Freelancer's Office

I spent the past week sickly and slacking off on work all around, so now I am trying to get back to work and it is not easy.

Why is it that when something has not been done for a while there is kind of a learning process that needs to be taken to relearn how to do it? I still know how to write, of course, but I seem to take all day just trying to get one thing done, stuff that I should be able to do in fifteen minutes and move on to the next task.

I think part of it is leftover from May, and some is my desk is still dreadfully cluttered. Need to get the desk cleared off, but have to catch up n some writing before I can even think about that.

I received a comment that got me to thinking…

“I have to say, I enjoy your website. Maybe you could tell me how I can keeping up to date with it?”

So, how do you get updates for this blog? Well, there are a couple of options aside from checking back here on a regular basis.

Twitter Feed: You can find links to blog posts on my Twitter feed under the Twitter ID of freelancersoffc (Note: that is offc, not office)

RSS Feed: You can subscribe to the RSS Feed using a variety of RSS readers.

Going into June I want to lay out some goals that I will set for this month.

• Post to this blog every day
• Finish rebuilding the main Freelancer’s Office website
• Maintain a 9-5 work schedule M-F throughout the month
• Review outline for co-written novel and get back to it
• Start outline for nonfiction book I am planning
• Write 2 articles
• Get office under control to make working easier

I’m sure I will think of other things I forgot, but for now, this is the goal list for June.

I’m so glad to be through May and into June, you can not even begin to believe it.

The month started out on a sour note that I would not even realize had happened until roughly halfway though the month when I discovered that it had resulted in unexpected overdraws at the bank. Not good.

I won’t go into details here on everything that happened, but I will say I was not surprised that the month ended with me getting growled at for no reason other than the growling party was tired and another overdraw at the bank because the bank failed to make an automatic deposit from another bank until today, but cleared the cable bill payment during the weekend. And those were the good events of the month.

So, yeah, I am so glad to see May leave. One of the few good things that occurred was the verification that Misha Collins is going to be back on Supernatural in his role as Castiel for Season 6. I just hope that he gets a lot of screen time, that’s my favorite character.

So, now for June. We’ll see how this month goes.

A few weeks ago I was talking about a paper cutter I won on eBay. Nice paper cutter, the one I needed for my bookbinding work. Seller even said in the text of the listing that they would ship to Alaska and Hawaii. Yay!

I contacted them to find out what additional shipping to Alaska would be. No response. Ah well. They said RIGHT THERE that they would ship to Alaska, so, I felt safe in bidding on the item and we could work out the difference in cost or I could provide them an alternate address located in the lower 48 States to ship it to.

I bid, I watched my bid get pushed higher and higher in under $2 increments. Finally I won the paper cutter. Good price for both me and the seller, I paid at once and seller left me feedback that they were happy with my purchase.

Then they never contacted me. I waited. After a bit I sent an email, just to check in. Silence. I waited and waited. No response. Finally, as the time neared to file unreceived item at eBay I sent them another email. They responded with a short statement that they can not ship to Alaska and refunded my money.

Wait? What? They said in the listing, had to TYPE IT IN, that they would ship to Alaska. I told them I was ready and willing to pay extra, just let me know what it would be. I had four people ready to receive the item in the Lower 48 and forward it to me themselves. The seller could not be bothered to respond to one of my multiple emails asking about shipping?

Poor Poor seller practices TrulyRC. Very very poor.

My opinion: they were disappointed with the sale price and saw a chance to renege on the sale so they could relist it without being bitchslapped by eBay.

Advice to other sellers: Don’t ignore the customer. ASK them if they have alternate ideas before you flip them the bird and refuse to complete a sale they had entered into in good faith. They MIGHT, just MIGHT know what they are doing. I had a freaking TREADMILL, yes a treadmill, delivered to Alaska from an eBay seller in New York for cripes sake, I think I could have helped them work out getting me the paper cutter.

Click image for full size view of the original listing from eBay. Notice the last line that clearly indicated to me that the seller WOULD be willing to work out shipping to Alaska.