Don't mention the postal discount code!

Don't mention the postal discount code! What a fiasco, but before I go on with my moans it is sorted now! I sent my very first newsletter on Monday 1st August, initially all seemed to be going well but the admin side of my site continued to say 'sending newsletter' until lunch time which certainly didn't seem right. My website guy was out so I decided to cancel the application. Unfortunately I had no way of telling if the newsletter had been sent to everyone and my website was then on a go slow for the rest of the day. Each time I tried to update something it kept stopping or jumping pages. Monday is generally my busiest day and being the beginning of the month (it seems quite a few people get paid at this time) I had more orders than usual. It was a very stressful day but as it turns out, only the beginning. From Monday to Wednesday there were numerous problems with the discount code. Unbeknown to me and my website guy, although my site is set up to accept a percentage discount on the postage, it seems that the PayPal payment system had clashed. This resulted in no discount being given on some orders and random amounts being given on others. Coupled with the fact that some customers were entering variations on the code and of course these not being recognised, it all resulted in me climbing the walls. I am not known for my calm demeanor, I could barely cope with all the email enquiries and amount of postage refunds that I ended up sorting out. It took hours, the idea of the newsletter was to sell more stock, not give me even more work to do. I have certainly learnt my lesson, I will never again use capitals or ambiguous letters in my codes. It was incredibly frustrating when so many people were having problems entering the code but nobody rang me. Once an order has been placed there is nothing I can do to change it. I don't have access to the Payment system, for security it is completely separate from my website. I know I have said it before (but not for ages), I don't understand why people don't just give me a call. Most of my customers are not arachnophobic but they seem to be telephobic (it's a real word, I looked it up). I am clearly getting old, in my day we picked up the phone and used capital letters when writing. I am really very friendly on the phone, honestly I am! I am much more stroppy in print, I know I sound stroppy but I don't mean to, it is stress and frustration! Most of the addresses registered on my website (which print out on the address labels) are all in lower case and often with no spaces, it is obviously the norm these days.

Rant over! Now that my lovely website guy has sorted the code problem I must say that the newsletter has had the desired effect. Orders have greatly increased this week, this is of course also due to the fact that I have been adding extra special offers each day. Some of the offers have been on animals that I have too many of and need to cut down on and others have been on animals that I don't really want to sell at that price!

My Horse-head grasshoppers have at last begun to hatch. They look so cute, perfect miniatures of their parents. I had just about given up hope of them ever hatching so I moved my Katydids into their large Exo Terre tank last weekend. It is looking a bit crowded now but I think they will live ok together. There were already a few larger Jungle Nymphs in the tank. I would like to set up another couple of Exo Terre cages but I just don't have the room at the moment. The others have been taken over by my pet snakes and geckos. Talking of reptiles, I went on a 'butterfly hunt' last Sunday and as well as some pretty butterflies, we saw two Slow Worms. I may also get my wish to see an Adder in the wild soon. I have been given some inside info on where they can be found. Sadly my daughter is all grown up now, gone are the days when she wanted to follow me everywhere. I asked her this week if she wanted to come Adder hunting and she looked at me and said "three hours traipsing through the undergrowth and finding nothing, no thanks". She knows my snake hunting expeditions too well!

No new animals have come in this week, which is good because I don't think I could have coped. I'm not sure about next week but the week after I should receive plenty of new things. I have ordered some Giant Train millipedes, they have become rare this year. I hope everything comes in normal cardboard boxes, I have received a few polystyrene boxes recently. I cannot stand polystyrene, not the feel or the sound. Just writing about it is giving me goose pimples. I was waiting for something at a reptile shop a couple of weeks ago and the guy was plunging a pen into the side of a polystyrene box to make air holes. I was cringing and covered in goose pimples. My daugher just stood and laughed, I left her queuing and went outside 'to recover'. I obviously don't have arachnophobia or telephobia, I'm not sure what polystyrene phobia is called. I will probably consult my good friend Google a bit later but for now I need to go and help my daughter pack. She is off to the Isle of Wight camping, with a couple of friends. I'm so happy, we will have a teenager free house for a whole week. The house will be quieter, tidier and nobody will be coming in late at night and waking me up.

Thanks so much to all those people who have placed an order this week. I am really sorry to those who were as frustrated as me when trying to enter the discount code. I will probably send out another newsletter in a few weeks time. I have had lots of positive feedback and heard from several people that I haven't had dealings with for ages. I think I will write the newsletter but then ask my website guy to send it out, just in case!