VerticallyEnhanced

Now see...I think *I* remember you posting about that. Was that the time where they asked you for the wicks back, you sent like 1521 back (made up number cause I cannot remember THAT well) because you had used some of them in the dud candles, and they only credited you for 1521 wicks you sent back instead of the entire 2000? Forget the tons of money you lost having to pull candles with bad wicks, huh?

I remember that!! I had the same wax problem along with 2000 incorrect wicks being shipped to me. The Company mixed zinc in with my batch. When I called and told them, they said "Oh, No we would not do that, IMPOSSIBLE!! I flipped, impossible.. I see the zinc... DUH!! NO denying it now.. They blamed their manufacturer of course! Now see...I think *I* remember you posting about that. Was that the time where they asked you for the wicks back, you sent like 1521 back (made up number cause I cannot remember THAT well) because you had used some of them in the dud candles, and they only credited you for the ones you sent back instead of the entire 2000?

First of all, I don't use IGI wax, but I do remember there being some issues on this board about the IGI 6006 a while back. I would do a search and see what comes up. As for fragrance suppliers I use way too many, lol. Some I have to use and I don't particularly want to, but they carry "that" oil that I really need. Kwim? With that said, here are the good ones...the ones that consistantly provide me a quality product and ones that stand behind what they sell: Just By Nature - they are the ones who were instrumental in helping me with my $2000 issue (yes, I am still a bit bitter over it, lol) and it was not even their product in question. They have the MOST amazing customer service and their oils are wonderful. Also, they are the ones that gave me the heads up on one of the oils I use changing, which I appreciated so much. KY - Vicki is one of the best suppliers out there. Top notch products, top notch knowledge and top notch customer service. She will also post about "new formulations" on oils on her page. Another thing that she does is on her soy wax page, she has a big ole disclaimer saying basically "each lot of soy can change...make sure you test." That is a "must know" if you are working with soy. So many suppliers simply don't put that on their site and again, when working with soy, you simply have to understand that for not only making a quality candle time after time, but also a safe candle. GL Candle supply - Although I don't get my wax from them, I have seen Brenda go out of her way to let her customers know in the past if there were any different burning characteristics with their 70/30 wax. Translation in my mind=she tests her products before passing them on. Tennessee Candle Supply and Millcreek Candle Supply are are other suppliers that I use for oils that have consistantly provided great service and products. I am sure others can post their experiences. I am not saying there are not any other great suppliers out there, these are just the ones I personally have used and the ones I feel are top notch.

Okay. I'll say it. I have had a margarita and I am feeling bold. Suppliers, if you truly have knowledge that any aspect of your oils have changed or will change, and you are not allerting your customers about even the slightest reformuation, well, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Not only is it horrid customer service, imo, you will lose business. There have been way too many very experienced candle makers who know what they are doing who are obviously having issues. Now, if your manufacturer did a switch-a-roo on you and YOU did not know about it, then I would be LIVID with my manufacturer if I was in your place. How many times has anyone here called a supplier with an issue only to hear "Well, gee, no one else has complained" only to see/hear on here or other boards that, wow, low and behold we are not the only one with issues. We are experienced. We KNOW our products and we know when something we have been doing for years suddenly does not work, be it wax, oils, wicks, stickums, etc. We know when something smells different. We know when something burns different. I tell you what, I had a huge product issue several years ago that cost me close to $2000. I will never forget it and I came *this close* to throwing in the towel. The most frustrating part was that the supplier never did follow through and help me figure it out. It was actually another supplier who is their competitor that ended up helping me. They now get a TON of my business. :smiley2: I have a feeling that there are many, who if faced with oils that are suddenly not performing the same, might just throw up their hands and be done with it. People throwing in the towel=less money for suppliers. Let's face it, with prices the way they are, it would be so much easier to say "screw it," throw in the towel and take up macrame than it would be to lose money and then spend MORE money to try and figure out what is going on. Of course, I am not a supplier. I don't know what goes into being a supplier. But I have been a customer for a long time and I have a LOT of respect for suppliers who will actually share information with their customers about their products. Case in point, one of my suppliers has an oil that I have used for a couple of years. Instead of me getting a new version of it and wondering why it smelled differently, burned differently or threw differently, they actually put the info on their website that they are carrying a new formulation. I knew to test it. Sure enough it burned differently. BUT, I knew to test it before I made two cases with that oil for a wholesale account. Or another supplier who tells their customers, "This watch batch is burning a bit tougher...best test." Again, I have so much respect for those kind of suppliers. Okay, rant over.

Wow...have you asked for your money back? I would be steaming!

Island...did you have trouble with the BC stickums? If so what were they just not sticking?

$5,050 Hmmmm, at this point with prices going up and up and up, I might be willing to sell it! Wonder who I would contact?

Thanks for all your suggestions! I appreciate it!

Well, if the prices of my wax and shipping keep going up, I am thinking of taking up the accordian and standing on street corners. Maybe plate spinning? Become a contortionist? I used to be of the mind set, "Yeah, wax is going up...build it into your price." But heck, each time I order I have an increase...be it with the product, shipping, or both.

Ya know Islandgirl, I thought that was our little secret! Just as long as the others don't get out, I am fine.

Well, I think it is great, but I totally appreciate you being upset, even though I think it is a wonderful article. It is hard when you work so hard at something and you look so forward to it only to have it turn out differently than you hoped. Look at it this way...it is the kind of publicity most would kill to have! If it makes you feel better, the article that they wrote about me was very good, BUT it made me sound like a drunken horn dog. In the course of the conversation with the reporter, she said that she loved reading my website, esp my scent descriptions. I told her thank you, that one of my fav things to do when the kids go to bed is grab a glass of wine and sit down and update my site. That translated into "... pens her own website with the help of a bottle of wine." What the heck??!?!?!?! Then, she somehow focused on my Sex on the Beach candle and closed with "Check out the website for over 80 scents, one of which is too risque to put in print." Double what the heck?!?! So, then I had emails from tons of folks claiming I had taken the "risque" scent off of my site. I cannot tell you how many people I had to tell, "Uh, no, she was talking about my Sex on the Beach candle and it is right there for everyone to see." So yes, now I am known as the sex craved wino wax woman. And really, for those who know me, is it really too far from the truth??? :wave:

Sells wonderfully for me. Two of my wholesale accounts love it and since I introduced it earlier this year, they order and sell a lot of it.

If (big if) I got it, I would probably still use my CC slips and get them to sign it, which again, is still taking up time and I still have CC slips to keep track of. I really don't know if it is worth it for me. I only do about four shows a year and I looked on my records for last year, and for two of those shows, I exceeded 71 transactions. Of course they were two day shows, so I guess I could go home and download the data then start again the next day. But for $100 and $5 a month when I only use it three months out of the year, eh, again, not sure if it is worth it.

Very nifty... I think it is pretty new, so I would be surprised if anyone has used it yet. Of course feel free to prove me wrong. https://epay.propay.com/SPC/Default.aspx I like the idea. Pros (for me at least): Time. With my knuckle buster I spend quite a bit of time on making sure all the numbers are visible, then I still need to get their info (I do a phone number in addition to a zip). This will help me cut down on that time. Time. (Yes again) Not having to enter the numbers on line when I get home from a show. Errors. I have only had one in several years of using propay, but on one CC form, I was not able to read a number and not able to contact the customer. I lost the sale. This reads the card for you...no error or chance of not being able to read a carbon CC slip. Can hook up to puter. If you are doing a show and you have a laptop and an internet connection, you can process the cards right there. Cons Still have to write some stuff down if using it without a laptop at a show. Cost. Nuff said. Transaction limit. You can only process 71 transactions. I don't want to pay that much for something and then "run out of room."

Outside of the soap route, you could do a linen spray that can be placed near the bed. Of course they would have to carry a full line of your full sized products for the guests to buy when they leave simply because they will fall in love with them.

So you have never personally done that to your candles? Also, it seems that you are saying if candles don't have soy in them, they need extra help? So whose "all paraffin" candles did you smell that did not cut the mustard and needed the extra oil? Sharing trade secrets that are positive, helpful and make a better candle is a lot different than sharing deceptive practices. You may have made candles for nine years, but there are many, many folks out here who are starting out, some mostly lurk. They see what you posted about ways to deceiving a customer and then voila, they do it, not taking the time to learn to make a candle that has a cold throw. Sometimes handmade candle makers get a bad wrap because there are way too many out there who don't take the time to test and learn, who only take short cuts like wiping oil on the rim of a jar. In your original post, you never made it sound as though it was the wrong thing to do, that it is deceptive, which again, I feel it is. In fact now you say companies that "make a good candle and sells a lot of them" do it. Again, someone learning to make candles is going to see a person who says they have made candles for nine years, claiming to make good money talking about doing something deceptive that is even practiced by the big candle companies. You say they do that because it is well known that paraffin candles don't have a good cold throw. Those who know better, know better. But again, someone who is just learning will read what you wrote and thus, carry on the deception.

I have smelled many paraffin candles that have a wonderful cold throw. I still think the extra oil smeared on the inside of a jar is deceptive.

Hmmmm, if you have to deceive your customers, tricking them to buy your product, maybe it is time to rethink your craft.

Welllll, I can honestly say I have been in your shoes. I had an article come out in a large market paper in the same month as yours will. It was on the front page of the particular section, color photos and all that jazz. I was not prepared for what hit me, but I survived. I literally had to take a "calm me down" pill I had left over from a surgery because when I saw how many hits were on my website the first day the article came out, I almost fainted! Looking back at it, things would have been much easier if the article came out in April or May, but instead, it spilled into the busiest time of the year. I normally do shows during Oct-December but that was cut down to only two shows because I just did not have the time. I sourced out a lot of my stuff to help me out. I paid someone to wick all my jars and put warning labels on them. My husband took over the books/invoicing/shipping. A friend would come over for two hours a day and label what I had made the night before. (I paid her in candles...she was happy, lol) I would hold off and not sink a lot of money into one area right now until you see what happens. You don't want to have all your money sunk in "x" and someone wants a bunch of "y" and you are up a creek. Since you only have a few scents, if it were me, I would keep a few cases of each scent on hand. I bulked up on my bestsellers and the ones mentioned in the article and they went quickly, but of course, people ordered the ones that I did not expect. I just made them as they came in. At the time, I did put something on my website that said something like "Due to the AMAZING article that came out in the x paper, I am only sleeping 2-3 hours a night! If you need your candle in a hurry, your best bet would be to visit one of my retailers. Please understand that after you place your order, your candle could take up to ten days to make it to your doorstep." Also, check with your webpage server provider about what kind of bandwidth issues you may face. I learned that the hard way.

http://www.etax.dor.ga.gov/BusTax_SalesTax.aspx

I am going cross-eyed on the net trying to find the best supplier for grosgrain ribbon. I have started making my daughter's hair bows because the dress code is super strict at their school and their hair accessories have to be certain colors. Well, two of the colors are proving hard to find at the local shops (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Jo Anns, etc.). Gray and then wine or anything in the burgundy family. So I thought I would hit the net and look for some. Looking for solids and prints in the grosgrain. Does anyone have a place they use and like? Thanks much!

Very close dupe in my opinion...amazing oob smell. But I have to post and ask how people are finding this to throw in soy. I am just not getting a typical knock your socks of KY throw that I am used to with so many of her oils.

Photoshop also makes a program called Photoshop Elements which is a simpler version of Photoshop. I cannot comment much on it because I have never used it. Another great site is www.picnik.com I have played around on it a bit and it really does a lot of neat things to your pictures that you can do in Photoshop but it has a much friendlier user interface. My kids even use it, so it is easy to master. You can frame you pics, crop, edit, change color, saturation, etc. It even offers photo effects that funky and fun that I have spent hours learning how to do in photoshop. It even offers a blemish tool that is kind of a watered down version of the healing brush in photoshop. Got a zit? Take it out! It also has a text tool where you can add text to your photos. It is free and then there is also a premium version which of course, costs, but allows you to do more.

Are you talking about Photoshop CS3? Photoshop is an amazing program but you really have to devote some time to learning it. It's doable, I promise. You will be glad you did, too...there is just so much you can do with it. I use it for SO much. In addition to tinkering with photos, I use it to create graphics, business cards, signs, labels, brochures, postcards, coupons...pretty much anything I do in print for my business and family. Even though I have been using it for quite a while, I really feel like I have only scratched the surface. I am ALWAYS learning! Also, like someone said, I am forever googling "photoshop tutorial" and then what I need help with. There is tons of free info out there and even some on-line pace yourself classes. There are also a lot of free plug-ins on the web. Free brush sets, filters, image effects, patterns, textures, etc. Also, use the Adobe site. They have a huge knowledge base, forum and list of "live events." I have been to several of their "free" presentations (usually done around the time they release a new version). There was also a great event I went to that I paid $90 for. This was a couple of years ago but I think it was called their "Photoshop WOW"seminar. SO worth the money! I learned so much, met some amazing designers and walked away with a textbook I STILL refer to. I am convinced with a good photo editor, anyone can be a great photographer. In fact, a friend was over the other day and she was looking at some of my pictures and said that I was such a good photographer and she asked if I could give her some lessons. I had to laugh...I told her I really was not, but I know how to make it look like I am with Photoshop. I have taken some really crappy pictures and turned them into something neat. From this plain ole pic of our kids fishing: To this. And yes, I know it is "just" black and white but when I just greyscaled it, it was muddy. I sharpened it up and tinkered with the shadows and highlights to give it a sharper look. and then playing with colors to give it a neat effect Okay...in case you cannot tell, I like Photoshop. Stick with it...you will be so glad you did!

Waxcessories used to supply their warmers but Scentsy branched off and started having them exclusively manufactured for them. The Waxcessories ones are the ones which were recalled: http://www.officialscentsy.com/