First I want to apologize for this very lengthy post. I was not blessed with the ability to sum up thoughts.
I am writing this to publicly apologize for the current delay TC is experiencing with orders. I also want to go ahead and take this time to better explain the current situation and explain my business. Unlike other companies that have their products manufactured overseas, Tinkerbell’s Closet is currently a small staff of only 2 people (we had 3 but now we are down one, more about that later). We handmake all our Tinkerbell’s Closet designs right here in the USA once the order is placed, in the order that we receive them. Yes I do sell some dog products that I don’t make as well but most of my business is products we make. Almost any order that is ever placed with me consists of at least one item we make. Much of my business is actually from people from the internet outside of Yorkietalk as well as other dog boutiques that sell my products (Yorkietalk however is definetly my best and most appeciated customers
) Because of the volume of orders we recieve on a weekly basis, and becuase of my devotion to detail and obsession with trying to make high quality dog clothes, our orders take awhile to make. Orders placed with my website within the USA usually take 2 to 3 weeks to receive and the website states this in at least 6 different places including the checkout page which requires a box to be checked accepting these terms. However unfortunately the past 2 months we have fallen a bit behind on our order timeframe due to some unusually and extremely large orders I had back in the beginning of May, it threw us off track and we have desperately been trying to get caught up ever since. I don’t ever like posting my personal life in regards to my business as I feel this is extremely unprofessional but given some current circumstances I now feel it is necessary. I know there are a few yorkietalkers whose orders are late are upset with me I really do not want anyone thinking I don’t care or that Im just blowing them off as communication has been rough as we struggle to get caught up and get everyone’s orders sent. My business and what people think of both me and my business is extremely important to me. And since it seems to be one thing after the other for the past 2 months I really just want to post it out in the open hoping people will understand why things are taking a bit longer than the website allocated at the time your order was placed (just a side note- I have updated the website to currently say 2-4 weeks on orders until we are fully caught up). Im not trying to make excuses, it has honestly been one of the hardest 2 months I have ever had in the 3 years Ive been in business.
So here is what has been happening the past 2 months. I hired a new seamstress/assistant a few months ago and just in time because for most of May I was sick and extremely exhausted and fell behind on my own work. My full time assistant pretty much took over most parts of my business for the first time so much of it was a learning experience for her. Well come to find out the reason I was so tired and sick is that I was pregnant, much of a surprise to me and my husband as we were not trying and I was on the pill (although we are very excited
). As soon as I get on prenatal viatmins and changed my diet to healtier foods Ive regained most of my energy back and have been back to work 50+ hours a week. However being that I have severe anxiety and being that I am pregnant and unable to take any medication for this problem my assistant (also my best friend and right now I can not say enough good things about her) she is still handling certain parts of my business that may cause me anxiety such as customer service (emails, etc) For anyone whose orders were falling behind we sent personal emails to them but technology seems to be failing me more and more everyday adding to my list of problems. I found out from my webhost that yahoo(amongst others) is blocking most mail from my business server so that was many people that are not receiving our mail. I also have a problem that many people send emails inquiries to the wrong email account (long long story) and sometimes its apparent that emails just get lost or spammed out altogether, Im not sure as I don’t know much about how all that works. All I know is it fails me
So naturally calling people is the next best thing but my phone has been out for a week as one of the many nasty storms we have been having took it out and Im still waiting for a guy to come out and look at it. I thank goodness my my internet is not through our phone. Speaking of storms this has been a nother big problem, especially laltelly. The constant flash flooding we are having here in Texas for the entire month of June have made it a struggle to make it to the post office to drop off my packages, not to mention causes constant short power outages. But the worst problem I have had is I had to fire my newest assistant last week. Im not going to go into details but it didn’t end well and it was an extremely stressful week last week.
BUT the good news is, it's all really starting to come around, after struggling so hard for 2 months to get caught up I am finally almost there. Looking back I now know maybe I should have shut down the business at some point but it all happened so fast and seriously everyday I thought I was almost caught up before something else would happen. Plus shutting down is hard as I completely rely on my business for our household income and with an unplanned baby on the way finances scare me.
All this is so embarrassingly personal for me to post but if it helps anyone to better understand the situation and ease the way they feel about me it is worth it to me.
Once I am completely caught up which I honestly feel will be mid this week (crossing my fingers), Im updating the website and making changes with products that I sell to make things as easy as possible so everything can run smoother in the future as I have learned a lot from the past 2 months. Yorkietalk is such an important community for me, because I enjoy coming here to learn, laugh and share with others. It is my refuge on a bad day and it is like a second home to me. It pains me deeply to think anyone is upset with me or upset their order is late and while all the stuff I said above doesn’t make it right Im trying to make it up to people. Ive been including free gifts and on larger orders I have also been giving free store credit as my apology for the tardiness of orders, I’m trying to make amends to those with late orders however possible. If you are someone that did not receive an email response from me and you order is at 3 weeks or more please pm me here on YT and I will be happy to give you the status of you order. I will be busy getting orders out during the day today and wont be back on YT until later this evening.
I love you all guys and I thank you so much for your support, patience and understanding.
Shana
PS-----SOOOO sorry for how long this post is