Some thoughts on shirts.: seanan

Some thoughts on shirts.

As I slowly package the still-pending shirt orders (about half have been mailed out or hand-delivered, with about half remaining), I find myself inundated with email from people asking if I have any extras. Which, naturally, has me pondering what I've learned from this batch, and what to do differently if I print another run. I've come to the following five conclusions.

1. Order = Pay.
This took so long because we had to chase down every person who said they wanted a shirt and get them to pay for it. If we do it again, we say "place your order, pay your total, and you'll get your shirt when we hit the minimum order threshold or run out of time, whichever comes later." Pros, no chasing people. Cons, some people may demand refunds if things take too long.

2. Make it clear that the choices offered are the only ones.
We also had issues with a few people going "I want shirt style A, but this color from shirt style B." This, well, wasn't possible, because the shirts didn't exist, but we didn't catch that until Deborah was in the final review of the list. So if we do this again, we need to be very clear on the "what you can get is what's on that specific page" issue.

3. Set a maximum threshold.
This was a super-large order, which also slowed things down a lot. So there needs to be a "no fewer than X, but no more than Y" point.

4. Up the price for 3XL and up.
I hate this. I tried so hard not to reach this conclusion. But...it costs more to print a shirt that's between 3XL and 6XL, and we had a lot of those. I was never expecting to make money on this, and I figured, "well, if someone who orders a S is paying the same as someone who orders a 5XL, it all comes out in the wash." And it did, as far as printing costs was concerned. What I didn't do was calculate for mailing costs. It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone. If I want to be able to afford to print the shirts, and mail the shirts, I need to charge more for the larger ones. I'm so sorry. It's purely financial, and it annoys me deeply.

5. Print more extras.
This time, I ordered three extra shirts, and Amy, who is smart, ordered eight for her bookstore. Amy has been doing a brisk business selling shirts to filkers who missed the original order, and is a happy little clam. I still don't know which shirts are mine, because I'm in the shipping process. More extras would mean a happier answer to "do you have one you can sell me?" inquires.

...of course, all this is academic until I finish mailing. Still, that's where I'm at right now, and sometimes it's nice to think aloud.

naamah_darling

October 28 2011, 15:37:27 UTC 5 years ago

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It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone.

Holy balls, that is effing ridiculous. And it makes me so MAD. And I say that not as a disgruntled fatty (though I am frequently that as well) but as someone who regularly has to mail stuff off only to be faced with the absolutely ridiculous nonsense of the USPS. I should not get three different shipping cost on three packages the same size, shape, and weight, with the same amount of insurance, going to the same postal zone; or three different prices for one package from three different tellers and the USPS website. It makes calculating shipping for my larger items damn near impossible, and it's distressing.

I get that they're struggling, and that scares me because my bff works for them and would be screwed if she lost her job, but . . . ye gods. I only ship through them because the people at the UPS place look at me as though I were a syphilitic flatworm for no reason that I have ever been able to discern. (There is no resemblance.) At least the people at the post office I go to are super, super nice.

seanan_mcguire

October 28 2011, 15:45:09 UTC 5 years ago

I totally love and adore my post office staff. They're crazy tolerant of me and my tendency to come in with thirty packages at a time, half going to international locations. But shipping has been about 40% more expensive than anticipated because of the larger shirts, and I just can't afford to eat that kind of cost for a second batch. :( Which sucks, both because I think it's totally unfair, and because I understand human nature well enough to know that this is going to trigger some asshole calling me the fat police and claiming I hate anyone who needs a larger size. And then I will cry.

Feh.

tikiera

October 28 2011, 16:59:55 UTC 5 years ago

If I can just throw you a few more dollars to the same paypal account to help with shipping, let me know.

I am sorry you going to deal with jerks. I wish I could say that wasn't going to happen, but, yeah. I understand the need for higher shipping based on weight.

October 28 2011, 18:03:24 UTC 5 years ago

If you want to, I won't say no. But I'm not going to ask people to do that, because it's tacky, y'know?

October 28 2011, 18:14:19 UTC 5 years ago

I understand completely, and only really asked to confirm that was still a good addy to send you money to. :) BPAL buying taught me that paypal addy's can change, can be borrowed, and other such; and wacky comedies of errors can occur if you make up the difference between original shipping cost, and actual shipping cost without warning in advance. Not that getting extra money is normally considered a bad thing, but it can be a confusing thing. It doesn't help that my paypal account is not in the same name as my online presence. There are real people name Tikiera now, so it no longer screams "made-up" name.

So if more money appears randomly in the paypal account Wednesday when I get paid, 'tis not random.

amberfox

October 28 2011, 18:49:40 UTC 5 years ago

(I wanted to ask this, but I was afraid it would come out all wrong. Thank you for being braver than I was.)

October 28 2011, 20:25:07 UTC 5 years ago

It took me several attempts before I was brave enough to ask myself.

But I have read enough that I didn't think the offer would offend her even if she refused it, I decided to go ahead.

And really, I learned once that just sending the money can lead to awkward 'cause my online name does not resemble my paypal name which lead to someone being perplexed over who was randomly sending them money and did they have to refund it 'cause it was a mistake. So now I ask. :)

Deleted comment

October 31 2011, 17:34:02 UTC 5 years ago

delirium@xocolatl.com

And thank you so much.

filkferengi

November 5 2011, 13:42:55 UTC 5 years ago

You're very welcome, but why in the world do they think you're "Shannon"?

November 7 2011, 15:49:10 UTC 5 years ago

That is a long, messy, sordid story that I really don't feel like typing up again.

November 7 2011, 15:52:26 UTC 5 years ago

Then I will read the stories you *do* feel like typing up, & be relieved the payment went through.

keristor

October 28 2011, 17:11:01 UTC 5 years ago

FWIW, these days I expect that 3X and above (sometimes 2X and above) will cost more for the shirt. It seems to be standard on every site I've looked, so if anyone does complain tell them to look at any t-shirt site. Whether it's more fabric, more paint, or more postage, that's just the way it is (physics, let alone economics) and $3 isn't going to break the bank.

tiferet

October 28 2011, 22:09:00 UTC 5 years ago

How are the shirts being shipped? I don't know, because I didn't get mine shipped. If they are costing more than $5 to ship, one shirt should fit in a flat rate padded envelope, which costs $5 regardless of weight. (And a little less than $15 outside the US.) I do a lot of eBay, and you shouldn't be expected to eat that extra cost, but it might be possible to get the shipping down.

October 31 2011, 17:34:28 UTC 5 years ago

It mostly depends on how many shirts there are. A lot of people ordered multiple.

October 31 2011, 17:34:40 UTC 5 years ago

But you made me laugh, so you're a winner again!

thedragonweaver

October 29 2011, 04:54:01 UTC 5 years ago

I'm guessing that the flat rate envelopes and boxes are more expensive than standard shipping, because it seems to me that the flat rates are the only way you're going to know the cost going in. Know the box, know the cost.

I have to buy things in Tall (women's) and that's always more expensive (when I can find the damned things; I'm the shortest "tall" woman I know and I always wonder how the taller cohort copes when *I* have this much trouble.) And, truthfully, that's just going to be the case. At least it makes sense, as opposed to paying more for a bikini than a full-body swimsuit.

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Some thoughts on shirts.

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