MY new place

My new space!

Zebra walls with pink and hot pink trim. I thought it was strange at first but its growing on me. My place looks a little empty since I've been selling my displays and the largest one is gone! But I got new ones taking its place!

Its still a work in progress. I got this shelf at the front which is the length of the window and its got a lot of my items on it. I think its great... If I can get some tall shelving I can display more items and show out the window and inside as well. It would be great!

Took the leap! Got a new store location!

So on Friday I toured a storefront that had been empty for a few months. I should have gone sooner! I was afraid to see it because of the whole realtor fees and all! No idea what they would be and figured it would be a lot of money but I tried it anyway.

So I wont get into numbers but I have to say Im so excited because there are NO CAM charges! Its just rent plus I gotta pay my own electric but I can deal with that.

Its a work in progress and I set the grand opening for October 1st but I am elated with the new spot.

I am looking into getting matching displays and the zebra wall paper is not going anywhere, YET! lol.

eBay complainers and whiners! Neutral feedback!

Oh what to do?

It seems you cant get away from them on eBay or Amazon...

People seem to think they have the only order on the planet and you have to tend to them quickly and give them the answers they want.

Its only Wednesday and here are a few of the email titles Ive gotten already this week:

Item not as described:
Where is my item?:
Where is my item?:
Where is my item?:

OK that not a typo, Ive gotten a few emails asking where their item are.

OK the first message was an error I did. The buyer asked for one game and I put the wrong one in the box, call it scatter brained... they emailed me and I apologized for my mistake, let them keep the wrong one and shipped the correct one out. I may have saved myself from negative feedback but I lost a little money on that one. Lets blame it on too much on my mind.

I cant tell you how many emails Ive gotten over the past month about 'Where is my item?' I dont understand it. Some packages have been sitting in one post office for over 10 days just being rescanned and rescanned with no explanation. I approach the local post master cause it looks fishy. She contacts the branch and miraculously the package is delivered a few days later!

I had an international person ask me the same thing and well I cant track international packages its in the hand of their local post office. Once it leaves the states, what am I supposed to do, fly there and bring it to them? There were so many over the past month I got frustrated and changed the shipping options to priority mail only since its traceable. Now Im getting complaints about shipping costs being too high! Im about to stop international shipping all together.

I have another guy that purchase something last Saturday Aug 27, I mailed it on the 29th. I get an email on the 2nd of September because the website says it should have been delivered to them by then. The message says I must have used a wrong address! Seriously? Like I would pop an address out of thin air? Now he emails me again asking me to track his package! Its been 7 days, peoples patience has gone out the window! My reply was LONG but serious people, I cant twist the arm of the post office and make them deliver packages when YOU want them to!

The post office should not put an ETA if they cant deliver it by that ETA, it only makes them look bad and make me wanna switch to UPS or something. Im so tired of people right now I just want to kick them! lol.

Doesn't it say on eBay DSR program that you shouldn't leave negative if the post office takes longer then usual to deliver your package. The seller has no control over the USPS! People need to read the rules. Especially an intentional pacakge! I shipped the next day, I should get credit for that, but NO, the buyer is allowed to give me a low rating because it took weeks to get to them. Well yea, who makes postal service in your country deliver any faster!

Argh... I love my job.

Going into Business with Friends...

So I just watched The Social Network... I thought it was a great movie. The one thing that stood out for me was that a friendship was lost. I know movies can be exaggerated but Im sure most of what happened could have been avoided had they spoke more.

If you have read my previous posts you will see why.

Ive asked others what they thought about going into business with friends and / or family. They have all mentioned the same thing. That roles and expectations of each other should be laid out at the start. Open lines of communication of course. And the seperation of work from friendship.

Its been over a year since the friendship dissolved for me. I wonder sometimes if she will ever come to me an apologize or if shes expecting me to apologize. At this point I dont think there is any thing left to create a friendship again. I often feel lost as I have no one to talk with like we used to talk to each other. It was hard to walk away from an over 20 year friendship, but I had too. I cant even get myself to go back and read my posts. I have only spoken with a few people about what happened and most have agreed with me. I don't know if its because they are mainly hearing my side of the story or if they truly agree with me and are on my side. I cant bring myself to get too close to anyone else because of what happened.

So can you go into business with friends? Im sure its possible when you have every ones roles laid out but if you wing it, I believe its doomed for failure.