Endless variety. Great customer service. Timely shipment. Good prices.
Written: Mar 03 '05
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Oriental Trading Company Inc. or OTC for short, is in my opinion one great company. I know they've been around for years, but I didn't really become familiar with OTC until 3 years ago when we started a monthly fellowship night and an annual kid's karnival at our church. It was with the starting of these two events that I started a search for theme items to decorate with for our fellowship night and prizes for our kid's karnival.
My first experience with OTC was a catalog order. They have a mind boggling array of toys, jewelry, crafts, gifts, candy, decorations, prizes and so much more. I love how they even have an array of holiday items, but even better than that, inspirational items.
Their prices are fantastic! Shipment has always been timely. With all but one exception I have received complete orders. One shipment arrived missing a crucial item for our kid's karnival. Customer service was apologetic, polite and very eager to correct the mistake. I had the missing merchandise within a week at no additional cost.
I have never been disappointed with any of the merchandise I have received from OTC. I admit that some items may not be of the highest quality, but you do get what you pay for. On the other hand, I have been very impressed the the quality of other items. For instance, a game set I ordered for our kid's karnival that included ping-pong balls that are tossed into small bowls. The bowls are glass and very heavy. I know these will survive years of gaming!
Sometimes I wonder as I'm ordering an item if the quality will allow us to pack them away and use them again - the answer is a resounding YES. I ordered a supply of lei's for a luau that the kids loved. Those leis were thrown, dropped and pulled every which way and we didn't have to throw a single one out. Another item, a game set that included a blow-up football and goal post - the goal post didn't see much action as they always missed, but that poor little blow-up football took major abuse and was packed away for a second time for next years karnival.
There is a different theme each month for our fellowship nights and if it is a theme I can decorate to ... some you just can't ... then I know I'll be able to find the appropriate merchandise at OTC. For our kid's karnival we mostly hand out candy, but we like to hand out prizes as well. For our first karnival I was given $100, spent only $60 and was able to order enough that we packed some away for the next year. We ordered items such as pencils, stickers, erasers, super balls, bracelets, necklaces, yo-yo's, whistles, etc. Because our karnival is open to children outside our church I try to order inspirational items so the gospel message will go home with them.
The crafts are awesome! I personally order holiday crafts every year to sell or give away. We've ordered them for craft projects for Sunday school kids and grown-ups alike. My only comment in reference to crafts is anything made with craft foam ... it takes a while for the glue to bond craft foam to craft foam and that can be a bit frustrating. This is a time consuming process and probably isn't the best choice for children.
Last year I went on-line (www.orientaltrading.com) and started ordering. I prefer this method over catalog ordering. As catalogs arrive I find an item or two in each one, but going on-line allows everything that OTC sells to be right at my fingertips. I find their website very user friendly and easy to navigate.
I am hard-pressed to say anything negative about OTC unless you consider too much variety a bad thing as I sometimes find it difficult to make up my mind! Some may find the shipping charges a bit high, but the nearest party supply store is an hour and a half away from us, so paying the shipping charges is actually cost effective considering gas and time.
Overall, OTC has proven to be a wonderful company to do business with and I look forward to using them for years to come.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Toys, games, crafts, candy, etc.
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Epinions.com ID:
rocoboko
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Member: C O
Location: Idaho
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 18 members
About Me:
The most important things in our lives: Faith, Family & Friends.
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