squishy lemon cake (and sock saga)

After a plague of children had been in the kitchen last week, the fridge was accumulating egg yolks and broken eggs, so I made a batch of the most wonderfully yellow, lemony curd. I follow Nigella's recipe in How to Eat, because I like the daredevil approach of not using a bowl over water. Instead you just bung everything into a solid pan and are extra vigilant. It comes out brilliantly, but needs eating quite quickly. So I made a Squishy Lemon Cake this morning (my own recipe) with a pot of curd between the layers and lemon icing on top. It is a veritable lemon-fest, I admit, but we seem to have quite high citrus tolerance here. I call it 'squishy' because the lemon curd squishes out of the side when you bite into it and then you end up licking your fingers and smacking your lips.

It's already squishing before it's cut.

 

Can you bear a Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn update? If not, click off now.

I have to say that the person I am dealing with at Cherry Tree Hill is the most unhelpful person I have ever dealt with when it comes to yarn (and I was in the textile trade for several years when I first left university). She sent me an nastily sarcastic email telling me that I had to return the yarn to the place I bought it (a US website), to ask for the retailer's comment and then forward this verdict to her at CTH. She said that unless I returned the yarn she couldn't see 'what I had done' to it, as she put it. 'What I had done' was wash it according to the ball-band instructions. I am appalled by her refusal to acknowledge that I may have been sold faulty goods (and I really don't expect to have to 'set' the colours myself when a skein costs $22) and her insistence that I parcel up the socks, go to the Post Office, pay for it to go airmail to the States and THEN pass on the retailer's comments. I have said that I will as long as she agrees to fund the P&P, as this is an expense that I did not expect to incur when I bought her yarn, but she is totally ignoring this part of the deal.

I know that Rowan would replace the yarn without quibble and would compensate me for the time wasted in knitting with a dud yarn, and would recognise the inconvenience. So how can afford to be CTH so damned arrogant and unhelpful?

So what do I do? Waste my time and money by going to the Post Office and paying about half the cost of the original yarn in returning it, and then passively await her response to my washed-out, crappy socks? Or tell her to get lost and that I'll never buy Cherry Tree Hill yarn again?

Just to remind you: here are the socks and the leftover yarn. All colour definition and whiteness has fled leaving me with socks I wouldn't even wear to garden in as they depress me so much.

Added: I'll come clean and tell you that the person I'm dealing with at CTH is Cheryl Potter, the owner. Several people suggested in the comments that I now go to the top when emailing CTH, but I already have.

Comments

[Jen]

All I can offer is that I've already told two people (both knitters) about your trouble. Here in the U.S. many people are familiar with an old television commercial "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on..." The word will get out. Too bad you've had to deal with a company that doesn't recognize what one simple gesture can do in the long run (and vice versa).

[Jan]

I'll never understand companies that respond like this to their customers. Thanks for passing this info along. Cherry Tree Hill yarn's been on my *to try* list for a long time and now has been removed.
That lemon curd cake looks divine! That's one (of many) things I miss about having the kids at home. I hardly ever bake such things anymore as we'd be as big as houses!

[Janet]

A very unfortunate experience, for you, and now for them, as I will be very wary with my existing CTH and will not be buying any in the future, as I'm sure many others won't. I actually ordered the Birches Supersock after seeing your pretty socks but haven't yet knit it. I guess I will make sure to 'set" it before washing. Would that be soaking in vinegar?

[dixie]

My guess is that if you could possibly find a contact at a high enough level and sent them a letter detailing your travails along with copies of your blog comments (if you sent a print out from your visitors stats page it would be even more compelling), you could possibly effectuate an appropriate response and a refund. May be easier said than done... good luck.

[susoolu]

At least thoughts of that sweet acid bite of lemon curd is distracting my mind from knowing I have 3 skeins of CTH supersock in my stash. What was eager anticipation (what pattern, who for) has now turned to severe wariness, as I eye them asquint. Good luck with CTH, whatever you decide to do.

[ina and gumby]

oh jane ... that was absolutely not the answer you wanted ... needed ... or should have gotten from cth ... my only advice is to put the whole matter in the "roadkill" file as i just did with my "other" yarn matter that i e-mailed you about ... as i said before ... customer service is somehow an unknown identity to people such as them ... and you can scream yourself blue in the face ... but if they don't get it ya' can't change it ... rise above it ... actually ... why don't you just send her the socks with a lovely note pointing out to her the virtues of faded socks before you even wear them ... you don't want to wear them anyways and maybe they can rot on her feet ... there we go ... that should do ... i can totally relate ... because i don't know that i would buy or create anything with the yarn from (my) "said" company ... guess what ... it'll catch up with them ... happy day ... happy soggy lemon cake ... and nigella lawson is the best ... if only some people could take the yarn and knitting approach she takes to cooking the world would be a better place indeed!

[branycbur]

i think you must send them back, on principle alone...not to mention you will never be able to wear these socks without feeling angry. it's really too bad that CTH employs such ignorant and uncompassionate people...i wonder, do they even know? maybe dixie is right, you should go higher up! i, for one, will never buy yarn from them.

[KT]

I am with Dixie. I would be happy to call them for you and find out the name of the right person, if you like. Also, you might be a squeakier wheel if you contacted the reatiler where you bought them and then you could have them talk to CTH also. CTH might be more willing to help a retailer (who buys more of their products) than a single person. Backward thinking yes, but it might be more effective because CTH would have more to lose.
At least you had squishy lemon cake to soothe you.

[Sabine]

what an awful story! what an arrogant woman. i was thinking of purchasing yarn from CTH bit now i don't! i will write cth a propper LETTER and not an email, that i'm appaled by your experiences with cth and never ever will buy their yarn. and i hope, every single reader of this blog will do the same. or at least send cth an email, how appalling they behaviour is!
bets wishes and some kind of success in this whole cth-affair!!!

[Mel]

I've been following this saga, and can tell you that CTH is on my "don't buy" list, and that I posted it as an anti-recommendation on a global board when discussing sock yarns.

In my opinion, you need to start climbing the ladder at CTH. Obviously, your email contact is not skilled at customer service, OR (and this is a real possibility) she might be following the company policy. I once got the SNOTTIEST email from what turned out to be the *owner* of a large yarn co. But on the off chance that your rep is not accurately representing the company, I'd try to get in touch with ANYONE else. I would let them know that the dissatisfaction is continuing to spread. There is an adage (not unlike the "two friends" story) in customer service that satisfied customers tell two people, and dissatisfied customers tell at least ten.

Can you call or email the store and explain your problem? I'm sure they'll understand that you shouldn't have to pay to ship these socks to them (and risk the chance that they'll not follow through). Maybe an email of the pic in this post will suffice, and they'll send a reply to CTH for you.

[Mel]

Me again. The owner's name is Cheryl Potter. I'd write to her directly.

[Kate]

So sorry for your experience with CTH, Jane. I have wanted to try it but at $22 per skein I've been hesitant. Now I won't buy it at all, and I imagine lots of others won't either. The internet is a powerful venue and CTH should realize that! They could cut their losses by simply refunding your money or sending replacement yarn...instead they will lose future sales due to your experience. Thank you for sharing this!

[Jane]

Are you ready to be shocked? It IS Cheryl Potter, the owner, that I'm dealing with. It is Cheryl Potter who wrote the sarcastic email and who won't agree to refund post & packaging. I need say no more.

[Jennifer]

Well, that does it, I'm not trying CTH yarn, period. Bah on them. Eat another slice of the delicious looking cake. It'll make you feel better. ;)

[Kat]

Would you like us to start up an email campaign with CTH, explaining to them precisely how stupid and damaging their actions are? I almost emailed them myself without asking you first. I'm sorry, but this kind of customer service makes my American blood boil.

[lanea]

I'm sorry you're having such a bad time with Cherry Tree Hill. I have some of their yarn sitting in my sock stash, and I'm worried I'll have the same trouble with it. I am very glad that you've informed your readers about the trouble though--I'd personally prefer to give my hard-earned money to yarn suppliers who will treat me well.

[dixie]

That is certainly disheartening. Poor Cheryl doesn;t know how much business she just lost!

[Ronke]

Tell her to stick her Cherry Tree Hill where the sun don't shine. Thanks for the warning about the yarn - I was just about to buy some.

[Jeanette]

very interesting to read this. for principal alone, I don't deal with mean people.
You are one disgruntled knitter with a voice. How easy it would have been for Cherry Tree Hill to practice some real customer service. Instead, she's going to be losing customers, one knitter at a time.

[kelli]

1. I started drooling at the sight of that cake. It looks absolutely delish! I don't know how you are always coming up with wonderful sweets to bake and photograph. I would be 300 pounds if I did this sort of baking. You continue to amaze me.
2. Those Cherry Hill people wronged the wrong gal. Don't they know how many knitters read "Yarnstorm?" The fools! This could cost them dearly. Sorry she isn't being more helpful.

[Jessica]

The shop where I work stopped carrying CTH because they were so rude and irritating to deal with--even when we wanted to give them our money! I think you should donate the socks and put the whole thing behind you. It's too much psychic energy to waste on one pair of socks.

[karin]

CTH should have read this:
http://ullamaaria.typepad.com/hobbyprincess/2005/10/the_invisible_t.html
from Hobbyprincess (via http://ervilhas.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/140775.html)

On top of having bad customerservice CTH obviously don't know about customer referal.
If you had said it was lovely wool and great socks and I would have liked the look of them, I'd be tempted to buy the yarn, and with me A LOT OF PEOPLE. You obviously have a lot of readers, who like knitting, who buy yarn all the time and who would be tempted to buy this particular brand as well, well not now it washes out so badly.
Pity, they are losing out on a lot of future revenue.

[suburban misfit]

I say send her a link to this post and when the numbers against Cherry Tree Hill start adding up, perhaps she'll change her tune.

And are there, like, industry magazines that you could write a letter to? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to this particular industry, but if it were, say, a childcare product, I might write to Parents Magazine or something.

Sometimes stuff like this gets an editor's attention.

[Susan Jonsson]

Might be interesting to forward these comments...to "You know who"....I will not be ordering yarn from CTH any time soon....I think this company should give you a complete refund and a gift certificate for the same amount to restore good faith.

Susan

[Carole]

What Cheryl doesn't realize is the Power of the Blog. You will do more damage by exposing their inferior product and shabby customer service than anything else you could possibly do.