I'm tired. It's Halloween season and cons are happening again and I've been putting in extra hours to make sure things don't ship late, on top of putting in time to get the Halloween orders out with enough time to get them there, on top of the stuff I'm handing to folks at Wizard World.

I understand it's been a long time since this order was placed but it says that it could take 2-3 weeks to ship. The absolute deadline for it is Monday, meaning that will be 3 weeks since the order was placed. I know that's a long time. I'm sorry. But it does say that.

If someone needs something for a specific date I encourage them to message me to see if I can make it work. Or even to just let me know in the notes. And even after I talk with people I say, please, put it in the notes of the order. I won't remember every conversation. That's just me knowing myself.

95% of the time, heck, maybe even more than that, I love what I do. I love making things for people, I love that it's fan stuff that helps cosplayers get out there or just lets people show off their characters, especially obscure ones. I love connecting with my customers and getting excited about projects.

But every once in a while I just sort of put my head in my hands and sigh a lot. I try to take things like this constructively - I've put my size info in the photos because that was a question I kept getting. I've added care instructions in each order because someone left a bad review saying their mask shrank.

(Well ... a middling review, but when you're dealing with a star rating scale like this, 5 stars means "meets expectations.")

Well, they still want the refund.

This is one order, just one, but I still feel like a massive failure.

I am trying so hard to get everything done and on time, I am trying, and I know I still get distracted, but I am legitimately trying to budget my time and prioritize and I still wasn't fast enough, I still messed up. Even though I'm still within my window it's not good enough.

And I know it isn't my fault, because I laid out the expectations in the item description and people see the shipping estimate when they place the order. Unless I talked with them ahead of time about it and forgot about it...

definitely not your fault, you are clear about time frame

yeah, that's just them being crappy, you say 2-3 weeks and it has not been 2-3 weeks yet

this is not on you.

I don't have any record of talking with them about needing the mask by a specific date, either. I don't know, maybe I add a text image to the photos or something. It's already in the description and the shipping estimates but a lot of times people just look at photos.

no, people are just people. they don't read things, or they don't retain them

I mean, yes, I'm sure you do have conversations with people, but if that's not the case here then yeah, there's nothing you're doing wrong

Why does it always feel so crappy when I enforce my own boundaries? Because like, this is what this is ultimately. It's someone not understanding or not accepting the limit I have placed on my own business practice. I am sorry. This is how long it takes.

maybe because it feels like telling a person no?

which can be difficult and uncomfortable

but yeah, don't feel bad. this is how long it takes, you said so upfront in the listing.

It also felt crappy when I got a jerk kicked out of the venue I was at last weekend despite that being the Absolutely Correct Call, and knowing it was the right call, I just ... felt bad?? Instead of vindicated? I don't know what that's about

Anyway does anyone want a Han Solo mask, it'll ship today if you order now

ooh, can I see?

ricinbeens: I already went to the post office but I can put it in tomorrow's if you're interested

It's a standard adult size without nose wire

ah, rats, I really need that wire. it's cute though!

Yeah, it's hard to put in after the fact, unfortunately, and right now I only add them by request. But they aren't so much of a pain to do anymore since I've gotten the wires precut and basically ready to install, instead of using my jewelry wire like I did at the start.

I've thought about just making them with nose wire standard but I would for sure have to raise my prices again to compensate for it

i meant to thank you for shipping mine so quickly, actually!

it looks like it should get here in a day or two

aninkywisp: Oh good! I mean it was done, so yours is the one from the listing photos. No point in hanging onto it if it's available, and you also let me know when you needed it, so!

ricinbeens: So ... I had to reposition a nose wire in a mask the other day after it had already been sewn in and it wasn't that bad!