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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 10d

How are things going at #Pawsome? they letting you waddle around the convention in undies too big to fit through doors?

Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 12d

I definitely hope to, but where so many of the target market only just bought some, I'd have to wait until next year at least before selling more

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 14d

That's an outline sketch of a new toy design sent to the factory to get their thoughts, hoping they come back with a good price for them. Might come back with a list of things that don't work with the idea and need changing, we'll see.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 15d

nice to see people starting to show off pics of their new purchases, and I'm sure there's plenty more to come

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

end of next year is the plan

Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

prototype finished sooner to start taking sales of those, maybe a November/December order period? Have both made and posted at the same time early next year instead of having to bump each thing back a little later, would that work for you?

Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

and shipped out while designing and signing up orders of the Serpent, ready to have them underway early next year. Rather than delay everything a few months, what if I rescheduled both to run at the same time, extend the Phoenix order period a bit, get the Serpent design and

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

Next week was meant to be the end of the Phoenix order period, but with it overshadowed by these shipping delays and similar issues, I've not really advertised it at all, and people have waited to see these orders go out before signing up.
The plan was to have this one being made

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

Or at least, it normally is. Dunno what's going on with this one design

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 16d

One nice thing about selling inflatables is how neatly they all slot into the boxes.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 17d

Sounds about right, and last time they told someone to contact me to reach out to them all they could do to help was give me that number and ask me to pass it on to them, so it just goes around in circles. I'll give them another call on Monday and see if I can get anything more useful.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 17d

It is very high, I'm hearing that about half of it is a fixed rate charge, so it's unusually expensive on the small, cheap orders in particular

Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 18d

1800 742 5877
I dunno about helpful, though

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 18d

There's not much I can do about it from here, every time I speak to UPS about it, they tell me to tell the customer to contact them instead, but I can give it another go for you

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 18d

Is this still going on with the larger orders? I've changed to a different service that might be running it better, so I'm hoping they can push UPS to do better at figuring their stuff out

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 18d

The last three left-over items I sold through the website earlier this month were orange designs with the alternate valve. Looks like I also have one with the regular valve, and would be happy to swap this with whoever of those three customers gets in touch first

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 19d

If they didn't like it, they're going to be disappointed when they get a second one even more full.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 23d

Hope the delivery company likes this present I've got for them. Comes with a free pallet as well

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 24d

also if anyone gets an automated email letting them know they're importing a box of beachballs from me, the customs form gives me a list of options, and for some reason giant inflatable underpants isn't one they thought to include.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 24d

Now can someone get me out of here?

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 24d

Just a bit of testing to make sure those alternative valves are as secure as promised. Maybe they're too far out of reach, something tantalisingly closer might have worked well too

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 25d

Every order of 6+ units also packed up, once they're our the door that's a lot of empty space reclaimed to work in organising the rest.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 26d

Coming close to 100 customers having their parcels shipped out now. Processing these is slower going than hoped, as I have needed to prove myself to the UPS fraud department multiple times, but we are getting there.

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 29d

Got to test them out, make sure products are ok, right?

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Kitutal Toys @kitutaltoys.bsky.social · 29d

Most of the single item parcels boxed up, and the first batch on their way out the door

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