Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Pharmville on October 30, 2011, 12:13 am
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Hi Everybody,
I'm working very hard to get through all the pm's and we're getting some additional help and updates that will relieve a LOT of the pressure after the 10th of Nov. So there's only several days left that I have to do all of this more or less by myself.
But someone sent me this message today after placing an order about 18 hours earlier. BTW, this person has one previous order, and it was with us:
"Just placed this order yesterday and nothing happened. Please finish up my order whenever you get the time.
Roxicodone (oxycodone) 30mg 1pc
Roxicodone (oxycodone) 30mg 1pc
Xanax 2mg (Alprazolam) 10 pc pack $4.00/ea
USPS Priority Mail shipping (Pharmville) "
I was polite in my reply. I canceled the order and offered the person the opportunity to order again and pls just give us a chance to ship it out before sending a pm like the one above. I explained that we only ship Express orders on Sat. anyway because all other mail will just sit at the Post Office waiting to be discovered until Monday anyway. This was especially frustrating after I just posted about this a couple of days ago. AND...I almost wasn't polite.
TO SR-we simply have to have a way to get new people to read at least some of this forum before they order so they don't drive the vendors crazy. Why not make it a requirement that they have to register here FIRST and then they can sign up for the marketplace? At least that way they'd have to lay eyes on this place and the smart ones would do more than that and learn a lot before ordering. It would save them money too because they wouldn't get scammed nearly so often. Just IMHO. But please... :)
thanks,
Alex
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TO SR-we simply have to have a way to get new people to read at least some of this forum before they order so they don't drive the vendors crazy. Why not make it a requirement that they have to register here FIRST and then they can sign up for the marketplace? At least that way they'd have to lay eyes on this place and the smart ones would do more than that and learn a lot before ordering. It would save them money too because they wouldn't get scammed nearly so often. Just IMHO. But please... :)
thanks,
Alex
Excellent idea. To gain access to the marketplace you must first sign in to the forums where you must spend at least one week or 5 or so hours of forum time. At the end of that period you take a quick quiz that covers some of the most basic of forum questions. Basically the answers to the FAQ which will hopefully be appearing soon.
I strongly empathize with all the honest sellers here because I can only imagine the hours some of you have to put in plus all the absolutely ridiculous questions / statements you get bombarded with on a daily basis making your long days even longer.
So, SR members. Remember you are paying a premium for the time and effort put in by the sellers. Not to mention the hard work put in by the site creator and the mods that run the forums. If you can't wait 24 hrs before you start jumping out of your skin, by all means head out on to the streets to get your gear. But please have a little patience and remember this is not Amazon or Ebay or Overstock, it's the Silk Road. It has its limitations but in my mind is a million times better than any of the previously mentioned sites.
P.S.
Please use the search function. IMHO it is the single most useful tool here.
PPS.
Everybody be safe and have fun this weekend!
PPPS.
Stay classy Pharmville :)
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I agree with Pharmville as well... that buyer is probably going to be pissed their order was canceled but they deserve it. Had they looked at the forum there is clearly a thread specifically about not wasting Pharmville's time asking if they are going to ship from only a couple days ago... The person who ordered should have educated themselves as much as possible before even ordering, which they obviously did not or else they would have know there was no need to even question whether their order would be shipping... Maybe they are just feigning and impatient but 18 hours is a little ridiculous. I myself had been waiting on Paperchasing for 4 days, but saw a thread apologizing that he was backed up from the down time, and I was thankful I hadn't messaged hassling him about whether my order would ship... His reputation on the forum spoke for itself, which is why I ordered from him in the first place.
There was another idea on a thread I support too... which is that the registration link for SR should be in a thread... maybe even inconspicuous. This way new people will have to at least look through or search the forum to get an idea of the basics before they are able to register. I cannot understand why someone would not become accustomed with the forum on their own since it is such a valuable resource and enables SR to function as well as it does.
PHARMVILLE ROCKS!!! THANK YOU for all the hard work you guys do and sorry people hassle you so much!
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uuuugghhghhg YES this is a problem.... I was spending almost the entire day just PM'ing people back "yeh, im on it" and not getting much actual packing and shipping done. At some point I had to just STOP writing people back and START vac-packing and shipping orders out! Some people got upset because they thought I was just ignoring them... some people were very cool about it and stayed chill. I cancelled orders too from people who were just not very polite and wanted to scream as well lol... I think its just a lack of understanding that I am but ONE person and I can *EITHER* answer your PM *OR* I can pack your order, ya know?
@MicroRNA Yes, thank you very much I really appreciate the understanding and consideration. Normally I'm spot on for no more than 24 hour turnaround (excluding weekends and holidays lol) but this last week or so has been a mess!!
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A lot of buyers don't understand how much time it takes to be a good seller. Packing and shipping are more important than answering messages. Impatient buyers will get angry, but the rest will understand. I read the reviews to find out how long shipping normally takes so I know when to worry and start messaging.
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this guy is a smart vendor and i support his idea
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@Paperchasing....
Sorry for cancelling my order I did not real eyes you were having problems (bogged down) and I did wait the appropriate number of days to cancel...still would like to do business with you in the future...
Apologies!
1millionways
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My sympathies to you Pharmville, some people are not aware what it takes to run such a tight ship.
When the basics are posted on the Wiki, we must make it explicit that common etiquette is to wait at least a week.
Lovin' you my hard working fellows.
Peace,
DigitalAlch
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I am myself glad that I read this and completely agree that we can all be a little pushy and impatient at times!
We need to real eyes that we have an amazing gift here and these true amazing stand up sellers have to take their time to make sure everything stays ninja so that the gifts still keep coming.
We should all take a breath after we place an order and just sit back and wait a week before doing anything....even impatiently messaging these hard working peeps!
Anyways to all sellers out there if you here me (or if you get an order from me)....KNOW THAT 1millionways appreciates you and thanks you for all that you do and that I will be a patient little person and sit and wait for the gifts!
Love All on SR (besides the scammers....oh wait still love them too...just wish they would change their evil ways! lol)
1millionways to make a smile....choose one!
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I'll wait a week before messaging maybe longer if there are holidays or the site is down a lot. IP and TT took about 2 weeks to deliver, but I expected that after reading their reviews. The letters only took 2 or 3 days to get here after they were mailed, but at least a week to get put in the mail.
Did a lot of vendors go on vacation? There are a lot less listings than there were earlier in some categories.
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When the basics are posted on the Wiki, we must make it explicit that common etiquette is to wait at least a week.
O.K., if we're going to make it common etiquette is to wait at least a week then the Silk Road ordering timelines need to be changed. As it is now, once you place an order it can only stay in the "processing" step for about three days. After the "processing" period has elapsed then the buyer has the option of canceling the order.
I PM'd a seller recently about the status of my order. Not because I was impatient to get my stuff but because it was still in the "processing" step after a few days. I could see that in a few hours I would have the option to cancel the order and get my coins back. If the order had already been shipped (and based on the speediness of this vendor I guessed it already had been) then I'd have the chance to get my order for free. :-[
So what I'm sayin' is that under the current SR system sellers have to watch the SR ordering system or they can possibly lose money. This kind of thing could happen if they get too bogged down with the business of packing and mailing.
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There's so many vendors here that go WAY out of their way to offer services most could not get elsewhere. Do your research, if you feel based on your sense of judgement and logic you can trust a vendor here, you should be able to give him the courtesy to be able to handle the order without constantly asking for updates. Systems such as this aren't always 100% full proof and if that's how you think it is, maybe this place isn't for you. Things can happen, give your vendor a chance to sort things out and if a lot of time has passed it's OK to drop a line to check in just be reasonable about it and don't act like you are owed the world heh.
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Thanks to everyone for their comments. It's nice to see rational minds speaking about rational issues and concerns.
As far as the SR system goes, the 3-4 days before you can cancel is actually quite a reasonable thing and about right as far as I'm concerned.
If you're a one person operation, don't put up too many listings or you will get swamped. But the 4 days to cancel translates into about one week from order date to delivery date and that seems quite reasonable to me as a basic standard.
I've had situations where I've shipped an order that was late and then the order got canceled before I got to mark it "in transit". Thankfully, every single person has paid, even paid in full and not given me a hassle about it so I want to say that as far as Ben & I are concerned the SILK ROAD BUYERS ROCK TOO!!! And everyone gets a "freebie" on being a butthead once in a while anyway. We all know (or at least a lot of us do) what it feels like to be *needing* those opies or those benzos and it's hard to control the urge to say "are they here yet?" 5,000 times an hour.
And we have the absolutely stunning example of Mr. Oxyhoot who pulled a big bad one on this forum on me one day but is now a good customer and a perfectly reasonable fellow. So, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that just because somebody does something really stupid once that they'll continue like that forever, they may just have had one bad moment or day and that will be that and they'll be on here the next 5 years and no one will have a reason to complain about them at all. Ditto for vendors; this bus drives both ways on the same street. :) I can honestly say that Oxyhoot has not only been a good customer but he is truly grateful for getting a second chance and behaves like it. He is now actually a shining example of how to go from being a newb to a regular buyer and only having one bad day. I know I pulled some REAL bullshit moves on vendors when I was a newbie buyer in the dinosaur ages and probably drove them crazy so I have a real tolerance and understanding and empathy for it. My true purpose in posting here in general is either 1. to inform about basic Pharmville status on things or 2. to plead for buyer education so we can have a nice, smooth running Silk Road.
After my post about the pm's they HAVE slowed down, probably as much as 40%, which means when I get my help on 11/7 we can get right back to giving truly quick turnaround time on pm's (we haven't stopped shipping most everything in 24 hours, that one we've managed to keep pretty tight). And when I have a good buyer that orders Express and 3 times in a row it doesn't go Express that day, I'm going to do something to make that right, it's not ok and it shouldn't be ok for a vendor to just say they're too busy. We asked for the business, so it's up to us to take care of it. The thing a larger vendor needs the buyers to understand is that expansion is difficult because it's not like you can advertise on Craigslist for helpers. They have to be VERY thoroughly screened or somebody spends years in prison. So we expand as best we can WITHOUT breaking security and if it gets to where we can't do the job right then we'll stop selling so many items or not list them all the time but what we won't do is just let it get out of control and not do anything about it.
Much love to the SR community. This is actually a truly great place to be and I think we all know it even at the times when we might be bitching about it. To any person who's been around a long time: you only have to think "what if Alex Marlin owned Silk Road?" to imagine what a nightmare this place could be. There are constant refinements and improvements going on here and when you think about the fact that it's really only been 6 months it's been open? Wow, it's pretty fucking amazing. :) have a great Halloween everybody! -Alex & Ben-
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It's just all so new, and we're all learning how to act. There really is no template, and it's easy to get jumpy, think you've been ignored, or worse, ripped off. It's nice to see this site survive, and the buyers and sellers both, learn that we're all in this together, and want the best for each other.
The best thing for new buyers is just to get over to the forums, and ask questions, read up a bit. Feedback on main site can be useless, now that rip artists have learned how to stack up bullshit.
But it's important that those of us who have been around a while, help out the new members, let them know how things work...
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@1millionways: I saw your order and noted it disappearing... thanks for just making a command decision instead of jamming me up with PM's! If youll note in your next order in the shipping area that you got screwed over by the delays during the week after the outage Ill put a little something extra in your next order! No need to apologize for your actions, really. Its me that needs to apologize to you for the delay!
@pharmville: "If you're a one person operation, don't put up too many listings or you will get swamped. " Swamped is an understatement lol... and the site was jammed up and only available intermittently for access to my order page... i had to work for 3 days with no sleep to get remotely caught up... here's to a special shout out to adderall and cocaine for expediting folks orders!!! lol...
@phubaiblues: yes I agree, site feedback is easily manipulable.. Defiantly check people out on the forums and ask a question if you dont find it in search... wait for someone that is not brand new, like a moderator or someone with more than say 100 posts will say yes this person in likely legit or that they are new and untested... then make a decision about investing your BTC's!
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Yes, I have to admit, I really felt like the fucktard of the day that day. I also don't mind being used as an example because I want people to see how to behave properly here. I learned a great lesson that day to be patient and give a vendor at least 24 hours to respond and then if your message was encrypted and you don't get a response send an unencrypted message like "yo, whats up? Just checking in." Doesn't have to be detailed. In my case i sent an encrypted message to Pharmville right as they were having the PGP issue start. I should have tried to communicate with Pharmville one more time before going here and posting like a jackass. Bottom line is Pharmville rocks the house and I am very grateful to have a second chance with them because they have such great products, service (if you are patient and give them the chance :-) ) and prices. To top that off, they seem like truly nice guys. Long live Pharmville!
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This is an excellent thread, thank-you to Pharmville for posting it.