sockmonkey

Surely they don't mean you have to work for them at the show. If they are a booster organization they probably mean you work 8 hours at some other event, like selling concessions at a ballgame or something. If everyone who bought a booth had to work 8 hours at the craft show, what would they all be doing?

Did people even try them? I think $3 is more than reasonable. I'm wondering if people really knew what they were. To me, $3 is more in line price-wise for lip products, not fragrance. Could it be possible they thought it was lip gloss that reeked of perfume?

What about "exotic."

I don't do very many shows, but I haven't run across anyone requesting something in a resume format. Is it truly a "resume" they want or just an application with photos of your products? Unless someone else has experience with it, you might want to ask the show promoter if they will provide you with an example that you can go by since you are unfamiliar with the process. If they aren't able to provide examples for you, what I would do is list how many years you've been making candles, any special training or classes you may have taken related to your craft, and list any professional craft associations/guilds that you belong to. I would also list shows you have exhibited at in the past, and indicate whether or not it was a juried show. You could also list any organizations that used you for their fundraising efforts. I think that pictures are appropriate since every show I have ever done has asked for them, and since you say it's a large show, I'm guessing they would need them. Then again, I think they should provide you with more information, since some places limit the number of photos you may submit I'd hate for them to possibly disqualify you because of a minor oversight of something you were not aware of.

Whoa, sending MSDS sheets to the allergist? I think she went a little too far in concocting that story. If she has such severe allergies, I'm sure an allergist would simply tell her--DON'T BURN CANDLES. If she's such a candle expert, wouldn't she be able to tell what size wick you used? If I were you, I think I would avoid this lady. You should be able to tell her, "no offense, but it's my policy to keep my trade practices confidential--as a former candle maker, I'm sure you understand." If she still goes after more info, take off running!

The bottom line is, you paid for a space in her show and she is fulfilling her obligation to you. She had every right to wait until the day of the show before canceling it and issuing a refund to you if she couldn't produce the show. In the meantime, when she was saying the show might get canceled, why didn't you ask her during any one of those conversations how she would handle refunds, since you obviously knew there was nothing in the contract regarding cancellations? Each state will have its own law on refunds. You might be able to contact your state's consumer affairs dept. or attorney general's office to find out what your rights are.

A customer who complains about something 5 months after they receive it is not a customer you want to hang on to--especially after they claim they had a problem after 4 months but didn't do anything about it AND they don't plan on placing another order with you. I think you should ask her what her company policy is concerning refunds. Does she ever give out refunds for anything after 5 months? I seriously doubt it. Frankly, I would tell her it was not possible to give her a refund at this point. Business owners know that kind of thing just doesn't happen. If she sold shirts in her store window the sun could fade the fabric--that happens a lot. Would she call the shirt manufacturer 5 months after they've been sitting in the window and tell them she can't sell the shirts because they faded and she wants her money back. No. It's a bunch of baloney for her to ask for a refund. She probably knows she's being unreasonable to ask for a refund, but figures it won't hurt to ask. You have absolutely nothing to gain by giving her a refund.

Five months go by and now she's complaining about them. I realize it may take time for something like that to occur, but I can't help but wonder if maybe she is having slow sales and is looking for a scapegoat. Do you think she is likely to buy more candles if you give her a refund? If she's unhappy with this batch she probably won't be any happier in the future, so unless she returns the candles to you and you think you can sell the candles elsewhere, I don't see any point in giving her a refund. I don't know of any companies that let you hang on to merchandise for 5 months, complain about it and then get a refund. If you think you make a good candle, maybe you need to set some guidelines in your marketing materials. Explain about frosting, and stipulate what your policy is regarding returns. It's ok if you want to offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But it's also ok to offer a week or 30 days to return merchandise if you are not satisfied with it--but not 5 months!

I'm convinced that some of the people who pull these scams are right here on the same boards we're on. How many times do people pop out of nowhere on here and ask to see your websites? I know there are people who get no sales and hardly any hits on their sites, yet someone miraculously finds their site and wants a zillion samples. Candlelady, I find it odd that a carpet company would give out gift baskets containing so many candles for only 18 employees, especially considering that most carpet stores are staffed with men. For her to be offended that you thought it was a sham, says to me she's overreacting for a reason. I still say she's not legit. Maybe she does work at a carpet store, and she gave you her work number. It doesn't mean she has any authority to buy candles on behalf of the company. She's full of it. What person who doesn't even "like candles" would 1. think to sample them to make sure they burned perfectly, and 2. give them away for gifts? If somebody has the nerve to pull this scam over and over, I say make them jump through some hoops. If they claim they want samples because they want to make a huge order for their company, and you think it's bogus, tell them to please send their request on company letterhead to you along with their company business card. I would also state that due to the volume of requests, only valid requests will be processed in the order in which they are received. If they mail a hokey letterhead or business card printed on their home computer toss it. If they call hounding you about samples, say you're still filling requests and haven't gotten to theirs yet. Depending on how you deal with them, most legitimate businesses won't be so offended by you wondering if you're being scammed because they usually have people coming to them asking for handouts all of the time too and they will understand. Me personally, if I were the carpet store lady I probably would have laughed about it and brushed it off rather than getting in a huff. There are too many choices for candles out there and there's no need for anyone to get worked up because they were refused a sample. Any legitimate business person would have just contacted another supplier.

Looking at this from a business point of view and not a personal one, how could she put on a show if everyone did the same thing you want to do? You've known for three months that this was up in the air, yet you appear to have waited until less than three weeks before the event to try to get out of it because you found a bigger and better show. Unlike some fly by night promoters, she didn't cash your check in case she had to cancel the show, so I would actually give her credit for that. Legally, a person has 6 months to cash a check before the bank has the right to dishonor it as "stale." So, the fact that she's held your check for three months without cashing it doesn't mean you can assume the show will be canceled. If you want to do the other show I would do it and chalk this one up as a $30 lesson learned--never participate in a show where a cancellation policy isn't clearly stated. Here's a link to an article that deals with pulling out of shows you might find interesting... http://festivalnet.com/help/tips/refundpolicy.html

??? http://www.gershelbros.com/pack.html

It's probably a fake. In your email that is supposedly from paypal, when you open it, did it address you by your real name? If it didn't it's a fake and they're trying to scare you and get you to type in your account info so they can gain free access to all of your funds.

Since it is highly unlikely that she has a still, solvents, or a method for high pressure CO2 extraction, nor tons of flowers, herbs, or fruits to use, the instructions I gave her are what are commonly used by ordinary folks to create their own essential oils. By the way Lovedog, the more I thought about it, I was intrigued by the idea of using banana/plantain peel to make essential oil. If you read up on it, you can find that there are benefits in the peel.

Here are some instructions on how to make your own essential oils. http://www.ritualjewelry.com/make_essential_oils.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/279273/how_to_make_your_own_essential_oils.html I haven't come across any information related to making EO's from any fruit other than citrus --which I believe they use because of the oils contained in the peels.

It may prove very worth while to do a search in the yellow pages for local printers and get quotes from them. I recently got 2,500 4-color copy brochures printed and it only cost $569 from a real print shop and they turned out great. I got a quote from Kinko's that was $1,333 for the exact same thing. Office Max gave me similar pricing. I'll never waste my time getting a quote from either of them again. The terrible thing about it, which tells me exactly how badly they rip people off is, Kinko's called me back and said they would lower their price to match the best offer I had because they "wanted my business." You can find plenty of "discount" printers on-line, but the thing about using them is that shipping can eliminate any savings on the cost of printing, so if you find an on-line printer, make sure you get an estimate for shipping before you commit to anything. Also, depending on your relationship with the organization the fundraiser is for, if you're doing black & white copies, they might be willing to copy them for you. You could supply the paper, they supply the copier.

As the window to the resolution center was opening I got a quick flash of another website address other than Paypal that appeared in the search bar at the top of the screen. I kept clicking the link over and over until I could get the full web address. It turns out, the site the fake page is coming from is a CHURCH in Oregon. I did a search for the church, found their street address and contacted the sheriff's dept. in that area about the matter. Since my call wasn't an emergency, they said they will have a deputy call me back, which I'm looking very forward to.

I just received an email from "PayPal", subject: "msg". I opened it and noticed that it did not address me by name. The only thing it said was "You have 1 new security message alert. Please visit the Resolution Center to resolve the problem." They provided a link to the "Resolution Center." I couldn't help it, I clicked on the link. Sure enough, a window opened that looked just like the PayPal window with an area for you to log in. The other tabs to things like Welcome, Services, Request Money, etc. did not work--only the box for you to type your email address and password appear to work. I closed the window and typed in PayPal.com myself and checked my account, of course there wasn't any type of alert on my account. As always, if you get messages from PayPal, Ebay, or banks that do not address you by your name, it is a fake.

Ask him for a current issue of the magazine and when this article will be published. He shouldn't have a problem with that. When it comes to periodicals--things like newspapers, yes you can have even shorter deadlines. But magazines??? Usually, things are planned out well in advance. He might just be a procrastinator and has waited until the last minute to do his story, and you know the way things go--he's fallen behind so that puts all of the pressure on everyone else. If it were me I would give him samples.

I don't know what the difference between them is or why the room spray costs so much more. It would probably be a good idea to contact them and ask them directly what the reason is. I've never tried their room spray (and at that price I never will), but I have used their moisturizing mist and found it to be sticky. With that in mind alone, I wouldn't want to use it as a room spray. You might consider The Candle Maker's Store instead. It's a whole lot cheaper. http://www.thecandlemakersstore.com/category/premixed_bases.body_splash/

Nothing's wrong with black and white. It's usually cheaper than color anyway. But if you want color you could switch to a different color banner, like yellow and keep all the text in black. That would probably grab someone's attention. Another thing you could do is keep the white banner and only change the color of the outline of the box and your name within it (maybe red or burgundy?) and keep the rest black, or do the opposite, keep it black and change the rest of the text. If it's real vinyl lettering they are using, 2-colors of text will ordinarily be more expensive. But if they are printing it digitally you can have all the colors you want and it shouldn't cost you any more.

I don't know what universe you're living in, but in mine there is no such thing as a $30 booth rental fee for a craft show that attracts 12,000-15,000 people. Unless you've witnessed this event for yourself, I would question the accuracy of those numbers. The only reason I say this is from personal experience. I know a lady who promotes a craft fair and advertises that "The streets will be filled with visitors from near and far and a free shuttle provides transportation from parking to the event. Estimated attendance is 5,000-6,000." In actuality, the attendance is more like 500 and the free shuttle is a school bus that is necessary to haul people around because there is essentially no parking in the area, even on a normal working day. The best day they ever held this event, they would be lucky to have seen 2,000 people, max. Oh yeah, this event charges $50 per booth. So, I guess I would say that anything is possible and you might earn $2,500 (I hope you do), but just starting out you should know that when people promote their events they tend to exaggerate the numbers. The other thing to think about is that it is highly unlikely you will be the only crafter with such items. Unless the promoter specifically states that you will be the only one allowed to sell particular items, you are more than likely going to see multiple people selling some of the same items you are. Have you sold your products anywhere else before, such as on-line, as fundraisers, or to friends or co-workers? I think any past success might be an indicator or how well you could do at a craft show.

You are so right Michi. Most of the big packaging suppliers are located in CA and where do you think their stuff comes from? China.

That definitely sounds like a good investment for you. But I would be worried about shipping cost to you. If they are very large bottles, 8000 bottles will come in huge cartons and shipping is sky high for over-sized boxes.

Wouldn't you have that done in Malaysia? The prices anyone would offer you could vary wildly. The size of the imprint, the size of your bottle, the material your bottle is made of, as well as the colors you will use are factors nobody knows. Isn't this something that should have been looked into when determining your budget? If your mom takes sourcing trips to China, surely you will be able to get a much better deal there than any of us in the states could.

I know that the top sellings scents can vary from region to region, which I didn't consider when I made my suggestion to you. In the midwest around this time of year baked goods and spicy scents are the best sellers. In the spring and summer its florals and fruits. In considering some of the items I deleted, I thought about whether a potential buyer would know what something smelled like, and the likelihood they would buy it if they didn't. That is why I eliminated grandma's kitchen, bird of paradise, sex on the beach, tickle me pink, and april fresh downy. Maybe you would do better with the fruit scents instead of the baked goods in the fall since you're further south and have a warmer climate. Either way, I would try to drastically slash the number of scents you have available.