She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

I have the best postal carrier!

by 2 Comments

My regular postal carrier is the best.  She always comes to my door with a smile on her face, never complains about my pile of packages, and scans them all for me immediately.  On Wednesdays I volunteer in my 6yo’s classroom, and after I hurry home to make it back in time before my postal carrier arrives.  Yesterday I returned home to find a post-it note on my door letting me know I had missed her.  Darn it!  Not the end of the world, but disappointing.  I have a PO that is only a couple miles away, but because of where it is situated it takes at least 20 minutes to get there, drop off, and get back home.  Between a conference at my boys’ school in the afternoon and theater tickets in the evening (I got to see Hamilton! So good!!) and a dozen other things I wanted to cross off my to do list, I felt like I was running really short on time.  I toyed with the idea of waiting to drop off my packages when I drove by the PO later in the day on the way to pick up my friend for the play.  But, I wouldn’t be driving by the PO until about 45 minutes after the last pick-up time of the day, meaning my packages would be delayed a day.  So, I loaded all of my packages into a big tote and was heading out the door to pick up my boys from school and make our way to the PO when my postal carrier arrived.  She came back!!!  She finished her route and doubled back to pick up my packages.  SO. Darn. Nice.  I thanked her at least a half dozen times.  She is the best.

I always buy her gift cards at Christmastime, but lately I have been wanting to do more, and this was the cherry on top.  Do you do any random nice things for your postal carrier(s)?  What do you do?  Please share!

Post Office Drama (entirely of my own making)

by 13 Comments

So, last Saturday I had a bit of Post Office drama.  And I did it entirely to myself.  Uggggghh.

It was a busy day (youngest had basketball, oldest had a cub scout service project), so it was afternoon by the time we were back home and I got around to packaging my sales up for the day.  (I like to ship every day – including Saturdays and Sundays!  Shipping is my least favorite part, and I get cranky about it if I get too far behind.)  I had quite a few sales to package up, and the last pick-up time at my Post Office on Saturdays is 3:45 p.m.   I got everything packaged up, the last sale being from Amazon (merchant fulfilled, something I had listed long ago), and headed to the PO, getting there right at 3:45.   So far, so good.

When we got back home I went back to my computer to respond to a couple Best Offers that I had received but hadn’t had time to look over.  My Amazon seller’s account was still up on my screen, and I noticed it said that I had one item that still needed to be shipped.  That made me pause.  How strange.  Was it possible I had sold something else on Amazon?  Ha, if only.

I looked at the screen some more (I rarely ship from Amazon, and am not very familiar with the layout), and could tell that it was saying that I had not yet shipped the package that I had JUST dropped off at the PO!  How could that be?  And then I realized . . . uh oh . . . dang.it.anyway!  There are two buttons that I could select when getting ready to print a shipping label.  The one on the bottom of the screen that says something like “confirm and purchase shipping” and one on the top that says something like “print test label”.   Wanna guess which one I chose?  Yeah, not the right one.

So of course I was immediately worried.  What will happen? My package doesn’t have actual shipping on it!  What should I do?  The package has already been dropped off at the PO!  Argh.

I pulled up local PO phone numbers on my computer, and every PO in my town listed a local phone number EXCEPT the one I use, which only listed a 1-800 #.  Why???

Feeling a bit desperate I printed out the correct shipping label, loaded my boys back into our car, and head back to the PO.  I could see employees moving around in the back, even though our PO isn’t open to the public on Saturdays.  I banged on the door to their work area several times.  No response.  I tried looking up the local phone number for the PO again.  For some reason on my phone it came right up, so I called!  I was in in the lobby of the Post Office, and could hear the phone ringing on their end in the back somewhere.  Someone answered!  Hooray!  I explained that I had mailed a package and it had the wrong label on it, and the employee said he would be right out.  Double hooray!

The worker came out and opened up the drop bin.  There was only one package in it, and he just handed it to me.  This was a bit disturbing, because it wasn’t my package.  His willingness to assume that it was mine and just hand it over was disconcerting.  But not my focus right now, so I didn’t really dwell on it.  I explained that I dropped off my package earlier right at the final pick-up time, about printing the test label, blah blah blah, he knew just the package I was talking about because he had already set it aside to return to sender.  He got it for me, I took off the test label, put on the real label, and handed it back to the postal worker.  An hour wasted, but other than that all I felt was success!  Problem solved, and I didn’t have to dwell on it the next few days, wondering where oh where the package might be.

Anybody else have any eBay or PO drama that’s come about totally of their own accord?  I could use a chuckle.  (Insert face/palm here!)

‘Tis the season . . . to avoid the Post Office!

by 7 Comments

‘Tis the season . . . that I want to avoid the Post Office at all costs.  It’s not too far out of my way, so on a normal day I stop by the Post Office once to drop off packages, usually around 3:15 after picking my oldest up from school.  This gives me an hour of leeway (weekday last call for packages is 4:15 p.m.), and also allows me to get anything purchased in the morning ready and shipped out the same day, which buyers love. 

BUT.

Ugh.  

The Post Office in December is no joke, and it’s already started.  On many December days I *try* to pull into the PO parking lot, but traffic is backed up out of the parking lot and into the road because cars are lined up waiting for a parking space in the too-small lot.  And I not only have to contend with finding parking, all the other customers, and the potentially bulky packages I am transporting, but also have both of my boys in tow. 

So, the obvious answer is ——-> have the PO pick up my packages!

Right?

But.  In the summer it’s stinkin’ hot, and I don’t feel comfortable leaving packages out in the heat.  And right now it’s either (literally) freezing cold, or raining buckets.  So leaving packages outside for pick-up doesn’t seem like an option.

Do you use carrier pick-up?  What do you do?  Keep your packages inside and have the postal person ring your bell?  (I’ve done that a few times and it’s worked okay, but I feel that I hover by the front door afraid I will miss them, and am not as productive with my day as I normally would be.)

Or?  If you have a system you use that works well for you I’d love to hear about it!

Post Office ♥♥♥LOVE♥♥♥

by 7 Comments

THIS IS ME.

Snow makes me grumpy, which makes me feel like a scrooge, but there it is.  Our new house is at the top of a hill.  I hate driving in snow and avoid it at all costs.  And, I am a huge worrier, and have a husband with a 45-minute commute on a good day.  Bah-humbug.

We’ve had several inches accumulate since yesterday morning, which is rare for the PNW.  (We don’t have a fleet of snow plows or anything fancy like that here.)  Thankfully we all knew it was coming and school was canceled yesterday even though no snow was sticking by the time school would have started.  I pulled my kids out of bed at the normal early hour and made a quick dash to the PO and grocery store (along with the rest of our town – I’ve never seen it that busy before 8 a.m.!)  My husband made it to work yesterday morning and stayed in a hotel near where he works last night, and is doing the same tonight, which is kind of sad but at the same time a HUGE relief.  (Worry, worry, worry.)

So, last night I was packaging up my eBay sales from the day, and wondering how in the heck I was going to actually get them mailed.  I scheduled a carrier pick-up and hoped for the best because there was no way in heck I was going to take my kids and venture out on the roads.  Today, a couple hours before our normal PO delivery I planted myself in front of our big window that faces the street, determined that if our PO delivery gal did make it up our hill, that I would be sure not to miss her.  And I watched more and more and more snow fall.  But you know what?  She just came!!  I saw her coming and ran out as she pulled into our driveway.  

PO gal:  Thanks for bringing the packages out!

Me.  Thank YOU for coming!!  ♥♥♥

PO gal: I actually stopped by and honked yesterday just in case you had anything.

Me:  You did? Wow – thanks!  Since I hadn’t scheduled a pick-up I made a PO run first thing before the snow started sticking.

Our PO gal could not be nicer.  She even gave me one of their package container/crate things to make our future swaps easier.

♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥

A clever shipping tip

by 7 Comments

I didn’t come up with this one on my own, but I’ve been using it and I like it, so I thought I would pass it on.  Earlier this month Lorraine @ We are: clamco blogged about flat rate shipping envelopes, and how when she receives packages shipped in them, they are often rather beat up.  Someone commented that when they ship items in a flat rate mailer they always put the item in a polymailer first.  

Brilliant!  How had I never thought to do this?  

I’ve used this method a couple times now, and I think it has multiple benefits. 

#1) It gives your item extra protection as it goes through the mail, and

#2) if you have a bulky item, once it is in a polymailer it is more compact and it slides more easily into the flat rate mailer, which

 #3) probably also looks better to the buyer on the other end.  

A win/win/win!

No mail on Saturdays

by 2 Comments

 
I am sure you’ve already heard THE NEWS.  As of August 5th, USPS will cease delivering first class mail on Saturdays.  This isn’t a surprise.  It seems like this has been in the works for ages (awaiting the approval of Congress . . . which still hasn’t happened).  It’s a bummer, but it makes sense.  If the money isn’t there, you have to make cuts somewhere.  As a librarian I work for the city in which I reside, and have watched as some very difficult budgetary decisions have been made.  The last few years have been incredibly rough economically, everywhere.

The USPS states that packages will continue to be disbursed six days per week, which also makes sense in its own way.  First class mail (bills, letters, etc) has decreased dramatically, but the shipping of packages (due, in part, to online shipping a la eBay) has increased.

It will be interesting to see how this affects us as online sellers.  Will it?  

I sometimes joke that my “niche” is anything that can be shipped First Class.  Cheap to ship, and usually small so easy to store.  It makes me wonder . . . eBay packages that are shipped First Class with a tracking number . . . are they more “First Class” or more “package”?  Hopefully the latter.  We shall see.

The Coulda Shoulda Woulda Been Awesome Sale

by 3 Comments

This summer I came across this costume at a yard sale:

It is a men’s adult talking Eeyore costume.  They wanted $5 for it, which made me balk a little bit.  I’m cheap, what can I say.  But I went ahead and bought it, and I was really glad I did when I got home and looked it up.  But then . . . it just sat around, taking up space.  It’s hard to tell in this photo, but this costume is gosh darn big.  It was hard to come up with enough floor space to be able to photograph it.  But, eventually I took the photos, and I finally got around to listing it on October 13th.  Really, what was I waiting for?!  But, happily, it sold just six days later, for my asking price of $174.95.  Yes, almost $170 more than I paid for it!  I wish the story ended there.

The buyer and I e-mailed back and forth quite a few times.  He was hoping to receive the costume by Wed (10/24).  It was late Friday afternoon at this point.  I was fairly certain that it would get there without any problems (even though it had to go all the way across the country from OR to MA), but decided for the price he was paying I could put a little extra effort into it, and I packaged it up right away and made an extra trip to the PO.  The buyer was very appreciative, and enthusiastic.  I don’t know for sure, but I picture him as being a college student.  This was one of his messages:

I already have tigger this is gonna be awesome!!

Thank you!!

I was tracking the package as it made its way across the country, and when I woke up to a message from him on Tuesday morning I was expecting another enthusiastic thank you.  But instead I got this:

says undeliverable as addressed – can you confirm that you sent to:

xxxxxx

Yeah.  Not good.  This was his first-ever eBay purchase.  Long story short, his zip code was listed incorrectly, which must have caused the problems.  At first he wasn’t concerned because it was just one number off, but we both made calls to the USPS and got the same answer – the package had already been returned to sender. 

Here’s the interesting thing, at least on my end.  I didn’t freak out.  I didn’t get stressed.  In an odd way it kind of felt like an eBay turning point.  It made me realize that I really am in this for the long haul, and one sale is not going to make or break me.

I was disappointed, but really, I was more disappointed for the buyer because I knew how much he was looking forward to getting the costume.  I received the costume back today, and refunded him his full purchase price.  I’m out the $15 in shipping.  Not great, but not the end of the world.  I am going to go ahead and get it relisted right away, even though I’ve missed the Halloween window for this year.  Who knows when somebody else will be feeling Eeyore-ish.

Quick Tip: Calling the USPS

by 4 Comments

I had a GREAT sale at the end of last week that I was really looking forward to sharing.  But.  It’s taken a bad turn.  The good news is that the buyer seems really nice, the bad news is that I will eventually be refunding his money.  But more about that in a few days. 

I needed to get additional info on the package in question.  The uploaded tracking information wasn’t cutting it.  But, have you ever tried to get a live person on the phone when calling the USPS 1-800 number?  It is a time-suck-nightmare.  Unless you know a trick, which I figured out accidentally a couple months ago.

Their system is all voice automation.  The menu will give you several options and you are supposed to choose one.  And, take it from me, you can jump through their hoops and spend the better part of your morning getting nowhere.  Or, you can ignore everything the voice automation system is asking, and just repeat “more options customer service more options customer service more options customer service” until the system has no idea what to do with you and dumps you over to a customer service rep.  It’s what I tried out of exhausted desperation a couple months ago, and I was surprised when it worked.  I tried it again this morning and had a live person on the line in less than a minute.  Ta-da!  Sometimes it’s the smallest victories that are the sweetest.

Missing Package, Round 3

by 4 Comments

Again?  A third package has now gone missing.
Package #1 was this mug:
The buyer said it was never delivered, and blamed her Post Office, citing multiple delivery issues.  She told me she did not expect me to refund her money, but I ended up refunding it anyway, less shipping.
 Here’s package #2:
I waited a couple days after the buyer notified me of the issue, hoping it would just resolve itself.  It didn’t.  I ended up calling the USPS 1-800 number.  The USPS rep was nice enough, said they would look into it.  I called on a Friday, and the rep said I would get a call back by the following Tuesday morning.  The package was well over a week late at that point.  But, it was found somewhere, because by the time I got the follow-up phone call the package had been delivered.  No idea where the hang up was, but it was kind of an “all’s well that ends well” scenario.
Today I got an e-mail about Package #3:
This item shows it was delivered August 11th.  Here is the buyer’s e-mail:

I just checked the tracking number and it shows that the item was delivered on Aug. 11 at 9:15 am. We were not home until that evening but saw no package at our home. do you have any additional information regarding the shipment of the item?
Of course, I don’t have any additional information.  I just know what she knows.  I looked at the FAQs on the USPS website, and e-mailed her back with some info from it, including their 1-800 number, and asked if she had any family members that might have picked it up and forgotten to tell her, or nearby neighbors it might have been delivered to in error, etc, etc.
So am I just “lucky” with all these missing or delayed packages?   Anyone else have issues similar to these?  Or a policy with which to handle them?  Anyone know if eBay still considers us responsible for these packages, once the status shows delivered?
If I end up refunding the money for the Care Bear I am probably out less than $3 including shipping, so it’s not the end of the world . . . mostly just annoying . . . gripe, gripe, complain, complain.

How do you ship a lightsaber? And other irritations.

by 5 Comments

My husband, (truly) kind guy that he is, has volunteered my eBay services to one of his friends.  He returned home one night last week with a big box of TV on DVD sets, some video games, coins, and a lightsaber.  Ummmmm, what?  Okay, to be fair, my husband had mentioned in passing that the guy had some stuff he wanted to sell.  And apparently my husband mentioned to the guy that I am eBaying it up. So for them, it was 1 + 1 = 2.  
I am not super excited about this, for a number of reason.  Reason #1 – I have a ton of my own stuff that I need to get listed!  Reason #2 – Am I working for free here?  Reason #3 – Am I really supposed to decide how much to sell his stuff for without his input/okay?  The word from my husband is that the guy will take whatever he can get, is willing to sell the items on the cheaper end to be able to get the money faster, and is happy to pay me whatever I think is fair.  (He just recently found out his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, and I think he is trying to do what he can to start his new family obligations on firm financial ground.  So it’s not like I don’t feel for the guy.  But . . . )
Apparently the thing he most wants to sell, and quickly, is the thing I want nothing to do with.  It’s this lightsaber.
SER-I-OUS-LY.  How do you ship something shaped like this?!  It’s almost 4 feet long.  And fairly fragile.  It’s got me freaked out.  Apparently he thinks it is going to be worth the most, because he paid $120 for it.  I’m not sure if he thinks the value has gone up?  There are a few listed around that price, but they’re not really selling.  
So, really.  Anyone know how to ship this thing?
I have a couple other eBay weirdnesses going on too.  Such as – 
The case of the missing package
Remember how I was excited to see Ren & Stimpy head out the door?  
Well, they were paid for on July 17th, and mailed out the next day.  This is what the tracking info for it looks like:

Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
Jul-18-12, 18:58 PM, SALEM, OR 97301
Dispatched to Sort Facility
Jul-18-12, 18:01 PM, SALEM, OR 97302
Acceptance
Jul-18-12, 15:44 PM, SALEM, OR 97302
Depart USPS Sort Facility
Jul-18-12, 00:00 AM, SALEM, OR 97301
Let me clarify.  That is what the tracking info STILL looks like.  Nothing since the 18th.  The purchaser, who was expecting the item to show up in New York by now (estimated arrival date was the 21st) contacted me a couple days ago.  I asked him to wait a couple more days in hopes that it would arrive, and that we would touch base again on Friday.  Which is tomorrow.  Still nothing.  I have never had this happen before.  Any advice?
And irritation number three.  
The case of the extra payment?
I got this e-mail from a buyer this afternoon:

Hi,
My wife actually made this purchase. When she tried to purchase it thru my paypal acct she had a problem & was under the impression that it did not go through.  She then signed in as a guest & used her credit card. In the end we have both been charged for the purchase. Please email me so we can get this resolved quickly. Thanks. 
Weird, I thought.  And went to my Paypal account.  I only have one payment.  It seems to be the second one, not attached to his Paypal account.  I just happened to be online when he e-mailed me so I replied really quickly, letting him know that I only show one payment received, and asking him to check with Paypal about why a payment would show up on his account as sent but not on mine as received.  I haven’t heard back from him yet.
And I’m even irritating myself.
After almost three weeks of being a listing rock star (if I do say so myself), my motivation pretty much evaporated.  I’m not sure why.  I am having to force myself to just get a few items listed each day.  I’m falling further behind on my goal.  Boooo.  I’ve only listed one item so far today.  Better get back to it now.  Sigh.