So, recently, I ordered a bunch of beading stuff from Fire Mountain Gems. My package came in the mail today, and while I'm generally happy with everything, I was wondering about the headpins I ordered. Is it normal for them to arrive bent? They were just crammed in a package with all the beads and stuff, and most of them are bent every which way. Is this a problem for me? I have never worked with headpins and I was looking to make stitch markers for knitting with them. Would I be able to straighten them pretty easily, or should I just send them back?
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:11 pm
No, it's not normal for them to arrive bent every which way and I have a hard time believing that Fire Mountain Gems would send them out that way. I've dealt with Fire Mountain before and everything was packaged beautifully and arrived on time. There must have been a newbie working in shipping the day yours were packed.
You should be able to straighten them out with some jewelry pliers. I'd use masking tape on the jaws so you don't mark the headpins if you do. I've had trouble in the past with putting beads on headpins that have been bent but the beads in question had fairly small holes so there wasn't a lot of wiggle room. I'd call and tell them that your headpins arrived bent even if you don't want to send them back just to let them know what's going on in shipping.
I have some other things that need to go back, so I'll probably send the headpins back. I had a feeling that it wasn't very good to have bent pins. I did get some that are mostly unbent, so that's good, but the majority of the pins I ordered are in pretty bad shape.
Thanks for answering, though. Now I can get the stuff sent out promptly so I can get them exchanged.
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 12:40 am
No problem. I still can't believe Fire Mountain was so careless with their merchandise, that's not like them at all.
I ordered a huge pack of headpins from there about a year ago and they were all bent. ALL. I just hold them in pliers down by the closed end and use my fingers to straighten them out. I rarely have an issue. I use the ones that were the most bent for things that are super short, like a single cyrstal thats being hung from somthing else. And I use the mostly straight ones for longer projects.
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:03 pm
Actually, I was looking around their website to figure out what I would ask for as a replacement (since not only were they bent, but I didn't really like them), and apparently they say that the headpins do occasionally arrive bent either due to how they were handled in packing and shipping or when they were manufactured. I probably won't send them back after all. I'll just straighten them when I finally get myself a set of tools.
We haven't ordered from them for about 2 or 3 years now so I guess their packaging methods have changed. I need to dig out the catalog and order some more earring findings from them eventually.
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:09 am
they have a website thats kept very up to date. www.firemoutaingems.com
Yes, I know about the website. I have bookmarked my catalog with sticky notes though and I may as well use them. I'll look up the stock numbers on the website to make sure they still stock what I want though.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:14 pm
i have seen headpins..but didnt no they were bent o.O
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