Do you guys respond to customers messages eventually or just when you feel like it? I get that you are busy but god damn
idk how to put this nicely so i'm not going to try dude
we get multiple messages a day for the rescue alone, usually regarding emergencies or placement that we need to help people find
hell, our humane society just finished reaching out for a recommendation letter to the city to make sure they can keep their contract for feral surgeries going
i'm not really sure how many other places we could possibly put "it takes us a few days to respond" or "orders can be delayed" or "order wait time is currently 3-4 weeks"
i handle shop e-mails every 3-5 days. if you haven't gotten a response, it's because 1. it didn't go through 2. you dm'd us and we don't respond to shop dms because it's way too disorganized 3. you need to be patient or send it again
if you have a deadline, we ask you to tell us about it ahead of time. we have a million different places we put order info / wait info ie. item descriptions, announcement bars, FAQ, our convention schedule on our website page, and hell, our automated message and even social media posts / stories, etc.
we are two (2) people handling several hundred orders a month. our shop keeps the rescue going. the rescue means coordinating with fosters, potential adopters & prev adopters, handling medical emergencies and going to the vet near weekly. tnr trips. we also had two conventions back to back at the end of march / beginning of april and on the way back, our car (with all our stock) totally died and needed to be repaired for almost a week + me driving it back home. i'm just now getting back to packing orders. i've explained this to nearly every open message on etsy / our instagram stories / a few emails.
that's not including things like the aftg shirts or certain apparel that takes several weeks for us to manufacture.
we both appreciate the support on our shop but to be frank, idk how many other ways we can ask for patience haha this isn't a commercial retail shop, this is us selling our art out of our house
so no, it's not 'when we feel like it' jesus
ps. the oldest e-mail i have in our inbox rn is from the 27th