Whats up with this!?

 You know I am usually a very calm, understanding person, that it a lot to rile me up. This last week has just put more in my "frustration zone". Yep, I too have one of those! 

I try to look at things objectively and think about how I would handle things if it were a customer coming to me with a frustration. Nah, it doesnt work that well, because I KNOW I would treat them better.

So, the story is this......A little over a week ago (1/11/2001) I place supply orders with a couple of different vendors. The first one was one that I had ordered from before. That transaction went well, just a small delay, but then who didnt have delays from all the snow storms here recently. The second vendor I ordered supplies from is a totally different story! I ordered on the same day, within minutes of each other. I paid for the order and waited. Took 4 days to get notification (1/15/2011) and that was from pay pal saying that the order had been shipped......now it really hadn't been shipped, what actually happened was that the owner of this shop had did the shipping from home to be picked up by USPS.......here it is 6 days later(at the time of writing this), from when I received the notice, the notification/tracking still says it has received the electronic shipping info. The package still hasnt been scheduled for pick up or processed and shipped.......I have emailed the owner on several occasions, just trying to get some sort of communication, ANYTHING! But NO she wont respond.....she has internet connection, because it shows that she has visited her site..(the one I purchased from)....I emailed her twice personally, asking very politely if there was a problem with the shipping of my package....I have sent a message via her contact form twice on the store site.....NOTHING.....even sent an email yesterday telling her that unless I received some notification from her that I would have to send a complain to Artfire  (the site in which her store is on that I ordered from) and that was a bust so far....will elaborate more on that in a moment..... I also said that I would do a dispute with pay pal, in which  I had paid her through........STILL nothing.......

Okay breathing....so I waited......Then I contacted Artfire...well that was a JOKE! If you call they ask if you are a buyer or seller....if you say buyer they tell you to CONTACT THE SELLER! UM>>>>>> Thats the problem I am having!!! I went to Artfire because I didnt want to go through all the stuff with Etsy with having to have an account just to purchase from someone. Im a customer do they want my money? There are several that I would love to contact off the site, but no email addy in their bio info to do so.....I know a lot of great people that use that platform and that is great.....but that was the reason I didnt go their first and should have. Anywho, I then went to paypal to do a dispute, now I have to wait, and wait, and wait I am sure.....So it will be a month or so before I get my funds back....The sad thing is this person has had lots of sales from their store....I am refraining from mentioning the persons name and store name....I am hoping that she contacts me...I am hoping that it was a huge mistake.....I dont know how with 5 emails later and a dispute......

I found another vendor on Artfire that I would like to use, this time I will contact them prior to and make sure they do contact me back......before I purchase....sometime I would so much rather just purchase from those big companies, but I believe in buying from small business owners and handmade when possible.

The worst of this is during all of this I have let my own customers down and its totally MY fault for not being stocked up more on my supplies, I didn't anticipate a lot of sales and thought that with ordering supplies early enough that I wouldn't have this issue and not have them come in in time.....Snow storms is one thing, but this is unacceptable. Now I have to contact these customers and tell them hey because I didnt get my shipment, it will be that much longer before you get the order you placed so would you like a refund!.....yeah thats the frustration poking its ugly head out....I wouldnt word it like that, but I must contact them, because I personally understand what it feels like to be on that end of the deal.

I have more supplies on order that should be here any day......but in the mean time I got my self a special kit (see below)

All Joking aside, this has been a very frustrating week. You may ask why I would get worked up over just that, well......its not just that.....

See like most I have been trying to sell products to make money to pay bills that I cant do if I dont have supplies....And then there is the life of being a mom and a wife and having those responsibility piling up, as well as my other business's needing to be worked......

Now that I got it out of my system.....for the most part, we shall see how this week goes. I will for sure do an update should anything come of doing the dispute....But figured hey what the heck, Im going to share this with my readers.....I believe in customer service, I know that there are many out there that sell what I do...there are others that have a higher quality of product than I make and some have better prices, but if you give great customer service, they are more willing to work with you!

As a good friend has told me....everyone is entitled to have a day when they are off their mark....I think I took several of them and complied a not so great vacation of them....Now that I am out of self pitty days, I shall jump back on the wagon and get my self back in gear.......
Another friend, in the past, has told me that sometimes you just have to reach around there and yank that back bone back in place....So here I go....may have to work out a few kinks but will be back in the game in no time.....

Do I even think about looking for another vendor for another aspect of my biz?....Nah, I think Ill take a nap and think on it first lol!

Thank you for letting me vent it out....and as always I do appreciate your comments, please do so, 

it may help my disposition! 

Have an awesome day in spite of me, lol I would love to hear stories from your "Frustration Zone"

Until next time,

~ Mary