Maximizing Savings with Order Combining: My Experience with Friends

[cincychef]

I just have to get this off my chest, it has really been bugging me all day. I did a show last night for a friend. I always find those shows much harder than the ones for people I don't know. Anyway, I knew everyone at the show, and we had 8 people, I had collected 3 outside orders ahead so I thought great she will get the towels for free! Well... 3 people combined on one order and another 2 combined so with 8 people we only got 5 orders. I told them that she would loose the towels and that their warrenties might not be easily tracked and they did it anyway. I know it is not a big deal but it really bothered me. I guess because I know them and we are all supposed to be friends. I have avoided order combining with people I don't know but not with ones I do. Thanks for listening!

 

[DebbieSAChef]

I know how you feel, some of my friends are always asking if I can tag their order onto someone else's bigger order to save them on shipping.

I tell them that it's really not fair that someone else pays their shipping for them so I usually just split up the shipping between those combining orders. They usually agree and pay their share. But come on $4! That's cheaper than parcel post or priority mail at the post office. I really try to stress that, there is hardly nothing you can buy on eBay with that low of shipping! It's a great deal! Some listen, some don't care.

It's hard when people feel they HAVE to purchase something and then try to be as cheap as possible because they bought a $10 item. And I know these people can afford it. Oh well, I don't worry about it anymore, I just usually let them know they won't be getting a receipt, it goes to the person who ordered the most stuff.
You did everything right! And it's easier to convince those we don't know about this, instead of people we know.

Debbie

 

[jrstephens]

When my customers want to combine orders, I tell them that is their choice but THEY will be responsible for keeping track for warranty purposes. I make it CLEAR even with friends that I do NOT keep track.

And I HIGHLY discourage it if they are ordering something with more than a year warranty. Normally when I do that, people agree with me and just combine on things like cookbooks and spices and twixits - things that the warranty really does not matter.

 

[christinaspc]

You know I totally relate to you about this I only do this for elderly women who may order something small that it just seems stupid or I just pay 1.2 of the shipping but I don't like combining orders either cause of the warranty and such and then it just seems like more extra work for the hostess as well. I am finding our shipping isn't that really bad at all and yet there is a few in every bunch that have to pitch a fit about it.

 

[jrstephens]

I should add too that I rarely have people comlain about the shipping costs. Most of my combined orders are when several people in one office order the spices a lot.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Okay - just have to add to your vent, because this has caused such a headache for me lately!

This all stems from a catalog show from NOV. where there were 2-3 people on each order!

One person got a mini muffin pan, said it was defective, and wanted it exchanged. She technically hadn't placed an order, because it was in someone else's name. But I did the exchange under the other persons name anyway. HO didn't require a return on the first "defective" pan. (remember this fact, because it gets important later in the story!)

She got the 2nd pan - said that one was defective too..turns out, neither pan is defective, she just doesn't like the indentations between the cups of the pan. She now wants her money back. BUT - she doesn't even have an ordered placed.......and it is now after th 30 day warranty period.

So, at this point I give the 800# and let her know she can return her pan and arrange for $ back....but, since I have no record of purchase or any of her personal info, it's now between her and PC. A couple of weeks later, I see that there is a reference # on my shipping tracker for an adjustment, so figure it has been taken care of. (this is in January)

Fast forward to the end of May, when I get a nasty email from the host of the show saying that the guest still hasn't gotten her money...and that PC says that she has to return the pan in order to get her money back....but that I had told her she could keep the pan. So, it was poor customer service and PC had horrible policies because they were told one thing by me, and something else by PC. WHAT???? This all goes back to when I thought the first one defective, and PC said it didn't have to be returned....so now - the "customer" had 2 perfectly good pans, has not paid shipping on either one, and wants to keep them - but wants the full purchase price back. IS THAT NOT INSANE???

So I try to explain to the host that PC cannot issue a check for a pan that is perfectly fine, and still in the hands of the customer...and that yes, she will have to return it in order to get a refund. (and technically, should return both...but I didn't say that.)

Well....a couple of weeks go by, and I get a call from HO that a complaint has been called in by a customer about me! The customer called and complained that I made her handle the return herself!

Thankfully, when I explained the situation to the Rep. I talked to, she laughed! And agreed that I had done nothing wrong!

All of this started from someone combining orders.:grumpy:

 

[janetupnorth]

Okay - just have to add to your vent, because this has caused such a headache for me lately!

This all stems from a catalog show from NOV. where there were 2-3 people on each order!

One person got a mini muffin pan, said it was defective, and wanted it exchanged. She technically hadn't placed an order, because it was in someone else's name. But I did the exchange under the other persons name anyway. HO didn't require a return on the first "defective" pan. (remember this fact, because it gets important later in the story!)

She got the 2nd pan - said that one was defective too..turns out, neither pan is defective, she just doesn't like the indentations between the cups of the pan. She now wants her money back. BUT - she doesn't even have an ordered placed.......and it is now after th 30 day warranty period.

So, at this point I give the 800# and let her know she can return her pan and arrange for $ back....but, since I have no record of purchase or any of her personal info, it's now between her and PC. A couple of weeks later, I see that there is a reference # on my shipping tracker for an adjustment, so figure it has been taken care of. (this is in January)

Fast forward to the end of May, when I get a nasty email from the host of the show saying that the guest still hasn't gotten her money...and that PC says that she has to return the pan in order to get her money back....but that I had told her she could keep the pan. So, it was poor customer service and PC had horrible policies because they were told one thing by me, and something else by PC. WHAT???? This all goes back to when I thought the first one defective, and PC said it didn't have to be returned....so now - the "customer" had 2 perfectly good pans, has not paid shipping on either one, and wants to keep them - but wants the full purchase price back. IS THAT NOT INSANE???

So I try to explain to the host that PC cannot issue a check for a pan that is perfectly fine, and still in the hands of the customer...and that yes, she will have to return it in order to get a refund. (and technically, should return both...but I didn't say that.)

Well....a couple of weeks go by, and I get a call from HO that a complaint has been called in by a customer about me! The customer called and complained that I made her handle the return herself!

Thankfully, when I explained the situation to the Rep. I talked to, she laughed! And agreed that I had done nothing wrong!

All of this started from someone combining orders.:grumpy:

WHOA Becky - glad HO always understands that the customers are usually the sneaky crazy ones!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

WHOA Becky - glad HO always understands that the customers are usually the sneaky crazy ones!

It was pretty easy for her to understand, since when she looked up the show - the person wasn't even listed as a guest...and she had a record of what I had already done as far as adjustments etc....

I was flabbergasted that she thought she could just keep both pans, and still get her money back!

 

[mpkegley]

It was pretty easy for her to understand, since when she looked up the show - the person wasn't even listed as a guest...and she had a record of what I had already done as far as adjustments etc....

I was flabbergasted that she thought she could just keep both pans, and still get her money back!

All I can say, OMG!!!!! The nerve of some people - I can't believe that she thought that she could keep both pans and get her money back.