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HollyDay
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I am going to place an order from them soon. Anything I should know about? I am surprised by their shipping suggestions. They say they are slow April, May and June due to conferences then July, Aug, and Sept due to busy months. So, March is the best time to order for next year???

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I've been ordering the majority of my stuff from them for the entire 7 years I've been homeschooling. I almost always received my stuff within a week, at the most two weeks and I always order enough to take advantage of the free shipping.

 

Until we moved here to Hawai'i. Apparently they ship parcel post to Hawaii. Four weeks and no package. :( No more free shipping for me, I can't wait six weeks to get something I've ordered for school, I'm too much of a procrastinator. Just a small word of warning to people out there.

 

eta: Don't even get me started on Amazon, they used to be such a *great* company.

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I've never had a problem with RR, but a friend of mine has had issues with backordered items. If RR has something on backorder, they will ship the in-stock items to you, and then ship the backordered items later. Not usually a problem:) But if the backordered item seems to be taking several months to a year to get in stock, RR just keeps that order until it comes in, without letting you know what is going on about it. My friend has the habit of ordering many things in advance, not keeping track of what she actually ordered, and then receiving surprise back-ordered items a year later from RR that she hadn't realized were backordered. Usually, she's forgotten that she even ordered the item and made a purchase through someone else. So...my only word of advice is - double check your order, and call RR on any items that might be backordered. If an item is on backorder for a lengthy amt of time, you may want to keep checking in with RR or cancel the item altogether.

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and dont' forget about free shipping. Last night I placed my order at ten pm (which is late for me) so my brain wasn't working. I placed an order for 115.00 and paid 12.00 shipping. For a total of 130.00. For twenty dollars more I could have gotten 30.00 worth of material. Now I see it all clearly but last night it was rather difficult for me and I opted to not use the free shipping. Oh well.

 

 

Yesterday someone posted a CBD code good till Mar 31st, but CBD didn't have half the stuff I needed.

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We usually get our stuff from RR within 2 weeks of ordering. next years items are somewhere between Michigan and New Hampshire right now! I'm chomping at the bit to get into everything!:D I only order this time of year because I use part of our tax refund for our school supplies. I've ordered in the summer and it did not take any longer.

 

( I just noticed that I am now a hive mind worker bee! Cool! or I am just online way too much now that we have dsl)

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during their "peak" seasons, shipping can be slower, but I receive almost all of my orders within ten days, and I'm all the way across the country from RR.

 

I've had a couple things backorder, but not that often. Things that have backordered always arrived quickly.

Michelle T

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I just placed my first order with them. I usually go with CBD, but they did not have one of the things I needed. So I'm glad to see that RR is also a good place for ordering school supplies. I just hate the wait though, I'm always so anxious to get my stuff!!

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I always try to order from them because they have a great catalog and website. The descriptions of their products is impressive and you could look at sample pages of almost anything on the website. They make it easy for me choose between products by providing summaries of almost everything. My orders take 1-2 weeks depending on their busy season.

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I, too, love this company. I usually get my stuff pretty quick and order in March/April every year. The information someone above me wrote about back orders is true...they send what they have and with no explanation of why the book did not arrive or estimate on when they hope to ship backordered items....I've received a few "random" checks from them (with no details about which backordered item the check was for)for backorders they couldn't fill. I was grateful they were timely with the refund, however it would be nice to be reminded of which item you ordered and weren't going to receive...

 

I will continue to order from them. Their prices are great. If you can't get a $150 order together for the free shipping deal maybe you have a friend or two that wants to order a couple items to add to your order. Some of my friends and I have done that when we found a few last minute things we forgot to put in our original order.

 

One more thing I just thought of: I have been ordering from them for years, but only as my primary place I purchase my hs stuff for the last 2 years. One thing I realized last year was that I could order so many extra little things (pencils, sharpeners, sketch books, water color paper, art supplies, science kits....) Their prices are so good so after I hit that $150 mark (which seems to happen oh so rather quickly for me...) I purchase many of the things that I would typically pick up at WalMart etc. This cuts down on me running around and has saved me a lot of money. I have been surprised by some of the things that they actually carry.

 

Blessings,

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and dont' forget about free shipping. Last night I placed my order at ten pm (which is late for me) so my brain wasn't working. I placed an order for 115.00 and paid 12.00 shipping. For a total of 130.00. For twenty dollars more I could have gotten 30.00 worth of material. Now I see it all clearly but last night it was rather difficult for me and I opted to not use the free shipping. Oh well.

 

 

Yesterday someone posted a CBD code good till Mar 31st, but CBD didn't have half the stuff I needed.

 

You know I would call them tomorrow and ask whether you can add to your order - I think actually they would have to cancel your order and start all over again - but if you're not in that much of a hurry (and really it's been only 2 days) maybe you can start all over again and get a game or something :)

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I live in Canada. I have ordered from other Canadian homeschool suppliers and have had nothing but trouble from all of them. So I now only order from RR. I have ordered in the spring and it usually takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get my order. When I order from a Can. company it takes about 6 wks. I just put in an order last month and I received it a week later. In the five years that I have done business with them, I have only had one item back ordered.

 

Julia

mom of 3 (8,7,5)

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Sure, March is great, or if you wish to start your year later, October. However, I've ordered in the summer, but have given myself plenty of time. They are easy to work with. They are a very popular company with great service, and I appreciate their honesty about shipping. They're not the only company to be slower during those months, in my experience.

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I generally try to order in Jan/Feb and get my things within about 5 days. I don't consider that long (but I'm not part of the 'make it appear instantaneously' generation, LOL). Even when I order from them at traditionally busy times, I generally get all my stuff within two weeks. The only time there's ever a problem is if something they carry is on backorder from the publisher or supplier - and there's only so much they can do about that, so I don't blame them for it at all. I've been very pleased with RRC.

 

Regena

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If you order by phone I think it may be a little faster to get it out vs online. Also they give a 2% cash discount if you pay with ACH check vs a credit card. I guess becasue they avoid the merchant account fees with a cc?

They are a very generous company. Our state homeschool association has a scholarship program with them for low income single parent homeschoolers.

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I have had an extensive wish list with RR on the website for 3 months. I have had no problems navigating the website; although, the sheer volume of items is a little overwhelming. Sometimes I like to look through the catalogue, but that also can be overwhelming.

 

Overall, I think RR has the best selction of materials at the best prices, but they don't have everything, and sometimes Amazon is actually cheaper. When I'm in shopping mode, I sometimes have both websites open to compare prices.

 

It's fun. I am waiting for the "right" day to move all those items over to my shopping cart to order them! :p

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Overall, I think RR has the best selction of materials at the best prices, but they don't have everything, and sometimes Amazon is actually cheaper. When I'm in shopping mode, I sometimes have both websites open to compare prices.

 

I have been a RR regular customer for four years now. In general I can count on them having the best prices, and I appreciate not having to spend hours shopping around. Individual items can vary, but it seems the difference is only pennies. When I can place an order for $150 and save the shipping, it is worth that extra $0.50 I paid on one of my workbooks ;) I think the longest I have waited for a shipment would be about two weeks.

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, but they don't have everything, and sometimes Amazon is actually cheaper. When I'm in shopping mode, I sometimes have both websites open to compare prices.

 

 

We've been ordering from them for nearly 5 years, but not everything as they don't always have what we want and sometimes we can get it cheaper elsewhere. We also try to get at least some things used (but not all to help support authors, etc).

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