Rush Orders

I know, I know, we just talked about food orders that need to be rushed, but there's also a trend with other orders needing to be rushed as well.

Let me start by saying -- I get out orders as quickly as I can.  I really do.  For the items that are typically made-to-order... the houses, hay holders, etc... it says on the webstore that they may take two weeks to ship.  Ideally, I try to get them out, long before that.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I sure try.  I don't like when I order something and I'm waiting... and waiting... and waiting some more... and then I get the order 3 months later.  I've even had to bug some sellers in the past, when I was originally ordering fleece liners, and pester them, over and over, for them to do my order and ship it.  That's not how life should be -- I feel like you should be able to place an order (whether here or elsewhere) and it should be put together and arrive on your doorstep in a reasonable amount of time.

That said... I get people all the time who email and basically say something to the tune of -- Hey, just wanted to let you know I ordered these items, and I was hoping you could get the order done absolutely ASAP because [insert reason] and so I really need it as soon as possible, and the earlier you could get it done, the better.  Please email me at your absolute earliest convenience with shipping cost.

Now, let's take a real life example.  I had someone email, let's say Monday.  Basically got that (above) email from them.  One of the items in their order was a house -- which I'd already had made, and mentally ear-marked for another order.  However, the other order was more complex, so I was still building the items and wasn't able to ship it out for a few more days.  So when I got the email from the person wanting their order rush rush, I said to myself, ok, I'll make another house for that other order.  So I took the house (from the order it should have gone for) and packed it up with the rush order.  I was busy for the next day or two, but on day 3 from when the order was placed, I emailed the person and told them, hey, I have your order ready to ship, shipping is this amount, total is this amount.  And I asked how they wanted to pay.  So they told me paypal (which is used in 90% of payments), and so I sent them an invoice.  It was still early in the day, I figured, well maybe they'll pay the invoice and I can ship it out that night, with another package that was going out.  Didn't get payment that night, and in the morning, I got an email saying that they'd pay in a few days, because they were waiting on something.

I hope this frustrates at least some of you, as much as it does me.  I rush everything, try to do the order quickly and for that order, I was going to be done with the orders for that day (cause as I'm sure you can imagine, if I work on orders all day, then cleaning / feeding / whatever, something else doesn't get done, so I divide my time), but I thought, no, she says she wants it quickly, so I'll keep working on orders.  And then... oh she'll pay in a few days.  So... it's only a rush, if she gets her money before the order is ready.  So now, I have a 2.5' box sitting around... nowhere good to put it... and it won't ship out for a few more days.

Please, please... if you want that order "rushed," have the money ready.  Cause this really gets aggravating....