A short rant.......
Sorry if this comes of snotty or argumentative, but I'm working on like 2 hours sleep today....So, the phone rings this afternoon, and I pick it up with a cheerful "Good afternoon, Barclay".....I'm greeted by a voice dripping with cynicism, saying "Oh, so you're FINALLY there, I've been trying to get a hold of you for going on two weeks now"......I inform the gentleman that I never got any messages on the machine, to which, the reply - "I don't believe in talking to machines"...... Well, THAT'S exactly why I have an answering machine in the office....so those of you who call when I'm not here, can leave a message and I know somebody's looking for me....if this guy had left a message, the whole thing would have been taken care of two weeks ago!.....Anybody out there see a moral here?? Look, I know I'm a tough guy to get a hold of, especially this time of the year.....For those of you who never met or chatted with me at shows, let me offer a little insight into "the world of Barclay"......The office and the shop (not a retail shop, but a work shop) are in two different places. The office is at my home (which, with a 5 year old camped out in there, lately, it's been like trying to do business from "Mr. Rogers' " house) and the shop is nowhere near my office. There is no phone in the shop (not that I'd hear it anyway) so any messages left, usually sit around in the machine until I get back to the office...But, BUt, BUT.....this time of the year, I'm practically camped out in the shop, I'm literally going 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week, from now until roughly Dec 18th....So PLEASE be patient!! I know many of you have been patiently waiting, and I really DO appreciate it! PLEASE, do NOT jump the gun, and file a Paypal dispute!! You're NOT in the process of being screwed, I assure you!! If you can't reach me, it's NOT because we're going out of business, quite the opposite!! Nobody's taking your money and heading to South America!! A little insight into the workings of Paypal: When you file a thing with Paypal, they freeze that money, and now I have to ship an order that has essentially not been paid for. 9 times out of 10, when a customer gets their stuff, they never bother contacting Paypal, to tell them the issue has been resolved, so now those funds remain frozen, until a certain amount of time passes, then Paypal assumes the problem has been solved, since it hasn't heard any more on the case.....this usually takes about a month to a month and a half.....Even worse, and more frustrating, is when a customer totally over-rides Paypal and goes straight to their charge card company, and files a dispute.....the result is the same, only worse....Now, in addition to the money being frozen, I'm charged 25 bucks for a "chargeback fee", and the amount of time it takes for me to get the money back (if ever) is 4 to 6 MONTHS!! More often than not, once somebody files a chargeback, I'm flat out of luck & never see the money, even though I can provide more than enough proof that the order was shipped, and delivered..... So I guess this is just a very long winded way of getting around to saying PLEASE be patient!! Nobody knows better than I do, how long some of you have been waiting!! I'm doing everything I can to get everybody's stuff out!! As one customer barked at me, "I don't see how four lousy figures can gum up the works"......It's not your four figures that are gumming up the works....it's the 20 or 30 people in front of you, that's the problem!! Anyway, time for me to get back to the rockpile....hopefully this rant didn't lose me too many customers!! Have a good Thanksgiving, everybody!