Of online stores prompts, disclaimers and warnings

We will begin this picture frames online store prompts post by briefly revisiting the Year of Our Lord 1776. In was in that year that a political economist named Adam Smith, published  the momentous book "An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations". From this work sprang the memorable passage: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect  our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”.   Succinctly, what we are told, is that back then, businesses, whether small, medium or large, provided and sold their services, labour and goods not out of altruism, but so as make money, or profit.

Fast forward to this day and, and nothing much has changed. If anything, only the concept label has been re-written. The philosophy is now called economic liberalism, a latter-day ideology which champions our modern world's market economy founded on individualism and private property.

That's nice to know, a gentle reader might say, but this is a blog post about picture frames and picture framing, not about political or economical sciences,  so how does it connect?

The connection is that this post and blog are online extensions of our small business herein by which we make and sell poster frames, picture frames, and other allied and akin goods for the purpose of generating a profit, or to make money, to use the vernacular.

And in order to be profitable, all businesses need to think, research, define and decide for themselves what, where, when, how much, how many or whichever widgets they will sell to their Customers.  Naturally enough, we also do this by sorting out the ineligible online orders from the eligible ones.

Our online store defines and displays what an ineligible order may be. While eligible orders are processed though the store Checkout without prompts or warnings,  ineligible ones trigger various prompts and warnings, depending on the circumstances.  Perhaps one of our most important prompts is that of the 2-frames-minimum order shown below:

This is one of picture frames online store prompts and it is displayed when, for instance,  only one of our 12x18 black wood poster frames is added to the Cart, instead of two, as prompted. Customers occasionally will email or telephone us querying this prompt saying that, for instance, they only want one picture frame, not two.

While that might sound fair enough, the problem is that shipping only one frame, instead of two, is courting danger in so far that we need to ship at least 2 frames  so as to pack them back-to-back. This will keep the  fragile glass is on the inside of the parcel and the hard frame backing on the outside of the parcel and packed as shown below:

By following the above, 2-frames-minimum-order, we have managed to reduce our transit damages and breakages claims by around 85%. Concomitantly, this has resulted in increased Customer satisfaction, a better Customer shopping experience and incidentally, it has also ameliorated our unit order profitability.

Another prompt we get asked about occasionally is our minimum order value shown below. Again, this was prompted by the need of reducing our rate of transit parcel breakages. We realized that as much as 2/3rds of all Customers' claims for breakages arose from very small orders of 1 or 2 frames only.  Indeed, shipping only one large glass clip frames from Melbourne to Perth, or just under 3,500 kilometres and hoping not to get a broken glass claim is pushing one's luck, we think. Since disabling the process of very small orders, our  breakages claims have fallen by around 90%.

Yet another important prompt, is the Shopping Cart warning below. While we think that a product displaying a red banner saying "this item cannot be shipped" is explicit enough, we still get regular complaints from Customers complaining that they really want the frame and why can't we just ship it?

The above warning is enabled to serve only when very large picture frames such as the the A0 black wood poster frame are added to the Shopping Cart. And this is because it just impossible to safely ship this, or any other large glass frame,  safely.

Asking us to try and ship it by adding more cardboard or and extra layer of bubble wrap just won't work, nor is the request of ship with plastic instead of glass.  Local plastic fabricators want more than to $100 to cut, supply and deliver cut-to-size perspex, and that's the trade price!

In any case, A0 picture frames cannot be shipped not just because of the glazing but also because any or all of the four moulding joints would certainly spring or break open during the rough-and-ready daily Courier handling and transit.

No Courier will accept consignment of large glass frames because they will almost certainly arrive to Customers with shattered  glass, or a sprung frame, or both.  Not only do Couriers want to avoid avoidable claims but, and more importantly,  glass shards could penetrate a parcel's wrapping or packaging and result in serious personal injuries.

Yet another of our picture frames online store prompts is the one shown below.  It warns shoppers that deliveries to addresses being any type of Post Office, Private Box, Parcel Locker,  Parcel Collect Locker, Australia Post Box, Private Mail or Delivery Box or Roadside Mailbox are not available, or simply, disallowed.

There are several good reasons for this delivery limitation. The first, and the most important one, is that none of our our Couriers are able to deliver to these locations. This restriction is part of their Domestic Terms and Conditions of Carriage with all their Customers and cannot be waived or negotiated.   A second  reason is that at times, a  Proof of Delivery Signature may be required and this is unobtainable at locations where the Customer`is absent.

Yet a third reason, is that the Couriers endeavour to physically deliver the parcel, if not to the Customer, to at least someone in the household. A fourth reason is that when parcels are delivered to unattended locations, parcels seem to get damaged, lost, missing or stolen much more frequently than when delivered to, and signed for, by Customers.

An additional reason for not delivering to Post Offices is that most of our parcels contain picture frames or photo frames with glass. However glazed items are not permitted to be shipped in post parcels and any loss or damage is not claimable by either the sender or the receiver.

While on the subject of Australia Post, we  need to point out to readers that this organization is a run-for-profit commercial enterprise.  Customers, most often from rural and country locations sometimes ask us to simply  "leave the parcel at the local Post Office".

This is not possible, not only for the aforementioned good and valid reasons, but also because Australia Post Staff is not permitted or authorized to sign any delivery receipt or docket and therefore and assume the responsibility and concomitant legal liability for unrelated third parties, such as our Couriers.

Another prompt occasional displayed is shown below.  It is only displayed for a few products and, we believe, is self-explanatory enough. The reason we created this particular prompt is that for some picture frames, such as our 50x50cms Black Square Wood Box Poster Frame with clear glass, it is near impossible to ship them safely unless sold and packed by full carton.

While we realize that this prompt condition may be inconvenient in some cases, it is still a better than to experience Customer disappointment and entertain possible, later breakages claims.

An ulterior warning that is shown during the Billing Information process and prior to order submission is below.  It warns that when a Customer requests or instructs to "leave the parcel" somewhere or anywhere by or at the delivery premises, he or she is granting the Couriers Authority to Leave (ATL). This means that the delivery process will be unsupervised and the parcel may remain unattended.

In other words, the Customer does not require a Proof of Delivery signature and is willing to leave the parcel unguarded. And while in most  cases ATL deliveries are retrieved by Customers without any problems,  in a small number of cases, a parcel may be either damaged or missing.

Should this happen, it is not possible to claim either against ourselves or the Couriers because ATL permission was given to leave a parcel alone, or unsupervised,  where third parties may have accessed it, damaged it, pilfered it,  or stolen its contents.

In quite rare case, a parcel may be delivered with the contents damaged, or even "lost" in transit, and cannot be located.  When this happens, some Customers request an immediate, free replacement, however we point out that this is not part of our Terms and Conditions of Sale that all Customers are shown -before- they place their orders, and as shown below:

It is worth reiterating , that we need to refund instead of sending a replacement because the same mishap, damage or loss can recur, thus leaving the Customer with the same loss as before. The only certain method to remedy a Customer's loss is  to refund the amount of money lost in the first place.

Still another prompt is the minimum order quantity for certain, selected 'Sale' products. These are usually perfectly good and fine and merchantable products that may be discontinued by the Manufacturer for one reason or another.

Generally, these items are sold quite cheaply, at around half of the retail price, or occasionally, even at below goods landing cost, with the only condition being a definite quantity required for ordering.  Customers sometimes contact us wanting to buy smaller quantities at the cheaper price. However this is not possible, because the only reason the goods are being greatly discounted, is to quickly clear excess stock.

Thank  you for reading this post "picture frames online store prompts".