not going to be disappointed!

The Super Premium pearls do come up very seldom so if you can afford it, I would think you should buy this months Special from PP, these pearls are guaranted better in shape and luster, especially as they were originally loose pearls (the highest quality set aside for earrings) and 305 dollars, if I remember correctly, is a very reasonable price for a strand of this quality. Besides it is for your mother,.

Coming back to Integrity, this size issue is the thing that frustrates me the most and I hope Doug can get either a better way with his suppliers about their sizing specifications or if that does not work, that the correct size is given on the ordering sites, so the consumer will know what to expect.

And if a strand says 7-8 mm it should not include pearls that are just a bit over 6 mm and the largest and perhaps only pearl is under 8 mm. Than it should state 6-7,5 mm or something like that!

[PearlStruck.com]

The size issue is so frustrating. It all comes down to what they in China call material sizing and strand sizing.

Very often you will see strands of pearls that are .5-.0 mm, or sized in half millimeter increments. These are typically exact-size strands. Some factories will do this with whole millimeter increments as well, but the buyer pays a premium and specifically requests this.

Material sizing is what most buyers (and factories for that matter) are at the mercy of. Every year the material factories determine what material sizing will be. Once upon a time it was like getting 9/10th of a gallon of gas in the States. We call it a gallon of gas, but we all know it is only a 9/10th of a gallon. Materials were once downsized by only 1/10th of a millimeter.

But as pearls are bought and sold by weight, every time the market changes and material sizes are downsized, the factories have just substantially increased their incomes. Today materials are downsized by a full half a millimeter. And the percentages within the downsized materials have dropped dramatically. Only 25% of the pearls on average will be in the upper half of the millimeter range.

This can all be very frustrating for buyers and consumers.

[Caitlin]

That is the new Chinese sizing. It is legal. So if you order 6.5-7, your largest pearl will be 6.5, maybe 6.6 so count on them being at least a mm smaller than advertised......Jeremy has to buy like that, but he does not sell like that.