The first ten orders, and what usually goes wrong

The first order is exciting. Somewhere in the first few, something goes wrong, and you are dealing with it for the first time with a customer waiting.

These are ordinary problems, and each one has a plain fix. It helps to have read them once before they happen.

The address is wrong

A missing unit number. A postcode that does not match the town. A phone number one digit short.

Read the address on every order before you pack it. If anything looks off, message the buyer first. It costs you two minutes. A parcel that goes out and comes back costs you postage both ways and a week.

You packed the wrong thing

The wrong size, the wrong colour, or one item where the buyer ordered two. It happens when you pack from memory.

Pack from the order, not from what you think it said. Print the packing list or keep the order open beside you, and check it once more before you seal the box.

It took too long to pack

You pictured ten minutes. It took forty, because the tape ran out and the box was the wrong size.

Keep boxes, filler and tape in one place, with enough for a few orders. Time yourself on one order. If the number is bad, the price or the packing needs to change, and it is better to learn that at order five than at order fifty.

The parcel has stopped moving

Tracking has shown the same line for three days and the buyer is asking.

Answer the buyer before you have an answer. Tell them you have seen it and you are checking. Then contact the courier with the tracking number. If you say nothing, a late parcel becomes a complaint.

The parcel came back

Nobody was home, or the address could not be found, and the courier returned it.

Ask the buyer whether they still want it, and agree who pays to send it again before you do. And count your stock by hand. A returned item is not added back to your stock for you, so the number on your listing may be one short.

The buyer has gone quiet

You asked about the address or the colour and there is no reply.

Send one clear message that says what you need and when you will act. For example: if I do not hear from you by tomorrow evening, I will send it to the address as written. Then do what you said.

You sold something you no longer have

The last one went to a walk in customer, or to another order an hour earlier.

Tell the buyer today. Offer what you have: a different colour, a later date, or a refund. Do not make them wait while you look for stock. On Berkedai you can cancel an order before the courier has the parcel, and the buyer is refunded in full.

Then fix the cause. Update your stock when something sells anywhere, not at the end of the week.

The buyer says it is not what they expected

Smaller than it looked. A different shade on their screen.

Ask for a photo and decide against a rule you have already written, not against your mood. Then look at the listing. If the surprise was the size, put the size in numbers on the page.

What these have in common

Some of these are caught by checking once before the parcel leaves. The rest get smaller when you answer quickly.

Keep a note of what went wrong in each of your first orders, one line each. After ten, the note will show you which step to change.

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