"Their customer service is terrible. They have yet to reply to any of my emails including qa possible fraudulent use of my card. They also either don't answer the phone or give poor service. Never again will I use this rip off company."
"We can't say enough bad things about this company - we only wish we had seen these reviews prior to ordering. My wife placed an order on 2 December which included all the gifts that were from Santa. There was no shipping notification by 17 December, so we sent an email which only generated a "thanks for contacting us" response. My wife called this morning (18 Dec) and was told by three levels of rude customer service reps that the order wouldn't arrive until 27 December. How do explain Santa a) sending his stuff through the mail, and b) not having enough foresight to get it there on time? Bad enough that they can't figure out a way to ship in 23 DAYS (ever heard of FedEx, UPS, or even Priority Mail?), but to have extremely rude, unapologetic people as the face of your company? Unexcusable. We won't be doing business with them again. I'd like to give a "no stars" rating, but I don't think it's an option . . ."
"This is nothing more than a scam company. They will rip you off and should be closed down. Stay away, stay far away!"
"Like all of the other posters here I had an abysmal experience while attempting to order from Young Explorers. I recommend avoiding doing business with Young Explorers - and their parent company Potpourri Group, Inc. - at all costs. They completely OVERcharge for shipping and handling (they were going to charge me an $8.95 "standard rate" PLUS a $14.95 2-day rate had I gone through with my order and it STILL wouldn't have arrived on time - a fact they didn't mention until I spoke to a 4th representative) and the "customer service" reps were horrendously rude and ill-informed. I'll be letting lots of people know about my terrible experience and the horrendous reviews I've learned about here."
"I am so bummed I didn't read these reviews before I ordered. I ordered an item for my daughter's birthday and paid the extra $4.95 for expedited shipping. It took over 12 days to receive the item. It was suppose to arrive on my daughter's birthday, however, on the expected delivery day, the shipping date was changed to two days later. I contacted Young Explorers immediately and have yet to receive any reply other than the standard auto reply that they got my email and will respond the next day. It's been a week. Terrible customer service!!!!!! Certainly lost a customer and I am writing this review so others don't have to experience the disappointment and terrible customer service. "
"Unless you want to wait a month for your order, I would suggested going somewhere else. I went for the 5-9 day standard shipping. It was 5-9 days before the order was even shipped, and I am still waiting 8 days after the date it was shipped. So far I've been waiting 20 days. Next time I will order somewhere else or just go to the store and buy something. They definitely lost another customer."
"Don't fall for their "rush service" delivery. You can't tell from the website but all that means is that your purchase leaves the warehouse sooner. Also, when they say "5-7 business days," they really mean it. It's like they add a weekend into their mailing calculations. By adding those 2 "non-business" days, they pay less for 7-9 day delivery. "
"Two times we have ordered from Young Explorers. I will never again. It takes FOREVER to get something and the costumers service is not very good. They just say "keep waiting" meanwhile we have order several other things from other company's. And we promptly received those things. So now I have 15 business days before I can get a refund. I ordered from another catalog on Sunday and I already got it Thursday. So I will stick with other company's from now on."
"Really wish I would have found this site before my interaction with Young Explorers. I have ordered from Hearthsong a bunch and kind of assumed that when the YE catalog came, it was a related business (like Magic Cabin). My daughter loves science, so she had a TON of stuff circled for her christmas list. I decided that I would do the majority of her shopping through YE and placed a very large order on Dec 10th 2011. I called on the 14th out of concern that the NON of the 12 items had even been pulled, and I choose regular shipping b/c the site still showed it arriving before the 24th. They told me that I opted to "hold my order until completed" HOWEVER, everything i ordered was in stock on the 10th, but by the time they went to pull the order several days later, 4 things were not. I was very upset and they had no explanation. I was told that the bulk of my order would ship next day (with a free upgrade to 2-day). The package was NOT shipped until the 19th and thankfully was received on time. As for the other items??? I have no idea.. one is "at drop shipper" since 12-10 and they told me that this item had a note showing that it took extra time to ship, it did NOT. It only showed that you had to order by the 10th to receive by christmas (conveniently it reads dec 6th now), either way, today is Jan 16th. I was told that they other two missing items would be available first week on jan, but I received a letter in the mail saying one, jan 19 and one MAY 12th!!!! Oh yes, and one item was canceled all together "b/c they no longer carry it" however, it's available right now if you'd like to order! Seriously, Make a Mummy Kit... was looking forward to that one. So I WAS able to get through to customer service, not that it did me any good. I'm just lucky that I got the bulk of it in time, and printed pics of the stuff we are still waiting on. One more thing.. guess they are finally gonna ship one of the three missing since I have a new charge on my band acct from them... sighhhhh. I'll be glad when this is all over. And if they plan to charge me for shipping? They have lost their minds."
"I received a defective toy from Young Explorers for Christmas. My son was injured playing with it. I immediately called their customer service to complain and get a return label sent to me. (They expected me to pay to send back a defective toy, if you can believe it.) Well, instead of a return label, they sent another toy. The toy was delivered and left on my doorstep while my family was on a two week vacation. I received an email about the delivery while on vacation. I called to point out the mistake, and the customer service lady got very huffy with me. She said she didn't know why the toy was sent and they couldn't have UPS pick up the box, if I wasn't at home. I live on a busy street, and for the next week and a half, there will be a large box on my front doorstep letting everybody know that we are out of town. Glad we remembered to turn on the security system. Do not buy anything from this catalog. The toys are poorly made, returns are very difficult, and the customer service can be impolite and unhelpful. I should also mention that my nephew got a Young Explorers toy for Christmas, and it was also sent back due to its poor quality."
"I should have checked this site before I placed an order. I placed an order on November 25, 2011 for Christmas. I was never noticed of shipping so I emailed Young Explorers on Dec. 9, 13, 16 and 20th. Each email was replied with "a company representative will get back to you within one business day." I never heard back. I also called 3 times. The 1st lady I spoke to brushed me off and said she could not track the item since it was an outside vendor and I would hear shortly. She said that since I ordered it on Nov. 25th I would certainly get it by Christmas. The second lady was pleasant and said she would check. After being on hold for a half an hour I hung up. I would have cancelled the order but the item was to be personalized and I did not think I could. Finally on December 20th, I spoke to a young man who said it was no longer available and they were sending a letter the next day. I received a post card on Dec. 30th saying it was on back order and did I still want it. On January 3, I received a letter saying it was no longer available. I may even have given them some slack except I told a friend about the item. She went on line the week after I ordered it and was told it was unavailable. Obviously no one there took the time to check. "
"NEVER ORDER FROM THIS PLACE! Customer service sucks. You're lucky if you can talk to someone who knows whats going on. My check was cashed over a month ago and I'm still waiting. The web site says this product is available, so where is it?? The person who answered my call couldn't help me and put me on hold for a specialist. So what exactly is the job of the original person who answered? They make you wait on hold until you get tired of it and hang up. BEWARE: YOU'LL GET SCREWED like I did"
"Young Explorers is over priced with abysmal customer service. If you buy something that has been misleadingly described and you want to return it because it is nothing like what you were led to believe it would be, you have to pay to return it, and customer service doesn't care at all. I will never go back to Young Explorers; they don't offer anything that I can't get elsewhere, and I certainly don't need their attitude. "
"DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!! (Unless you do NOT want what you ordered and enjoy wasting your time and money). HORRIBLE COMPANY! RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE!! PRODUCT NEVER ARRIVED!! DO NOT ORDER FROM YOUNG EXPLORERS IF IT WILL BE A GIFT! I ordered a gift for my son for Christmas and paid extra to have it delivered in time. It is the end of January and still NO gift although I was charged for it. End of January, Young Explorers told me the item I ordered has been sold out and there aren't anymore!! No one called to tell us. I had to keep calling the company to find out where the gift was. In fact, the customer service staff repeatedly told us the gift should be arriving anyday. Only yesterday, they told us the truth. The customer service was rude, unhelpful, and basically told me that I could order something else instead(if I paid FULL price for it!!) They did credit me back for the gift, but way too late and only after my son checked the mail everyday for over a month for his Christmas gift. Be WARNED if you buy from Young Explorers!! "
"After doing business with Young Explorers they sold my information to a company which disguises itself as Auto Vantage. Not just my address, they also supplied my CC info to them. Do a search if you would like to know about this scam.
This company supposedly sent us a check which when cashed would activate our account with them. Well we never cashed any check and there are many others out there that even remember shredding these Auto Vantage checks yet the membership still gets activated.
When I contacted Young Explorers about this issue they knew exactly what I was talking about and accused me of cashing the $10 check from Auto Vantage. Young Explorers is as guilty as Auto Vantage as far as I'm concerned. Stay far away from them, they are thieves! "