kebechet

they did screw up the imp ear cost though, $16/6 instead of $18/6 - talk to debbie/celina hex [bust@aol.com and/or debbie@bust.com] and she'd probably get something on the main mag website correcting it

I feel guilty asking them to correct the info. =/ I mean, they were so kind to write the article to begin with, and the blurb is so sweet -- but I'm stressed that people are going to ask for the samples at the magazine's published rate. We're losing money like crazy as it is, and I can't afford to discount the sample sets because of the typo.

Stressing.

Well, hell. This certainly cheered us up!!! =) Bummer that the URL is screwed up. Again, more evidence of my bad luck lately...

http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/media.html

Ok, I spoke too soon. I found out that about 25 more orders haven't gotten to their destination, and I've been fraying these bloody samples like a madwoman all day. Well, except for the hour I took to go to hockey practise, but hell -- I have to get out of the house once in a while. Heh.

I'm going to try to have the internationals opened up tomorrow. I need to see where we're at in the order queue before I do ANYTHING else.

For those that are still waiting on emails, please bear with me. I feel like I'm drowning in missing shipments and it's taking all I've got to get them repacked.

We will be opening up international ordering through the web site later today for most of western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Clephan, if you see this, I'm going to PM you when I get back from hockey practise. My sent mail is all out of whack, so I'm starting from scratch. =/

Did you know that the average human cannot handle more than 7 tasks [+/- 2] at once?

I found that out the hard way.

Many of you may have received USPS notices today [if you're in the US] or emails from me [for international orders]. I just wanted to clarify that those are all reshipments from people that have either notified me that there was a postal glitch or people whose USPS tracking number came up dead when I traced it.

On the Good News Front, there will be a small site update soon, including

Black Dahlia

Blood Lotus

The Dormouse

Elegy

And Hellfire is being reformulated completely.

And in other news, the links section is being updated within the next 24 hours, the papow.com email addresses are completely dead, and we're still catching up on emails. I'm doing my best to get everyone taken care of!

Time to do some filing before I suffocate under all these piles of paper. I hate filing.

Edited to add:

All the reshipments aren't complete yet. I won't be able to have everyone's errant order replaced immediately. Please allow 3-4 more business days if your reshipped package hasn't gone out yet. We should have everyone taken care of by the end of the week. I was only able to get out about 35 reshipments today. You all wouldn't f*ckin' BELIEVE how many orders we have to redo. It's making my head spin.

Edited AGAIN because I am an IDIOT:

I wrote "two" and listed four. What was I saying about not being able to do more than seven things at once? Jeebus...

I need some help with assembling empty sample vials. You don't have to be in the LA area, but it helps. =P The pay is decent, but honestly -- the work itself sucks. If you're interested, please email or PM me.

Good afternoon, all! I'm still catching up on emails [as usual, the papow.com addresses are on the fritz, and AOL won't let any of their customers email us for some reason on any address -- wotta surprise] so if you haven't heard from me, you will by the end of the weekend. I've been hammering to get orders repacked -- I know I should probably give it more time, but it's my responsibility to see to it that the orders get to everyone in a timely manner, so I've decided to go ahead and redo the errant shipments now. I estimate that it'll take us 3-5 business days to get everyone redone, so please be patient with me.

More about that when I have a moment to catch my breath.

I wanted to shoot a hullo to Brian, my partner and the Lab's Blonde Adonis. He's finally had a moment to log in to the BPAL boards; his screen name is Corinthian.

Ok, I need to get back to work. I'll be on later tonight to finish up my PM's, chat, and get more emails out!

I love you guys!

[edited because of a massive typo attack]

Good afternoon, guys! Thank you all so much for the happy birthday wishes! Honestly, I feel like you all are extended family...

I had to come home early. I can't take the strain of knowing that so much shit is messed up right now. I found out from the people that were housesitting for us that several packages came back --- on top of the ones that disappeared, I... well, I just couldn't stay on holiday in good conscience. I still don't know what's going on with the mystery oils that showed up at some swap meet. I may be prematurely furious, but... well, I'm an emotional woman.

I'm not coping all that well. From what I've read today, more than half of the shipments I sent out before leaving have vanished. I am so stunned and so upset, I can barely type. Whatever is going on... a better job couldn't have been done to fuck me, and kudos to whoever is pulling this little stunt. Good job.

I'm trying to get centered, trying to get an idea of what all has gone awry, and I think that the store may have to remain closed until I get everything sorted out. It's just irresponsible for me to reopen til all the bunged orders get reshipped.

For the time being, I will continue to use USPS. I'm going to drive downtown to send out the packages until further notice. International customers that want a tracking number will have the opportunity to use Global Express or Global Express Guaranteed if they want, but unfortunately that will be a bit more expensive. I personally have had too many packages smashed by UPS to work with them at this point, but if I have no choice – if switching to another USPS branch doesn’t help matters – then I will have to opt to use them.

I need to make myself a cup of coffee, pet the dogs for a moment, and then I’ll get back to work.

Hi all! I found a cyber café that wasn’t too crowded so I could say hello to one of our February birthday girls [lurve you, la biscuit!], and I see that many of my shipments have disappeared.

Maybe I shouldn’t have checked the forums and my email. It hasn’t been the most relaxing trip, and this is giving me a tic. The only news that I have from the storefront is that a friend went to a swap meet or farmer’s market or some such thing over the weekend and saw some BPAL oils for sale. I don’t know the whole story – to be honest, it’s the last thing I wanted to hear while I was away – but I’ll get the details when I get back. Suffice to say, this is something I never sanctioned, and may answer some questions.

Fucking SWAP MEET.

Bad news about Ted’s tournament, too. The LA Riot lost all their games, came in second to last, and Ted received a gnarly slapshot to the left shoulder that somehow got under his chest protector. He has a fist-sized bruise there and it scraped off a nice chunk of skin. What’s worse is that he sustained a very weird injury to his elbow in the first game – either a cut from the ice or a cut from something in his equipment – that became infected within the day. I’ll spare you the gory details, suffice to say he spent all of yesterday and this morning in bed with a very high fever brought on by the infection. The good news is that I think he sweated it all out in the middle of the night. He seems fine now.

I witnessed my first lap dance this weekend. Didn’t get one myself, heh. Made friends with all the waitresses in a strip bar across the street from the Hard Rock, too. Nice people.

More stories about LV later. I think the guy behind me wants me to get the hell off the computer so he can play Diablo. Har.

Anyway, it looks like I’ll have to do a hell of a lot of reshipping, sleuth work, and screaming once I get back. At the moment I’m considering postponing reopening the store until all this is taken care of. It would be irresponsible for me to do otherwise. All I can say is that I’ll make restitution for anything that has disappeared in transit. Eventually the USPS will reimburse me.

I hope.

I’ve yet to see a single insurance claim go through.

I hope everyone is having a gloriously beautiful week. I miss you guys! I’ll see you all online in two days.

Someone told me this week that Gabriel the Archangel is the patron saint of the postal services - not sure if that's true, I'll do some research..

I've been thinking about setting up a full altar to Hermes. Since it's been our communications and shipments that have been the biggest problem, it seems fitting.

Also, commerce falls under his jurisdiction. Being the devout Fish that I am, I know it doesn't hurt to do a little deific grovelling when your back is against a wall.

I'd be curious as to whether you're right about Gabriel. I agree with Shriekingviolet: it does seem that it would be his area of governance.

Thanks everyone for your happy thoughts! I've been procrastinating leaving all morning because I keep thinking there's something else I need to do. I've never been away from the Lab for this many days, and it's making me nervous. It's not like I'm leaving everything in pristine shape here, you know? I'm also sketchy about leaving the dogs and kitty and fish with the sitter. And I'm nervous about what is going to happen when the Lab's walls are fixed. I don't trust my landlord, and we packed everything as well as can be, but it isn't like my luck is sterling right now. And I'm worried about Ted's game. And I'm worried about the incoming shipments I've got. And I'm worried about the USPS's bad service. And I have a zit. And and and and....

I didn't get much sleep last night.

I hope everyone's weekend is bouncy and bright! Thanks again, guys. You all are better than family to me!

I use the 'f' word a lot.

Bath Good!  It's probably bad luck to wish Ted good luck if hockey works anything like theatre, but considering the sport, I don't want to risk wishing him broken limbs...   

 

Enjoy the break.  And tell Brian not to be such a Virgo.  (Yeah, like that ever works... )

 

*joins the chant*  When you get back, everything will be fine.

Bath GOOD!!!

Shollin, I /really/ need to talk to you when I get back...

[insert grovelling and snarfling here]

Cross-posted to the LJ Community and the BPAL Forum:

Good evening, all! Lord, I wish I had more time to be social lately… it’s been more difficult getting things back in order than I’d hoped it would be, and because of all the USPS stupidity lately, it’s been even slower, due to all the orders I’ve had to repack.

MAN, I hope those bastards at the post office come across with all the insurance claims I’ve had to file, or I am assed out of a lot of money.

The email problems continue, and I cannot get the goddamn autoresponder to work. Not like anyone can actually get an email through, but… I thought I’d try nonetheless. I just hope that anyone that tries to contact me while we’re out sees this.

Upward and onward…

We’ve worked pretty much nonstop since we recovered from the flu – which amounted to an average 16 hour day for each of us. I want to thank Lynn and Michelle for all their help in the last-minute crunch. We couldn’t have gotten all the orders out without you. Every single order placed through February 15th has been shipped. There is something amiss with the bozo that does our USPS Priority Mail pickup; I’ve received quite a few emails regarding delayed orders and other postal shenanigans. I’m not at the Lab at the moment, so I don’t have access to any of the tracking numbers. As you guys know, the Lab is closed from February 18th – February 25th so I won’t be able to check on anything until then.

For those of you that are curious as to where we’re going… our landlord will be refurbishing two of the Lab walls during that time because of severe internal water damage. We chose this time to let him fix it all for two reasons: one, the damage became bad enough after the last rains to risk damaging the product, and two…. because Ted is participating in a hockey tournament in Las Vegas! It was lucky that the two could coordinate, since I wouldn’t be able to get anything done in the Lab or the office til the work was done anyway. I’m not a laptop kinda girl, which is why I won’t have any email access while I’m away.

And fuck… I’ll be honest: it’s been a long, crappy winter for us. Really, really crappy. I’ve never had to deal with so much bullshit that was so out of my control in my entire freakin’ life. Certainly not where my own shop was concerned. I console myself by insisting that everything happens for a reason, and that there’s some divine plan behind all this, but the truth is I need a fucking break. I’m hoping that the time I spend away from all this will ‘reset’ my environment, and when I get back, everything will be right as rain.

Here’s hopin’!

Brian – being a diligent Virgo and work-masochist – is insisting that we bring the sample tying stuff with us to Vegas, so… technically I’m still working while we’re there. So much for leaving it all behind, but what can ya expect from a Virgo partner?

I am going to trust that everything reaches you guys intact, but please let me know if you have any problems with your order, and if the USPS has bunged it up, I will certainly make restitution.

Any emails I haven’t been able to get to will be gotten to when I get back. I’ve done my best to answer everyone, but since this fucking fucking fucking SMTP server is still wacky, I assume some of you didn’t receive my replies. I haven’t been able to get to all my PM’s either, due to my attempt to see to it that all the orders went out before we left. I’m truly sorry, and will do my best to get the last ones responded to before I crash tonight.

I’m going to finish up packing now, watch Jay & Silent Bob, and take a long, long bath. I love you all very, very much, and… I’m just so damned sorry that things got so screwy here after Thanksgiving.

When I get back, everything will be fine…

When I get back, everything will be fine…

When I get back, everything will be fine…

When I get back, everything will be fine…

When I get back, everything will be fine…

*chant / chant / chant!*

Cross-posted to the four winds:

:: |:|| FROM FEBRUARY 16th - FEBRUARY 25th WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCEPT NEW ORDERS.

We will be out of town from February 18th - February 25th. I am shutting the shop down a little early to ensure that all pending orders are out and all loose ends are tied up before we leave. ALL orders placed prior to February 15th will be shipped by February 18th. Any orders placed while we are gone will not process until February 25th, and will not ship until February 26th - March 1st. I will do my best to ensure that all emails are answered prior to our departure now that SBC has corrected [or so they say] our outgoing mail issue. We will not have internet access while we are gone.

I'm a little slow on emails at the moment, as the fix in the SBC system opened up a floodgate of emails that came in delayed over the past several days, and I've had to haul ass in the Lab to make sure all the orders that need gettin' get out, and all the shit that the USPS fragged up is fixed.

Tired, grumpy, and my fingers are pink and raw from fraying samples. Bedtime!

Diana, the forum is BEAUTIFUL. I am absolutely stunned. I love the graphics, I love the colors, I love everything you've done.

Thank you! You are truly a goddess!!!

If you're in L.A. and need a part-time job, we're in dire need of help. PM or email me if you're interested.

Thanks!

Oh my God, how did I miss this? =(

Slythwitch and Shriekingviolet, thank you both for the incredible effort you've both made in making this forum possible! I feel terrible about the bandwidth load issue. I will be happy to host this on the BPAL site proper if it helps!

H'lo Kebechet -

 

Not to speak for Q'spice, but I imagine this kind of thing to be second nature to her.

 

I use Microsoft Excel to keep track of things in table format.  I know it's not the most sophisitcated way, but if you're not looking to do a lot of data manipulation then it's OK.

 

For instance, I would make headings at the top with name, date of birth, preferences - all of those things - then simply put all the info beneath (one line per person). That way, you could use the features of Excel to sort the data.  For example, you could find all the Cancers in your customer base.  Or, all the people who like Vanilla.

That's exactly what I need... something searchable. Plus, it's so important to me to know what comp imps I've already sent -- there's something embarassing about sending people duplicates. I feel... irresponsible or thoughtless when that happens.

I know this is a little like playing favorites, but I do want to red flag orders that come from people on this board, Lush and Bust.

Quantum [GODDESS!!!] has been so helpful in creating our search function, I'd HATE to bother her by asking her to slave over the site even more.

Edited because I'm experiencing a chocolate high that is impairing my typing.

Oh, I wish that I could remember how! I learned how to in business school, but hated it so much that I think I have blocked it from my memory. I know we used Microsoft's program for it, though.

 

Jenny 

I used Lotus for a long time, but that was eons ago, and my knowledge of Excel is sorely limited.

I'm having trouble keeping all of the info by hand now. :? I used to make 3x5 cards with everyone's info on it... likes, dislikes, what they've ordered, nicknames, astro info, etc... but I just can't keep up. Can anyone help me with creating a dbase? I'm an idjit when it comes to things like this.

I'm NOT a naturally organized and orderly person. Pisces with a Libra rising and an Aries moon, you know. 8)

I'd suggest Oberon.

=D

What does delphinium smell like?

 

Spicy? Sweet? Bitter?

 

Any ideas?

It's a light floral. The best comparison is a dry, sparklier lily note. =)

The descriptions of Ingenue and Vicomte were posted on Shiny & New as part of the November update but I don't think they were ever in the official categories.  Am I right?

I f*cked up. :? They should both be under Love Potions, but I somehow deleted them the first time 'round, and then didn't fix Ingenue this time.

I'm going to clear that up this afternoon. Thanks for pointing it out, guys!

Well, it's 2am, and the site update [Phase I] is finally finished. I still need to do a TON of things, but I haven't any more energy or brain-juice left with which to work.

And I'm out of cigarettes. :x

When I get up tomorrow, I'll post the changes and additions in detail.

Sleep happy, all!

Shennanigans. Love that word.

I've posted this in the LJ Community, I know, but I wanted to make sure that whenever something funky is afoot everyone knows the status of it.

There's something a little off about our email for the past few days. All emails that I send to clients with AOL mail addresses are bouncing back, and I'm having some trouble with both our outgoing and incoming mail. I'm working with our service provider to recitfy the problem as quickly as possible, but it seems the root of it is MyDoom.

If I had enough energy to make voodoo dolls for every single bastard that writes these viruses, believe me, I would.