Payments
for items on the website can also be made by
way of check or money order by regular mail.
You can call me or email me with your
selections, at which time I will give you a
total including shipping. You can mail me a check or money
order, and upon receipt of your payment,
your items will be sent to you.
The time
period for invoices paid for by mail will be seven days, not
including weekends. Payments by PayPal must be initiated
within 3 days of my invoice. When payments are by
PayPal, I am informed as to whether it is an instant payment by
way of an online balance or credit card, or if it is a payment
by electronic check, which takes longer. If your PayPal account
is tied to your checking account, I will of course wait for
PayPal to send me the notice of payment cleared, and your items
will be in no danger of being returned to stock because of PayPal’s foot-dragging with echecks.
Layaway
Layaway is a simple matter; 20%
of the total price will hold your item in
layaway to start. The total cost of the
item determines the time period allowed for
layaway and the amount that must be paid
every 30 days to keep it there up to a
maximum of 120 days (or more by special
arrangement) for higher priced items. As
with outright purchases, there are no
refunds on layaway items or any of the
monies deposited by you toward the potential
purchase of the item. If the item is not
paid out, all
payments are forfeit. I will require
an address and a phone number that is not
attached to an answering machine for all
layaways. This is to allow me to
remind you either by phone or by mail in the
event that you forget about your layaway.
You would be stunned to know how often this
happens! Items in layaway will be
removed from the selling floor of the shop
and carefully packed away until such time as
you retrieve them. The item will still
appear on the website, with the word 'HOLD'
in bold blue print at the end of the
description. Items paid in full will have
'SOLD' in bold red until such time as I remove the
item from the site.
Website Purchasing Etiquette
I am
handling quite a few website customers simultaneously at any
given time along with customers here in the shop, and I am
easily able to keep track of who wants what. The problem comes
in when a website customer asks to be invoiced for items they
have chosen, and I send the invoice showing the different
payment methods and hear nothing back from
that customer. If
you elect NOT to purchase, email me about it so that I can
release the items to other customers, which is
the same courtesy that you would
want others to extend to you. PLEASE; when you request an invoice, I
always send it, so let me know even if
you decide NOT to complete the purchase so that I can
keep my other customers happy too. There is no insult or
recrimination intended toward anyone; I am asking only that you
please take my website as seriously as you would my real
world shop that is open seven days a week. In any real world
shop, if you don’t take your items to the cashier and pay for
them, they are still available to other shop customers for
purchasing.
How & Why Summary
I attempt to keep my prices well within the
range of affordability for the average
person. I achieve this by not
accepting returns, and by not accepting
credit card payments in the real-world shop.
Payments in the shop are by cash or check
only, but
there is an ATM machine within 50 yards of
my front door, should that be useful to you.
My shop is a one-person operation, meaning
that not only am I alone responsible for all
of the purchasing and overhead, but that my
entire income and ability to continue to
provide you with wonderful things comes from
the items I sell in the shop and on the
website. Because of this, ALL items
are considered "Final Sale", whether in the
shop or on the website. I do not
accept returns of any kind for any reason.
This is another way of keeping the prices
reasonable, as with this policy I do not
incur the expense of restocking a 'buyer's
remorse' item or of disappointing a customer
because the item they wanted was currently
being 'borrowed' for a weekend party.
I do not worry about this policy in terms of
how it may affect sales for one simple
reason; when a customer is interested in
buying something only with the proviso that
it can be returned, they have no intention
of keeping the item in the first place and
therefore should be shopping in a less
exclusive shop. The cost of accepting
returns is built into the prices of items sold by businesses that accept
returns, so you are
subsidizing the indecisiveness and
dishonesty of other shoppers. Those
who do not return things should not pay the
expenses for those who do. Any questions
regarding policies or items on the website will be
answered within hours or less by way of
email, or instantly by phone, whatever your
choice. I hope you enjoy the website,
and I do hope you get a chance to visit the
shop in person. I always have the
coffee on; or if you wish, I will brew you a
cup of my lovely tea!
