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Pay Attention To The Terms and Conditions

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The other day I got one of those emails that your always excited to get: "Notification of payment received". Everyone likes to get email, especially the kind that's telling you that you have money waiting for you. So I eagerly logged into Paypal to see what item of mine has sold. To my surprise it was an embroidered hat that I create some time ago, living on a site that I have actually forgotten to take down. Luckily for me, I still had some stock of hats left and was going to fulfill the order.

It didn't even occur to me to see where this piece of clothing was being shipped to.

So in normal fashion, I got everything packaged up, logged back into Paypal to print the shipping label. To my surprise the cost to ship this 2 pound item was $28.00. Obviously I clicked something wrong, so I better go back and look at what I had done.

After going back, there it was, in bold letters it stood out at me. Shipping to "United Kingdom". See the problem here is that I offer $5 shipping on anything you can order, meaning one hat or 10 it's only going to cost you $5 total. However I certainly can't afford to send $28 packages to the UK, especially since I only charge $25 for the hat and shipping in the US.

Unfortunately I had to email this person back and refund their money, a lost sale for me, but a very big lesson learned. If you have a website and haven't looked at your Terms and Conditions lately, you might want to give it a good read. Here are some areas that I think you might want to address is great detail if your running an online store.

• Shipping: make sure they know when you ship and how. People like to track packages.
• Returns: Cover yourself for returns and if it's the buyers job to pay for return shipping, make sure you note that.
• Privacy: If you plan on selling email address people want to know. I suggest stating your not going to use their information accept for contact during orders.
• Ask Your Parents: Hey kids, if your not old enough to enjoy a beer with me, then you'll need to get permission from someone that is. This one can save you.
• Any Questions?: Give them multiple avenues to contact you.

So now is great time to review those Terms and Conditions before you get caught in a situation like I did.

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