thoughtful1. 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.
October 28 2011, 15:37:27 UTC 5 years ago
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.
October 29 2011, 04:54:01 UTC 5 years ago
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.