Archer and Olive – Cashback, Rebates & Rewards

I've bought bullet journals from this company several times, and while their customer service seems genuine, friendly and happy to assist, there are a lot of issues that make my personal experience with them less than stellar. Primarily it concerns the way things are shipped and packaged. A&O bujos come individually packaged in beautiful, shrink-wrapped cardboard boxes with a delicate design on the top of the box. This makes them not only perfect for easy and instant gifting, but also gives you a place to store either still unused or finished bujos...in theory. The problem is that, in my personal experience, they basically use zero packaging materials inside the shipping boxes: no bubblewrap, no air pillows, nothing. Given that none of the national shipping companies care how your items arrive and the boxes are likely kicked, dropped, thrown all over creation in the process of getting to you, the end result of this means banged up, crimped corners. I will give A&O credit for being extremely approachable and always working to make a problem right - but it's really frustrating when something so simple keeps happening. They sent me replacement boxes when I contacted them about an order I placed at the end of last year to tell them I had a bunch of damaged boxes - which is great, but then the replacement boxes also got shipped without packaging materials...as did a second order I placed with them. I'd like to give them a higher score but leaving aside the fact that this just created additional and completely unnecessary, avoidable waste, it's also just a hassle to have to keep going back instead of getting my order intact in the first place.

I have used several journals in the last few years and Archer and Olive are the very best notebooks I've tried. The paper quality is excellent, particularly for watercolour illustrations, as it doesn't buckle like thinner papers does; nor do pens bleed through to the next page. The paper is a clean white with visible but unobtrusive dots and sets off coloured illustrations perfectly unlike the more yellow paper of other journals. The last book I bought was 192 pages, which for me is sufficient to accommodate both the introductory pages and 12 monthly sections, without having to spit my journal over two books. The books are sturdy and the paper lies flat (which is important when drawing clean lines) and they have two page markers, a back pocket, a closure band and (hooray!) a pen holder. The covers come in a range of beautiful colours with stylish but subtle decorations. It's all I need in a bujo without having to make the usual compromises. Yes, you can buy less expensive notebooks but Archer and Olive's are so worth the additional outlay. I love them!