johnmaloney Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 Help us help you! We are trying to compile a guide of common pitfalls and questions users have to make their experience at our website easier. We never mind answering your questions by email, but if we can get you an answer immediately then all the better, besides this is a guide to taking advantage of promotions: To use this guide - Scroll down to the large font text that applies to you. The contents include: - Shipping Livestock and Dry Goods that aren't Rock to Customers outside of FL or in the FL Panhandle - Shipping Livestock and Dry Goods that aren't Rock to Customers inside of FL, but not residing in the Panhandle - Shipping & Ordering Rock - Placing Your Order and Making a Payment Shipping Livestock and Dry Goods that aren't Rock to Customers outside of FL or in the FL Panhandle Our current rates are $9.50 for Priority Mail, and $28 for Express Mail. These are flat rates and will not change no matter where you live in the USA or how much you order. However, the rates themselves change once or twice a year. We do have some free shipping options you can take advantage of though. Free shipping is left open on the honor code on our site to make certain situations easier, but has lead to some confusion, Hopefully this clears it up: We have 3 free shipping options open to customers outside the state of FL or residing in the FL panhandle: Free Priority Mail - If your order is over $50 after discounts are applied you can enjoy free Priority Mail shipping. Not all items can be shipped with Priority Mail though. Hermit crabs, chitons, limpets, conchs, turbos, urchins, zoas, crabs, shrimp, sea hares and certain macro algae CANNOT be shipped with Priority Mail. ANY ITEM MARKED WITH A * ON OUR WEBSITE WILL DISQUALIFY YOU FROM SELECTING PRIORITY MAIL, SO YOU WONT BE ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS PARTICULAR PROMOTION IF YOU PURCHASE ONE OF THOSE PRODUCTS. Additionally you should see bold red lettering warning that the particular item is Express Mail only in the long version of the product description. Rock purchases do not count towards this threshold. ----Confusion regarding this promotion is pretty commonplace. If you have any questions about this promotion, let us know we want to help clear it up. ---- Free Express Mail- If your order is over $175 you can enjoy free Express Mail shipping. Please do not choose this method unless your order is over $175 though. Express Mail is very expensive and we don't really run a very high margin so we won't be able to discount this service further than the already discounted flat rate price of $28 unless your order is actually higher than $175 after discounts are applied. Rock purchases do not count towards this threshold. Group Buy- A Group Buy is a purchase between two or more people that will have their orders combined into one shipment in order to save on shipping. One person, the Coordinator, is responsible for accepting the package and distributing items to the other group buy members. Free Shipping Applies to all group orders with a combined total value of $200 or more. The discrepancy between the individual free shipping rate and the higher group buy rate is because group buys cost significantly more to ship than individual orders. For more information on group buys visit this page. - Shipping Livestock and Dry Goods that aren't Rock to Customers inside of FL, but not residing in the Panhandle Free shipping is available to all FL residents that reside outside of the panhandle whose order (that doesn't contain rock), is over $25. Ships with UPS. If your order is less than $25 shipping it is only $5 for overnight service with UPS. Just when you though life in the tropics couldn't get any sweeter.... - Shipping & Ordering Rock Our rock is shipped by itself via UPS Ground to the lower 48 states. * Rock cannot be shipped with livestock. * We cannot accept ANY discounts on rock, this specifically includes this discount you are thinking of using. Yep that one, and the other one you know about too I am afraid. * Rock must be ordered separately from livestock, rock value does not go towards free livestock shipping thresholds <FREE SHIPPING ONLY APPLIES TO ROCK ORDERS OVER 30 POUNDS. OTHERWISE IT IS $8 NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE AT THIS TIME> - Placing an Order, and Making a Payment Placing an Order & Using the cart software Our shopping cart utilizes Ajax technology to help speed up the process. As a result the first time you order an item, (assuming the pop up isn't blocked), you will see a message like this: After that item is placed though, you will no longer receive the pop up. We did this because it is annoying to keep getting a pop up. The item will simply be updated in the cart summary located just above the "We Proudly Sponsor" section on the right hand side of the site. To check out click the "Show Cart" link at the bottom of the summary. Here is a quick diagram of that page to give you an idea: ---more to come, have to run out now though. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I think it would help people! Nice! Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 John, have you ever thought about using a series of drop-down boxes that have rules governing what shows in them depending on what is in the basket? The open-ended "pick-a-bubble" is always going to mean consumers will either mess up or try to game the system. It would certainly cut down on time if you removed all chances for someone to make an error (whether on accident or intentionally) from the process itself, instead of trying to educate the consumer to use the process correctly. I do process controls for a living, lol - I know this stuff. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 in the new site, for now we limp on with this one...also: i have lots of orders that come in like "hey john I ordered this halimeda, (lets say), for now, I am going to combine it with an order later this week that will be over $50, but I just wanted to grab this up while it was in stock." The "Free Priority over $50 option" might be the right one, but the person may make 2 or 3 orders that are to be later combined for a total over $50 but each might be less. Software rules make that tricky too. Shopping carts are great for selling books, but there is always something with livestock...the website needs some improvements but I feel like since we will be making a major software update soon we will just keep it this way for now. I don't think people are gaming the system, you don't see the warnings if you don't click the long description, and active reading vs. passive reading means you don't see the message boxes at the top and bottom of every page and next to the order button. Link to comment
Kazooie Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 So you ship rock to Alaska? I thought someone in m local club got some from you? Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 only by special quote with USPS parcel post. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 What's the ETA on the new site? Still just a pipe dream? Link to comment
jeremai Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 john and cm are on the same timeframe, lol. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 I am 2 days of solid work away from being done, but I haven't had the time. A lot of it is "things are working well so why risk it?" but I should do it soon. Link to comment
dtfleming Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 john and cm are on the same timeframe, lol. This, still cant get NR on tapatalk. Link to comment
Kazooie Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 only by special quote with USPS parcel post. Not sure what this is? Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Not sure what this is? If Satan had a baby with Hitler, it would kinda be like that. Link to comment
Kazooie Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Bad then? I guess I can see why the guy went with a group buy. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 3, 2010 Author Share Posted October 3, 2010 If Satan had a baby with Hitler, it would kinda be like that. it isn't that bad. I guess I can see why the guy went with a group buy. lol...and this is why we have these issues. Group buys are for livestock only, we can't overnight rock if it is bought in a group buy etc...rock can only be ordered with rock, and it can only be shipped to the lower 48 states/\. Link to comment
Kazooie Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Cool, I'll look into it later. Let me explain some more. He ordered more than he needed to, then sold some to us to help balance the cost. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 3, 2010 Author Share Posted October 3, 2010 no this was one of those Link to comment
Kazooie Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Not sure? I dunno what your saying. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 3, 2010 Author Share Posted October 3, 2010 we got it cleared up but there was some confusion about a rock order being overnighted in a group buy. Link to comment
Mudfish Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 - Shipping Livestock and Dry Goods that aren't Rock to Customers inside of FL, but not residing in the Panhandle Free shipping is available to all FL residents that reside outside of the panhandle whose order (that doesn't contain rock), is over $25. Ships with UPS. If your order is less than $25 shipping it is only $5 for overnight service with UPS. Just when you though life in the tropics couldn't get any sweeter.... You wrote "though" when you meant "thought". - Shipping & Ordering Rock* We cannot accept ANY discounts on rock, this specifically includes this discount you are thinking of using. Yep that one, and the other one you know about too I am afraid. This is hilarious - I love it. But I would suggest editing it slightly, to this: * We cannot accept ANY discounts on rock, this specifically includes that one discount you are thinking of using. Yep, that one, and the other one you know about too, I'm afraid. Yes, I'm an editor professionally at work. Sorry... Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 4, 2010 Author Share Posted October 4, 2010 oh cool! thanks mudfish editing is my weakest skill...even weaker than bow fighting if you can imagine that. Link to comment
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