Dollyhair slowdown?

[saply]

Just want to add that I'd be totally O.K. with a price increase if it means you get to hire someone to help you out, Dollyhair. Your product is SUPER great, and if you really do have an exclusivity agreement with your manufacturer it's totally worth the price to get those perfect colour matches. When I first ordered from you, I was actually surprised at how much hair I received for how little I paid! @_@

[Dollyhair]

Just want to add that I'd be totally O.K. with a price increase if it means you get to hire someone to help you out, Dollyhair. Your product is SUPER great, and if you really do have an exclusivity agreement with your manufacturer it's totally worth the price to get those perfect colour matches. When I first ordered from you, I was actually surprised at how much hair I received for how little I paid! @_@

Very cool. I'm glad that you feel that way. I just feel so icky about raising prices - like it's such a bad thing to do to people. I am going to try to restructure things internally. I am going to try to exhaust all other options before I raise prices.


Post Merge: September 10, 2012, 07:21:36 PM

Tina,

Thank you very much for clearing things up somewhat for me. Two weeks ago I had placed my first order with your website because I had heard it recommended in the Arena. I placed my order with a limited understanding about the slow down in orders (because of this thread). As I did not see anything on the site when I ordered about a delay, nor having prior experience with how long it takes to get orders, my only concern with my order was the fact that almost two weeks later I had not received notice of my order shipping. I had just figured my order hadn't shipped yet, but was pleased to find it when I got home last night.

My only concern was with the fact that it stated on your site that I would receive an email with my tracking number when my order shipped. I double checked this last night when I placed another order, to make sure I was remembering this correctly. As a small, personal business, I find myself more understanding of issues coming up. It was not a big deal not to get a tracking number. It was just something I would have liked to have gotten, because I like to keep track of where my orders are.

I guess my only suggestion might be, that if something like this comes up in the future, set up your email to send out an automated message that you are taking care of orders and will attempt to get to their message as soon as you are able. That way we have an  idea as to why our email is not being answered.

I look forward to trying out your product tonight.

U.S. customers receive tracking number emails, but customers in other countries do not. If you're in the U.S., then you should definitely have received your tracking number UNLESS your ordered $4.00 or less worth of hair. So sorry if we didn't email the tracking number!

[ristvak]

When I first ordered from you, I was actually surprised at how much hair I received for how little I paid! @_@

To that point, I haven't ordered in over a year (I did a big bulk buy and then just slowed down with customizing, nothing to do with Tina) but I did a trade with a member from the Arena (a full hank for a full hank) and they actually contacted me thinking I didn't send a full hank because it was 2 ounces lighter than what they sent me.
I KNOW that was a full hank of hair, and they were relatively new to DH (at least compared to me since I've been ordering since '09!) so it sounds like your hanks have gotten beefier but the price has stayed the same.

So I think better customer service plus the size of the hanks you're sending out nowadays resulting in a higher price would not surprise ANYONE.

I worked for a small business (not nearly as hectic as yours!) and I've watched supplies, rent, minimum wage, and gas all increase while I was working there, and our costs had to go up to cover that. It's the nature of the beast unfortunately and I think all of your customers are adults and can understand that. Sure a price hike would get a grumble (don't we ALL moan and whine when gas goes up another 5+ cents?) but if it's backed up with great service people will deal with it.

[Dollyhair]

Tina, if you're still checking this, I have a (hopefully) helpful suggestion/question to be answered, too.

Would it be possible when a color *does* go out of stock for you to estimate a time that it will be back in stock?  I understand that this industry might be of the nature that you can't know for sure, such as if your supplier doesn't always produce certain colors and you have to take them when they're available, but if it's something along the lines of it only makes sense for you to reorder when you need several items at once (which makes total sense),

I would love to be able to. It would be helpful to me, as well. It would cut down on the massive amount of email that I receive every day. People are always asking when certain colors will be back. The truth is that I have no idea. I wait until 10-20 nylon colors are sold out, and then I contact the manufacturer to place a new order. But sometimes, they don't send the invoice quickly. Sometimes, their extrusion machines are occupied by a big toy company's order, and they can't process my order until they're done with mine. That can take a few months. I wish I could just order one color at a time, but that's not an option. The manufacturer has a HUGE minimum order requirement.

Post Merge: September 10, 2012, 09:02:58 PM

When I first ordered from you, I was actually surprised at how much hair I received for how little I paid! @_@

To that point, I haven't ordered in over a year (I did a big bulk buy and then just slowed down with customizing, nothing to do with Tina) but I did a trade with a member from the Arena (a full hank for a full hank) and they actually contacted me thinking I didn't send a full hank because it was 2 ounces lighter than what they sent me.
I KNOW that was a full hank of hair, and they were relatively new to DH (at least compared to me since I've been ordering since '09!) so it sounds like your hanks have gotten beefier but the price has stayed the same.

So I think better customer service plus the size of the hanks you're sending out nowadays resulting in a higher price would not surprise ANYONE.

I worked for a small business (not nearly as hectic as yours!) and I've watched supplies, rent, minimum wage, and gas all increase while I was working there, and our costs had to go up to cover that. It's the nature of the beast unfortunately and I think all of your customers are adults and can understand that. Sure a price hike would get a grumble (don't we ALL moan and whine when gas goes up another 5+ cents?) but if it's backed up with great service people will deal with it.

Hanks should not be beefier these days. It would be in my best interest to agree with you, but then I'd be lying. If they weigh more than normal, then there was a mistake. Sometimes, certain hanks will look beefier than others, and that depends upon how sleek and straight the hair is. The straighter it is, the skinnier the hank will look. Hair is always straighter when it comes off a new spool. But once we get to the end of the spool, there's always some kind of kink/curl/crimp in the hair, and that makes the hank look thicker.

Post Merge: September 10, 2012, 09:25:29 PM

OK so we've clarified that August was a rough month for shipments which I didn't complain about that because I knew my order would come very late. However, what about all the past emails that were ignored? Multiple emails that were disregarded when some of us, me included, had legitimate problems with our orders that have never been addressed.

I think you are forgetting that we are also somewhat business people. When commissioned we are expected to finish in s timely manner. If having a better customer service experience as in letting us be informed on when missing orders can be replaced or if things aren't in stock it makes us not have to dance around and apologize to customers while not knowing what is going on. If being able to rely on another supplier whether out of our country or not means that I'll have to wait an extra week for a shipment, at least I will be able to account for that extra week in the working time of a project.

After my previous order (that still hasn't been remedied even 7 months later) there was an issue with 1 hank being missing entirely from an order. I felt like I shouldn't even bother contacting DH because my emails are a waste of time. This is the issue. No one wants to feel that way. It sounds like you're picking and choosing which emails you feel like responding to and then not dealing with others.

I am so sorry that you feel that way, and I really want to rectify the issue that happened with your order seven months ago. Please email me at [email protected] and tell me the specifics.

Regarding picking and choosing emails to answer... the truth is that I receive such a MASSIVE amount of email every day that I would have to work 10 hours a day just to answer it all. So, all I can do is get to as much of it as possible each day, and the rest doesn't get answered. I'm thinking that I'm going to begin using Dragon Naturally Speaking. That will probably enable me to reply to email a lot more quickly. 

[NichiTsukinoko]

I would also agree to a price increase if it meant you could hire extra staff so that orders shipped out quickly and e-mails were answered.  I would agree with a greater increase if it meant that colors would come in more quickly once they are out of stock.

To be quite honest, having to wait 6 or more months for something that is out of stock to come back in, isn't the best business model. At that point it's not out of stock.  You aren't carrying it anymore.  When it comes back in, if it comes back in, you are carrying it again.

To know what you need to order once it's out of stock, you might add a "wishlist" option. Then when you see enough of the hair color in question on a wish list, at least you would know that it's worth getting it in again.

As far as commissions, I pass the cost of the hair to the customer. It's laid out in my pricing.  So I'm not worried about the price of the hair going up. What really effects my business, is how available the colors I need are.

You're pricing really should be high enough to cover the cost of replacing the hair ordered, paying for necessary staff to accommodate the volume, and also to steadily grow your business so you can have more and more hair in stock at one time, plus room for a profit margin.

As business owners we all understand this. I'm sure we can all agree that we would rather pay $5.00 a hank + shipping if that meant that customer service was good and that colors that become out of stock came back in quickly.  At least I would be willing to do that.

I know you say you wait till 10-20 colors are out of stock, but when some of those colors are more popular than others, it may be better to order those as soon as they run out.  Also to note, you currently have 26 colors out of stock.

And if you know that it takes on average x amount of weeks for an order from your supplier to be honored, that needs to be factored in to when you order as well. Not just How many colors are out of stock.

As a customizer, I have to try to factor in how long it will take for the hair I order from you or others to get in.  You as a hair seller, should be aware of which colors are the most popular and know that when you reach a certain level, you need to place another order because it may take your supplier awhile to get that order to you.  It's just good business.

I love your hair, and I'm hoping that the order I sent to you at the beginning of September will be here soon.  Your notice was no longer active, so I assume your help is back now?  But I am distressed that things have gotten to this point. If you needed help and were short staff, you could have put a poll up on your site, asking us if we would be ok with a price increase.  You could put a poll up finding out what colors we need the most of the ones that are out of stock and how much we need, to help you better order the colors that are most needed, and less of the colors that aren't as needed. 

All you needed to do was let us know you need help. Being part of  a community means that we all adapt and change a little to make sure everyone gets what they need.  I'm sure if you had just stated that you needed to make a choice between raising your prices to hire more staff/get hair in more frequently or keeping prices the same, but ship times would take longer and hair would be out of stock longer, we all would have let you know how we felt, and I'm sure you would have found that we wanted to support you, because we love your product and wanted the customer service to remain high.

And if a few people go somewhere else because it's "cheaper" and they are getting a lower quality product, they will find that out on their own. If they do not like the results, they will come back. If they're fine with it, so be it.  But usually that sort of thing works it's self out. It doesn't actually need you to get involved. Just keep making sure your product and  customer service is high and it will show. You know? I know your business is like your baby, but if you keep acting like a Tiger Mom, it's going to turn more and more people off. If  there is more and more reasons for why things aren't happening as efficiently as it used to, it's just going to start sounding like excuses. Even if it's not meant to be that way.

So just tell us. Would you be able to hire more staff and get colors in more quickly if you were charging $5.00 plus shipping?  If not, what would you need? Break it down for us. Let us know how we can help you resolve this. Many of us love your hair and have been doing business with you for years, so we want you to do well.  We just also would like to know you will be there and your product will be there when we need you too.

[simplysteffie]

9 times out of 10, people are probably e-mailing to complain about their order. If we were getting our orders in a timely fashion, getting the hair we ordered rather then wondering why we got black saran instead of black magick (just an example)- we wouldn't have a reason to send an e-mail- and after our first e-mail doesn't get an answer, we e-mail again and again and again in frustration. We are paying for a service, regardless of life and everything else, we expect good service done. Some of us use our sale in ponies/dolls as a business too, paying our bills- it's hard to wait weeks for a hair order when someone is paying you to make them something they expect in a timely fashion. We keep you business and I know I don't feel like you value that as much as you should. I'm going to buy from whoever gives me great service and can get me what I need within a reasonable amount of time. If you spent less time worrying about other sellers and more time on US, your customers, that would benefit you.

[NoDivision]

Do you have a system for the order in which you respond to e-mails or which ones get replies and which ones don't? I'm sure some of them may seem more pressing and I know the volume may be overwhelming, but I would think that setting aside a certain amount of time a day to answer e-mails and answering them all in order would be easy enough to do and would make a huge difference. That's the practice I operate under at work in dealing with the often hundreds of e-mails and voicemails I receive on a daily basis. The oldest e-mail in my inbox gets answered first and I move up from there, and the e-mail does not leave my inbox until it's been replied to.  And every message gets a reply (with the exception of really off topic e-mails or ones that really don't need follow up.) Once I've replied, I file the e-mails in a relevant folder in case I need to refer to them later. That way everyone gets an answer, and people are aware that our policy is that "e-mails are returned in the order received" and people seem to be content with that. Even if there's a wait they know that their message will be returned and know that we have a system as to how to respond to them, and that makes people more comfortable.

From what you just described, and the variation of people's reports (some getting answers in a matter of hours, others never getting responses even months later) it sounds like there isn't really an organization or method to what messages happen to get responses. Forgive me if that's not accurate but that's how it appears from everyone's reports and your own admissions. As a result, rather than customers knowing "Okay it might take a little while, but I know I'll get a response," people are often left thinking "well I have no idea if I'll get a response or not." That's obviously left a bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths, and even if it's not the case it probably makes people feel like you just don't care about their problems or concerns. Even if you can only set aside half an hour or an hour, I think that should be a scheduled part of your day. You won't be able to get to everything in a day but you should give yourself the time to try and get as many responses out as possible before you have to move on to another task. As I stated earlier, it shouldn't be optional. Your customers are important, and deserve responses to their messages. If you can't mange it yourself, then you need to find another solution.

[Zaphy]

To be quite honest, having to wait 6 or more months for something that is out of stock to come back in, isn't the best business model. At that point it's not out of stock.  You aren't carrying it anymore.  When it comes back in, if it comes back in, you are carrying it again.

You're pricing really should be high enough to cover the cost of replacing the hair ordered, paying for necessary staff to accommodate the volume, and also to steadily grow your business so you can have more and more hair in stock at one time, plus room for a profit margin.

As business owners we all understand this. I'm sure we can all agree that we would rather pay $5.00 a hank + shipping if that meant that customer service was good and that colors that become out of stock came back in quickly.  At least I would be willing to do that.

I know you say you wait till 10-20 colors are out of stock, but when some of those colors are more popular than others, it may be better to order those as soon as they run out.  Also to note, you currently have 26 colors out of stock.

I love your hair, and I'm hoping that the order I sent to you at the beginning of September will be here soon.  Your notice was no longer active, so I assume your help is back now?  But I am distressed that things have gotten to this point. If you needed help and were short staff, you could have put a poll up on your site, asking us if we would be ok with a price increase.  You could put a poll up finding out what colors we need the most of the ones that are out of stock and how much we need, to help you better order the colors that are most needed, and less of the colors that aren't as needed. 

I'm just gonna jump in here because it looks to me like you maybe misunderstood a couple of her points. She said her manufacturer has a very large minimum order requirement- that doesn't mean that it is difficult to only replace one or a few at a time, that means it is impossible. It's out of her control. She can't just keep placing massive orders every time she needs to replace a single color, because then she would end up with a massive surplus of certain other colors that costs money and takes up space which maybe isn't available to her. You make a good point of growing the business though, maybe I misunderstood you and this is what you meant- if Tina is able to expand her business in the future, then maybe she'll be able to move to new premises and number of employees that she'll be able to house more supplies (making the surplus issue not so much a problem) and increase her output and improve her customer service.

Something to keep in mind though (and I sure hope I'm not putting words in Tina's mouth, this is all speculation and it's not my intention at all to speak for her) is that pony hair supplying is a pretty specialized business. Those of us that buy it may not make up a large enough community that it is possible to grow her operation. There's only so much of us that are interested in such a commodity after all, and if pony customization/restoration is a growing community, well, it's probably a slowly growing community. It may not even be possible to grow it to the size that you're thinking of (I don't know as much about these things as I pretend to ). Growing a business takes time, patience, and enough customers that it becomes an option and a need. Maybe we're hitting that point, but at least until recently she simply hasn't needed to hire any other employees. She'd been doing fine on what she'd had.

And as to her being shorthanded during the month of August only, it makes no sense to hire someone for such a short period of time. It would be a temporary position and she'd spend the entire time training the new hire- and if you're training someone, your combined work tends to be half as efficient with you, the experienced worker, are fixing the trainee's mistakes than if you were working by yourself. By the time the new hire was completely trained the old help would be back.

Anyway. Just my two cents. I agree with some of your points, I just felt those two needed clarification. This whole thing could have been handled a bit better, but it definitely could have been handled worse. I personally will agree that the communication is where the majority of the issues came up, but it looks like Tina has learned from the experience and is doing what she can to fix the faults with her system before she resorts to raising the price. As a poor college student strapped for cash, I appreciate the lengths that she is going to to keep her products priced low and I plan on continuing to order from Dollyhair and look forward to seeing how she implements the feedback and suggestions she's received. I'm sure that with her employee back, she'll be able to get back on top of things.

(golly this was longer than I meant it to be)

[NichiTsukinoko]

To be quite honest, having to wait 6 or more months for something that is out of stock to come back in, isn't the best business model. At that point it's not out of stock.  You aren't carrying it anymore.  When it comes back in, if it comes back in, you are carrying it again.

You're pricing really should be high enough to cover the cost of replacing the hair ordered, paying for necessary staff to accommodate the volume, and also to steadily grow your business so you can have more and more hair in stock at one time, plus room for a profit margin.

As business owners we all understand this. I'm sure we can all agree that we would rather pay $5.00 a hank + shipping if that meant that customer service was good and that colors that become out of stock came back in quickly.  At least I would be willing to do that.

I know you say you wait till 10-20 colors are out of stock, but when some of those colors are more popular than others, it may be better to order those as soon as they run out.  Also to note, you currently have 26 colors out of stock.

I love your hair, and I'm hoping that the order I sent to you at the beginning of September will be here soon.  Your notice was no longer active, so I assume your help is back now?  But I am distressed that things have gotten to this point. If you needed help and were short staff, you could have put a poll up on your site, asking us if we would be ok with a price increase.  You could put a poll up finding out what colors we need the most of the ones that are out of stock and how much we need, to help you better order the colors that are most needed, and less of the colors that aren't as needed. 

I'm just gonna jump in here because it looks to me like you maybe misunderstood a couple of her points. She said her manufacturer has a very large minimum order requirement- that doesn't mean that it is difficult to only replace one or a few at a time, that means it is impossible. It's out of her control. She can't just keep placing massive orders every time she needs to replace a single color, because then she would end up with a massive surplus of certain other colors that costs money and takes up space which maybe isn't available to her. You make a good point of growing the business though, maybe I misunderstood you and this is what you meant- if Tina is able to expand her business in the future, then maybe she'll be able to move to new premises and number of employees that she'll be able to house more supplies (making the surplus issue not so much a problem) and increase her output and improve her customer service.

Something to keep in mind though (and I sure hope I'm not putting words in Tina's mouth, this is all speculation and it's not my intention at all to speak for her) is that pony hair supplying is a pretty specialized business. Those of us that buy it may not make up a large enough community that it is possible to grow her operation. There's only so much of us that are interested in such a commodity after all, and if pony customization/restoration is a growing community, well, it's probably a slowly growing community. It may not even be possible to grow it to the size that you're thinking of (I don't know as much about these things as I pretend to ). Growing a business takes time, patience, and enough customers that it becomes an option and a need. Maybe we're hitting that point, but at least until recently she simply hasn't needed to hire any other employees. She'd been doing fine on what she'd had.

And as to her being shorthanded during the month of August only, it makes no sense to hire someone for such a short period of time. It would be a temporary position and she'd spend the entire time training the new hire- and if you're training someone, your combined work tends to be half as efficient with you, the experienced worker, are fixing the trainee's mistakes than if you were working by yourself. By the time the new hire was completely trained the old help would be back.

Anyway. Just my two cents. I agree with some of your points, I just felt those two needed clarification. This whole thing could have been handled a bit better, but it definitely could have been handled worse. I personally will agree that the communication is where the majority of the issues came up, but it looks like Tina has learned from the experience and is doing what she can to fix the faults with her system before she resorts to raising the price. As a poor college student strapped for cash, I appreciate the lengths that she is going to to keep her products priced low and I plan on continuing to order from Dollyhair and look forward to seeing how she implements the feedback and suggestions she's received. I'm sure that with her employee back, she'll be able to get back on top of things.

(golly this was longer than I meant it to be)

I think you misunderstand my intentions. 

My motivation was to point out that as her business presently goes, there are issues that need to be addressed, from a customer stand point, but that we as community are here to help her expand her business and address some of these issues. And to resolve the issues.  What I am trying to express is while many people have expressed their complaints and are quite upset, we are willing to support her and work with her to help fix the problems. As many of them can be fixed.

And while I applaud your enthusiasm for "jumping in", you fail to understand that while she has her business selling hair, we all have our business making custom ponies.  regardless of the demands of her supplier, our needs must be reasonably met for our business to keep going as well.  If her supplier wants a specific size order, that is her problem to solve. the suggestion of increasing her prices to have enough of a mark up large enough to cover labor costs and to order large enough orders is a reasonable suggestion as a fix. Whether it works for Tina or not, I can not decide for her.  But it is a reasonable suggestion.

By her own admission her current singular staff person is an actress and can not guarantee her availability.  Now it is absolutely Tina's right to hire whomever she wishes, but hiring a person who can not guarantee their availability is again, not a great idea in a business sense. Of course there could be several reasons she did so including the person is willing to work for cheep, doesn't mind if she gets more hours sometimes and less others, because she has the whole actress thing going on etc.  But it clearly has caused issues. It might be better to have an additional staff member year round so if this girl has a gig somewhere that Tina has help and need not hire a temp.  And again raising prices would help accommodate that.

And the point of these suggestions is because there have been a lot of complaints in the last 6 pages.  But very few suggestions of how to help fix it. I wanted to provide suggestions rather than just complaints. Because being a business owner is very hard. I currently am a paid artist and an independent insurance producer. I'm basically running two businesses, so I do understand the difficulties, trying to stay organized, trying to keep things from falling into the cracks. It's a very difficult juggling act.

I appreciate you wanting to stand up for Tina.  But there was no need. I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm trying to show my support for her by providing potential solutions, rather than just complaints. And for the record, if her customers have complaints, they are within their rights to express those complaints. If they do not let her know, how can she fix them? She's not a mind reader and it's not fair to expect her to be so.

And I am not demanding that she makes any of these changes. Merely suggesting that she could make these changes if she chooses. I've been ordering hair from her since my very first custom and would like to see these issues fixed because I want to see her business continue.

If you have better suggestions of how she may address the complaints of shipping time, availability, and communication, I am sure she would appreciate hearing them from you.  Because you also would be showing your support and encouragement by doing so.

[Sarahlacewing]

I do feel like this has been a fairly recent development.  Many of the problems I am seeing on the thread I feel have cropped up fairly recently. (correct me if I am wrong) Personally I've experienced good communication and fast orders from Tina in the past.  I don't order a lot and I don't really sell many customs and have not ended with substitute colors, so I can definitely see why some folks are frustrated.  It seems like with a little restructuring things can start running smoothly again.  There have been some great thoughts on this thread. 

On a separate note I would continue to shop if the prices were increased so long as quality and quantity of hanks remained constant.

[Katika]

I'm also not trying to put words in Tina's mouth, but I'll bet she's the kind of person that would *love* to be able to have everything constantly in stock, 100% of the time, to get us what we need or want immediately.  She strikes me as a people pleaser.  She is a business woman, and I'm pretty sure that she understands that several customizers are business people, as well.  Yes, that means that some customizers count on their commissions for things as little as their pony budget to as big as paying bills.  I really don't think that she's *unaware* of that fact.

What it boils down to is economics, plain and simple.  If *her* supplier is unable to supply her with the product, no amount of our stomping of feet and shaking our fists, offering suggestions, or being willing to pay more is going to be able to get that supply in her hands.  If the product is unattainable to her, there is no way that she can make it available to us.  Think about it in the terms of another industry, just for a second - the drought this year destroyed much of the corn crop, which is going to lead to an increased price in products that use corn over the next year or so.  The farmers really, really wish that they could have been able to grow more corn, but they *couldn't*.  It's not going to be the farmer's fault that the prices of food and gas go up.  It's not Tina's fault that her supplier causes "drought" situations for her business, either.  She works with this supplier because it's the only one that can provide her with the product that WE as consumers very obviously want.

Again, back to economics, maybe it's time to consider raising the prices on your commissions to cover the costs of needing to find hair from other artists?  I've never been paid for a commission before, so I have no idea if that's a feasible option for the average artist or not; I had no intention of coming across as rude.  The laws of supply and demand aren't always fun, but they are a very real constant.

[Colorscapesart]

I think there are a lot of valid points here, let's avoid personal disagreements

[NichiTsukinoko]

Again, back to economics, maybe it's time to consider raising the prices on your commissions to cover the costs of needing to find hair from other artists?  I've never been paid for a commission before, so I have no idea if that's a feasible option for the average artist or not; I had no intention of coming across as rude.  The laws of supply and demand aren't always fun, but they are a very real constant.

Well let's look at economics shall we? if she really does have an exclusive contract and is the ONLY person who can get this hair in these colors, then when she is is out of stock for 6 months, a year, then the chances of anyone else having that hair color for me to buy are very low, regardless of how much I'm willing to pay for it.  Because they are getting their hair from her.  Me charging more for a custom isn't going to materialize the hair is it? 

And "supply and demand" is the idea that the balance of how available something is vs how much demand there is for it, dictates price.  I have not at any point complained about the price of her or anyone else's hair. I do not think you fully understand the concept you are trying to wave around. Because I'm totally inline with supply and demand in saying that she should raise her prices. There is a high demand for her hair and it's availability is contingent on how much she can order at one time. So suggesting that she raise her prices to hire more staff to accommodate the demand and be able to order the necessary amount of hair more often, fits perfectly with that concept.

And if you had read what I wrote, assuming you are addressing me and not someone else, you can see that I have already stated my prices are based, in part on how much I have to spend for hair.  So I already adjust prices for that.  your  statement that maybe I should do that is redundant since I have already stated that I do that.

And again, to reiterate, for 6 pages, people have been complaining. I thought I would try acknowledging the areas that people have been complaining about and offer an idea of how to fix them, instead of adding more complaints. I thought it would be appreciated.  But it has not been. So if this really is just a thread to complain, perhaps it should be moved to the "what's your problem" part of the board.  I don't know.

But this will be the last time I check the progress of this thread. I've given what ideas I can think of that she may be able to use to help solve some of these complaints and I have said my peace. But I was addressing Tina specifically in my first post, since it is her business up for discussion. I posted here hoping that by my offering suggestions as to how to fix them, others would also offer suggestions, which I would think would be more helpful. I'm sure she'll read it if she hasn't already. She'll use what ideas she likes. she won't use the ones she doesn't.

I'm not interested in engaging in an argument about weather or not I should or shouldn't have offered her suggestions.  That was not my intent in posting my suggestions here. it was just to show support for Tina and her business.   Which I have stated a couple of times. Thank you.

[Colorscapesart]

Since the disagreeing continues, time for a lock.