Belleek No Customer Service
The first stop in Northern Ireland was Belleek Pottery, where I purchased two sets of coffee cups. The cost included insurance, with instructions on how to file a claim. The cups arrived approximately a month later. The shipping box was well packaged, however the actual product box provided only minimal separation for the cups. Contact during handling caused one cup to break. Using the instructions, I submitted to Belleek not once, but three times, and there has been absolutely no response from Belleek Customer Service. Buyer beware.
We had a wonderful tour, and enjoyed ever stop. Now I have 3, not 4 cups to remember the trip. Nancy, our tour director was great, and so were our fellow traveler. I would highly recommend the trip!
We had a wonderful tour, and enjoyed ever stop. Now I have 3, not 4 cups to remember the trip. Nancy, our tour director was great, and so were our fellow traveler. I would highly recommend the trip!
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Comments
First of all, yes, you can buy almost anything you see on one of these tours online. However, if you are like me, you enjoy bringing home something specifically from places you have visited. Besides, if you buy it online it still needs to be shipped home and could be damaged. Your problem is getting the product replaced, not thinking you did something wrong and being criticized by someone in here that you were taken advantage of. In addition, since you didn't mention anything about the price you paid, you don't know if the online price is less or more expensive, so it is irrelevant.
Some suggestions:
1. If you used your credit card to pay for the cups and you are not getting any satisfaction from Belleek you can contest the charge and have the entire charge returned to your account. Your credit card company may also intervene and negotiate for a replacement as well.
2. Tauck, since they arrange the stop there, might be able to contact the company. They might have contacts inside the company to get the cup replaced. I would call them.
3. The insurance company you are dealing with might be a third-party and Belleek might not have knowledge of the claim. The insurance company may be sandbagging it. If this is the case, Belleek needs to know that.
4. Contact Belleek directly (find the Manager or Vice President for Customer Service online if you can) with an email or phone call. My experience is that going to the top usually gets a quick and positive response.
Again, you might have tried any, or all, of these already. However, telling you that you were taken for a ride and could have purchased the cups elsewhere (for a price that may or may not be comparable--besides, many companies make an entirely different quality product for online sales) is unproductive to solve your problem. I hope one of these helps.
My wife collected tea pots and cups and she bought a set at Belleek. We were lucky and the merchandise arrived safe and sound. I bought a couple of large hand blown and decorated pieces of crystal in a small shop on this trip. The owner/artist used to be a master glass blower at Waterford until a Chinese company bought Waterford. One of the pieces arrived damaged and Sean remade and sent me a new one. It is just sometimes easier to deal with the boss.
I hope you can recover the broken cup to give you a full set to remember your trip by.
My own thoughts are these, I have no choice really because I have to follow my husband's golden rules--- if it cannot be carried onto the plane, then we at not buying it!! This has lead to me struggling with some interesting items in the past to say the least, I've struggled with large framed paintings, heavy pots, ostrich eggs, you name it, I have carried it. My carry on bag often consists of mainly just our souvenirs--- I should say, my souvenirs because let's face it, most men are totally uninterested in the majority of the items we like to decorate the home with! Then if the items are truly irreplaceable at least you carrying them will ensure that they arrive home with you, even though your big suitcase might get lost instead.
The second thing to bare in mind is that most anything that is not unique to a country or is truly artist made, is almost always much cheaper to buy in the US than even the country it is made in. I could start making a list but it would be too long, so I will tell you my pottery story. I am a big collector of antique china and I do love pottery of almost any type ( a little tricky now I have young grandchildren hurtling round my home) I am even throwing my own pots in a pottery class at present. When I found I was going to be living in the US, one of the last things I did before I left England was to visit the Spode factory in the 'Potteries' of England, it's not too far from where we lived. My purpose was to tour the factories, I hadn't been for a while, and to buy some seconds quality Spode china, I wanted to use it as my every day China, I thought my American friends would enjoy it. So I bought a pretty large quantity, eight place setting of each of many pieces. Imagine my surprise on one of my first visits to the Mall to find that first quality of the exact same pattern was cheaper than all the seconds quality stuff I had brought from England, I promptly bought four more sets and of course got extra percentages off in the ever on going 'sale' that happen here. And to add insult to injury, my teenage children were not too careful about placing pieces carefully in the dishwasher, so now it's my 'best' china and I resort to cheaper English china, made in the potteries but bought at an even cheaper price, it can be replaced easily too.
Ok so end of story, I hope you get your missing cup, however you manage it!
I purchased a number of items at Belleek and needed them shipped quickly to my parents home so I could leave gifts with family and then take the rest home with me. To track the shipments, I contacted Belleek at customerservices@belleek.ie. They were very good about responding back and providing information. If you haven't tried this email address, hopefully you will have more success with it than the claims company. I was lucky, everything arrived in good shape and on the same day I did.
Linda
Hilarious! You should be more familiar with the more sophisticated but ironic sense of humour, I mean humor and the non judgemental expressions like 'Seen you coming' after a summer spent in England. I often hear the term Ozzie and Harriet but have never seen the show, must check it out.
Most importantly, let's hope TDunn hops back into the forum to see all these suggestions.
I would just like to say that I would hope that the people who use this forum the most and post all the time would be a little bit gentle with new comers. Poor TDunn made her first post to start this thread. Not likely to return, but I hope she does.
Best wishes,
Greg Jones
Forwarding the claim to another Belleek e-mail address, I received this prompt reply: Hello Tim,
We did not receive your previous emails as the customer service address was incorrect, the s was missing from services. Our email address is customerservices@belleek.ie. We will have a replacement mug dispatched to you via air freight and you will receive it within two weeks.
Regards,
Maeve
Belleek Customer Services
Belleek Pottery Ltd
As it turns out, I am an idiot. Sorry Belleek, you beat drinking coffee from a paper cup! Thank you fellow travelers
Cheers,
Jan
You'll probably get a note from British on how to properly brew your tea for your new set of cups. (Said in my best English accent.)
Enjoy them.
Welcome back to the Board! Your calming and informative messages have truly been missed!