Sock Dreams

[Since1982]

I emailed Sock Dreams to purchase some warm socks. I saw they had a toll free phone number for ordering and I was happy to see that. I like the personal touch of a phone call over shopping carts or other ways of ordering. HOWEVER, it turns out using the TOLL-FREE phone is not exactly toll free. Read this response I got from them because I asked about ordering more than one color of socks. I wanted Navy Blue and Black. A VERY expensive toll free phone call.
Each color socks is a separate order and separate s+h. I never heard of such a thing in about 55 years of buying stuff. They are not different styles, just a different color.

Hello Skip,

I’m so sorry you are having troubles ordering from our site. To place multiple colors of one item in your cart they do have to be added to the cart one color at a time. It is not the most efficient way but at the moment, until our site re-design is live, it is how the cart is set up. I am sorry for any inconvenience. We will have the functionality to add more than one color at a time to your cart once our new site is live.



Our Online Customer Service hours are Monday-Saturday 11am-4pm pacific. If you call & we don't answer please leave a message & we'll call back. We are located in Portland Oregon. Please see our “Contact Us” page for all our contact details and info.



You can call to place you order with us over the phone during the posted customer service hours but phone orders do not qualify for our free shipping offer. Free shipping is only offered to orders placed directly online. If we place your order over the phone there will be a handling fee. Your contact, shipping and payment info is still transmitted over the internet for phone orders. In our 8+ years of business we have not had any instances of sensitive information being taken from our site.



I hope this information is helpful to you in placing your order. Have a great day!



~Trina

Sock Dreams

[Kris]

snip,,,
Each color socks is a separate order and separate s+h. I never heard of such a thing in about 55 years of buying stuff. They are not different styles, just a different color.

snip...
I’m so sorry you are having troubles ordering from our site. To place multiple colors of one item in your cart they do have to be added to the cart one color at a time. It is not the most efficient way but at the moment, until our site re-design is live, it is how the cart is set up. I am sorry for any inconvenience. We will have the functionality to add more than one color at a time to your cart once our new site is live.
snip...

Skip, what I get from this is that each color sock is a separate line item in the order, not a separate order. So there would be only one s+h added for the order, not for each color.
But I could be mistaken.

Kris

[AMM]

I have ordered from them many times, and never had this problem.

However, I have not ordered by phone, I've always done it on-line. They are clearly a very small outfit, and I had the impression that they are not really set up for telephone orders. It's evident from what you quoted that the customer service person (probably the owner or a friend) simply types in the order on-line, just the way you would.

I'm not sure what the E-mail you quoted has to do with this -- it is certainly true that you have to add each pair you want (in whatever color) separately to the "shopping cart," but that doesn't result in a separate shipment for each pari of socks. Was each pair of socks in a separate package?

My only question would be: did they warn you that you would be charged a handling fee if you insisted on doing the order over the phone? If not, then they should perhaps be advised to do so in the future, to avoid surprises.

[Since1982]

AMM asked: did they warn you that you would be charged a handling fee if you insisted on doing the order over the phone? If not, then they should perhaps be advised to do so in the future, to avoid surprises.

No, they didn't warn me of that. I think if they don't want phone orders, they shouldn't offer them at all. They should certainly tell a cuistomer there's a "handling fee" for a "toll free" phone order though. Which they don't do. Sure takes away the conception of a TOLL FREE order, doesn't it?

[Skirt Chaser]

Looking at the site they do disclose the phone order fee on the ordering info page. http://www.sockdreams.com/_shop/edit/order_index.php

We accept phone orders

You can place your order by phone at +1 888 71 SOCKS /1.888.717.6257 Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Pacific. If we are not available to answer the phone just leave us your name, number and the best time to call back.
Also, please note: free shipping does not apply to orders placed by phone and will be charged $5 per shipment.

It would be helpful if that had that on the main page though, all is says there about the phone number is:

Order Securely online 24 hours a day
Credit Cards & Paypal accepted
Customer service: toll free 888.71.SOCKS (888.717.6257)
In Portland: 503.234.0885

Usually a company that encourages phone orders says so, the wording "customer service" implies to me questions more than ordering. It does sound like the "free shipping online only" is used to influence customers to shop that way rather than by phone which makes sense for a small company who as AMM said is not likely to have dedicated phone staff. Anyway, the shipping is always free online so if the quirky cart actually does make you check out once for each color of socks (that really does not sound likely though, I could add the skeleton leggings in both red and purple though I did not try to check out) it is a time loss rather than money spent on shipping.

Sock dreams has variety as a draw, I can get bacon and eggs or sushi socks there. For plain socks you might do better pricewise at any department store Skip. I think that makes sense for you especially if you did not agree with their policy.

[Since1982]

Dept. Stores and me is a no go..That's a walking for all day in the stores thing. I can't walk well enough for that. I wish I could. A bigger plus tho is that I live in the lower Florida Keys and the closest Dept. Store is 150 miles away. Thanks for trying to help SkirtChaser, I appreciate your care and wanting to help me.

[Skirt Chaser]

the closest Dept. Store is 150 miles away.

No quick jaunts to the mall for you! Wow. I see the clear advantage of ordering from home. You might try standard mall store sites then or Wal-Mart's site for plain socks. Just because I'm curious, how spread out are the islands down there? Do you get home over bridges or do you have to take a ferry?

[crfriend]

Just because I'm curious, how spread out are the islands down there? Do you get home over bridges or do you have to take a ferry?

The islands are moderately spread out, but the seafloor is seldom more than several dozen feet deep, so the islands are connected by bridges forming the southernmost section of US Route 1.

Originally, the bridges supported the Florida East Coast Railway which went all the way to Key West. A hurricane, I believe in 1935, devastated the rail line and it was never rebuilt. However, the remaining sections of bridge were "repurposed" into highway and the damaged sections rebuilt for that purpose.

The original bridge sections are now "retired" from active use, but many still remain as good fishing spots; the highway now runs across purpose-built spans.

A google search for "US Route 1" +"Florida Keys" should turn up quite the wealth of history. This was civil engineering towards the very end of the Heroic Age.

[r1g0r]

A google search for "US Route 1" +"Florida Keys" should turn up quite the wealth of history. This was civil engineering towards the very end of the Heroic Age.

OMFG! look up "conch rebellion" and learn how the keys succeeded at seccession (you know, like the south tried to accomplish by violence).

legally, seccession is only one step away for them. they simply never completed the process. WOW

[Skirt Chaser]

Neat stuff, thanks for the history wander Skip. Railroads, lost veterans, and the new word oolites!

[Since1982]

No ferrys any more. A few other types of fairies. Lots of those in Key West. In 1998 Jerry Benson got elected as the Honorary Mayor of Benson Bight, an area full of houseboats, but didn't complete his term, unfortunately he was taken by AIDS half way thru it. Every year they try to fly in the Fantasy Fest but mostly weigh too much.

Here's some pictures of the aftermath of the 1935 hurricane.

After the 1935 Keys Hurricane.jpg

rebuilding vets camp after 1935 hurricane.jpg

re-building the bridge after '35 hurricane.jpg