Blick Art Materials Reviews

I wanted to cancel an order 5 hours from when I submitted an order and was told the order had already processed (on a Saturday). Give me a break. I have had this happen even when I immediately asked to cancel an item. Blick you suck. I won't buy anymore from you.

Ordered a few things from them for a college art course, I'm a college student so I don't have much money in the first place. I couldn't go to the physical location because it was a 45 minute drive from my apartment and I didn't have a car. A part of my order I mistakenly ordered the wrong size palette which was about 20+ dollars. I wanted to return it and get the smaller one and I was told I had to pay return shipping to send it back to them. The return shipping was 30+ dollars. The only thing they did to try and fix this was send me a voucher for some in store credit. Well I don't need that in store credit because I'm not shopping there again! Also I first ordered beginning of January and waited... and waited... it wasn't there after a full 2 weeks so I looked to see what was up and they had canceled my order for no reason. By then a few of the things I had ordered were out of stock so I couldn't order them again and this included a smaller palette! So I had to place another order and it took almost three times as long as they said to get here! Whenever I called customer service there response was what "I don't know why that happened, it should be there soon " it made me want to scream! I also payed money for faster shipping because I needed it for a class and that didn't help at all!

The shipping is incredibly slow! I ordered a similar package from Jackson’s in the UK and it made it to me in Nashville, TN faster and for less money than Blick coming from Illinois. It’s just laughable.

The second worst customer service that I have ever encountered. Avoid at all costs.

I'll preface this review by saying that I am loyal by nature, but even my loyalty has limits. Such is the case with Blick Art Supply, a company I've been a steady customer of since 1982. That long-term business relationship was terminated last summer. A growing trend of corporate greed, incompetence and discourtesy is what put the boot in for good. Based upon what I've observed and experienced, the executive management at Blick Art Supply thinks that loyalty is a one-way street. Allow me to disabuse them of that particular illusion.
I've been a professional commercial artist for 34 years. It is very deadline oriented and so I place a premium on reliability. I can't deliver to my clients if I can't get the materials I need on time and in good order. This has been the first blow in my relations with Blick Art Supply. Damaged items became the norm since they were often shipped in over-sized boxes with a bare minimum of packing materials or none whatsoever - all of which was done to save on Blick's overhead. Recently an order was even cancelled without my knowledge or consent to "streamline" Blick's shipping so they could "focus" on shipping out the pricier, big-ticket items.
Another irritant was the rude, lazy, poorly-trained customer service associates who would fumble through the process of taking my phone orders and would attempt to charge me much higher prices than what were listed on their website. Accordingly, a telephone order could take anywhere from a half hour to multiple calls to get anything done. And that's just the phone orders. The times I've visited Blick's downtown Portland, Oregon store were a debacle. I had to spend several minutes tracking down an associate to help me and when I finally did find one I was met with irritation, passive-aggressive resistance to doing his job and a near total ignorance of the stock. (One associate smirked at me like I was crazy when I requested a package of X-Acto blades and a #4 sized Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush. He claimed he'd never heard of such exotic items and that they most likely didn't exist - not that he would know because he couldn't be bothered to check.)
And then there's the greed. Up until very recently, Blick's policy was free shipping on all orders over $35.00. As of a few weeks ago that policy has been increased to nearly double at $69.00.
In summary, I am paying far too much for increasingly less and less. Cutting ties with Blick Art Supply and bringing my business to where it is appreciated makes far better sense. For instance, Jackson's Art Supply in London, England not only offers my favorite brand of oil paint (Schmincke Mussini) at approximately 10 - 15% less than Blick, the customer service is excellent, AND I receive my items more promptly too! (How is it that items shipped from Blick's Galesburg, Illinois warehouse to my studio in Oregon takes TWICE as long as something from Jackson's in London, England?)

Having had several years experience ordering from Blick, I can give them a solid 5 stars. Always willing to help, accepts and /or replaces items as appropriate. And helpful & polite on the phone. (This is a 2 way street). Store employees are similarly friendly and helpful.(Tampa Store). During covid they are wiping down frequently touched surfaces at 2hour intervals. Prices are usually excellent so I check their website before anyplace else. I AM a Blick preferred customer and recommend it for savings at brick and mortar locations.

They ship the slowest possible method, despite charging for shipping. Their shipping page makes you think it will ship FedEx Ground, which is absolutely not the same as SmartPost. You will wait an extra week and Usps will probably misplace your package for a month.

I received 2 gift cards for Xmas for DickBlick art supply. I'm an artist, so I was excited about spending them. I placed an order on Jan. 5th and everything went downhill from there. 1st this site takes it's time sending your order information. So then I wondered did the order even go through or not. Some days later they finally inform me the majority of what I ordered was on back order! Keep in mind they just had a big sale, but clearly didn't plan for the supply demand. I could have dealt with that, but then they had another big sale with the very same items being offered, but they can't fill my order. That's just plain poor business practice on their part. Information on the backordered items were like an up and down seesaw, as the dates would move all over the place. When calling for the order status and the remaining balance on the gift cards I was left on hold and on the phone for over a total of 3 hours all in! I was even told one guy in their accounting office would call me back to correct things, he never did. And some of the customer service reps did not update their records after my phone calls with them. One again not a good business practice. For heaven sakes how hard can something so simple be? Their system is very clunky not only for customers, but also for their employees. For instance one item finally landed on a actual date as to it's availability come May! I choose to cancel that part of the order, because after all what artist want's to wait 5 months to receive their much needed supplies? In turn adjusting my gift card balance took more time on the phone and an act of god to resolve it... really! So then I ordered a replacement item for the one canceled, once again everything flipped up side down. Even though I had entered my GC numbers accurately, their site kept insisting on charging the whole balance to my CC! More phone calls were needed to straighten that out. Finally a final order was placed and has yet to arrive. Come the end of this week it will have been 2 months without total resolution. And if you think I'm being critical and picky, I would like you to consider that I've placed 3 orders with Jerry's Artarama in the meantime, which were received with the week of placing said orders without without any issue. That's the way a well run system should work. DickBlick has lost my business forever.

HORRIBLE return policy. I ordered 22 sets of tempera paints for my children at school and then it turned out a parent had already bought them. I was thrilled to not have to pay the $130 some dollars out of pocket, as covid has made teaching art very expensive. I went to return the two boxes of paint today and they charged me almost $50 for shipping. This means I am basically paying for the paint I just sent back to them. Blicks is not worth it, this return policy is inhumane.

I placed my online order shortly after the holidays, so a couple of items were back-ordered, but everything else arrived about a week later. One item was missing from my order and when I emailed Customer Service about it they responded promptly. Not only did a real person respond (a rarity these days), but she was also friendly and informative. Overall, great customer service! :)

After spending over an hour and two separate phone calls to customer service trying to order 4 items for curbside delivery, I gave up. After ordering, it was impossible for me to keep my order in the "curbside delivery" mode. I spoke to a lovely woman who tried to help, but did not seem to know the website well enough to direct me - was reading from a script. I asked to place the order with her to be forwarded to the store, but she did not have permission to do so. The website for ordering in this manner is klunky and the directions given in the instructional video are unclear. I won't be purchasing from Blick until it is safe to shop in stores once again or the shipping time is drastically decreased. PS - I then went to the Amazon site and ordered my items for delivery tomorrow (no shipping fee with prime) in a total of 2 minutes.

I have ordered supplies from Blick 5 times now. The fifth was just a day or two ago, but I've received the other four - all well within the times they listed for the shipping price I paid. (No, it's not two-day shipping, but it's quite reasonable. If you want two day shipping you pay extra like normal.) All items were in good condition, and the price I paid was as good or better than the competitors. I've recommended them to family, and they've also ordered with good experiences.