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As many of you know, I make chainmail and polymer clay jewelry. I am an independent artist and I sell at local art/craft shows, anime conventions, and sometimes online. I have a number of other artist/crafter friends who I have made through vending and such.
This story is about one such crafter who I will call "M." M makes handmade soaps, bath salts, etc. I haven't personally used her products, but several of my other artist friends have and have said it's wonderful. So, I decided to get a bunch of M's soap for my female friends and relatives for Christmas. One thing to note is that M lives in the same city as I do, a bonus as I thought I wouldn't have to pay shipping to get the soaps to me.
I find some of M's business practices a little...untasteful. Here are a few things I have encountered and discovered while dealing with her.
When I originally contacted her about getting some soap, I told her I would want about 10 bars, possibly more. She said fine, no problem, they are $x.xx each but that does not include tax. Okay, I understand having to add on tax separately. Personally I do not; if a piece is marked at $10, that's with tax included. Yes, I don't get to keep the whole $10 but it's a lot easier than asking a customer for $10.85 (approx. what it would be with tax.) On bigger ticket items that I want $30 for, I might charge $32 or $33 to help cover tax. Rounding up to an even dollar amount and then saying "tax included" is much easier, especially when vending in person, than asking customers for change and/or having to provide change (I never bring coins with me when I do shows.)
Anyway, I then decided I wanted a dozen bars of soap instead of 10 so I asked her if that would be possible. She said sure, and now I qualify for 10% off since I'm getting a dozen bars of soap! Okay...that would have been nice to know in the first place. Even if I only had 10 people to give soap to, I would have still gone with a dozen bars to get the 10% off, if she'd told me. Good thing I decided on my own to order more.
Since she lives in town, and not that far away from me, I asked her if she wanted to meet somewhere to drop the soap off. Yes, she said, that sounds great, but I'm going to have to charge you $5 for gas. Really? If I had a local customer, I would never charge gas money...especially on a large ticket order (it's going to be over $75 total.) I'm sure shipping 12 bars of soap is still more than $5 but I still found that a little strange.
Lastly, I asked her if I could pay with paypal. I have a checking account but no physical checks (I use a debit card) and the cash I have on hand is all in my lockbox, which I use as starting change when I vend. So, paypal is by far the easiest for me. Her response was, "I guess that's okay, but I would really prefer cash or a check so I don't have to pay the paypal fees."
Okay, I really think she is treating me like a fellow artist and not a customer now. "Hey, you know gas is kinda expensive so you don't mind paying extra for that, right, and really you should know paypal charges fees and I don't want to pay those if I don't have to so just bring me cash or a check instead, you know how it goes." This is the impression I've been getting from her through our conversations, and frankly I'm a little insulted. Yes, I am an artist, and yes, I understand completely everything she is getting at, but right now I am her customer. And if she treats all her customers this way...charging gas money for local orders (who are willing to go halfway for pickups) and demanding one form of payment when the customer has already requested a different one...then I will not be surprised if she doesn't make it as a crafter.
Am I too nice to my customers for NOT demanding these things? Am I being sucky for not being happy with her standards? I haven't said anything to her and I'm not going to, and I am going to still go through with the order, but I probably won't get anything from her again in the future. My opinion is that just because I am an artist, doesn't mean she shouldn't treat me like a regular customer.
This story is about one such crafter who I will call "M." M makes handmade soaps, bath salts, etc. I haven't personally used her products, but several of my other artist friends have and have said it's wonderful. So, I decided to get a bunch of M's soap for my female friends and relatives for Christmas. One thing to note is that M lives in the same city as I do, a bonus as I thought I wouldn't have to pay shipping to get the soaps to me.
I find some of M's business practices a little...untasteful. Here are a few things I have encountered and discovered while dealing with her.
When I originally contacted her about getting some soap, I told her I would want about 10 bars, possibly more. She said fine, no problem, they are $x.xx each but that does not include tax. Okay, I understand having to add on tax separately. Personally I do not; if a piece is marked at $10, that's with tax included. Yes, I don't get to keep the whole $10 but it's a lot easier than asking a customer for $10.85 (approx. what it would be with tax.) On bigger ticket items that I want $30 for, I might charge $32 or $33 to help cover tax. Rounding up to an even dollar amount and then saying "tax included" is much easier, especially when vending in person, than asking customers for change and/or having to provide change (I never bring coins with me when I do shows.)
Anyway, I then decided I wanted a dozen bars of soap instead of 10 so I asked her if that would be possible. She said sure, and now I qualify for 10% off since I'm getting a dozen bars of soap! Okay...that would have been nice to know in the first place. Even if I only had 10 people to give soap to, I would have still gone with a dozen bars to get the 10% off, if she'd told me. Good thing I decided on my own to order more.
Since she lives in town, and not that far away from me, I asked her if she wanted to meet somewhere to drop the soap off. Yes, she said, that sounds great, but I'm going to have to charge you $5 for gas. Really? If I had a local customer, I would never charge gas money...especially on a large ticket order (it's going to be over $75 total.) I'm sure shipping 12 bars of soap is still more than $5 but I still found that a little strange.
Lastly, I asked her if I could pay with paypal. I have a checking account but no physical checks (I use a debit card) and the cash I have on hand is all in my lockbox, which I use as starting change when I vend. So, paypal is by far the easiest for me. Her response was, "I guess that's okay, but I would really prefer cash or a check so I don't have to pay the paypal fees."
Okay, I really think she is treating me like a fellow artist and not a customer now. "Hey, you know gas is kinda expensive so you don't mind paying extra for that, right, and really you should know paypal charges fees and I don't want to pay those if I don't have to so just bring me cash or a check instead, you know how it goes." This is the impression I've been getting from her through our conversations, and frankly I'm a little insulted. Yes, I am an artist, and yes, I understand completely everything she is getting at, but right now I am her customer. And if she treats all her customers this way...charging gas money for local orders (who are willing to go halfway for pickups) and demanding one form of payment when the customer has already requested a different one...then I will not be surprised if she doesn't make it as a crafter.
Am I too nice to my customers for NOT demanding these things? Am I being sucky for not being happy with her standards? I haven't said anything to her and I'm not going to, and I am going to still go through with the order, but I probably won't get anything from her again in the future. My opinion is that just because I am an artist, doesn't mean she shouldn't treat me like a regular customer.
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