Desert Panda Fiber Arts moving forward

After a long consideration I will be reworking how we run our dye schedule and business. 

Preorders/Dyed to order requests

We will no longer be taking any preorders outside of collection drops.

This includes but is not limited to custom orders or dyed to orders by request. 

I have to take into account our lack of a 2nd dyer due to my husband's health. While tons of our customers have been super understanding in our reduced out put there are still many who feel it is necessary to be unkind.

My husband suffered from a heart attack in the middle of June. He is still mending from the incident and is on light duty tasks. This means that he cannot do any of our dyeing. 

I spend much of my time dyeing 1 batch of this or that for 1 skein or braid to fulfill requests. This after while wears down my ability to produce enough product for shop updates and fiber festivals. It is not feasible for me to continue working in this manner. 

What this means is if you email/message me requesting something that is out of stock I will be unable to facilitate these requests. I can take your request into consideration when I dye up the next batch of the colorway being asked about and give you a timeline as to when they will be posted. 

This is hard for me to do as I am a people pleaser and want everyone to have the best experience. But by doing this I am not allowing myself to have the best experience. I need to prevent burn out as this is my only income for my family of 7.

Clubs

At the end of the year we will be closing our sock and fiber clubs in the method the are currently being offered. That means the last club orders will be Nov 25-Dec 10th. Once the club for December closes all subscriptions will be deleted. If you have any sort of balance for our clubs from prepaid subscriptions you will be refunded for the amount left.

I am reworking how we offer our "clubs". Beginning Jan. 5th our club offerings will go live. I will be offering sock sets and full skeins for our yarn colorway as well as a fiber option for each month to include the option of a variegated colorway or a color pack of semi solid mini braids. At this time we will only being offering 1 fiber base each month to keep things simple for me. The month before I will post the color palette for the next month on the 25th and on the 1st I will show the actual dyed products before everything goes live on the 5th.

Hours of operation and expectations

Going forward from today. I will not be responding to emails Friday-Sunday. This means if you email me on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday your email will not be answered until the following business day. I will also not be answering emails on holidays. I will be disabling our website chat feature as it has given the impression that I am available 24/7. 

Additionally, emails will not be answered before 11 am Pacific Standard Time. Regardless how many times you email me before that time I will not answer your email until I am in the office for the day. That means if you live on the east coast I will not be answering your emails until 2 pm your time. The great thing about yarn and fiber is that is never an emergency. Ever.

If we are at festival, I will not be answering emails. I will have a set date for our return to office post festival. I will answer emails then at 11am PST. 

If you are contacting me via Facebook, our Facebook business page or Instagram you will be directed to email us. I will not be handling order information via social media. 

Boundaries

Some of these boundaries are being put into place to help my mental health. Some of these boundaries are being put into place due to the behaviors and actions of others. Regardless the reason; if a boundary has been crossed I will cease all communications and cancel your order. 

I reserve the right to refuse service and cancel orders. I reserve the right to immediately cancel your order if you have been previously informed that you have been placed on the do not sell list. If you have found yourself on said list please reflect on why we have been lead to this stage. 

These past 2 years of this dumpster fire that is the world has changed people. I have never been screamed at via email/messages more than this past 6 months. I have tried to make every order right. Some times things are late but I do try to communicate with customers. In the past 6 months my father was dying, my husband had a heart attack and then my father passed away. 

Within the past 6 months I've had people scream at me because the post office didn't deliver their package until later in the day. This is obviously outside of my control. I've had people threaten me because they mishandled fiber and ruined it. That is also out of my control. I am not a punching bag. I am a human being. 

From this point forwards I will be sticking by my boundaries.