No pay, no ship

[pageantmama]

I had a lady put down a deposit on a dress a few weeks ago. She paid half down and then has paid a few little payments like 10 or 20 dollars here and there. She owed 50 and wanted it shipped today to make sure that it would fit and that she could get the snaps sewn on to attach the skirt to the top for the correct length for her daughter and everything. She told me she was going to pay today because she was going to get her check and put it in the bank during her lunch. No problem, post office doesn't close until 4. It got around 2 and I sent her a message to remind her when the post office closes so if she wanted it shipped today she needed to make sure and get it to me by 3:20 so I could get the kids dressed and get there in time. Of course no response until around 3:45.

Me-me of course
SPM-sucky pageant mama

SPM-I did not get a chance to go to the bank on lunch but I really want it sent today. Can you go ahead and send it and I will make sure and deposit it on the way home so I can pay you in the morning?

Me-sorry, I cannot ship it until I have received full payment.

SPM-but I really need it shipped so that I can have time to fit it to her properly and I didn't get a chance to go to the bank. I promise I will pay in the morning.

Me-sorry, I cannot do that. If I ship it in the morning it will still get there a few days before you need it so you should have plenty of time for adjustments.

SPM-I have already paid you most of the money, you should know I am good for it. PLEASE!!!!!

Me-I realize you have paid the majority of the cost but I cannot send it until I get the rest. You would not ask a big company to ship you your merchandise without paying first, I cannot do it either. Sorry. Plus even if you paid right now the post office is about to close.

About 10 minutes later I get a notification from paypal, she paid the rest. Cue another message.

SPM-ok, I got my husband to transfer some money from the account into paypal. Can you ship now?

Me-I told you in the last message even if you paid today that I could not ship because the post office closes at 4 and I told you I would have to be paid by 3:20 to get everyone ready and leave.

5 minutes later...

SPM-hey you live in (mytown) right?

Me-yes

SPM-I just looked up post office locations and there is one in (location about 45 minutes away) and they do not close until 5. Can you go there and ship it? You should get there right before they close if you leave now.

Me-I have 3 kids I have to get ready and loaded in the car, two of them toddlers. There is no way I can leave right this second, it takes at least 10-15 minutes to get their shoes and clothes on and get them in the car. And I reallly don't want to waste the gas to go that far. I will just have to ship it in the morning.

SPM- But you said if I paid TODAY you could ship TODAY!!!!!!!

Me- yes, I said if you paid by 3:20 today I could ship today. You did not respond to me until 3:45 and did not pay until 5 minutes before my local post office closed. I am sorry but I am not driving that far to ship it now when there is a chance they will be closed by the time I get there. I will ship in the morning and you will have plenty of time to adjust it if you need to.





She has not sent me any more responses but I think she is kind of mad. I am gonna have to make sure I have all messages from her and my tracking number because I have a feeling she is gonna try and file a dispute with paypal or something

[spark]

I've had pretty much that same conversation before. You'd think people would know that they can't get something if they haven't paid for it!

I've even had the conversation where somebody tried to talk me into shipping something when they hadn't paid even a down payment, not even a penny!

People are crazy.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Sigh. YOUR life and time don't matter at all, apparently, but hers are sacred. This kind of customer caused our company to almost completely ban "upfront" exchanges wherein we send new product out before we receive a return back, even if it was something that was our fault. We just can't take the chance that someone will claim they got a damaged item worth a few thousand dollars, have us send another one out immediately, and then they keep both.

[Kogarashi]

Good heavens. "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." Words to live by.

Seriously, who expects people to ship something before they've completely paid for it?

My one bad customer when selling fans so far might have been aiming for that by putting off payment to me after requesting a custom item (this customer is why I now require at least 50% down before I start work). She didn't outright say it, but she did keep promising to get a money order in the mail "tomorrow" or "by the end of the week" and then eventually just stopped talking to me. I noticed on her feedback before the venue broke the feedback system that one of her positives was from a seller who had actually shipped the item before receiving payment (the comment said as much), when all around it were negatives and neutrals stating that payment never arrived despite multiple promises. ::sigh::

And some people wonder why they tend to get blacklisted from places that sell custom work.

[Kanalah]

Yep I've had that before.

And honestly when I first started selling quilts, I'd fall for stuff like that. Stupid me, I trust people. I had people who tell me that they've already mailed a check and I'd go ahead and ship the quilt. I had people order custom quilts and I didn't require a down payment at all and then they'd see the awesome finished quilt and then back out of the deal. I guess they'd think that I'd then lower the price but at the time I was only making about $5 per quilt so I really couldn't lower prices at all.

But now apparently I'm a mean heartless quilter, because I ask for stuff like down payments and stuff.

[Betweenshades]

I will forever be amazed at the people who really don't get the basic concept of buying goods.

Pay money = get stuff
Don't pay money = don't get stuff

It's really not THAT hard!

[Mytical]

Deadlines? Deadlines are for lesser mortals, not the queen of siam..or whoever she thinks she is. Add in Customer Standard time to that..and well... failure to plan on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part.

[underemployeed]

I love when I get a $100 or $50 bill people get aggravated that.... OH NO, did I just hold it to the light an verify it wasn't counterfeit? They usually tell me "OH, SO you think I'm a crook!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!"

I'm sorry I don't trust people I deal with customers all day long and while there are many honest people, plenty of people are "honest"..... honest enough to cheat you the first second you let your guard down or trust them.

In one of the management training videos dealing with vendor check-in, it warned of "honest" mistakes by vendors such as switching labels on the boxes, so they are selling you 12pks for cost of a 24pk.

I have had a few problems ordering stuff online where I ordered 1 type of component and got one that was slightly cheaper. altough, week or so after I contacted the guy he gave a reversal for the difference.