Orders

So, let's start with talking about orders.  I know I'm always talking about how many I have to do -- which I typically do -- which means I tend to work on them piecemeal.  If you're ordering a motorhome, it gets built in pieces.  I first start with the base and glue the back three pieces on.  Let those dry.  ONCE those are dry (the next day), the I move onto the next portion.  So if I'm waiting to hear from you about something regarding your order, it's usually no problem... except when all I'm waiting for is payment.

Let's talk about this one person.  She messages me with a list of items she wants to buy, and wants to know what shipping is.  Word to the wise, I need to know your zip code to calculate shipping.  People have told me everything from "I'm in Springfield" (Massachusetts?  Nevada?  I don't know...) to "I'm on the east coast (so... Florida?  New Hampshire?) to "I'm in the US."  Now all of those statements may very well be true, but USPS does not let me put in "east coast" when figuring out shipping, I need a zip code. 

So anyway, I email this lady back and just nicely say that I need a zip code, and she gets back to me that day with a zip code.  So a day passes, and I haven't emailed her back yet (see above regarding multiple orders) so she calls me up, asking if I'd figured out her order yet.  I tell her, no not yet, but I planned to work on it that day.  So I tell her, I will end up emailing her later if I need any more information or with her total, or whatever the case may be.  Well, she mentions that she thought her package might be able to go first class, and I suppose I should have thought of it then (but I ship SO few items first class, it's not top of my mind, like out of hundreds of packages a year, maybe 5 are first class... everything else is just too heavy)... I need a full address to determine first class shipping, and all I have is this lady's first name and her zip code.

So I email her and I mention that yes, I put all the stuff in the package and yes, she is correct, it can go first class...and because of that, I need her full address.  Three days pass, and I don't hear anything.  So I call her up, since I had her phone number from the first phone call.  I leave a detailed message about needing the full address and so on... she calls back 3 days later and asks what I need.  Clearly didn't listen to the message, or anything.  So I take down her full address, and she mentions that she wants to take an item off the order.  And then she asks how this is going to work once I determine shipping.  So I tell her, ok, I will figure out shipping, and I will email her with the total.  And I ask her if that's fine, since she hasn't been responding to my emails and she says yeah, perfectly fine.  So then I tell her, ok, if she wants to pay with paypal, I can email her an invoice, or if she wants to pay with a card, she can call me back and we can do that over the phone, and she says ok, she'll watch for the email.

So I take that item out that she no longer wants, input her complete address, determine shipping, and get that email out to her within the next hour or two.  That was the 23rd.  It is now the 28th, and I have yet to hear back from her.  I called her just a bit ago and left yet another message saying hey, this is what your total came out to, I sent you an email, still haven't heard back.

Mind you, this is an $11 order, mostly herbs which have very little profit, maybe $2 of that is profit... and I've been chasing down this lady with this order for like 2 weeks now.  It's not that I don't value the orders, but to me... this is ridiculous.  Either you want it or you don't.  Shipping came out to like $4, so the total (for a 9x11 envelope STUFFED with items) is $15... so it's not breaking the bank for anyone...but she apparently can't be bothered to get back to me... and frankly, I'm too busy to keep chasing people down like this.

And this isn't the first time.  I have an order completely packaged up... from I dunno even how long ago.  At least a year ago, I had someone tell me they wanted a custom tunnel and something else. I honestly don't even remember what the "something else" was now... cause they wanted it, they wanted it, they'd pay next week.  Well, next week turned into, after their court date next month, which turned into, after this the following week... I still have the box under my table downstairs.  I had been emailing this person periodically, saying hey, I need payment for this, cause I mean, she had me convinced she was going to pay so much that the package is literally SEALED and everything.  Every time I'd email her, she'd have her reason why she couldn't pay now, but she'd pay next week...and yet never did.  At this point, I need to cut open that package and sell those two items... but what I've learned from these experiences is that in the future, I need to give the people a set amount of time... say 7 days to pay from when I give them a shipping quote, and if they don't, their order gets taken apart / back on the shelf / whatever.  Cause that box under the table is LARGE and is taking up a lot of room, and I know that whatever is in it could have been sold awhile ago.  And the unfortunate thing, is that people like this are what delay everyone else's order... like because I'm taking the time to chase after these people, that's less time to devote to everyone else's order who IS serious and IS planning on paying... so a line needs to be drawn.