kebechet

Send an email to blackphoenix@blackphoenixalchemylab.com with LEAK as the subject. In the body of the email give us your name and address along with the oil name and milliliter size of the defective bottle. If possible, please also include your order number, but this isn’t a necessity.

Thank you!

Cross-posted to other threads to ensure everyone who may have this problem sees this notice.

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ORIGINAL POST:

The fun never stops! Brian discovered this afternoon that some of the damned caps are faulty in our latest set of bottles. Some seem to be loosening up, not just in transit, but also while just sitting here in the Lab. Tonight we're going through the 100 or so orders that are in process and trying to find the faulty tops.

ETA instructions on what to do if you've received a defective bottle so we can ensure that everyone's problem is rectified.

First, an explanation of why some oils differ slightly in scent. Bluntly put, its simply because all of our oils are organic. Many of the oils are distilled or cold-pressed in-house, and the ones that we import are all in their pure and unadulterated form. In nature, the strength of scent, the tone, and the subtle olfactory nuances of a given flower, herb or fruit differ. No two roses are ever the same. We do our best to attempt at consistency, but sometimes due to the natural composition of the blends’ constituents this is impossible. The only way that we would be able to replicate every scent identically would be to either clone the plants or start manufacturing artificial perfumes.

There is a possibility that one of us simply brain-farted when we assembled the order. The probability of this increases as we continue to pull all-nighters in the Lab. If the scent of your perfume varies that wildly, please let me or Nella know and we’ll try to rectify the problem.

I know a lot of you lads and ladies out there are well-versed in e-commerce. I'm not familiar with any of the shopping cart systems that we can use with AuthorizeNet, so I'm asking for opinions / reviews / comments before I have to shell out cash for this.

Compatible Carts

The quicker I can get this set up, the sooner the update will happen. =P

Dee and I are working together to create a line of Blackrayne / BPAL soaps. The problem is... I'm a weird, indecisive Fish and I can't make up my mind about which scents to use. Please post here with your requests if you have a moment. Once I narrow it down a bit, I'm going to set up a final poll. We can't start off with too many scents, so...

Thanks Beth 

 

Pam.

*SQUISH!*

As of 5/18, the following is relevant:

1. All April orders that contain O or Lady Macbeth should ship at the end of this week.

2. All April orders that contain Bordello will ship late next week.

3. Due to the inability to acquire one of the components in Lady Macbeth, the formula has changed very slightly. The scent is now a bit drier and the wine is more pronounced.

4. I have posted a small site update. The new scents will be available in June.

5. Please direct all shipping status and order inquiries to nella [at] blackphoenixalchemylab [dot] com. She is generally available to answer questions during daylight hours, Monday through Friday. If you email her over the weekend, you will most likely not receive a response til Monday.

Hmmmm. Now I'm starting to get a little worried. I placed my order on 4/15, and have read in various threads that people who placed orders around that time have started getting happy packages in the mail. The main reason I'm worried is that the email I sent to the customer service addy at BPAL hasn't gotten a response, and I'm starting to think the Dread Email Gods have taken my mail as a sacrifice.

 

This is me, being patient. Patient, patient, pati -oooh! A shiny thing! -ent.

 

-Jilli

Jilli:

Which email did you send your inquiry to?

I'm not quite sure which orders you're referring to, Justric. If your zip code is 14223, we're holding your third order because we haven't received a reply from you regarding where to send this package. On last report to us, again -- if this is the 14223 set of orders, you did not get the last two packages sent, though we do have completed USPS delivery confirmation for both of them. We just don't want to send a third one into the abyss.

Aw, hunny! Hellcat is staying the same. Its an old scent of ours [Hellfire] that's being redone. It's a very long story... but one of the components of the original Hellfire became impossible for us to acquire. I love the stories about the old Hellfire Club, so I was determined to rethink the way that I portrayed it in scent. Starting from scratch, so to speak.

I'm an idjit. I need to redo the printable order form and I have no clue how to use this damn program. Any sites y'all can recommend?

Good morning, all! We’re in the middle of about a zillion things, so I wanted to post and keep everyone updated on the situation here.

The site update has been postponed once more. The new FAQ and About Us pages are taking me more time than I’d anticipated, especially with everything that’s gone on here lately. The new scents are just about ready to go, but they won’t go live until we have fully transferred from CcNow to AuthorizeNet. We decided against using PayPal exclusively during the transition phased, based mostly on a slew of emails imploring us not to do so. As you all know, CcNow digs horribly deep into our pockets, and we don’t want to give them a cent more than we have to. The delay that they enforce with sending us payments for orders is killing us. Honestly, this month their "system" just about put us out of business.

At this time, we’re hoping that the transfer over will be complete by June 1.

Luckily for everyone, a delay in the update also means a delay in the price change. There’s always a bright side.

On an even brighter note, more scents have been added to the future update, so it’ll be well worth the wait.

Despite the fatigue and slight delirium, I’m experiencing a very random and Piscean rush of excitement. The storefront, the update, the new scents… the possibility of leaving CcNow behind us… all of it, despite the uphill climb its taking to get there, makes me feel… well, really hopeful.

Thanks again to everyone for their love, patience and support. Growing pains have to stop some time, right?

micHELLe

I've always loved the way you do that.

Can't get much out of 'Beth'. =P

I think by the time the new FAQ would be put up, CCNow'll be dropped Tyger!

We're going to see our accountant [the one who bailed me out of my tax mess this year] on Thursday. Basically he's going to help us figure out how to switch from CcNow with minimal grief, and he's going to help me see if its at all feasable for me to quit my day job so I can do the Lab full time.

Here's hopin', right? =P

The new FAQ is about 75% done. If all goes well, the update can go live tomorrow night.

Ok, this is what I meant to type:

Michelle is one of oldest and bestest friends in the world, and as you know... she's also one of the Lab Rats. She has finally joined the BPAL forum as Hexe. We love Michelle!!!

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I'm such an idiot. I can't believe I forgot to log her off andlog myself on.

I was going to do the full introductions for everyone, but it looks like tonight's Lab all-nighter has fried me more than I thought.

Good question, Jazzie. I should have addressed this earlier. No orders placed through CcNow will be wiped under any circumstances, barring an internal snafu at CcNow.

I have an appointment with our accountant next Thursday. We may be able to bypass having to go through PayPal, too, and actually get our own in-house charge system running. I can't tell you what a relief that will be.

Hi Beth,

 

The links for emailing regarding international shipping quotes point to the papow address.

 

Also, would it be possible / practical to have an email address purely for shipping quotes and perhaps a separate one for queries?

 

Maybe a mention of the search engine and using the forum for information, queries etc? I know they are on the main menu, but people *might* read faqs more carefully.

 

Pam.

Your wish is my command, P. =) Those are all excellent points.

Any input on what I need to add?

Due to circumstances way beyond my control, the new scents for Beltane are going to debut about two weeks later than I'd hoped. I'm not going to get into the details [read: I don't want to bore you guys] suffice to say that because of the way CcNow does their payouts, I simply can't afford to produce enough of the new scents to have them go live yet. The non-scent related portions of the update will be going up as scheduled -- May 1st. The new scents will not be available until at least May 15th.

Hi all! I'm back from the dead, so to speak. It's been really rough lately, and its been all I could handle just getting through the day with everything that's been going on. I wanted to post a formal introduction for Nella, but it looks like she's done that herself. She is a very welcome addition to the BPAL family, and is here to help me keep up with emails, public postings and store gossip. Without Nella, the site update would never get done, the emails would keep getting further and further backlogged, and I probably would have ended up in a loony bin within the span of a month. Just prior to Nella coming on board I started having nightmares [no exaggeration] that emails were coming in to my home computer from the theatre and the Lab nonstop and wouldn't pause long enough for me to answer everything. As of the day we hired her, I

finally

got

some

sleep.

*sigh*

I'm going to start a new thread in the announcements and formally introduce everyone that's helping out with the Lab and give an indication of our current status with orders.

This week is being spent redoing a few errant orders and reshipping a few that the USPS sent back to us for reasons unknown. We are shipped out through 3/23 and I believe we will be done with the entire month of March by mid-week. International orders seem to be going agonizingly slowly due to strict probing at customs.

There is now a two-week to almost month-long back up on orders. Though we have two people in the Lab full time, one of them was basically replacing me as I had to return to my old full-time job to pay off all the missing package drama from months ago -- we still haven't recovered. In addition, making the new blends costs a heap of money so in order to do so, I need to keep working here at the theatre. It's a treat. Two sample ty'ers quit, so we had to spend some time coercing other people to take up the slack on that [apparantly] unpleasant duty. Anjali and Brian are doing their best to get the orders out, but with me and Ted only there part time it is backing up a little more than its usual slow process. I can only rebuild scents on my one day off a week, or at night when I get back to the Lab, so that's putting a little dent in things, too. I spend so much time chasing down orders that the USPS or CcNow or my crap email ate that I don't do much of anything else at night.

I apologize if this delay is inconvenient.

I had no idea this much discussion was going on.

The theatre got super busy [read shitty and hellish] so I've been there almost 60 hours / week recently. I'm FINALLY at the Lab today for a decent amount of time so I should be able to catch up on emails and PMs.

Famous last words, right? =P

I received an email this morning asking if BPAL is closing down. I feel weird having to state this, but no, we aren't. Well, at least… if we are, no one’s told me. From what her email said this is some rumor floating around MUA.

[Why is that acronym giving me the heebies now?]

I just thought I should address this before this rumor got out of hand.

The email is still floopy at times, the USPS has a grudge against me, the site update was delayed, and I'm slow at being able to reply to everyone. But...

...well, that's business as usual.

Can you believe it? I actually have a day off from the theatre.

I'm working on the site update today and trying to finish all the last emails. The postal issue has escalated a little -- Brian lost it yesterday trying to post everyone's order through Click & Ship for the upteenth time in three days. When I say lost it... I mean lost it. I think we may be switching to UPS or FedEx after all. The USPS implemented a new batch order system that is faulty as hell. I won't bore you all with the details, suffice to say it doesn't freakin' work and as a result nothing has gone out into the post since Friday. Now, if we switch, there's good news -- orders will be easier to track, and the tracking info will be more precise. The bad news is that UPS and FedEx are both more expensive, and it'll cost a bit more as we're going to have to purchase boxes for shipping [as opposed to using the free ones that the USPS provides]. I will keep everyone posted as we go through the transition.

More bad news: due to the escalating cost of producing the oils [several key oils have shot up in price, as have their herbal counterparts], the increase in the cost of the damn bottles [the manufacturer raised the prices, and the distributors we deal with jumped up with it] and the cost of having to hire two more people, I'm going to have to bump up the price of the oils slightly. As always, we're doing our best to keep the prices as low as possible, but I have to do something since our profit margin on the oils is now just under $0.50 per bottle in most cases, and we're losing money on some scents. I love you guys, but I do have to make some money doing this. If I win the lottery, you'll all get a buttload of oils for free. The price of the sample packs will NOT increase, but the price of the 5ml's will likely have to go up about $1-$2 per bottle. I swear I will keep it as low as possible.

The slightly good news: prices won't change til May 1st.

News that is neither good nor bad: until we can get ourselves a proper credit card system, we're still stuck using third part processors. I cannot afford CcNow any longer -- the 9% is simply TOO high for us to bear, and is causing us to lose money on 4 out of 5 orders -- we will likely be switching to PayPal in the interim. This change will not take place until some time in May. I will, of course, keep everyone posted.

The good news: new smells in progress! A peek at the scents for the next update --

Arcana

Frankincense, rosemary, lavender, neroli, and lemon verbena.

Danube

Rhododendron and bellflower petals swirl through deep, cool, dark aquatic notes.

Kali

The sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey.

Lex Talionis

Dark myrrh, vetiver, cardamom, violet, black pepper, sage, cedarwood and black patchouli with a clarion note of sharp white grapefruit.

Nephilim

Black patchouli and vetiver with red sandalwood, black amber, rosemary, lavender, oakmoss, white cedar and pine.

Old Prague

Crocus with snowdrop and three lilies.

Ouija

White sandalwood, redwood and teak notes with wispy blue lilac, tea rose, white rose and ethereal osmanthus.

Queen Gertrude

Violet, delphinium, wisteria and chrysanthemum.

Rage

Black amber erupting with a dark volcanic surge of fiery dragon’s blood and a burst of melati, rose geranium, mandarin and black currant.

Schrodinger’s Cat

Bitter orange, violet leaf and basil with pink pepper, nutmeg, white and red sandalwood, dark musk, cedarwood and orange blossom.

Szepasszony

A chilly, tempestuous whirlwind of clear, airy notes, slashing rain, and a thin undercurrent of white flowers.

Ulalume

Starry white lilies lend an eerie brightness to the deep black wooded scents of cypress and oak, layered with a touch of crushed dried leaves and the faintest aquatic note.

Also working on:

Chaos

Mata Hari

Midnight

Mystery

Nemesis

Pandemonium

Pele

Savage

Scarecrow

Vitriol

Plus others mentioned in the last site update, and a few that I'm not quite ready to mention.

The last of the good news:

A special edition scent is coming out for May Day -- it is, of course, 'Beltane'.

There's a possibility that I might be able to work with some stores in Scotland as potential retailers for BPAL. My question is... will it be easier on you all if you order from us, or from a UK distributor? I know Glasgow and Edinburgh aren't around the corner for all of you, but it may make shipping cheaper in the long run.

Just a thought. =)