Seems ages since I wrote my last blog but it is only a fortnight. A fortnight from now Christmas will all be over! I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks, as is everyone at this time of year. We enjoyed a nice two night break in Bournemouth last week and Monkey World was great. It was a cold, wet day and I think there must have been less than a dozen people in the park but it meant I could sit and watch the animals. I saw my little Orang-utan that I sponsor but most of the monkeys and apes stayed indoors.
The bugs are all snug in their bug house (costing me a fortune in electricity). I have managed to cut down on a considerable amount of stock so I won't have so many animals to care for over the festive season. My Christmas card has been going down a storm, I have had lots of nice comments. The photo of Teddi and the bugs is very daft but who wants to be sensible at Christmas? Unfortunately I have run out of cards now but I have ordered some more and they should hopefully be here by Monday. Thanks for all your cards and best wishes.
Very pleased to say that I haven't had anything die in the post for ages. However three of my parcels that I sent on Monday, failed to arrive on Tuesday as 'guaranteed' by Royal Mail. Evidently it was the busiest day of the year for post but I still wasn't impressed. Special Delivery costs a fortune and I would therefore expect the parcels to receive priority treatment. I was looking at the statistics on my website a few days ago. I know statistics can be misread but it seems pretty clear to me that when someone receives a dead item, they very rarely order from me again. This is very sad because once a parcel has been posted it is completely out of my hands. I do my best to pack each and every animal with care and I now have a range of heat packs and boxes. Casualties very rarely occur and that's why it is so easy for me to look back and see that even a regular customer may never order again. I am amazed at the number of European orders I have had lately. I really worry about sending to cold places like Finland and Denmark at this time of year but I haven't had a single casualty reported, even on the odd occasion when it has taken a week for the parcel to reach its destination. I think it is, as I have said before, the parcels are kept in the place where people are working and people don't like to get cold. When I had parcels delayed last year in the snow, I had several casualties reported. I think this was because the parcels had been left in the delivery vans over night. I really hope we don't have any snow this winter (sorry to those further north, I know you have had some already). Other than the delays on Monday, everything seems to have been going well, I haven't had any other delays reported for some time now. The post office was empty when I arrived with my sack at lunch time so I think the main rush is over.
I have decided that next Wednesday will be my last day of posting before Christmas. I could have gone for Thursday but I would panic if there was a hold up. If there is a delay on Wednesday's parcels they still have Friday to arrive but I wouldn't like to post Thursday and rely on the Christmas Eve delivery. I am however happy for people to collect their order from me on Friday 23rd. I had originally put on my home page that people could collect on Christmas Eve but I realised yesterday that this was not a good idea as we are having a party on Friday evening and I doubt I am going to feel like getting up early the next day and packing bugs!
Last week I had a strange experience with my computer screen. I could see a tiny 'insect' crawling across the screen, it seemed to get to the edge and then walk back again. I emailed my husband and he said it was a bug and he would sort it out when he got in from work. It was tiny but most irritating, I assumed it was a computer bug/virus but it seems it was a real, live bug inside my computer screen. The next day it was a black dot and then it disappeared, I assume it was dead and just dried up. Really weird!
The direct bank transfer method of payment, that I started accepting a few months ago, seems to have become more popular. I am still plagued with a few people who don't have any funds and are hoping to hold the order until they have the money but on the whole it is working well. Unfortunately my payment system insists that people who have a PayPal account must pay via PayPal and some people would rather pay by card but aren't given this option. There are also people who would rather pay by cash at a bank so it is certainly proving to be a useful alternative method of payment. I have however found a problem with foreign banks, if the payment is not in sterling and the customer does not allow for the correct exchange rate I end up paying for it, as a lower amount is actually deposited into my bank. I will probably need to stop accepting this method of payment from outside the UK but that's something to sort out after Christmas. For now I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Thank you for your support throughout 2011 and let's hope 2012 is a more prosperous year for us all!
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