My First Class Alternative! Going around Miva Merchant 4.3

A New Zealand customer e-mailed me to find out if there was perhaps a less expensive way to ship his order for 6 sets of bookplates than the$48.00 on my website.                      :::BLUSH::: Spent this morning coming with an Alternative Plan for customers - US, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand - that - although a bit clunky - brought his shipping down to $6.00. Yeah, that's more like it!! Explained it on the website, let's see if people stop dropping their shopping baskets when they get to the checkout now.          ------------------------ First Class is no longer offered by my software program, and it's what is most often appropriate for lightweight bookplates! This is my alternative to the shipping choices for your orders. There is one choice for the US and Canada, another for UK, Australia, New Zealand (other international customers, please contact me using the form in the section. To use, scroll down to the bottom here 1.) Select the appropriate First Class Shipping product and place in your basket. 2.) Choose the quantity of bookplates in your completed order (you can also adjust the quantity to fit if you add or subtract bookplates). Shipping First Class after a certain weight isn't allowed- the order will have to be shipped Priority, Parcel or UPS - so that's why the quantities stop at a certain number. If you want something shipped faster - select Priority or other - do NOT use this! Note: If you ordered Limited Edition bookplates, to determine how many packs divide your total by 12 and round to the closest number. (so 1-6 Limited Edition loose bookplates= 0 sets 7-12 Limited Edition loose bookplates = 1 set 13-18 = 2 sets 19-23 Limited Edition loose bookplates = 2 sets etc. etc. Remember, if your order totals over $50.00, you get free shipping and you will not need this! While occasionally someone will try to take advantage of something like this to get a great deal, I know bookplate customers generally won't do that! I'm a small, one person operation with shallow pockets! And please, don't worry - I will double check the shipping total - if there is an error, I'll let you know and will either issue a refund or request payment for the difference before shipping the order.

http://www.friendlyspirit.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SHIPPINGINFO

My Luddite Software

The software system - Merchant Miva - leaves a bit to be desired.  Slowly it keeps taking away things, if I had them in the first place.  In my low budget, semi-Luddite manner, I'm trying to work around it since I don't have the capital or interest to invest in a more refined system.  My latest way of working around the system in my Luddite, Quaker manner. (see my phone number policy comments here) I hope is working.

So, little Miva has taken away the ability for customers to select First Class as a shipping option (the method most often used for my lightweight products) and the third party software developers recently stopped providing a fix.

So, now:

 If you chose Priority Mail, I ship Priority Mail.  If you choose Parcel Post, I ship First Class and refund you the difference.

Orders over $50.00 are shipped free - US, Canada and Britain only.

These aren't quite discounts, but..I hope these help make up with a kind of personal interest and service for what technology isn't offering. 


My Miva software is a much older version- I think I've had it for nearly 10 years, having updated only once since I started this business in 2000. And though I realize it would probably increase business to invest in a better system, I don't have a lot of money or time to invest in a better system.  This is a tiny home based business, I'm not (at 64) hoping to grow this puppy into something huge and profitable.

That can't sound good to my customers.

(read also the post on how my system works with giving customers their discount)

You have an account but are you gettting your discount?

   Are you getting your wholesale or returning customer discount when you order your bookplates from me?

  Lately I've noticed orders coming in from customers who are listed as faithful return customers or booksellers, librarians, teachers or other shop owners. I can see they have have faithfully logged into their accounts - but there is no discount showing.   Since others are getting their discounts, I thought the answer might lie in the peculiarities of my software system.

First you need to set up an account.  Then you need to let me know you've set up an account by e-mailing me (check out the website for how to do that).  Wait for me to manually set you up. Now, the important part.

In order to get your discount you need to FIRST sign into your account, then place items in your basket.  The discount will ONLY apply to items you place in your basket AFTER you have logged in to your account.

If you wait to sign in until the check-out process, the discount won't apply. 

This info will be tweeted, too -  when placing an order - please log in first!