OK, we are getting a little behind right now... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I will probably stop taking new orders for awhile later today. This is so we can catch up. You know you are behind when you start answering more emails of, "when will it ship?" then emails going out saying, "it shipped!". In some cases, the customer emailed us asking for a shipping update, the order ships, they get an automatic (generated by our shipping system) email saying it shipped and then several days later I finally respond to their original email of them wondering when it will ship. Silly...
You can check the current status of your order by using this link:
www.arcflashlight.com/orderstatus/
You will need your order number (this was automatically sent to your email address when you placed your order) and your postal code. The postal code is the zip code or postal number you entered on your shipping address. For domestic orders, this is pretty easy, just use your zip code. For people in the UK, the codes are more complex. Take "KA13 6TT" for example. If this is how you entered it, you need to enter is exactly the same way: including capital letters and spaces. This system is designed to keep other people from looking at your order details. It is probably a good idea to keep your order number to yourself since someone may guess your zip code from your CPF profile. Now if your CPF profile doesn't have that information or you keep your order number to yourself, you are fine. You can verify what information the orderstatus module displays by pulling up your own order status. You will notice it does not display your credit card number, etc. That is kept on a completely different system that automatically encrypts and then later deletes the number.
Now, the system is limited to what information it provides of course. You can use this to verify you entered your shipping address correctly, etc. It will also show show your tracking number if the order shipped, etc. This information is also contained in the emails the system sends to you. In fact, if you recieved both emails (the order reciept and the shipping reciept), you have all the same information.
It will
not show when we
think your order will ship. I do not even know that information! It is not like we have a bunch of finished product sitting here and we only ship at the end of the week, etc. We are constantly making product. As soon as it passes QC, it is shipped so quick my head spins. People email me all day asking for me to estimate when it will ship. I guess based on my estimates of production yields, orders in the system, etc. I am frequently off by several days or a week or two even. I try to pad the numbers of course so we are more likely to ship it ahead of what was expected. Sometimes I estimate one thing and then later find out the order shipped the next day, etc. There are many variables to keep track of.
When your order does ship, we paste that info info into the order status system which then automatically sends you an email with your fedex tracking number. You can go to the fedex website, enter this tracking number and watch your package trace its way across the country. Sometimes the package gets delayed, but usually it flys across the country pretty quickly.
We use email for most of our customer communication. It is all based on the email you provided us when you ordered. Some people don't trust online systems and enter a bogus email addresss. That really mucks things up. Our system doesn't tell us if you email address is bad, so we have no indication on our end that you are not getting your information emailed to you. Your first indication that you entered a bogus email address is that you didn't get a reciept when you placed your order. If you got that fine, your shipping notification/tracking number should also go through fine.
If you want to use Paypal to fund you order, please please please order using the "pre-order" link on the
www.arcflashlight.com/arc-aaa.htm page. This way you will be automatically entered into our order system. Otherwise, we have to go looking through emails, messing with the paypal search system. This just increases the chance that we might mess up and forget to email you your confirmation or the tracking number. These automated systems not only save us valuable time, they help keep us more organized when dealing with large amount of data.
We are about 2-3 days behind on normal emails and about a week behind on unusual emails. The unusual ones require us to spend more time researching via multiple systems, Merri and I talking to each other (ok, that's not a bad thing), etc. The normal ones can be whipped out much quicker and we focus on those because it helps the most amount of people in a given hour.
Btw, we hired another person this week to help us out. Her name is Kendra and she is definately a big help!
Merri will be gone all next week. Each year she is a camp counsler at girl's camp. Things always seem to go crazy when she's not around.
Peter
