Phoned order - for a Sweet pea. Yes I make one, yes I’ll make one and send it you, pay when you get it. Friendly phone call, what a nice customer if a bit flustered.
Made and posted - at same time as 2 other Folksy orders - on a Monday.
Phone call from customer on Thursday - ‘where is it - it hasn’t arrived’. 'I do keep having problems with post going missing !'
Chased other 2 orders - arrived next day.
Left it a week but made another just in case.
Customer phoned. I said I have made another and would send it, Tracker, which she will pay for.
Posted.
Checked Tracker - doesn’t tell me she has received it so yet another phone call to check - yes she has, cheque is in post.
Cheque just arrived - made out to wrong name - though the paperwork I sent clearly states who to make it out to and that’s why I ask for cheques to be sent after they have received it especially with phone orders to avoid spoken spelling mistakes.
:I will now send the cheque back, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for its return with the correct addressee.
PS: No idea if customer likes the beautiful flower I sent (twice) as she hasn’t bothered to say but no problem, I suspect I won’t be accepting another order from this customer
PS: This is the first time I have Ever sent any glass which has not arrived
Any to New York! Sorry but either they don’t arrive or the customer is rude - that’s just been mu experience and I’ve had several. I now consider cancelling the order because I know it’s going to give me problems.
I’ve not sent to New York fortunately - I’ve heard several complaints about sending there. Sent one to Finland last week. Posted Monday, arrived Friday. Brilliant.
Easier than posting 20 miles down the road to Derby anyway !
Sent one to Mongolia! Decided it was worth it just to see what happened. After 6 weeks my customer e-mailed to say it had not arrived. I refunded. 6 weeks later, package arrived. Amazing!
I sent some soap to Kuwait, expecting it to go missing on the way, but no it arrived there 5 days later! I was surprised to say the least. As for parcels that “don’t arrive” Any genuine missing parcels are ALWAYS delivered back to the return address, I have had a few, but mainly I think some people are just after something for nothing and don’t realise that we are small businesses and can’t really afford it.
Shropshire - I’ve just had that experience. A customer from the US asked for a refund 8 days after shipping. I think he’s at it! Of course I’ll refund - it’s the chance we take.
I’ve told the customer to please donate it to a charity raffle or something if by chance it arrives. I’m not holding my breath !
How can I post things half way round the world without a problem. It would have been quicker and more cost effective to have popped in the car, driven <20 miles, and delivered it myself.
Yes that’s what I sometimes do, certainly with a customer like this where I have no digital communication, only phone call, so a cheque is obviously going to be the way to pay. The customer said she had tried to email me but failed - so I decided right away ‘modern technology’ was not an option here !
On a couple of occasions when a cheque has been sent first, before my invoice where I clearly state payee details, it’s been wrongly addressed so I’ve had to send it back for correction.
I’ve never had anyone default on me. In fact this is the only problem I’ve ever had and actually is easier to deal with, as there was no money to refund on the missing parcel as it wasn’t paid for.
I am a trusting sort of fool really I suppose but as I said, no-one has ever, dared to, failed to pay up
Sally, New York has to be the worst place to send to for me too! I sent a large order to Canada in June and haven’t heard anything about it either way so my fingers are still crossed for that one.
I haven’t had a bad order but in terms of bizarre - I had an order on The Other Side to New York and the buyer emailed me - she said she’d never ordered from abroad before and did it mean she had to go to the airport personally to pick up her parcel.
She was very relieved when I explained it would be delivered to her door by the postman
A real nightmare Joy @JOYSofGLASS - you are a lot more trusting than me though. I would never send one item, never mind a second one without being paid first.
Sally @LifeCovers - I have had several parcels go missing when sent to New York too. It is definitely the worst place to post to. I have sent to Finland, Norway, Japan, the Urals in Russia, Spain, Italy, Alaska, Hong Kong, Philippines and all have arrived in under one week. But New York seems to take at least 6 weeks and many never arrive at all - or so the customer says!
I have been sending all my overseas orders by International Tracked & Signed For for over 12 months now. Only one has ever gone missing since I starting using this service. It was returned to me by Australian Post because the address didn’t exist. It did and the second parcel sent to the same address arrived safely 7 days later!
I have found that my overseas sales have actually increased since using a Tracked service, I think it actually makes the customer feel more secure about ordering especially when you can give them a Tracking Number. In the States they pay quite high domestic shipping anyway and don’t seem to be bothered about high postage costs.
Ooh a bit of a result.
First parcel still missing.
Awaiting cheque with corrected addressee from 2nd parcel
but…
I complained by email to Royal Mail that my Tracker had not tracked and there were no receipt details.
Just had a response which included a promise of my £7.15 postal charge via cheque as I have not had the service I paid for.
Gobsmacked or some such expression
Shirley, are you subsidising your postage for International Tracked & Signed? Cost for a 100g parcel, value £50 is £8.80. I see you are charging £7.00. Maybe I’m not calculating it correctly?
Thanks Shirley @WhimsyWooDesigns - wasn’t meaning to try and catch you out! I was just wondering if I was missing a trick.
I think that for my lower priced options I’ll stick with standard international airmail. It very rarely goes missing and for the occasional time that it does, I’ll refund or replace. For items over, say £25, then I may consider upgrading to Tracked/Signed.
That’s what is great about the Folksy forum we can all help each other Sally @LifeCovers.
I very nearly did it that way too but I had a run of bad luck about 18 months ago when about 6 parcels to the States apparently went missing. After that I decided I couldn’t take the stress anymore! LOL
I send most of my higher value orders by signed for/tracked service for my own peace of mind too - I hate waiting to hear whether a package has arrived or not, it’s too stressful! Generally it’s only the items that would be impossible or very difficult to replace, such as one-off items where the fabric was limited, or where I really wouldn’t want to make another!
I do charge higher postage for them, but find that most people are willing to pay it if they want something they can’t buy elsewhere, especially luxury items, it’s just part of the cost.
Lower value orders go by standard airmail, and have so far all arrived (touching lots of wood).
I didn’t mention it but last week I lost another parcel. Absolute horror at the thought that I could lose 2 in a month having never lost one before. I posted it Saturday and it wasn’t there a week later so missing presumed dead.
I made a replacement for this 2nd one and posted it yesterday, signed for just to be sure and so it would arrive when customer was at home.
Today my lovely customer emailed to say she now had 2 parcels from me. The first was handed over by her neighbour who had had it since last week (nice to have neighbours like that ) and the 2nd was the one posted yesterday.
She’s paid me for the other as she can use it for a ***C (shudder don’t want to talk about it yet) *** present.
I am So relieved. The first customer / order was a little odd and I was not entirely sure it was actually missing. Slight suspicion it was hiding under a bush in the garden but didn’t want to drive 20 miles to search :). The 2nd order was totally normal so I’ve been all on edge since wondering if anything else would go awol.
Now relaxed. All parcels where they should be (except the initial one) and I can trust RM to get them from A to B again.
but no problem, I suspect I won’t be accepting another order from this customer
