Hats by Leko

3April 2011: I wrote the review below nearly a year ago, and still consider it a fair, positive spin on a pretty negative customer experience. 

That said, I received an e-mail yesterday by the owner of Hats by Leko, who was concerned about the impact this review was having on her business and offering a store credit as an apology for last year's customer service issue.

As a customer, I appreciate her efforts to remedy the situation, regardless of the time frame.  As a small business owner, I know how difficult it can be to juggle everything alone, every day, and not let customers see when things are particularly challenging.  Between personal experience and reading glowing reviews by others, I'd like to think our conversation was just part of a rough day and her comment simply didn't come across as intended.

Considering Ms. Leko's kind communication and attempt to overcome the original issue in her e-mail yesterday, I'm delighted to update the original review and improve my rating of Hats by Leko. :)

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I love to brag about good service, so I don't actually like writing this review. In fact, let me say how thrilled I was to find the huge selection of millinery supplies, especially vintage stamens, at hatsupply.com; I immediately started making a long list of items to order when I found the site. Wonderful, hard to find items, and lots of them!

I didn't place that order, however, and don't expect I'll order from them any time in the near future.

The problem started when I got to the stamens and realized I couldn't tell how many were in a bundle by looking at the photos or their captions. Since I knew I'd need at least a two hundred of one type for my project, I e-mailed customer service and very politely asked about quantities.

The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm looking at the 510 lily/tulip peps in yellow and black, and need to know approximately how many stamens are in each bundle so I can determine the quantity to order. Thank you!! :)

Hats by Leko: Your guess is as good as mine....look at the photo and guess.

It's sad to say that one line killed an entire business relationship, but in this case it actually did.

I hope others have better experiences with this supplier than I did, because they carry great items and a huge variety. Customer service counts as much or more for me, though, so I won't be going back.