The Earplugs Files – News from Snorestore

Just a v quick reminder that this week sees some important last posting dates if you want to get your Snorestore stuff before Christmas.

1) Second Class post is now no longer an option as the deadline for posting Second Class Royal Mail items was Saturday 17th December

2) First Class and First Class recorded orders must be placed by 2pm on Tuesday 20th December

3) Next Working Day (Special Delivery) orders must be placed by 2pm on Thursday 22nd December

4) If you’re taking things down to the wire, then if you use the Saturday delivery option and we receive your order by 2pm on Friday 22nd December, then your item(s) will arrive on Saturday 23rd.

5) Airmail: it’s too late now to guarantee that any items sent to Europe or beyond will arrive by Christmas. Sorry. You can still order of course, just please don’t expect your stuff to be with you by 25th December.

6) Er that’s it.

Now we’re into December, it feels we can legitimately remind you that there are only a set number of days left before Christmas a) to order your Snorestore stuff and b) to get it delivered. Don’t miss out – order sooner rather than later and keep your stress levels down.

Snorestore will be dispatching every day before Christmas up to and including Friday 23rd December. After Christmas, we will not be able to send anything until Wednesday 28th December as the two preceding days are Bank Holidays in England.

Anyway, here are the last posting dates as published by Royal Mail:

UK
Sat 17th December: Second Class and Second Class Recorded Signed For™
Tue 20th December: First Class and First Class Recorded Signed For™
Thu 22nd December: Special Delivery™
Fri 23rd December: Special Delivery™ with Saturday Guarantee

Airmail
Mon 5th December: South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand
Fri 9th December: Eastern Europe, USA and Canada
Mon 12th December: Western Europe

British Forces Post Office (BFPO)
Fri 2nd December: Airmail to Operational BFPOs
Thu 15th December: Airmail to Static BFPOs

We’ve lost count of the number of incarnations of the Snorestore website. We can’t even really remember what it looked like right at the beginning. But thanks to the internet way back machine, we’ve got a rough idea. This is what our home page was like in 2001, the year of Snorestore’s launch (click for a larger image):

Yes, it was basic, and yes it was hand-built using a teach-yourself  HTML book. But yes, it did the trick. We started getting orders straight away, even though we could only accept cheques to start with. It wasn’t until December 2001 that we were able to take payments online.

Anyway that’s all by the by, what we really want to talk about, is what Snorestore is like now, ten years on from those cringe-tastic early days.

For reason which are a bit obvious, we didn’t mark Snorestore’s ten year anniversary publicly in September. There was other more important stuff going on.

Instead, we got together with Lee Hackett, one of the best web designers in the business and between us came up with a brand spanking new sharp-as-a-button design which is so fit for purpose it aches with cool and useability:

All the earplugs you know and love are still there, but we reckon we’ve made it easier to find them. There’s less duplication and the pages are clean and bright and – we hope – enticing.

We had what we call a soft launch last weekend. We didn’t go mad telling the world that Snorestore has changed because, well, what if we’d got it horrendously wrong?

We did send out a discount code to our newsletter subscribers though. And so far, the reaction to our new shopfront has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, we haven’t had a single negative comment. We’re thrilled.

Anyway, here’s to the next ten years. And thanks for the last ten. It’s been great. Cheers.

Back to back emails in our inbox this morning;

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Feedback
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2011 09:29:21 -0000
From: abc@ukabc.co
To: Snorestore

I can only echo the other endorsements on your web site. Spectacular service – ordered at lunchtime, delivered following day – suggest you should take over the running of Royal Mail!!  Thank you.

= = =

Followed by:

——– Original Message ——–
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2011 10:53:52 +0000 (GMT)
From: xyz@xyz.co
To: Snorestore

Order Number: SNO123456
Order Date: 2 November 2011 14:47 GMT
Shipping: First Class
As the postage for my order is First Class I would expect to have been emailed
to advise that my order has been despatched

Would you please advise me when you intend to despatch If you cannot do this please
arrange cancellation so that I can order elsewhere

= = =

Now, which of those two emails would *you* prefer to receive?

We received this:

“Well, you certainly know how to lose customers! I am an expat so I must be dishonest! You remind me why I never want to live in the UK again.”

We thought about replying:

“Dear Ms Dog-Barker,

We feel we should advise you that your email address may have been hacked, as it is being used to send emails which are a bit rubbish.

Yours, with increasing respect,

Glyn Jones (rtd.) “

But we didn’t. Because we are RESPONSIBLE and HONEST and we LOVE our CUSTOMERS.