HearthSong

Full review
I ordered several Christmas gifts from Hearthsong for a slew of nephews. I opted not to pay for quick shipping, because I was ordering on December 10th but didn't need the gifts until after Christmas. I suspected we'd be having the family parties sometime in the week between Christmas and New Years.
By the 17th I still had not received the e-mail telling me that the gifts had shipped, so I e-mailed to ask when I could expect delivery. In a couple of days when I hadn't received an answer, I called the customer service number. I was told my order should arrive December 23rd. That same day I received an e-mail saying the order would arrive December 22nd.

By Christmas Eve the order still hadn't arrived, but I wasn't too worried, I expected it sometime after Christmas.
By December 29th the order STILL hadn't arrived, and I called again.
This time I was told that there was a problem with UPS, and my order would have to be reshipped. It would take 7 to 10 working days. Now why hadn't this problem been noticed when I called on the 19th? I hung up, but started fuming, and called back to request express shipping.
The person I talked to was quite congenial, and told me she went into the order and everything was still in stock, and that she would overnight it at Hearthsong's expense, and I should receive it by Friday the 2nd of January.

On December 31st I received a partial order, containing 3 of the 6 items I ordered. The packing slip indicated that two of the items were out of stock.
I called customer service again and asked if there was a 2nd shipment coming, and what was going on. One of the items I ordered had been sent, but I'd ordered 2 of the same thing and the 2nd one hadn't been included in the order. What was going on?
I was informed that between the time I'd placed the order and the time it had been filled the items must have run out of stock. There was no explanation as to why when I ordered two of one item, one was shipped and the other wasn't.
Because we were having the family parties where the gifts would be exchanged on Saturday the 3rd of January, there was no way I could get the gifts in time.

I cancelled the remaining order, and had to scramble to get some gifts.

What baffled me was why the problem didn't come up when I called and e-mailed on the 19th. I was pleased that the order was express shipped on the 29th when I called again, but was angry that it wasn't complete despite the representative's assurances that the items were all in stock.

They have a great selection of toys, and the website was quite clear. I did receive fairly prompt and courteous answers when I called and e-mailed. And though I had to call a 2nd time to complain to get it, the customer service rep did express ship (some of) the order to me after they had screwed up. Unfortunately the answers I received didn't seem to be accurate. If I do order from them again, I'll give them a couple of months to screw it up and get it right before I need the items.