Long-distance quilting customers.......

[SandraC]

I know some of you have quilts that are mailed in to you, but I never thought this would be part of my business. Yesterday, my brother-in-law called...seems they had company in from Quebec and they happened to notice the quilts around the house which had been gifts from me in the past. They proceeded to tell him that where they live they have no LAers close by and could they have my info, and that there are other quilters in their vicinity in the same boat!

I don't know if this will pan out, but I want to be ready in case it does! Any tips for dealing with mail-ins? I imagine it would be best to deal will services like Fed-ex or UPS rather than postal service??? Do most quilters that do this leave it up to the discretion of the LAer as to what to quilt?

Thanks in advance for any advice..........

Sandra:)

[Bonnie]

Sandra,

I actually use all three transporation services, depending on which is best for the customer....I have NEVER had any trouble with the USPS or the others FedEx and UPS.

As far as what is quilted onto the quilt...I have email and phone conversations with each of my customer....just as if they were in my studio, I don't touch them without talking first and then the plans are made to what goes onto the quilt. Sometimes I take a picture and draw onto it what I plan and then send it back to the customer for approval.

[mrsbishwit]

I have had several of my snow bird customers wanting me to ship quilts back & forth after they go back home for the summer. This is an easy transistion for me because my website is set up in such a way that all of my services/ paterns, thread colors, backing choices, and customer quilts are shown, including an order form that they can print off and fill out.

So if an out of state customer wants me to do their quilt they go to my site print off an order form and fill in their personal info and pick their choices from what's available on my site. Then they will call or e-mail me letting me know that they are sending me their quilt. Once I receive it and I inspect it, take measurements and come up with a price I will call them back and let them know I received it and give them the sub total and my turn around time. When the quilt is finished I put the pics of it on my web site call the customer let them know that it is finished (where to find the pics on my website) and what the final $ is with tax & shipping. They will send me a check (I don't mail out their quilt until check is received) or if they have a pay pal account I would send them an invoice/bill to their e-mail which they can pay with credit card which is faster and then it gets mailed off the next day. I use UPS or USPS as my shippers.

As far as shipping $ goes it depends on how many quilts are being sent back and the size of the box needed to ship them (make sure you include these expenses/ packing material & box in the cost of shipping).

Joann

[SandraC]

Thanks Bonnie and Joann...

I was wondering what to do about charging the customer...thanks...

I had wondered whether to ask for a deposit or not, etc.

[sewingupastorm]

Sandra there is really nothing different about having qilts mailed. I get many of my quilts from allover. I always have conversations (usually by phone) with the owner and we agree on how the quilt should be quilted, agree on the price.

The postage is fully paid by the owner of the quilt not by me. I do not charge tax to out of state people. I use mostly priority mail or UPS. I will offer additional insurance but they need to pay for it.

I also ask each customer to let me know when their quilt arrives and I do the same.

Other than that it is business as usual. Once you do the first one and it goes back home safe you will likely see how easy it is.

[annlittle1]

My best customers are from out of state. We email and phone back and forth. After a couple of quilts I got to know pretty much what each customer is going to want. One always wants a fluffy batting and simple quilting. The other one pretty much lets me do what I want.

I normally ship by USPS Priority and $15.00 will usually cover it. However, the last quilt I shipped cost over $100.00 to ship by FEDEX. The customer needed the quilt the next day and wanted it insured for $800.00. She paid for the shipping without hesitation.

The biggest problem for me is finding a box to ship it back in. They don't usually send me the batting, so the quilt is twice the size that it was and won't fit into the original box. I have found that boxes can be expensive and the larger the box the more expensive shipping is.

One suggestion I would make is to have the customer ship the quilt to you and not use the name of your business or the word "Quilt" anywhere on the box. It helps keep quilts from going missing in shipping.

Phyllis

[k8]

We ship a lot of quilts using USPS PRiority mail probaby 85% of the time. It's usually the best value although sometimes UPS beats it... We've had very good luck shipping quilts although we did have one USPS that took 10 days to go 100 miles, lol (actually they found it stashed in a corner at the destination post office! We know that only because their postmaster is a friend of OUR postmaster and they actually looked for it on request - that also is the exception rather than the rule).

For the above reasons UPS and FedEx are better because of the tracking.

[MODEN]

Hi sandra

I ship Canada Priority Post, signature required on receipt. Canada Post has many size envelopes & Boxes for sale, I usually use their biggest size. When u get quilt confer with Customer many times, measure qilt, figure out price, agree on patter, add postage (Canada Post has online store, you can get quote on line) and request cheque ( i prefer Money Order) from Customer. Works well for me in Canada.

[MODEN]

Sorry for spelling mistakes.....tooo much coffe today