Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: SuckDick4Weed on September 15, 2013, 11:27 am
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OK so I just have to go out and say it because it just pisses me off what some people complain about on here.
(This mostly concerns shipping in Australia so I apologise in advance if this contradicts what they do in your country)
FIRST:
Stop thinking shit has hit the fan when you ordered monday and it still didn't get to you for party time on friday/weekend. Seriously, if you want something TODAY or for use in a couple of days time. DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR, go and buy from you're local dealer. That way you have the shit in your hand not waiting around for the postman.
Seriously some vendors don't check SR every second of the day or even ship every day. AND EXPRESS is NOT OVERNIGHT for most areas.
SECOND:
Just because you got a notice card instead of your package doesn't mean a control delivery. Most mail delivery people are CONTRACTORS that means they will already start filling out the card as soon as they ring the doorbell. If you have a padlock on the gate, dogs in the yard or both, guess what, they are honking the horn, leaving a card and driving off as fast as they can. IF they can delivery every package in the area in THREE hours instead of six or even eight, they will because they still get paid the same amount and they get home earlier. They don't want to be standing around waiting for people to answer the door.
If you want a controlled delivery, expect a set of handcuffs, not a 'we tried to delivery...' card.
THIRDLY:
Mail contractors giving people wierd looks. YES THIS IS PROBABLY TRUE. Depending on how big your town or city is, how long people stick around in the job or in the area, mail people probably know everyone around. They deal with a lot of local business that guess what!, employ local people so they no peoples names, addresses (der on the mail!) and if/where they work.
IF YOUR HOUSE "LOOKS" dodgy then there's probably dodgy shit going on inside or at least people might think that. Just saying. This ranges from heavy padlocks and chain to vicous dogs to junk and cars laying around, etc. etc. Don't get me wrong, this may even be the old retired lady down the road but alot of people do judge a book by it's cover.
FOURTHLY:
Signing for stuff. This is standard for heaps of packages but probably not requested by an SR seller lol. If you get a card to go pick up the package, expect to have to sign and/or show id. UNLESS the post office knows you pretty well or at least can connect where you live to the address posted to. SOME post offices will write down ID details and make you sign. DON'T WORRY! this is just to make sure somebody isn't stealing packages, it is there proof in case things go missing i.e. neighbours steal your stuff!
LASTLY:
FLAGGED COUNTRIES Yes some countries look more suspicous than others. Us Aussies love cheap shit so besides domestic packages most others delivered to households come from CHINA (very common) and USA period!
So please! If you placed your order 5 days ago and it still hasn't arrived, seriously do not be concerned unless you have verified WITH THE SELLER when they sent it and that it was ACTUALLY EXPRESS. Regular can easily take much longer.
Oh and if you order shit every week DON'T STRESS this is pretty common for people to get the same package every single week (obviously talking non-contraband here) UNLESS that is coming every week from the netherlands lol [If your last name is Brusse OR Roerdinkveldboom you might have an exception here]
LAST WORDS:
KEEP CALM and find something to do to keep your mind clear if you are really stressed.
USE COMMON SENSE and think of THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO
SERIOUSLY you should only have a thought of worst case IF -
1. You have been in trouble with the law previously (with respect to),
2. If people you know are in trouble with the law,
3. You are being pulled over in your car every 5 minutes for a "random" breath test
FINALLY, COMMUNICATE with the seller. This is IMPORTANT.
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TRUTH! ;D
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Re #1 - you're shitting me, right. You want to charge for express delivery (which practically every local vendor does), don't you think the buyer has a right to expect that dispatch and delivery will actually be within an express timeframe? Especially when the actual postage cost is $5, but you're charging $15-20, as is often the case. Standard express post within Oz is guaranteed next day delivery to major metro centres if you post before the cutoff time (think it's 4pm) and from a major metro centre. So actually express IS overnight for most of your customers, assuming they order early between Mon-Thurs, and you post before the post boxes are emptied between Mon-Thurs. Go have a look at the Aus Post website if you don't believe me. (And if you aren't inside the next day delivery network, you should make this clear in your T&Cs.) In spite of this, I still plan on a two work day delivery timeframe. If it's three working days and still no delivery, I'll be in touch with the vendor asking where my package is, and I think that's totally reasonable. If I ordered from a local vendor on Monday and my gear wasn't delivered by Friday and I'd paid for express delivery, I'd be freakin pissed and damn right I'd be leaving bad props and not dealing with that vendor again if they didn't rectify the situation.
You don't check your account every day? You think a delay of more than 24hrs between order placement and vendor dispatch is acceptable? So reduce your shipping costs to $5 max, don't claim this is a priority/express delivery charge, and make it very clear in your terms and conditions that a buyer could be waiting up to a week for delivery because you're liable to be slow off the mark with dispatch, and you post via surface mail.
Personally, I reckon you should just be more professional in your attitude towards your operation. If you frequently don't have time to process orders on a daily basis, then you're in the wrong business. In this case, it's in fact you who should go back to the street corner - not the buyer - to sell when you have a spare moment. A buyer has a right to expect timely delivery if that's what they've paid for.
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Re #1 - you're shitting me, right. You want to charge for express delivery (which practically every local vendor does), don't you think the buyer has a right to expect that dispatch and delivery will actually be within an express timeframe? Especially when the actual postage cost is $5, but you're charging $15-20, as is often the case. Standard express post within Oz is guaranteed next day delivery to major metro centres if you post before the cutoff time (think it's 4pm) and from a major metro centre. So actually express IS overnight for most of your customers, assuming they order early between Mon-Thurs, and you post before the post boxes are emptied between Mon-Thurs. Go have a look at the Aus Post website if you don't believe me. (And if you aren't inside the next day delivery network, you should make this clear in your T&Cs.) In spite of this, I still plan on a two work day delivery timeframe. If it's three working days and still no delivery, I'll be in touch with the vendor asking where my package is, and I think that's totally reasonable. If I ordered from a local vendor on Monday and my gear wasn't delivered by Friday and I'd paid for express delivery, I'd be freakin pissed and damn right I'd be leaving bad props and not dealing with that vendor again if they didn't rectify the situation.
You don't check your account every day? You think a delay of more than 24hrs between order placement and vendor dispatch is acceptable? So reduce your shipping costs to $5 max, don't claim this is a priority/express delivery charge, and make it very clear in your terms and conditions that a buyer could be waiting up to a week for delivery because you're liable to be slow off the mark with dispatch, and you post via surface mail.
Personally, I reckon you should just be more professional in your attitude towards your operation. If you frequently don't have time to process orders on a daily basis, then you're in the wrong business. In this case, it's in fact you who should go back to the street corner - not the buyer - to sell when you have a spare moment. A buyer has a right to expect timely delivery if that's what they've paid for.
As a buyers who flips their shit when my express order does not arrive on the next day, since I got it in before "cut off," I agree. However, you guys have no idea what goes into prepping a package to be sent when doing it correctly. I do my packages in stages; example first stage I will weigh 20 orders, second stage I will label the envelopes, etc. I might spend 30 seconds per stage on each order, but when you have a dozen steps, that shit ads up quickly.
If a vendor is high volume, they should reconsider express. It only ends in heart ache and anger 95% of the time. When I need something expressed, I always sort by "new." New sellers have plenty of time to insure your package gets posted before cut off.
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Please note that I am speaking about purchasing from local vendors, not OS. Obviously ordering from OS vendors is another kettle of fish entirely.
"You want Express Postage for $5?"
Um no I fairly clearly stated that if vendors aren't going to deliver on an express timetable, they shouldn't charge express prices. And in that case, they shouldn't charge more than $5, and don't claim that's priority/express shipping.
Express shipping is not that expensive. Just about every item I have ordered has come in one of the two express post envelopes:
http://shop.auspost.com.au/product/express-post-small-dl-window-face-envelope-xpost-env-small-dl-master
http://shop.auspost.com.au/product/express-post-medium-c5-envelope-xpost-env-med-c5-master
If you don't want to click the link, the small one costs $5.55 and the bigger one costs $5.80 - less if you buy in bulk (and I wouldn't be too concerned about bulk buying as long as you're far from your local.)
If you're buying something a bit more bulky, you might get the following:
http://shop.auspost.com.au/product/express-post-small-dl-window-face-envelope-xpost-env-small-dl-master
This costs a bit over $10. But usually the cheaper envelopes suffice.
"As previously stated, a lot of work goes into packaging such as different set of gloves each package (or even a different pair in different stages of packing the same order depending on the order), alcohol wiping each stage, ensuring you have everything looking legit and then on top of that delivering them to the appropriate drop site among other things is actually a lot of work."
Not many domestic vendors (bar, perhaps, the dope sellers) go anywhere near these lengths. They aren't running the customs gauntlet. Every local purchase I've made has been wrapped up to obscure the item should it somehow fall out of the envelope, but the normal level of stealth wouldn't stand a chance against a dog or an x-ray. Lucky we don't have much of this with domestic shipping!
"If you want something for a special occasion or something I suggest you order the week before"
No, that's ridiculous if the vendor has charged for express delivery. If not, then that's a different matter, but just about all local vendors do. Of course you'd be an idiot to complain about delivery time on OS packages (unless you'd paid a buttload for expedited shipping and it was still slow as ever).
"I do my packages in stages; example first stage I will weigh 20 orders, second stage I will label the envelopes, etc. I might spend 30 seconds per stage on each order, but when you have a dozen steps, that shit ads up quickly."
OK, but at the end of the day if your turnaround takes days yet you're charging for express postage, these are excuses and are not really the buyer's problem. It's the vendor's job to get their house in order and run efficiently so they can fulfil their promises to the buyer.
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Oh and if you order shit every week DON'T STRESS this is pretty common for people to get the same package every single week (obviously talking non-contraband here) UNLESS that is coming every week from the netherlands lol [If your last name is Brusse OR Roerdinkveldboom you might have an exception here]
hello suckdick, well should I stress OUT because I have alot of mails from netherlands and seriously I am really getting suspicious myself :lol:
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Yes AusPost is expensive. Private courier is much cheaper but rural areas are slower as it is almost always road freight between distribution centres rather than air
Most people missed my point and are attacking vendor procedures. I was trying to explain that people shouldn't be so suspicous of the mail man
If you checked with vendor and they sent it shouldn't be a problem so just chill out
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Yes AusPost is expensive.
No, Austpost is not expensive, as you can see from my links. $5.55 for the express post envelope that most local vendors use to transport personal quantities of gear.
Most people missed my point and are attacking vendor procedures.
You say people missed your point. Well, you had four points. I explicitly said I was focusing on the first point, which had nothing to do with the mail man, when you detailed your vendor procedures. Personally, the procedures and approach to your business that you described sounded pretty bloody casual. Seriously, who the hell do these damn buyers think they are? Complaining about waiting 5+ working days for me get something delivered to them....oh sure they say delivery should take 2 working days, max, but I have more important things going on in my life and the buyer can just wait. Besides, I don't mind if the buyer waits 3 or 4 business days after receiving the order to release payment to me, so I guess that's totally reasonable. Oh, hang on...
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Whoever said I was a vendor running a business anyway? Maybe if i was my karma would be -10000
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OK, so you're not the vendor in point 1. My point still stands - the vendor attitude you describe in point 1 is shitty and they need to check themselves, instead of complaining about how unreasonable buyers are. The end.