posted on April 20, 2001 06:54:20 AM new
I have a real good part-timer in my RL business. She could use a few extra hours per week, and I am thinking of letting her do some of the eBay packing. She's careful and accurate and I know I can trust her to follow the instructions I give her...
So that's the rub. What the heck do I "instruct" her to do, LOL? How do you folks who have paid packing help handle this? Do you have your packer do up the package after you shoot photos? Do you wait until the item sells? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.
And along another line...if you include invoices or info on the auction in the package, does this prompt any, er, unusual reactions on the part of your packer when they see some of the sky-high prices you can get for yard sale finds?
posted on April 20, 2001 07:02:30 AM new
I would LOVE someone to do the packing for me......but too many noses in ones business isn't good!(or so I've found).
posted on April 20, 2001 07:37:46 AM new
I think if your eBay business is going to expand, this has to be done (hired help)
The way other businesses deal with shipping documentation (most would prefer employees not know prices either) is a true packing slip: no prices just description, quantity, address ect. If you are just printing the info from eBay, black out the prices if you would prefer the packer not know. The problem is the belly drop if a buyer emails that the package has been damaged. Unless you pack it yourself, you never know if the fault is the freight carrier or a sleepy packer.
posted on April 20, 2001 08:41:30 AM new
We have had a full time packer for 3 years, and I don't know what I'd do without her.
Initially, I taught her how to pack, then for a while watched like a hawk while she packed, now I don't even go to the shop, but occasionally. On many of our large, unique items we ship, I'd never trust myself to pack them, it all goes to our Miss Charlotte!
At the time we started we had 2 antique shops, and Miss Charlotte was originally hired to assist me at one of the locations. As our on line sales (eBay, Yahoo, and 2 web sites) grew, we got into more and more packing. Finally, I didn't have time to be bothered with the shop, and we closed one of the shops and merged it with the larger shop, which my husband manages.
I originally went to the shop every day, but as time progressed I found I couldn't seriously work at the shop as I was always being interrupted by customers, so I quit going in, and left Miss Charlotte with all the on line phone answering (we take credit cards), packing, etc.
We have another lady at the shop who services the in shop customers, and packs smalls when Miss Charlotte is backed up.
I pay Miss Charlotte a standard wage, plus commission. She is happy, we are happy.
She keeps up with inventory levels, pays drivers when truckers deliver product, and our other lady takes the USPS into the post office daily. We have a daily UPS pick up account since we ship so many large items UPS.
Miss Charlotte also notifies all buyers who have UPS shipments, when their item ships and what their tracking numbers are.
I couldn't efficiently work without the assistance, plus should I decide to take a day or two off, Miss Charlotte is always there to take care of the on line sales.
posted on April 20, 2001 09:06:25 AM new
I don't have paid help (wouldn't that be nice though) - but I'd pretty much teach him/her to do exactly what it is YOU do, as long as the system works, don't fix it!
After some supervising to make sure he/she is doing it right, spot check once in awhile, but other than that, I think it'd be really nice to have the extra help. 8)
Course, my volume is low enough I can usually handle it on my own, although sometimes things get pretty busy when all the payments come in at once. 8)
posted on April 20, 2001 09:13:28 AM new
My teenager packs most of my stuff. I do the occasional piece myself if it is very valuable and fragile. Couldn't do without the help.
posted on April 20, 2001 09:18:26 AM new
Be very careful............my mother has always helped me.........but I have always packed anything that would break myself.
Last week I had emergeny surgery......and my mother sent out three china shipments all by herself........
So far two of the three have already let me know they had broken china.........and I am pretty sure I will hear from the third after questioning my mother on how she shipped these items........
Prime example........child's tea set ~ that was on a shelf in a ziplock bag to protect it from dust. My mom picked it up in the ziplock bag and packed it in lots of paper ~ but never took it out of the ziplock bag to wrap each piece..........no bubble wrap either..........She was shocked it broke.....and this from my own mom!
I got a neutral for this one (deserved a neg!) and I am almost sure that another is waiting for their refund to neg me too (again deserved).
posted on April 20, 2001 09:20:05 AM new
In the past month I've changed my "customer service" habits, and now instead of mailing once a week, I am mailing each day or at most, 2 days of payments received.
That has really improved my packing chore, as it is more pleasant obviously to only have to do 5 to 15 items a day, then doing some marathon session with 25 to 75 items -- those were driving me crazy, and my customers are happier too of course. So I don't need the help, and I would be concerned anyway if their packaging "quality" could remain as consistently high as mine.
Also after doing this for over 3 years now, I am super speedy, so a slower hired hand would eat up some of my funds for sure.
If you are concerned about letting them know how well your sales do, just put the invoices in a sealed brown envelope with the bidders name on it, that way your help won't see the price total.
posted on April 20, 2001 09:21:51 AM new
My friend and now partner does all the pic taking and all the packing. The two things I hate to do. I get to shop and list.
She prefers a percentage of our net sales instead of an hourly wage which is very easy and fine with us.
She keeps all shipping supplies at her home as well as all inventory items once listed.
Works great. As far as documentation goes. I forward all paypal payments notices to her, she enlarges the address area, prints it out and puts on the package. For checks and MO's I e-mail her the specifics.
The only way to expand, if that is your intention is to hire help. But make sure if you hire help your previous packing time is spent listing more etc. - otherwise come month end you will be disappointed if you are making less. Take advantage of the free time to generate more income.
posted on April 20, 2001 10:58:45 AM new
Thanks for all the responses! I really appreciate all the advice. jwpc you could be a multi-millionaire if you figure out a way to clone Miss Charlotte
Ebay isn't my main source of income, and I'm not sure I want to expand that "side" business a great deal--but maybe that's because I'm not crazy about doing the packing. The recent thread asking what's your least favorite eBay chore made me really think about this. I totally enjoy the hunt, and I love writing listings. I figure that if I pay this gal $30 - $40 a week to handle most of the packing, and it frees me up to find and list just ONE more GOOD item during that week, she will pay for herself as well as make the whole process more fun for me!
I know that my main business would still be a negligible blip on the income scale if I hadn't bit the bullet and hired other people. I wouldn't have time for ebay at all if I didn't have good employees handling things I used to do myself--dunno why this seemed like such a major decision, LOL.
I think what I'll do is have her pack the items after I shoot the photos, but leave the boxes open--that way I can post weights and shipping costs, get to the stuff easily if someone emails questions I can't answer from my notes...and I can tuck an invoice into the package myself and close up with a strip or two of tape.
(Edited to fix UBB--since I don't use AW for much anymore, I keep forgetting!)
