My Problem with KnitPicks
I’ve been a yarn crafter for about a decade now. For some projects, what you can get at Walmart just doesn’t cut it. I’ve ordered tools, yarns, and kits from KnitPicks a handful of times now. I love their selections, their customer service, and their quick delivery. But here’s the thing.
The past 2 times I’ve ordered from KnitPicks, my card has been compromised. The first time it happened, I didn’t quite put 2 and 2 together, as I had ordered from Amazon and ThinkGeek that day as well. We took care of the charges the best we could, working with our card company, and I made sure to change all of my passwords to something unique for each site and e-mail address.
The thieves had managed to spend $500 on iTunes and online shopping within the hour. What makes this even more difficult was the fact that this wasn’t a credit card, this was our debit card. Our debit card only contained $540 that day. We don’t trust ourselves with a credit card, and back then we were living paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. This totally screwed us. But we did end up getting all of our money back, it just took a week and a half, and a lot of ramen and hoping the power didn’t get shut off.
The second time I ordered from KnitPicks, I had bought a Blocking Kit. I knew it was going to come in handy with an upcoming project, and it was the only thing I had ordered that day. The next morning, I awoke to my husband on the desktop, which he was never on, and he informed me that our card had been compromised yet again. I was furious. I checked our statement, we hadn’t bought anything in days and were preparing to pay rent. But all of our hard earned money was gone. $800, just gone. Spent at jewelry stores, and shoe stores. All from someone in California. We don’t keep our card with us if we’re not going to spend any money. And we had just spent our time going back and forth to work. All of the purchases were made online by this person. And since they were all still pending, we had to call each store individually to have them cancel the transaction. But to get the hold off of the money on our account, it takes 2-3 business days. Guess what day this was! FRIDAYYYY. Just our luck!
We narrowed down what happened. It had to be from my KnitPicks order. I have a couple of security measures taken on my computer, but when our card information goes to someone else’s hands, it’s their responsibility to ensure that safety. I got into contact with KnitPicks after waiting a couple of days to make sure my letter wasn’t a seething mess. I let them know that our card was compromised after using their site, and that it might be a good idea to double check their systems to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else. I wasn’t asking for much, I wasn’t rude, I didn’t threaten them with a witch hunt. But the response I received was baffling. I really wish I still had the email, because a copy & paste would be gratifying. But basically, they brushed me off. They “ensured” me that their security systems are just fine and no one would be able to get in and steal anybody’s information. And that was it.
They could have easily had gone a better route. Something along the lines of “We’re sorry to hear about that. We currently have our tech team working to see if anything else has been compromised, and whether or not we can do anything to expand our security measures.” Whether or not they actually did something about it, they could have just said that. That would have worked fine for me, put me at ease and given me peace of mind. The company is based out of Vancouver, WA. Normally, businesses in Washington State are nice. I grew up in that state, I know what it’s like.
It’s kind of a shame. They have beautiful patterns, beautiful yarns in all different types and colors, their tools are great and I use a few of them almost daily. But, as much as I love their items, I can’t risk ordering from them again. I’m grateful that there are many other sites out there that have things I may be looking for, but I had a lot of faith and love for KnitPicks. It’s just unfortunate that I’m forced to move on.
Just for clarification, I would like to say that this was my experience, solely. I’m not going to say that every person has had, or is going to have, and experience like this. Mine might be completely isolated, and that would be fine. But the way it was handled was a terrible way to go about it, in my personal opinion. This is something that happened, the second time, back in February of this year, and it still just bothers me. We’re hard-working people, and to have our money stolen just makes me see red. So don’t think I’m telling you to not order from them, you can do as you please. I would just like to remind you to make sure you have security in place, and to be prepared for whatever may happen.
