Now... I'd like to think I package things well. And I understand when things break, people want a new one. But sometimes I think people think this is Walmart and if it breaks, they want a whole new one.... heaven forbid they pull out a little glue.
I ship out over 100 hidey houses, motorhomes, and mobiles combined over a year's time, and maybe 10 break. 7 of those people will email, say it broke, and sometimes send a picture and will ask what they can use to re-glue. And I'll tell them and they will re-glue themselves, no problem. Maybe 1 of the remaining three sends a picture and it's broken so badly that it can't be fixed, I'll send another or issue a refund, whichever they prefer. But the remaining two.... I'm sure I'm going to sound like an absolute bitch here, but.... they won't glue the damn things back together and want a full refund when the fix is minor. A roof came off a hidey house. Super difficult to glue back on, I know. *rolls eyes* I can see if the whole thing came apart, as I collapse houses trying to glue them together and get rubberbands on them to let them set... I collapse them myself all the time. That's not easy. But a roof? Come on. I currently sent out a motorhome, and the roof and the front panel (with headlights) came off. Easiest pieces to glue back on as they don't support anything and there's no trying to line them up perfectly. The roof goes on top, the panel goes in the front. I tell them, they can just glue those on, use elmer's glue. Nope, they want a full refund. Really?
Don't get me wrong, I will give a refund if wanted. I don't argue about it, someone says something happened, I will give a refund (though I do appreciate pictures, in the event you're asking for a lot of money refunded). And I've had some things sent out that are damaged so badly they definitely warrant a refund. But when two pieces come off your item and you don't care to glue it? That just irks me. Because you would have the exact item you ordered if you'd glue the thing. But no.
Also should note -- these are handmade wood items. They are made with glue. You know why they're made with glue? Because the animal community frowns deeply upon the use of screws or nails. Which I can understand, you all don't want your animals munching on metal, but then I feel like people have to understand, it's not superglue used to hold these things together. It's simple white elmer's glue, and that stuff isn't super glue. It's strong, but it's not strong enough to withstand the mailmen playing basketball with the box.
And the other thing -- I'm fine with paying return shipping... but it seems no matter how much I stress to people to ship things out the slowest, cheapest way, I tend to get ALL refunds sent back either priority mail or even once, overnighted! It is NOT worth paying $40 for me to get something back the next day. Heck, the motorhome itself is only $32!! I don't know if some of these people are sitting back laughing because I told em ship it cheap and they just cost me $40 to get a broken motorhome back, but people really do this to me, and I'm getting tired of it. Keep in mind, if you order something and it breaks, and you want to ship it back to me, now, in addition to whatever it cost me to make the item, now I've just downed another $15-20 into it (for a motorhome, for example, which are expensive to ship, as they're large and heavy.... not to mention, a lot of times, people pack them crappily, and they arrive at my place broken even further than when the person received them). It's only selling for $32, and if I spend $20 to get it back, and then have to fix it... well, it takes forever to build one anyway, which is why its $32.... now I'm only making $12 (and, it took me additional time to fix it, if I even can...). I understand even standard post is expensive, but I don't need it priority or overnighted. Cheapest possible, please. I'm not in a rush and super excited to receive broken pieces of wood in the mail. It can wait a few days.
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