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Misermom, you are one in a million. I don't know of any other demo who does this and I have been buying SU for 14 years now.
While Misermom IS one in a million in many ways... ... I think you will find that a lot of SU demos will take orders online and send catalogs out... most of the demos I know do a lot of their business/order taking via the internet... in fact I'd be hard pressed to find a demonstrator who would NOT send you a catalog and take your order via email... just ask them!
While Misermom IS one in a million in many ways... ... I think you will find that a lot of SU demos will take orders online and send catalogs out... most of the demos I know do a lot of their business/order taking via the internet... in fact I'd be hard pressed to find a demonstrator who would NOT send you a catalog and take your order via email... just ask them!
Other than myself, my two best customers live 4 states away. They e-mail me their orders and I send them an invoice by PayPal. They pay it and I use my PayPal debit card (MasterCard) as payment on the order and have it shipped right to their doorsteps! The last one I got, she e-mailed me around noon, I happened to be at the computer when the e-mail came in, input the order to get the total, saved it, sent her the PayPal invoice, she got it, paid it, I completed the order and it shipped the SAME DAY. Because she is closer to UT than I am, she got her order the NEXT DAY. Granted, this was a lot of really good timing on our parts, but usually her orders are on her porch 2 or 3 business days after she e-mails me.
Me four or five, or whatever, lol! I have a couple of people, some close, some clear across the country, who email me orders. The cross country orders go right to them. The local ones, depending on if anyone else ordered as well, either go to me for delivery or to the customer.
You just need to look around some! There are lots of demos, and there are lots of different ways to run an SU business. Somebody is out there who can take care of you!
My cousin lives about 90 minutes from me and i email my orders and then paypal her. As far as how she pays for it, i assume it's by credit card because she always refers to "getting onlilne" and placing her order. I'm thinking any demo with an email addy would be foolish not to accept an email/paypal order! (And i'm not bashing SU Demos who don't by using the word foolish!! ;))
__________________ Jen Z. in Elysburg, PA...not quite stampin' in Atlas anymore!
I have a hard time believing that it's impossible to find a demo that will do customer direct orders. I certainly do them; I have customers who don't want to attend workshops and like to have their orders shipped directly to them. I don't know of any who would refuse and even if they did, the demo locator is always handy for finding another demo. Plus, if you belong to any stamping board, including this one, asking in this forum for a demo that services your area will get you many replies.
Are these shopping cart functions fully automated with these other companies? Or, does the demonstrator still have to process the order manually with the company?
With TAC- it's fully automated- the demo doesn't even have to look at it- though most do and will contact a new customer to say thank you (if they register- customers also have an option of not registering, so a demo doesn't find out who they are).
TAC also processes credit cards for demonstrators and pays their fees- demos that do parties (not me!) are able to accept credit card payments from more than one person at the party and TAC can process that. (it used to be you could only have one CC unless you processed them yourself).
I personally think SU has found their niche, and are doing quite well for themselves. With all that is out there now though it's not suprising long time customers might look in another direction. I personally will only be buying unmounted stamps (although I plan to drop my TAC demoship- as I'm spending too much money and want some papertrey!) because I find SU's stamp prices to be too high. But my paper supply will come from SU as long as the prices stay where they are.
I think the issue is not the email but that some demos hold your order a day or two or even more, when with a direct shopping cart we could have our orders within 2 days for priority shipping without having to wait on a demo. I saw a survey that said the average demo did not order for 6 days after getting orders. That seems to be the experience for many here who don't get their orders for as long as 10 days. Too long for many of us.
Well, I don't know where this survey is that you saw, but I only hold orders for workshops if the hostess wants to keep it open or if the customer says it's okay to do it. And usually that is so they don't have to pay minimum shipping on an individual order; by combining it with other orders, they only have to pay 10%.
I don't know many demos that hold orders longer than three days, the time we are supposed to, by law, wait to see if someone wants to cancel. And most of us don't even hold the order that long, we send it in and if the customer cancels, we end up with the merchandise they ordered. I know my customers are in a hurry to get their stuff and I don't like to make them wait.
I hold orders as long as it takes for the payment to be posted to my bank account. That could be next day if it's cash or a check I deposit personally, or up to 4 days for Paypal to put the money into my bank.
And most of my customers are long distance, so I take most of my orders via email. Unless it's a workshop order for a local hostess, I do all orders Customer Direct. Why deny my customer the sheer joy of having the UPS guy bring her a box of goodies for her to open? ;)
__________________ Kelly He's BACK! (456 days, could you do it?)
Some of the delays in shipping are out of the hands of a demo. At a busy time, SU sometimes does not pick an ship orders on the same day they are submitted. And then, depending on where you live, it could take up to 10 days for the package to arrive even if it is picked and shipped the same day.
I think the issue is not the email but that some demos hold your order a day or two or even more, when with a direct shopping cart we could have our orders within 2 days for priority shipping without having to wait on a demo. I saw a survey that said the average demo did not order for 6 days after getting orders. That seems to be the experience for many here who don't get their orders for as long as 10 days. Too long for many of us.
With the exception of the ocassional free shipping offers on some sites, I believe there are few places that charge as low as only 10% shipping. I was looking at a site the other day and had abour $45 in merchandise in the cart. They wanted $14.95 to ship it! I decided against the order! Also, keep in mind things like card stock weight a lot for their size. Try weighing a single package of card stock (24 sheets of a single color) in an envelope - it will cost more than 55 ccents (10% of the cost of the package) to ship!
I also think even with a shopping cart on a website you will pay extra in shipping to get your order within 2 days. In addition, any home based business consultant takes a big chance when she doesn't hold your order for 3 days. The customer has the right to cancel for any reason within that 3 days. If the consultant has entered the order, he/she has to personally pay for the order (but keeping what has been ordered whether it is stuff she wants or not).
Despite this, a lot of demos don't wait the 3 days especially if the order is for established customers. I enter the same day if I know the person and she has ordered from me before. The only other time I might hold an order is if I ask the customer if they want me to put out an e-mail to other customers and see if anyone wants to also order and see if we can get them up to hostess benefits. Then I split the benefits between those ordering. So if someone wants to order $75 worth of product, I will ask if they want me to send out an e-mail to others and see if anyone else wants to add to the order. In the e-mail I tell everyone they have until x day (usually one or two days) to let me know and if the order gets up to hostess level, they will get about 10% extra product free using the hostess benefits. The hostess set usually goes to the one who first contacted me with the larger order. Now if the original customer is anxious to get her stuff, I will just enter it right away and not try to get her up to hostess level. It is up to her on how much of a hurry she is in.
Another thing, if someone is super anxious to get her order, it can be expedited - one or two day shipping. BUT there is a cost to that! If you are willing to pay, you can have your order picked and shipped the same day and have it sent by UPS 1 or 2 day service. Just ask your demo about it!
I think earlier in this thread someone suggested that expecting demos to be able to know how to use wood-mounted stamps and how to use stamps temporarily mounted on acrylic blocks was too much. Perhaps that poster has not used rubber stamps cling mounted to acrylic blocks, I would be surprised if she had tried it and still found thought that was too much to expect of an SU demo. This seems especially true given all the other discussion earlier in this thread about the great skill of the vast majority of SU demos.
I was the one who had posted that if Stampin Up offered both mounted and UM - as DEMOS we would be expected to know how to utilize both and be prepared to show both to our customers and know our products...
Personally I have a number of UM sets - both Acrylic and rubber...Personally I dislike UM because of finding the image, finding a block, putting it on, inking stamping etc...I only have a few acrylic blocks so I have to umount images some times to use other images...(since I sell mounted stamps I don't want to invest money into a whole bunch of acrylic blocks when I only use UM a small % of the time) and then when I try to clean them sometimes I can't scrub too hard because the stamp comes off the block. Just last night another demo and I were using the New Bloom Papertrey set that I recieved in the mail which I bought because I love the images...and quite frankly we had a heck of a time using it because of the limited number of blocks we have and then we temporarily "lost" two small pieces because they fell out of the CD case and well they are clear they blend with your workspace...we both agreeded we would have loved to see the set in wood mounted rubber - but it doesn't come that way - I love the images so I will make it work for me.
It is not to much to expect someone who is into stamping to know the various ways you can buy stamps...as a demo it is my job to know the competition and be able to answer questions my customers have about different types of stamps...I would never disparage any other type of stamp but do tell my customers MY experience working with UM. I am happy to let my customers use my UM stamps so they can try them out and see if it might be something THEY like...(pretty much all of them have the same outlook as I do...prefer wood mounted but will buy UM if they really love an image)
Personally I love the grab and go convience of wood mounted stamps...yes they do take up more space that UM and yes there are some sets that have my SAMJ doing a workout...but that is what I like.
It isn't just a simple "offer it both ways" you also have to take into account those that sell your product - would they want to have to learn and show UM ...considering SU added almost 5000 new demos in a 3 month time period this year (Jan- Mar) it seems like there is a lot of people who are happy only having one choice - umm let me take that back - as a customer you can choose to keep your stamps unmounted if you wish...you don't have to use the wood blocks if you don't want to...I previously mentioned in another post that in all actuality IF SU did ever offer both options the chances of an UM option being far cheaper would be practically nil...as wood blocks make up a small, small % of the overall total of the cost of a stamp set...so an UM set might only cost a few $$ cheaper...in that scenerio it might cost SU MORE money to offer both options...because they would need twice as many item numbers...which would increase the size of thier product database...reconfigure thier warehouse and storage space...etc....
__________________ Jenni -Happy SU Demo - MY GALLERY & MY CHAOTIC LIFE One kid makes you a Parent - Two makes you a Referee
Well, I guess I would buy TAC and CTMH IF they would JUST go back to wood mount, or at LEAST give me the option to use wood mount. Jeez, theyre just not looking out for the customer these days. I just dont know how they're gonna make it without offering options!
Why is it only SU! gets negative threads started about them, but not TAC or CTMH etc etc? Jealousy?? Just curious...
Here! Here! Whats wrong with those companies not offering more options! I'm surprised they are even in business!
