Cat said:Betty,
I am just new to the whole daylily seen and to the LA so I don't want to be pestering anyone because I know I am really excited to get my orders!! I would think if you send payment with your requested shipping date and that day has come and gone you should expect to receive an email saying when your order will be shipped.
I would email the seller and ask about shipping. Keep in mind that a requested ship date is just that a request. I can usually start shipping in March but with the way winter was I needed to wait until April to ship and some of my plants still aren't ready. Also, some sellers ship by zones so they start with the warmer (southern) states first and depending on where you bought them they may have just started shipping. Maybe the seller didn't see your requested date or forgot to write it down. It is not pestering to the seller for you to email and ask about shipping UNLESS you are one of those that email 25 times in less than an hour expecting the seller to be glued to the computer just waiting for your email and to reply to you
This has happened and I have had a buyer contact Mike Longo (auction owner) because I didn't reply to their emails and I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet at 5 am my time to even read the emails.
Not that you are doing this so don't think it is directed at you but some buyers need to put themselves in the sellers place. Some buyers seem to think they are the only buyer and the seller has only them to think about. It takes a lot of time as a seller with listing auctions, keeping up with invoices and shipping dates, answering emails, and especially getting orders ready to ship.
Let me give you an example of a typical shipping day for me. My best friend helps me with this but she is not always able to help or has to leave at a certain time because we are raising my granddaughter (she's 6) so someone has to be with her after school and such. I can't afford to hire anyone (especially this year) so it's just us doing it.
This is for the time I did 30 orders. I try and email each person to make sure they are ready for their plants even if I was given a date because some areas are still cold this year and the dates may need to change. I also don't like to ship unless I know the person is actually going to be there to get them. Some people forget to tell the seller they are going out of town and won't be home and then the plants just sit there in the hot sun for a week or two before the buyer gets home. I have to go back through the invoices and resort according to if shipping or not once I get replies. Then we write out the tags for the plants the night before with the buyer and plant names and this can take a couple of hours. We get to the garden around 7:30 am and start getting the plants picked out for the orders. This may take us 4-6 hours to do depending on the size of each order (it's a large area to walk around getting plants and some orders can have 30-75 plants in them). If there is time Kim will start unpotting the orders before she has to leave at 2:00 to get the granddaughter from school and I start washing them. We double check the shipping tags with the pot tag to make sure we didn't grab the wrong plant (has happened) and then cut the foliage and shake as much soil off the plants as possible and them put in large containers for the washer (that's me) and I start washing the plants and putting them in the soaking tubs (10% bleach solution).
This is the orders I was washing, it was drizzly, it started getting cold and I was tired and still had more to go
I usually stay until dark (around 6 or 7 pm) doing all of this. Then I have to take all these orders home to get boxed up. I got up at 1:30 am doing this and it took me until 6:30 am and I wasn't finished. I didn't get any gift plants washed so I just packed the boxes and left them open until I got back. I had to go back to the garden and wash 2 more orders I didn't get to the night before and wash gift plants. I got back home around 8:40 am and then had to finish boxing them all up. Then I have to print out shipping labels so I didn't get done until around 11:30am and then rush to the post office before they close at 12:00.
So for 30 orders it took me about 24 hours total do.
and I try to do this twice a week plus I help another seller do his orders and he has way more than me. Last year was a little better because I didn't have to worry about the granddaughter (her mother was living with us) so I could work longer and more days and pull orders the day before washing so it went a little smoother)
Some people have help with doing this and there are some who do it completely on their own so if there is anything as a buyer that will help a little it is usually appreciated like reminding us of a shipping date or letting us know you are ready (if no date given) about a week or two before or telling us you will be out of town.
