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So there will be an email saying they’re coming AND one saying they’re stocked? Cause I’ve never gotten an email from a new product saying it is *in* the store, just saying roughly what time. They’re is no ‘let me know when this product is back in stock’ button.
I’m sorry to confuse – just an email announcement with the time we plan to put them in the store. The store does not generate one saying it’s in the way it does if you’ve pressed the Notify button on an out of stock item – this is a new item. The trouble is, if you get an email that says they’ll be in the store at 5 pm, I have to put them in there at that time – and if everyone is refreshing, the store could crash, and if the telephone rings, I have to answer that instead of putting them in, or a million other things could happen (like maybe I forget what time it is!) which could mean it goes into store a little after. This is not a perfect system. If I were to enter the item ahead of time and then you all press the “notify” button, you’d get an email when it’s in – HOWEVER – as soon as I enter the item and people see it in there, out of stock, my phone would ring off the hook with inquiries about why there was no announcement and had they already sold out… I’m pondering this….
Do you think ANY other company has this problem???
This is why amazon and others do pre-orders. Of course their items usually have production runs of 10’s or 100’s of thousands, not 50 to 75 at best (more like 15 or 20 lately ). Of course pre-ordering could let you know that you have to make 150 or so. Then you start billing the pre-orders (in the order received) when you have 100 finished and the rest in process. You have say two days to pay or you move to the back of the line. Heck, I’d travel up there to handle the billing as needed for free to make it work – stay for a few days to handle the crunch and then go back home until the next big new release. I know, we keep trying to figure out how to make pre-orders work for you. One of these days we’ll figure it out.
I’m sorry to confuse – just an email announcement with the time we plan to put them in the store. The store does not generate one saying it’s in the way it does if you’ve pressed the Notify button on an out of stock item – this is a new item. The trouble is, if you get an email that says they’ll be in the store at 5 pm, I have to put them in there at that time – and if everyone is refreshing, the store could crash, and if the telephone rings, I have to answer that instead of putting them in, or a million other things could happen (like maybe I forget what time it is!) which could mean it goes into store a little after. This is not a perfect system. If I were to enter the item ahead of time and then you all press the “notify” button, you’d get an email when it’s in – HOWEVER – as soon as I enter the item and people see it in there, out of stock, my phone would ring off the hook with inquiries about why there was no announcement and had they already sold out… I’m pondering this….
Do you think ANY other company has this problem???
No. 🙂
But I think if you put them in with the notify message–and with notice in the description itself, first line, (not the comments below) that says, “We expect these in the store today or tomorrow, please hit the notify button”, that should fix both issues. Anyone with any sense won’t be calling you at that point, they’ll be hitting “notify”. Plus, we’d get to see a pic of one with eye/jewel/globe color, and that might sway some people one way or another.
And you’d have some idea of whether or not to start casting /painting more of these right away. LOL
Honestly, I think that the “tell us what’s coming” list back fired in this case. 🙂 If we didn’t know there even WERE color-shift curlies, we’d all have an equal chance of jumping on them (and would have harassed you less).
Perhaps in the future, you could post a “coming soon” store entry a day or two a head of time, people who are interested could click the “notify when back in stock” button, and then only people who click would get notified after you stock?
I’m sorry to confuse – just an email announcement with the time we plan to put them in the store. The store does not generate one saying it’s in the way it does if you’ve pressed the Notify button on an out of stock item – this is a new item. The trouble is, if you get an email that says they’ll be in the store at 5 pm, I have to put them in there at that time – and if everyone is refreshing, the store could crash, and if the telephone rings, I have to answer that instead of putting them in, or a million other things could happen (like maybe I forget what time it is!) which could mean it goes into store a little after. This is not a perfect system. If I were to enter the item ahead of time and then you all press the “notify” button, you’d get an email when it’s in – HOWEVER – as soon as I enter the item and people see it in there, out of stock, my phone would ring off the hook with inquiries about why there was no announcement and had they already sold out… I’m pondering this….
Do you think ANY other company has this problem???
Here is an idea (maybe it will help?). Put the store photo with the “notify” button in ahead of time. BUT instead of having it say “sold out” have a message that says something like, this item is not for sale yet. *shrug* Dont know if that would help any or not. :bigsmile:
lol I dont type fast enough, looks like others had the same basic thought >.<
Poor Susie, you just can’t win around here! (Except that it IS a good problem to have)
I like the idea of setting up a sort of ‘presale’ slot in the store with the ‘notify when in stock’ button, if that will ease up on the crazy impatient refreshing horde (of which I am a guilty member!). 🙂
I like this idea to. It would be a great way to figure out how many people want a particular item, and insure that everyone who wanted said item could have a chance to get it without having to stalk the store. I also like the idea of the pre-order concept, but I imagine that has complications.
They will not be ready today, March 8th. Sorry to get you excited! I’m impatient for these to happen as well.
Meantime I’m considering your suggestions. We, as per today’s example, really HAVE NO IDEA before hand when an item is going to be ready. They aren’t ready until they pass inspection and hop into their boxes (and I expect a fat lady somewhere to sing when that happens) – it could look like it will happen in the morning, and then an inspector may discover something that needs to be changed and they are not ready at all.
I kind of like the idea of putting a new item into the store with a “Coming Soon, Notify when in stock” button. I will ask if that is possible. If we could even make the button a different color from the standard Notify when back in stock button to draw attention to the fact that the item hasn’t been issued yet, that would be neat.
I’m not trying to stress anyone or anything. Hopefully what I say here won’t get me nailed, because several times before my ‘ideas’ have backfired in my face severally by people thinking I’m hating on Windstone when that isn’t even close to the case. – Disclaimer aside.
I think a *smoother* way to do this is: – We *can* know what is *coming soon* – ‘n you can run a “Notify me” button to get an email out when they’re in stock. and we can get a heads up time without stressing anyone. Here’s how: (In my mind this works) –
A.) While items are getting ready for the shop, we get like what Melody did, a little preview a head of time – That was awesome! I knew to hold money back for a curly, I’d probably otherwise spent someplace else.
B.) Don’t give ETA’s when people ask. Instead, tell them to sign up for an email that tells us when they’re about to be released (Sort of like now, but slightly different, explained below) – You and Melody no longer are feeling pressured about time.
C.) Wait till the items are *all done* ‘n ready to go in the shop. (This eliminates the “they’re not done yet!” chaos that stresses everyone involved ***Susie isn’t dealing with us whining, drag0n isn’t stalking the site for hours a day, for days on end, Moonbeam isn’t losing sleep, I’m not wondering if I need to push back the time to meet a friend I haven’t seen in 6months)
D.) *Then* put up a store page for them – For the item description “Theses have not been released, they will be released on day XX between XX:XX time and XX:XX time (ie. Between 3pm PST and 7pm PST), click the notify me button below to be notified when they are in stock” –
**Now we know on day XX at such n such times, to stalk our emails, not the Windstone page! We’re stressing Yahoo, Gmail etc not Windstone.. Page is less likely to crash, you have time to change the item description/stock the new item 🙂 and a “between times” tells us when in the day we’re totally free, but doesn’t give an exact time that you have to stick to in case you get a phone call 🙂The problems cured?
*We can still know what is coming, to plan for them!
*ETA stress is gone for Windstone employees.
*We would know *when* they’re going in the shop, cause they’re already done! (Poor Chessie can be sick without throwing everyone’s world all out of whack)
*We get a heads up email to look for the “notify me” in the shop (With a couple days to actually go do it).
*We know what day, and time of day to be close to our computers! SO much freedom!
*With a notify when in stock email, and between XX:XX time and XX:XX time. We’re a lot less likely to crash the page.This whole plan works for restocks as well! – You send the email reminder “This item will be restocking on XX day, if you haven’t yet, go click the notify me button” (Send the email the two days, or whatever comfy time Windstone wants it to be. Don’t send anything till the items are all done)- Change the item description, at the *very top* so it stands apart “A restock of this item will be made of XX day between XX:XX and XX:XX. Click the notify me button to be notified when this item is back in stock”
To *me* this sounds like a little bit of work to get a lot more organization on *all ends* and reduce the stress greatly on *all* ends. This *may* prove to be less work, given Susie doesn’t have to come on here every day and answer our (lets face it, slightly demanding) questions.
Hopefully no one read the first post of this. I had one totally differently phrased idea, then this whole thing hit me and I didn’t delete the original for some reason XD the original, unfinished blabber was at the end x.x lol!
‘n Susie, least you’re not working in ticket sales (Major league sports, concert.. any big even ticket sales.) – You’re also not dealing with Black fridays… or those releases people line up for days for… I remember when Beanie Babies brought far more chaos than a Windstone release… ‘n non of those customers are going to be as easy to deal with
Thank you for the info, Susie!!
And I really like Kaytanas idea to wait with the notification mail until they are packed and ready and then give and ETA for the next day or next day after, so people know when to look out for them. I think this would relax everyone a great deal 🙂
Yes, thanks tons for the info Susie! It really helps to have these updates so I don’t have to bribe family members to haunt the store for me when it’s work time. So a BIG Thank You for taking the time to let us crazy, rabid Windstone maniacs know the newest release information. :bigsmile:
Not today 🙁 . But I was going to be home today….*pouts*…
Oh well, it’s good to know just so I can stop stalking the store and go do something more productive *lol*. Thanks a ton for putting up with us crazy-folk Susie!Not today 🙁 . But I was going to be home today….*pouts*…
Oh well, it’s good to know just so I can stop stalking the store and go do something more productive *lol*. Thanks a ton for putting up with us crazy-folk Susie!It’ll be a miracle if I get one too, so at least you’re not alone in this boat! lol
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