Maybe it’s just the January blues, but it seems that everything is really getting to me these days… ok, so I know it’s mid February, but the weather in January was pretty nice so I guess my seasonal affective disorder is a bit late this year.
One of the hardest issues to deal with on a near ongoing basis is the slowness of shipping from Canada to the US. Many times buyers don’t realize (even though I try to make it very clear multiple times) that I am in Canada, and in my “thank you for your purchase, your items will ship *insert date here*, please allow for delays with US Customs, or slow postal services, or whatever, it still seems that within days I’m getting emails from clients looking for their stuff. I don’t blame them for wanting their purchases. But I state in my profile I am in Canada, I state in my listings I am in Canada and in my emails that I am in Canada. Why is it that I can mail packages from here and they arrive in many countries across the ocean faster than ones arrive in locations on the same continent? I only ship using airmail, doesn’t matter if it’s within Canada, to the US or over the ocean. Always airmail.
Anyhow, most customers are quite understanding with my second email explaining that I shipped when I said I would, the delay is somewhere else along the line and more than patient. Others, not quite so. Some seem to think that perhaps I’ve not mailed their stuff. With nearly 1000 sales on etsy under my belt and absolutely no feedback (yet!) for slow shipping on my part, it’s fairly obvious that I mail quick. I resent being accused of slow shipping or not shipping at all. I work many late nights in order to get packages out within the 24hr time frame that I state I ship within. Maybe the late nights are making me a bit grumpy. I’ve got one customer right now that is a bit upset her package hasn’t arrived yet, it will be 14 days on Wed that her package was mailed. This customer lives on the east coast of the US, in an area that received record snowfalls in the last few weeks. Many services were shut down for long periods of time in these areas, yet her emails are seemingly accusing. She apparently knows that it simply doesn’t take this long for an item to arrive from Canada. And it sort of hurts and it sort of makes me a bit angry. I try my damndest to get stuff out fast, yet there are so many things out of my control and yet I am the one that has to answer to that.
And I’m getting tired of it. So I am seriously considering bumping my shipping service up to xpresspost only within Canada and expedited only to the US. The costs are crazy for these services, nearly $10 for BC, AB, SK & MB and $15 for the rest of Canada, and will start at about $14 or so for the US. Doing this will obviously hurt my business, and in a big way I am sure. But damn, at least it’s traceable and the customer can go online and see that their package was shipped when I said it would, and that it’s delayed somewhere else along the line. Peace of mind = priceless?? Not sure yet, and haven’t convinced myself quite yet to take the leap, but it’s coming. The stress of answering “where’s my jewelry!?” emails is just getting to me.
And, while I’m ranting…
my buddy at trader lou’s is at it once again. Copied nearly every item in my etsy shop and is having it “handmade by skilled artisans in India”. The only “bright side” here is that his pictures really suck. like really bad. At first I thought it was just my photos with the backgrounds photo-shopped out, poorly I might add, but I guess not. His inferior photos of his inferior copies of my stuff will likely not really affect me. It sorta bothers me that people may see the photos on his site and think that I am copying or even worse yet, not creating my own stuff. But quite frankly, he’s a loser with a loser website and how bloody much traffic can he be getting?
I work hard at my craft, my designs are my own, created by me, with my two hands, and only my ideas. I take pride in that my designs come from within me, not from someone else. And quite frankly that makes me the artist and him the loser copycat. Hah, haven’t said that since early grade school. Anyhow, que sera sera. Reality will come up and bite that boy in the ass someday. I really believe that. I am so over worrying about his bullshit crap.