Yarn and Fiber Technical Support

Getting status on your order - do you ever check your email!

2011-02-28T16:29:00.002-05:00

It bears repeating again. Last year we added a means to check and inquire about the status of an order. Simply go to "My Account" on our website (click the link in this blog) and view your recent orders. Click on the order you want help with.

From this page you can check on the status of an order or even cancel an order. Please use this to tell us anything regarding your order. This places the comment directly in front of our shipping department. If you leave a message with technical support or an email elsewhere our shipper will not see it and may miss any changes you wish to request on your order. (Note it does not help to add the same escalating comment every hour until we respond, we will get to it as soon as we can)

I have been asked "Do you ever check your email?". Well we do at technical support, however we don't handle customer order enquiries. Again, please use the link above and do not try emailing the store, they simply do not have additional staff to check for the odd customer email amongst the hundreds of spam messages received daily and we already have a better mechanism in place. If you feel really neglected try calling the store by telephone, otherwise using the "My Account" link our store staff will get back to you within a few days. Much as we would love to respond within hours, we simply do not have the staff levels required to do this. Remember more staff mean higher prices, if we have to pay someone just to answer emails we can't offer discount shipping and everyday low prices!

Updates to Accounts and Order History

2010-06-21T18:07:00.003-04:00

We have made some big changes to the "My Account" Section of the Yarn and Fiber Company website which should improve your shopping experience.

Firstly we have added the ability to download PDF patterns for manufacturers that allow us to do so. You can buy the patterns as a PDF or paper copy, if you purchase as a PDF this is made available to you immediately after checkout, and can be retrieved at any time under your "My Account" page on the web site.

Secondly we have added a way to ask questions about your order status by viewing your order under "My Account" and selecting the appropriate option at the bottom of the order. This is available to you 24 hours a day and links your comment directly to your order (and the person processing it), avoiding possible confusion or delays that can occur with emails or phone calls.

February 27th Storm Power outage

2010-02-27T11:32:00.004-05:00

Due to the storm that occurred Friday night much of Southern New Hampshire is without Power, including us. This means the main website, email and telephones are out of operation. The store is still open however. We will hopefully have full service restored in the next couple of days so please try back later.

Update - Power restored, normal service has resumed. We will however be down for about 20 minutes Sunday morning for server maintenance between 7:00 and 8:00 am EST.

Website Improvements - In response to customer requests

2010-02-12T20:59:00.003-05:00

In the past we have has some confusion over our use of the term "back order". What we really mean by this is that the product being ordered is not in stock and we have to order it from our vendors. This is really a "special order" in almost all cases.

In order to avoid some confusion over special orders we have revamped the way special orders appear during the ordering process.

Firstly products that we cannot reasonably order in a fairly short time are no longer available for "special order" and are simply marked "out of stock" as is the case with most other vendors.

Products (other than yarn) are marked aas being available for "special order". Because yarn is often ordered in multiples we do not show this until you look at your shopping cart or go to check out. This will now be shown on the first (shipping) page of checkout as "special order" if we do not believe we have enough yarn in stock to fill an order.

Caveat - although a yarn may appear to be in stock in sufficient quantities we do not ship mixed dye lots. In this case you will be notified and the yarn will be special ordered.

We now will (in most cases unless specifically requested by the customer) cancel any and all special orders that we cannot or do not expect to fill within 6 weeks.

International Orders - Delivery Times

2010-02-05T10:58:00.002-05:00

In general International (free/discounted shipping) orders are sent out within 3-4 days for delivery to the target country, which can take up to 3 weeks but usually takes only a few days. To be delivered to you the order has to pass through customs in your country. Customs randomly screen packages (this happens to us too), this process can easily take a further week. Finally if they determinate that duty is due the package will be held at your post office for you to pay the customs on it, in the USA they normally put a card in your letterbox, but this can easily be overlooked. If we have send a package to you (and it shows as shipped) and more than 3 weeks have passed please check your local post office and ask if an International package is waiting.

In almost all cases: (lost packages are VERY rare)

The package is sitting in the customers local post office

The customer has moved and just assumes the post office will forward the package (seems odd but happens a lot)

The package has been delayed by customs

The package was incorrectly delivered even though the address was correct

Less than one package per year is typically lost forever, although some (2-3 a year) take 3-4 months to surface.

If you need your order in a hurry choose one of the expidited delivery options, it might appear to be the same as our free shipping but it will get to the post office the same day we fill the order. This makes significantly more difference on International orders than on domestic orders.

International Shipping

2010-01-05T13:30:00.003-05:00

It seems that after the postal rate changes a day or two ago our International shipping options became limited to Priority Shipping due to an API change made without announcement by USPS. We have fixed that today (January 5th) and apologize to any of our customers who may have been inconvenienced in the mean time. Hopefully USPS won't fix the problem by changing the API back how it was without warning!

Our International Shipping rates are calculated by using USPS live First Class International Package rates. Discounted rates are also calculated from these rate extimates. All our International shipments qualify for either free or discounted shipping rates, this is calculated based on actual shipping charges v.s. the total cost of the order.

Happy new year from the technical support team at The Yarn and Fiber Company.

Web site outage December 12-13

2008-12-15T09:47:00.004-05:00

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to our customers due to the outage that occured last weekend. Unfortunately a record ice storm caused loss of power, cable and telephone over much of southern New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts. Many areas are still to have their services restored (including our home) although we are pleased that the store returned to service with 12 hours (thank you PSNH) and the web service was restored later on Saturday.

Unfortunately we were unable to "post" that our service was down (we had no way to do so), and apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We hope that service to the rest of our community will be restored in short order as this is causing great hardship for many of our customers and friends.

Normal Internet and shipping service is now fully restored.

New Shipping Options and Calculations

2008-10-10T10:40:00.003-04:00

As promised we have revised our free shipping policy (and software) to provide shipping discounts on orders that do not qualify for free shipping.

All qualifying orders both Domestic and International will still receive free shipping
Some domestic orders will also qualify for discounted priority shipping
All non-qualifying orders will be offered a discounted shipping option

As before heavy orders are less likely to qualify. Our software uses a complicated formula but is based on actual shipping estimates. There is no longer a minimum order value for International orders, and no special rules are applied to any order. It is quite possible that in some cases orders that previously may have qualified for free shipping will no longer do so, but all orders will now be eligible for discounted or free shipping. We hope this will be less confusing.

We are constantly working on reducing the cost of shipping and will, as always, pass these savings on to our customers.

New Web Server is Now Live

2008-09-24T22:28:00.003-04:00

We are now live on the new web server and have switched to the new database server so things are a lot faster than before............

If for any reason you are still "stuck" on the old server this is because either your browser or ISP has not yet recognised the move. Hopefully you didn't save the IP address in your hosts file!!

If you see Pumpkins on the menu or banner of the website you are on the new server.

If you do not see the new server graphics (and still see the picture of the shop on the top left of your browser) first try closing your browser and then restarting it. You should not need to reboot.

If this does not work you might have to wait until the web reconfigures. Meanwhile you can still checkout on the old server using PayPal (ignore the warning) and we will copy your order to the new system manually. PayPal records the complete transaction so nothing will be lost.

If in doubt feel free to email me at support@yarnandfiber.com or call the shop during business hours at 603.505.4432

New Web Server

2008-09-23T13:29:00.003-04:00

We are moving our web hosting to a new server. This move will address a few issues that have been bothering us as well as provide a significant performance improvement. Notably:

Order confirmation emails will no longer be blocked or spammed by yahoo and comcast
Emails should arrive faster and without errors
Overall web site responsiveness should improve noticeably

During the transition you may notice a few temporary hiccups while the "web" reconfigures to recognise the new server location. However we will not lose any orders placed during this time!

New Location for The Yarn and Fiber Company

2008-07-22T18:24:00.002-04:00

We finally tired of squeezing every possible skein of yarn into the old shop location and have moved to a new larger shop in Derry New Hampshire.

The new store is much more spacious and more comfortable to shop in. We have tried to make it easier to locate yarns and have provided a comfortable area with couches for sit knit and chat.
The classroom area is much larger, quieter and very comfortable.

We now have a much larger warehouse and shipping area and comfortable offices to keep you in touch with what is happening.

We hope you enjoy shopping with us more this comming year than even before.

Summer Schedule

2008-05-02T17:27:00.003-04:00

Well the web servers have been relocated and all the resulting issues seem to be fixed. We are now in our summer season, which is a little quieter, so apart from a few delays from vacations (yes we have to take them too) normal efficient service is resumed.

We expect to be relocating the store, warehouse and shipping departments over the summer which should allow us to serve you even better next season. We will post on our shipping page during any times when delays might be expected.

Web sites being relocated

2008-03-29T08:22:00.002-04:00

Our web serers are being relocated on Saturday March 29th, this will cause an interruption in services that may last until 8:00am Sunday 30th March EST. We are sorry for any inconvenience and ask your understanding during this period.

This will effect our web sites and e-mail servers.

Customer Service

2008-03-14T22:07:00.003-04:00

Looking at our customer feedback, you may be surprised that we have so many happy customers. We do but some customers get a little annoyed with what they perceive as "terrible customer service" because we have been unable to reply to an email within (in some cases) two hours.

Honestly please remember we are in just one single timezone, and do occasionally go home. We also have been out with the flu, dealing with family medical emergencies and the like, and have been filling orders by working until 2 am in the morning! We are still working and it is 10:15pm on a Friday night as we spent the whole day in the emergency room with sick parents.

Please be patient and allow us time to respond to your queries. Also please allow normal mail delivery times before reporting you didn't yet get your order. Parcel post and media mail (the free shipping methods used on many orders) takes up to 2 weeks to arrive. We have spent 5 hours answering emails about orders lost for 6 days, of course they are not lost they are still in transit. We have yet to loose a single shipment, although one did get delayed by customs for 3 months.

So what is our number 1 customer complaint?

"Why did you not yet ship me that yarn you told me was on back order, and when will I get it?"

Don't even ask. We will ship it when it arrives in the store, and that will be after the distributor ships to us, which will be after they receive it from whereever they get it. This can take anything from a few days to many months. If you need it now, PLEASE do not order yarn that we do not have in stock. If you want great prices and don't mind waiting, feel free to order.

Our number 2 customer complaint is.

"I ordered my yarn last week and it still hasn't arrived"

Please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery. Small orders can arrive in two days but not all orders will, so please be patient.

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

2007-12-05T09:37:00.000-05:00

Also the season when the mail service grinds to a halt.

Please, please please, allow enough time for items ordered as gifts to arrive. We are in December already so if you absolutely need it in time for the holidays please use Priority Mail or our other premium mail services.

And have a happy holidays,

The technical support team at CYDJ Designs.

Ivy Brambles and Tonia Barry Original Designs

2007-11-28T09:27:00.000-05:00

We are pleased to announce that we have added both Tonia Barry Original Designs (Knitting Patterns) and Ivy Brambles (Hand Dyed Yarns) to our managed websites. We are more than happy to provide web site services to other like minded local craft businesses!

Tonia Barry is an talented independent designer, building a portfolio of wonderful knitting patterns, currently for sale at "The Yarn and Fiber Company" as well as several other local yarn shops. Definitely a designer to watch!

Ivy Brambles is a small company producing luxury hand dyed yarns, patterns and other fiber related products. We are introducing their products as soon as they become available both at the Yarn and Fiber Company LYS, other partner stores and on-line.

Using PayPal - Please, please, return to our site to finish the order process!

2007-10-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

The Yarn and Fiber Company website supports two primary payment methods, credit cards (through CyberSource and Bank of America) and PayPal. It is important to note the differences between the ways these two payment methods work.

Cybersource takes the customer and order details and credit card information from a form on our website, and processes it (the card is not charged). We get back an OK and the order is submitted. Your credit card information is held only at the bank. Your credit card is charged later when we ship your order.
PayPal is an entirely different process. PayPal takes the customer and order information and creates it's own copy of this. It then asks you (on the PayPal site) to make a payment to our account. After you do this you must then click the button to return to our site so that we know the payment was made, otherwise your order does not get submitted into our system (but is still fully recorded in PayPal).

The big difference is that it is possible, partly because of the long process, to fail to get your order into our system and have already made a payment [however your entire order is recorded in a PayPal shopping cart so we can still (and do) retrieve and process it].

Our PayPal integration does use the full capability of PayPal shopping carts (unlike many PayPal sites) so we do see your complete order in PayPal not just the total. So what is the problem if you do not return to our site after payment? Simply that your transaction is not recorded into our order processing system, so until our accounts department notices that your order is "missing" by checking our PayPal records it does not get submitted to our shipping department.

When paying with PayPal always check your order status by clicking the "My Account" link on the yarnandfiber website and review your orders.

If your order does not appear in your account, to avoid delays, simply forward a copy of your PayPal payment confirmation (you will receive it by e-mail directly from PayPal) with a cover note to sales@yarnandfiber.com and we will be happy to put your order into the system and get it out to you ASAP.

Other Differences

Unlike using Cybersource you pay immediately when using PayPal, Cybersource (Credit Card portal) just applies a authorization, PayPal does a credit transfer.
We never see any of your payment information when you use PayPal, and could not (even if we were unscupulous which we are not) record any of your credit card information.
PayPal guarantees the security of your transaction, we are not involved.
In either case it is not possible for us to charge you more than the amount authorised, although we can in both cases give refunds.

What are My Other Options?

Some people just feel uncomfortable shopping online and do not want to leave their credit card information anywhere (especially if using a shared public computer). We understand this. We offer the following options.

Place your order online and choose "Check/Money Order" for payment. In the comments section describe how you intend to pay. We will wait for your mailed payment or for you to call us with a credit card to place your order.
Call us and place your entire order over the phone. We prefer you not to do this as it is more likely that mistakes will be made.
Write to us and include a complete written order (please include our model numbers and product description and price) and payment. We will enter your order into our system and ship it as soon as possible.

Mild Makeover for Fall

2007-09-10T10:34:00.000-04:00

Good news. We completed the first round of a minor makeover to http://www.yarnandfiber.com/ to improve the navigation of the site. Mostly cosmetic we hope this will make it easier to locate products without needing so many clicks.

Mainly effecting top level categories such as "Yarn" listings, there is now more details shown for each type of yarn so you can see easier what selections are available.

Please send any suggestions for further improvements to support@yarnandfiber.com

Where is my Order Confirmation E-Mail?

2007-08-21T10:03:00.000-04:00

All orders placed on our websites are confirmed by sending an e-mail to the address listed on the account placing the order, please do not use temporary or incorrect e-mail addresses, we will never send you spam or unwanted e-mails or share your information with any other company. Whenever an order status changes another e-mail is sent to this same address (if you change the e-mail address on your account after the order is placed we still use the one you had when you placed the order).

If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail then one of the following may have occurred:

Your e-mail address may have been incorrectly entered, check your account by clicking on the "My Account" link. If wrong correct it and send an e-mail from the correct account to sales@yarnandfiber.com quoting your account name.
If your e-mail is correct your ISP or spam filter may be sending our e-mails to your junk or bulk e-mail folders, check these next.
Your order may not have been completely processed. For the order to be logged into the system the payment gateway must report back to our website. Occasionally this process fails due to internet connection failures or user error (closing the browser during payment). In this case we WILL spot the problem as the order is logged completely into the payment portal, however it will cause delays. In these cases we will recover the order and place it again for you.

The absolute best way to check the status of your order is to check your account on our web site. All of your orders and their states, and any other messages can be retrieved here. For this reason it is important to rememeber your account login. If you forget your login it can be automatically e-mailed to you by clicking on the "Password forgotton? Click here." link.

If you do not see your order in the list please e-mail sales@yarnandfiber.com and report your name and when you placed your order and we will find it for you. If you cannot get into your account your e-mail address was most likely incorrectly entered, in this case again e-mail us from the account you wish to use and quote your account name and order date and we will correct your account for you.

New Lookup Capabilities

2007-08-07T09:36:00.000-04:00

Since the outset we have always wanted to have the ability to lookup items, such as yarn, by one or more attribute. For example the ability to look at all DK weight yarns, or just superwash yarns, etc. The big question was how to do it so it is easy to use for our customers, and easy to keep up-to-date and correct, it is no good if half the yarns are missing!

On www.yarnandfiber.com we have just added a new top level catalog entry "YARN BY WEIGHT" which lists the yarn weight descriptions as defined by the Yarn Council of America, see the standards at http://www.yarnstandards.com/weight.html

You can click on the new yarn category weight names and list out all the yarns we carry that fall under that yarn category. Of course these are guidelines and may not reflect the limitations or full capabilities of a yarn, knitter or crocheter.

Look soon for more "YARN BY" indexes such as by yarn content or type.

Checkout payment tips

2007-07-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

Our eCommerce web sites including www.yarnandfiber.com have three payment methods available, credit card (Amex, discover, Visa and Mastercard), PayPal (you can use your credit card here too) and "Purchase Order or Check".

Credit card processing is performed by CyberSource and cleared through Bank of America, we do not record any of your credit card details on the eCommerce site for security reasons. Occasionaly CyberSource experiences technical problems and is not available. When this happen you can either call the store (during normal business hours), use PayPal (they will take credit card payments) or simply use the Check/Purchase order option and write a note for us to call for payment or that you will call us and when (please do not leave your credit card info in the note). Any order using this method will be held until payment is received, or a purchase order from a business or institution has been received and authorized.

Before calling please go through this simple check list:

1) Did you enter the correct card type? You must select Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover correctly.

2) Did you enter the correct expiry date and credit card number?

3) Did you remember to enter the CVV number (on the back of most cards, or the front of an AMEX card)?

It is very unlikely your card be declined due to a change in address, if in any doubt be sure to put the billing address as that on the card and use the shipping address fields for where you want your order delivered to.

In the event that you cannot check out your order is not lost. Just remember to create an account and the cart will be saved until you are able to checkout at a later time.

Final note: Always use a valid e-mail address. This is where we will send you your order status and any other information regarding your order. You may also check the status of your order by visiting your account profile on our website.

Maintaining our Service Levels

2007-07-20T12:57:00.000-04:00

It is very important to us to maintain our generally high levels of service at www.yarnandfiber.com as we begin the move into the busy season. With many new products and increased order levels we have made a few changes to our process to improve our efficiency and allow us to maintain great customer service. Free shipping remains available to all, as does our standard web site discount on just about every product we carry.

Our normal "free shipping" service is next business day to the post office for first class or parcel post delivery. Priority mail is available for an additional charge, although we occasionally use Priority for free shipping at our discretion.

During the comming holiday season please place your orders early enough to avoid the usual postal delays in December. If your order is urgent we recommend using Priority Mail during this period.

Web Site Browser and OS Compatibility

2007-07-11T09:31:00.000-04:00

Always striving to provide our customers with the highest levels of service we have again looked to make sure our web sites run on all popular browsers. However we can't possibly test all of them! (especially older versions)

Most of our visitors use a Windows PC and Internet Explorer (about 67%), we have tested with the newer versions of IE (6 and 7) extensively and believe there to be no problems. Windows and Firefox is the next most popular and again this is regularly tested and there are no known issues. We also test on a Mac with Safari and I.E 5.5 and again experience no issues. This covers about 97% of our users.

We have yet to test Netscape although we do have customers using this. Are there any issues with this browser? We also do not have access to a Linus system, again we would like to hear from you.

We also have an older Mac (OS8.6 and I.E. 5.0) which has a problem decoding the web sites security certificate. I am uncertain of the reason for this but is also happens on any other eCommerce site I visit and it cannot even display the apple.com website properly. I have also been unable to run NetScape on this system. The machine runs Mac OS8.6 and as yet I cannot find a browser that works properly on this computer.

You should not experience any web site warning or error messages when using our web site, and the site is designed for a 1024x768 monitor but to be usable on a 800x600. If you experience any issues please contact us.

Recommended tested browser/OS combinations are Windows (98/2000/XP/Vista) & IE 6 or IE 7, Mac OSX and Safari. Firefox on any platform (we test it on Windows Vista). For general web browsing problems try to get your browser updated to the latest version supported by your operating system, earlier browsers were plagued with security issues.

If anyone has experiences on other platforms or browsers they would like to share with us please feel free to contact us at support@cydjdesigns.com, thank you.

Website update

2007-07-03T10:52:00.000-04:00

We can't really say "The long awaited update" because I don't think anyone was waiting, anyway the http://www.yarnandfiber.com website got a minor facelift this week, with the aim to provide easier navigation to important features.

We also removed a couple of minor features. Please let us know if your experience any difficulties with the changes as we can't test every browser and screen configuration.

We would also like to apologiese to anyone who tried to use our credit card payment method and has a two-letter last name. For some reason the default on the credit card module was a minimum of three letters, but for an account was two letters. We have fixed this so two letters is the minimum for both.

Again please contact us if you experience any technical difficulties with the site you may contact us at either support@yarnandfiber.com or support@cydjdesigns.com

Free Worldwide Shipping

2007-06-22T10:34:00.000-04:00

Ok we changed the International free shipping rules again to get even more orders to qualify. The minimum qualifying order is now just $10, which is good for one 50g (2oz) skein of yarn. Any yarn over about $7.50 per 50g, or $15 per 100g skein should qualify. At a total order value of $50 and above any yarn over $3.75 per 50g, or $7.50 per 100g should qualify. Single patterns, needles and light notions also normally qualify. Books usually do not, but may if included in a larger order with many light items, especially if the order exceeds $50.

I am sure that a few people will want free shipping on every order, so do we, unfortunately we can't do this as our margins are not sufficient to cover the expense on heavier items. At our free shipping limits, International and domestic, we do not cover our expenses. Please use our web site to determine if your order qualifies for free shipping rather than e-mail us or call the store. Simply begin the checkout process and enter your account information, you will be given a shipping estimate before any payment or credit card details are requested.

We will continue to try to improve our service and shipping policy. International shipments should now be faster and most will be free!

Shipping estimates are based on item weights in our database. We are currently checking all items for accuracy but it may be a week or two before all items have been checked.

Changes in International shipping rates mean that books and magazines can no longer be sent media mail. This has significantly increased our shipping costs on these items, in many cases the shipping costs exceed the product retail price. There is also no International surface mail, meaning large packages need to be sent by a more expensive (but faster) route. Shipping calculations are performed by a live connection to the USPS web site. We do not add a packaging or handling charge. If the calculated postage is significantly high it is our policy to issue a refund. If you have any questions regarding international shipping charges please contact us at sales@yarnandfiber.com

Free shipping is still available on all US and Canada orders, including Hawaii and Alaska for all purchases made from http://www.yarnandfiber.com/.