Bethlehem Olivewood Supplies

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RDH79

Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
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Location
Rimersburg, Pa, USA.
Has anyone bought anything from Bethlehem Olivewood Supplies. I placed an order On 8-20-08 Received a email stating order was shipped on the 25th. Have called and emailed to many times to remember. No responce to emails and messages. Just wondering Thanks Rich H.
 
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I would recommend doing a search on Bethlehem Olivewood. Over the years, there have been hundreds of threads started worded almost identical to yours. Definately a hot topic with staunch supporters of the company and those vowing to never do business with them again.
 
Well I am one of those. I bought from them before it took a LONG time to get it 6-8 weeks is norm. Lately they have been bad.

I placed a fairly large order with them on 6-29. I even spoke with Ghasan and told him my fears he assured me they were rectified. Anyway now after several emails over the weeks some got responses some not. And about 2 weeks ago I actually got him to answer the phone. He said they left Israel sometime early July. He said if I did not get it in a week to let him know.

Now it is known that they take a long time in shipping and Israel is a tough environment BUT it's been 14 weeks now. Time for me to call him again.

I just don't understand it. I understand there overseas in a war riddled environment. BUT come on be honest they have a lot of dedicated followers I was one of them but I think I have lost my faith.

Well I could go on but that it. When & if I get it I will let you all know.

Bruce
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I don't know of anyone who has been outright screwed by them, it's just a matter of how long the wait was.

Personally, I don't have the time or money to buy something that I'm not going to have in hand quickly.

Until the hardships in that area are calmed down a little, it may be time to start searching out more Russian olive wood. It's seemingly never as nice, lacks the whole religious vibe, but I'm not the kind that can wait 3 months.
 
Skye said:
it may be time to start searching out more Russian olive wood. It's seemingly never as nice, lacks the whole religious vibe, but I'm not the kind that can wait 3 months.
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Do you have any pics of your Russian Olive Wood? I'd be interested in finding some if it's Olive wood from Russia as opposed to Russian-Olive which is an entirely different tree.
 
No, as far as I know all mine is BOW. Do some searching around on the web and you'll probably find a vendor. It's not as pretty, but the burls are decent.
 
Skye said:
I don't know of anyone who has been outright screwed by them, it's just a matter of how long the wait was.

but I'm not the kind that can wait 3 months.
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That is why I ordered a big order in June to have it for the fall & Christmas season. Well hear we are I hope it comes soon.

The big thing that bothers me is I talked with directly. He seamed to look my order up and said it was shipped. Every time I talked to him he said it would be a week. To me honesty is the biggest thing. Don't BS me with the it's in the mail thing. I think I will get my BOW from someone here stateside that has it on hand from now on.

And there may be the remote possibility that it did ship and didn't make it out of the country.

We'll see I will keep you all updated. I think I will call him now.
 
Don't feel too bad about waiting 6-8weeks, I've been waiting 10 months. Boy I can't wait for this package to finally arrive, if I am lucky, it will come on the same day as my Nigerian National Lottery winnings.
 
I've ordered once from them and it was a sizeable special order. They said it would take 6 weeks and, lo and behold, it took 6 weeks. Thw wood was all high quality so, I got what I paid for, it just took longer than I would have wished. That was about 3 months ago.

I think they went through a bad period about a year ago - family issues, etc., - that caused a lot of confusion and a number of dropped orders. Hopefully, they've got their act together now.

Marc
 
wolftat said:
Don't feel too bad about waiting 6-8weeks, I've been waiting 10 months. Boy I can't wait for this package to finally arrive, if I am lucky, it will come on the same day as my Nigerian National Lottery winnings.
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Wow, I'd venture to say your order has slipped through the cracks. I'd defiantly get in touch with them one way or another and raise a ruckus.
 
marcruby said:
I think they went through a bad period about a year ago - family issues, etc., - that caused a lot of confusion and a number of dropped orders. Hopefully, they've got their act together now.

Marc
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Yes I know about that Diann's mother got real sick and I think she passed not sure. That was about 4-6 months ago. Ghasan was very active on Yahoo penturners back then and did specials. Then they went straight down hill. He said it was due to the family matters. That is why I placed the order. He made it sound like they were putting things back together. Now I am not to sure. I just tried to call all the numbers on the site just get a machine. I sent another email we'll see if there's a response.
 
Skye said:
Wow, I'd venture to say your order has slipped through the cracks. I'd defiantly get in touch with them one way or another and raise a ruckus.
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Dozens of emails and phone calls went out. A few empty promises were made, but thats all I ever received. The last time I spoke with them, they even offered to add in some extra for my troubles, but I never got anything from them. My final email was after waiting about 8 months was to tell them what I thought of the way I was treated and that they could keep the money since they must need it a lot more than I do. I would never treat one of my customers the way I was treated. Mannie is the one that was able to get me some BOW last year and we have been able to some here and there over the past year. I'll deal with Mannie from now on.
 
My order before last from them took 2 and a half months, I was in the same boat. Wanted them for Christmas, and I literally got them like 5 days before. I've learned to keep a decent stock and when it gets down to 8 or 10 blanks, place an order and agonize over which kit I want to assign it to. They have always come through though, just not in the timliness that we would like. I guess they cant control everything.

Bob
 
Wow I guess I'm not the only one. If I do get to talk to someone its always 1 more week. now its just a answering machine. And when I placed the order the shipping was $2.00 more than the web site stated. I call and he said we would add more blanks Well I guess I have to look forward to use them Christmas 09 Rich H.
 
RDH79 said:
Wow I guess I'm not the only one. If I do get to talk to someone its always 1 more week. now its just a answering machine. And when I placed the order the shipping was $2.00 more than the web site stated. I call and he said we would add more blanks Well I guess I have to look forward to use them Christmas 09 Rich H.
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That's pretty funny..they sent me an email telling me that the shipping was $10 more than what I sent them, and like an idiot I sent it because I wanted the wood. Maybe my wood will come for '10 or sometime around then.
 
BOW

Was impressed by the various experiences, mine was different but infinitely more exciting.

I have a Jewish friend migrated about 3 years ago, he has a daughter living nearish Bethlehem which is occupied by Arabs.

All moneys into the daughters area cost minimum 50 dollars to exchange to Jerusalem,

Order the blanks from the dealer in Bethlehem on Google.

Numerous phone calls, clandestine taxi to a safish area, exchange US Dollars for blanks, Postage to Australia a bit like the mating of Elephants quite drawn out and fraught with.

Net result terribly expensive blanks.
My overall conclusion is buy from the IAP Dealers of repute who buy from the same source and have them in stock, still a pig in a poke best if you can select the ones you want. A sellers market. Far cheaper from Australia via America including freight even now our dollar dropped 20 cents again.

Peter
 
I haven't chimed in on these topics but I guess I will as I may know a little more than some on this topic or maybe I don't but here is what I think and please keep in mind it is only my opinion.

I would suggest that if you need your BOW...... to order from a supplier here in the states. I understand PSI recently got a good size order in and so did Manny and some other US resellers. Things used to run pretty smooth with Dianna in Riverside but since she is no longer involved in it Gashen is having to try and catch up on the old stuff plus service new customers and run the shop. As you can see they are still falling short. To top this all off the wood supply is getting critically low and the season for the carvings (figurines and other olive products that they sell in country to tourist) is right around the corner. So add all this up and you can see that getting new stuff is going to be difficult at best. I think if you order from folks in the states it may give Gashen the ability to try and get the ship righted. Plus it will be a whole lot less stress on you. There is also another seller from there who sells on ebay but please keep in mind he is buying and reselling seconds that he gets from Gashen. And last but not least I can always fill your order for you as my current inventory is about 600 pen blanks and about 30 bottle stoppers.
 
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