I actually appreciate the negative feedback because these experiences really let me know that I don't need anything that these vendors are offering.
I didn't order anything this BF based on last years reviews (but I didn't want to disrupt this thread to say so) and it's more than likely I won't order anything next year based on these reviews. Call me crazy, but I expect regular folks to learn from their previous mistakes, business owners doubly so because this is their livelyhood.
Thank you to everybody who shared their feedback. It definitely helps me to make an informed decision.
This is my first experience ordering from any of these vendors and I really didn't have high expectations. Any online vendor usually ships within 24 hours (maybe 48 at the most) and packages usually arrive within a week and a half to any destination. I figured giving these vendors a MONTH, 30 days, to get the stuff to my doorstep, was being very generous.
While both vendors answered my emails about my orders, Afroveda actually sent information specifically about my order. Her one-person-team set out a schedule with goals for when each order that month would be shipped. As printed on her website, I emailed after the 8th day of not hearing anything (really the 9th b/c I count midnight as being Thursday night). My tracking info was sent on the 9/10th day. It didn't ship at that time, but I least I knew something was happening.
Hairveda, on the other hand, replied to my email and said just wait and check some non-existent order status link on the website. Her site lists a shipment time of 5 days during regular business and 10 days during sales. I'm now told that I should expect shipment after 20 business days, aka 30 calendar days. As a business woman myself, it seems ludicrous to me to put estimations in writing when you feel it's okay to overshoot them by 100%. Apparently there are all these tools that supposedly track shipment dates based on the day the order was placed...none of which exist. The blogger is aware that the shipping calendar has not been updated since July, but the company continues to glide through busy seasons with no plan of execution in place.
Furthermore, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for why my package hasn't shipped or why I haven't been given an expected ship date. I ordered 3 items at 1AM on BF. Posters with large orders and small orders going near and far have received their items. ...Maybe I should stop trying to understand the logic and (and like some posters say) just wait around until Jan. or Feb. for my Nov. order to arrive at my doorstep. I just REFUSE to believe they are so backed up that they haven't gotten to orders from the 2nd hour of their sale from over 2 weeks ago...
When all is said and done, whether I purchase again depends on the products. Small business or not, customer service, timeliness, planning and execution is expected. If they really can't keep up with the flow of customers, they need to limit the amount of product available for sale on the website...and doing so might actually make it more appealing to new customers. Even HSN and all the huge phone/online retailers do this.
Anywho..."you've seen bad reviews before" is not an excuse. I would be satisfied if they at least had a plan of action in place with at least a goal of when all BF orders should be completed.