BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, Bond writes:

(I promise not to get butt-hurt if this suggestion gets shot down while in low
orbit).

At this very moment, I am in the middle of processing 49 orders, received in
the last 48 hours. No complaints on that score...I'm glad my store has what
folks are looking for.

However, as I don't like to keep my customers waiting for who-knows-how-long
for an invoice, I felt like I had to at least keep up communications by sending
each of them a quick note on the order of "Your number in line is X (of Y orders)".
My reason for this is so that customers will not simply assume that I am ignoring
them, and that it takes time and effort (on top of working a regular full-time
job) to pull, package, and invoice orders.

So my suggestion is simple, although I am unsure how difficult it would be to
implement code-wise. If a seller has, say, more than X number of orders (minimum
could be set by the seller) at a specified time of day, an automated short message
to the buyer (which the seller can also author the basis of) could say something
like "Please be patient. Your order number in line is #." As orders are invoiced,
tbe number in line drops by -1, and if the number of un-invoiced orders drops
down to the specified minimum, the notes are no longer sent, and will not be
sent unless, again, that seller gets more orders and the number of un-invoiced
numbers again rises to the minimum or greater.

Q: Doesn't that mean that the buyer will keep getting these as their number
in line changes?

A: Preferably not. The idea is that they only get one message - at the moment
that the minimum number of un-invoiced orders reaches or is greater than the
minimum value at the specified time.

Q: But sellers get orders at all hours of the day. When exactly does the system
decide that, okay, this seller at this time has this many orders, which equals
or exceeds X?

A: At a precise time of the day by US Pacific Time; say, early in the morning
following daily maintenance. So say that the seller, at 3:30 AM USPT, has at
that moment 14 un-invoiced orders. Now, the minimum set by the seller to implement
the number-in-line option is 5. But, of these 14, seven have already received
this message. Thus, the remaining seven would, at that time, receive a message
saying "Please be patient. Your order number in line is currently # (of Y un-invoiced
orders)."

Probably a long shot at best, but I daresay that many of us have been in a busy
store (a NY deli comes to mind) - before COVID - where you had to take a paper
number while glancing at a digital indicator which said "Now serving #". This
idea is based on that. At this moment, I am thinking of Baskin-Robbins ice cream
store. Do they still have those?

- Pat (BL ID: Bond)

My suggestion is simple, if you are behind, close your store and catch up, people
understand and will wait to order more when you re-open. Don't get to a point
where you are overrun and start making mistakes because you are in a hurry to
catch up. It will pile up if you don't get a handle on it. Put a simple closed
message up and go about your processing.

Scott

Author:

SasquatchBricks

Posted:

May 10, 2019 15:31

Subject:

Re: Star Wars MiniFigs

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

Catalog

In Inventories, avyz66 writes:

Not sure if this is in the correct area to post. I am wanting to start and complete
a Star Wars MiniFig collection. I am looking for a list with variants included
to help me with this. Any push in the right direction is appreciated.

Put a want list together and it should bring up the stores that have the most
in one place, you will be ordering from multiple stores as Star Wars is your
biggest single category for figs

Author:

SasquatchBricks

Posted:

Aug 5, 2016 11:50

Subject:

Re: #1 Brick store,

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Sebastian59 writes:

Hello All,

I have a LDD project I want to make a reality, its almost 3,400 pieces total.
But I was hoping if anyone knew of a mega brick supplier who has almost everything,
as well as taking credit card. If not I may just abandon the project completely.
TIA!

https://www.flickr.com/cameraroll

Sebastian59

Hi, I think you are going to have to put items on your wanted list and see what
comes up and who has the most of what you are looking for. You will probably
not find any one store who has every thing you are needing. I have been buying
and selling for many years now and I don't think it has ever happened even
on small order, large orders are even that much harder. There are some large
stores but there are probably lots of folks like you that are building a large
project and are sniping parts from many different stores. Again the wanted list
is a good starting points for you.

Scott

Author:

SasquatchBricks

Posted:

Mar 25, 2015 17:32

Subject:

Re: Handling Minimum S&H charges in new estimator

Viewed:

37 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, jamesuniverse writes:

In Suggestions, dmoser22 writes:

I currently have a $3.00 minimum charge for S&H. In my terms, I state that S&H
can include up to $1 of additional charges to cover shipping materials. In practice,
on orders where actual postage is above $2.50 or so, I just round up the S&H
charge to some multiple of $0.25. This has been working fine; no complaints
from customers, and I still get packaging and other miscellaneous costs covered
without having to have a minimum buy.

In the new estimator, I can simulate this in a rate table by setting the first
few ounces to $3 and then bumping the amount up as the actual postage rises.
Ideally, though, I'd prefer to have a flat $.50 "other charge", but still
maintain the $3 minimum.

So my table might look like:

______________3 oz___4 oz___5 oz___6 oz___7 oz___8 oz___9 oz
____Total______3.00___3.00___3.00___3.00___3.00___3.09___3.26

This is how you should do it

In order to do that, I'd need to be able to set the Other Charge amount along
with the postage for each weight.

Does anyone else see value in that? Is there already a way to do it and I just
missed it?

Thanks,

-djm

I agree work it in just like that, the "other" line might turn a potential customer
off. That's fine, you want to have that additional but looks cleaner and
more palatable to a buyer.

Author:

SasquatchBricks

Posted:

May 2, 2014 10:31

Subject:

Re: Chargebacks: Immediately Suspend Buying Privs

Viewed:

47 times

Topic: