Patience is a Virtue...

...which no one possesses.

Case in point the other day.  Someone emails asking if the shipping on the webstore is correct, I guess the amount for shipping was more than the amount for the items.  Not unusual, that's why I refund the excess.

So I told her, no, probably not correct, but if she could wait a few days, I'd get back to her with correct shipping.  So I did.  She emails me back, and asks, what's the next step?

Mind you, I'm about a day behind on emails, so while I did SEE her email... it's not exactly the next in line to respond to.  I can only do so much, and I feel like people can wait a day (come on... it's not long to get a response) for me to get back to them.

Anyway, so I didn't respond immediately (shame shame, horrible person that I am), so then I got another email shortly after that basically said, with my name spelled wrong might I add (it's at the bottom of every email, how hard is it to copy?), that I NEED to get back to her and let her know what to do next and how soon can I ship the items?????

Honestly people, all emails like that make me want to do is say, if you're in that much of a rush, go elsewhere.  No joke.  I don't pretend to be able to churn out these items like a factory in China.  Am I sorry for that?  No!  For hand-made items, you have to be patient.... I'm only one person, and likely, your order is not my only one.    

But of course, I'm nice, so I responded by letting her know, nicely, that she is one of about 30 orders I'm working on right now (and I would have liked to have added, most likely #28-29, so NOT top of the list, people have been waiting a lot longer than her one day...), and I informed her that I am shipping out chins in a few hours, so that I have to do right this second, versus the orders which can wait a little bit usually.  I also informed her that the website does say (which she should have noticed, when adding the item to the cart) that it says on the houses, items may take 2 weeks to ship, and that is because I have to build the items and get them all ready and stuff.  All she asked for was a shipping quote... I don't honestly build everything, pack it, and all that, for a shipping quote, as quite a few people think that it's too much of a cost  (which is out of my control, but you know), so then I'd have wasted all that effort.  What I do do... is find a box that would be appropriate.  Weigh the box and weigh the items, add about another pound for packaging, and put that all, with dimensions, into the shipping calculator and get back to people.  If I don't have the exact item people want, then I will weigh something similar.

No offense to anyone, but a shipping quote doesn't move anyone to the top of the list to get their order done.  The only orders I try to get out absolutely first are the food orders, as I never know if people are running out of food, but the others get typically done in the order they are received, to be fair.

Anyway... what was almost comical about all of this... was that I realized that I hadn't sent another person an invoice either.... and I was going to do that, at the time when I saw the email from this lady.  In the time it took me to write out her email, I could have sent the invoice.  While I never would say this...I would have loved to have said... if you weren't so pesty, you'd already have it, since I wouldn't be wasting time writing back to you.  Which, sadly, is the truth.  If I have 10 minutes to work on something, and I know you need an invoice... but I see I have an email from you... I will check on that email, first, just to be sure there's no changes... well, probably after that email... your invoice will have to wait for another time... especially if I only have 10 minutes right then.

Time is precious.  There's never enough of it, and if you've ever been here volunteering, you know I'm constantly running around like a chicken with my head cut off, going in 10 directions at once, since there's constantly so much to do.  And that's fine, but.. keep in mind, there's only so many hours in the day... try not to take away time with needless reminders (which it always is... emails that says the exact same thing as the email sent 2 hours prior), when one email will do.  Thanks!