maewitch

 

 

 

I have never had to pay fees (I get everything sent to my home address) even when I make a Lab order large enough to get free shipping. Now I'm worried, have I just been lucky? I have made numerous large order from the Trading Post as well, no fees there either. I did notice that the Trading Post is NOT using DHL now the way the Lab is.

 

I'm quoting myself because right after I said this, we were charged customs fees on a large combined order! I jinxed us. It was only $19, which I hear is pretty low compared to the size of the order, but still, it had never happened before and I was shocked.

 

 

Was it on an order shipped with DHL? Based on past experience (my mom orders fabric wholesale from the US), orders shipped courier (UPS/DHL/Fedex/etc) are much more likely to be hit with customs fees than orders shipped USPS. UPS especially also likes to charge a $35 brokerage fee on top of the customs charge (I think Canada Post charges a $5 fee). I wasn't very happy to hear that recent orders were being sent DHL because of this.

 

 

I didn't know this at first. I actually WAS happy to see the Lab using DHL because it's so much faster and easier to predict when it'll get here. I've had two orders come through DHL now, both were over $300. First one, no fees, second one, fees. Hope it was a fluke and it won't happen most of the time!

 

Technically the bulk of the fees is taxes, which is...meh, but since there's tax on pretty much everything I've just kind of mentally accepted it as the norm, and look at those times I don't get charged as the fluke.

From what Beth posted in the Yules Out Of Stock thread, the Lab staff is burning the candle at both ends and working into the wee hours of the night to get through the holiday crunch - which includes the CS, which is basically one person. I imagine if they can fix the issue they'll go ahead and do that ASAP, and then get back to people as quickly as they can for other issues. (I had a question that ended up taking about a week to answer back, but it DID get answered.)

Hey! It would be best to contact the Lab's customer service, since they can help you directly in regards to your order, and follow up with USPS if need be.

EDIT: For what it's worth, the holiday season does put extra pressure on the post, so if a package is going to go awol, it's likely to be now. I actually just had a Sephora order get lost in the system, but after a week I filled out the online form at CanadaPost, and they located it within a couple of days, and hand-delivered it on Sunday. (!!!) If you have a way of filing a claim with the UK postal system (especially since you have a tracking number) I would encourage you to do so as well. Hope your package finds its way to you soon!

Double posting, but wanted to add this picture of the inventory tracking function, which is a great way of maintaining records of what you've sold/swapped, and with whom (you could an attribute in each action category for notes, so have a private feedback system for yourself regarding swappees).

I was really intrigued by the Memento app, but as I don't have an Android I went looking for something similar in the iTunes store and found MyStuff2. It's a home inventory/collection app, and really customizable. It needs a little fiddling, but I'm digging it so far. (The Lite version is free but only holds 15 items, enough to test out whether you like it, otherwise it's 4.99$.)

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/mystuff2-lite-home-inventory/id354737165?mt=8

This is a series of screenshots of my phone going through the main page with categories, the scents within the category, and then the individual scent page.

EDIT: I'm really enjoying this app! I forked over the 5$ after playing around with it. I love how it can be customized - because it's an inventory tracker, you can easily edit/add actions like swapped or sold, it's searchable, and sortable by a variety of options (including year, for example, if you add that as an attribute). You can even add pictures! Love, love, love!

We are tweaking the ISO/Sales rules in regards to special event collections, such as Comic Con and Bat's Day exclusives. Knowing how difficult it is for most people to acquire these scents directly from the Lab, we have opted to make things a little easier if you wish to make arrangements via the forum.

1) You can post an ISO for a fairy after the Lab has made an official announcement on this forum, listing what they will be vending. You will not need to wait for prices to be listed if you wish to make early arrangements, but be aware that prices for event exclusives can vary from year to year and event to event. Any money you advance is at your own risk.

2) You can post a group order once the Lab has confirmed the pricing. The price caps and all other rules pertaining to group orders are still in effect.

3) Decant circles are still not be allowed, for the same reasons we do not permit them for all time-limited series - if you like your decant, there is no way to order to full bottle from the Lab before the end of the series.

Note that the Lab may run out of an item before the person making the purchase for you can acquire it. As always, exercise caution when making arrangements for custom purchases.

Since there have been a spate of ISOs for Bat's Day exclusives, this reminder might be due: we do not allow for pre-sales of items, be it via custom pick-ups, group orders or decant circles. This means that the item must be "live", and available for purchase, with a price attached, before any sale or swapping activity can occur.

Please feel free to contact Silvertree or Maewitch if you have any questions or are unsure about your ISO/Sale/Swap post.

The lab does sometimes release Resurrected blends, but that has become more difficult in the last few years. Most of the time a blend is discontinued because of a component sourcing issue. In those cases, the likelihood of a blend coming back is much lower.

In the case of Storyville, I wouldn't bank on it coming back, as only a small batch was created in a singular moment of inspiration.

Rogue is my man's daily scent. The leather isn't too heavy, and it basically smells the way his skin does when he takes off his motorcycle layers. Sexy.

I've gotten all the packages that were stuck in warehouses somewhere due to the lock-out, and I just got my Lab order that I placed after the post re-opened. My local posties say that the processing is pretty much back to normal now, but they're still not honoring guaranteed delivery dates yet, just in case.

There are a couple of threads that are good for this sort of information, and I think your post is going to get moved there shortly.

The thread here is for international order type info/questions: http://www.bpal.org/topic/6439-international-shipping-infoquestions/page__pid__1980982__st__350#entry1980982

And one here for general order questions: http://www.bpal.org/topic/20048-where-is-my-order-what-is-click-n-ship-whats-the-deal-with-ccnows-order-status/page__st__525

Just an FYI that the USPS has temporarily stopped accepting shipments to Canada, until the Canada Post lockout is resolved. (The Tories will be introducing and debating back-to-work legislation on Monday, but the NDP and the Liberals are going to fight them on it. The NDP is threatening to filibuster, in order to delay passing it until after their summer break. Which would suck on so many levels.)

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/postal+service+shuts+door+mail+Canada/4967912/story.html

I think that would probably not be wise for anything other than a t-shirt. They tear a little too easily, and since the perfumes are so small, all it takes is one corner going dodgy and you're out part of your order.

Contact their customer service.

answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com

I wouldn't panic yet. The first page on the site indicates that orders take in excess of 14-21 business days to process. If you ordered on the 13th or 14th of May (Friday or Saturday), that's 17 business days.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but here goes.On USPS's Track and Confirm page, does the status of your package actually change? Mine has been Electronic Shipping Info Received since I got my CNS on May 14. Does this ever change to something like Shipped or Delivered, or is that it?If it makes a difference, I'm in Canada.

It's normal for the small flat-rate international boxes, since USPS doesn't actually offer tracking on those. All you'll get is confirmation that they were submitted to USPS from the Lab's end, but the USPS site won't have any further info available.If you ever order a lot or from the Trading Post, they will usually ship with the medium or even large flat-rate boxes, and for those you will have tracking info that will be updated, which you can follow either through USPS or Canada Post. Hope that helps!

Ya, it's definitely not unusual to have delivery take anywhere for a few days to 3 weeks or so. It depends on how close you are to a distribution center (if things need to get out to you by truck, it adds a few days) and how annoying Customs decides to be. Usually I get mine within 5-6 business days, but I've had it take over 2 weeks at times.

I haven't ordered directly from BPAL before recently and haven't gotten my CnS for my first order yet, so I don't know if they give you a customs number or anything, but if they do, you might be able to put it into Canada Post's tracking system just to see if it's cleared customs yet.

If you receive a CnS, it will have a tracking number. However, if it's a Small Priority Flat-Rate (which the orders you pay 12$ in shipping are), it won't actually allow you to track anything - the system just logs that they received the info, nothing at all beyond that. If it's a larger package, it will have tracking that you can follow, including when it clears customs.

See my post a little bit above.

That's a great breakdown!

There's no rhyme or reason to their package selection. I've crossed the border after a few hours in the states and declared 100$ in purchases, and the guy just waved me through. Then I've gotten packages valued at 60$ and have been charged. It's all very esoteric. I suspect they use a magic 8 ball.

It's normal for the small flat-rate international boxes, since USPS doesn't actually offer tracking on those. All you'll get is confirmation that they were submitted to USPS from the Lab's end, but the USPS site won't have any further info available.

If you ever order a lot or from the Trading Post, they will usually ship with the medium or even large flat-rate boxes, and for those you will have tracking info, which you can follow either through USPS or Canada Post.

Hope that helps!

Oooh, a look at the Sugar Plum Fairy, Kingdom of Sweets and Valse Finale labels from the Nutcracker part 3: http://aliciadabney.blogspot.com/

Aww, that's adorable!

Anyone have pics of the BPTP Inquistion labels?

The inquisition sets, as well as some of the Halloween stuff!

Weird forum hiccup.

Is anyone from Canada waiting an abnormally long time for their package?

 

I ordered on the 6th of March and recieved my CnS on the 19th and my package still isn't here on the south-west coast of BC none of my packages have ever taken this long before and it's now outside the 6-10 business days USPS states that my package should arrive. When should I start getting alarmed - I guess I am just particularly antsy about this package because it has goodies for other people in it as well

Did it ever get to you? Customs processing can be really slow. I've had the odd package take two weeks from CnS to door, when it usually takes 5 business days.

Weighing on the old vs new - I also much prefer the new labels. The old version was nice, but I find the new ones are gorgeous. They really look like old-timey apothecary bottles, and I love the border and the lettering. Plus, as was already mentioned, the sepia tones really fit the amber bottles, much more so that the black-on-white of the old labels.

A pic for comparison value: