Holiday Shipping Deadlines

To receive your package by December 25, please place your order on www.BayingHound.com by the following dates:

For US packages:
Standard (priority) - December 19
Express - December 22

For International packages:
Standard(first class international) - December 10
Priority International - December 10
Express International - December 16

You can read more about our EasyShip program on our website.

Happy Holidays!

My Day with USPS, or the things I do for customers

Mail delivery came around 10 AM. Our faithful carrier Maria had an Express package to return to me. It had a note on it (not official form, just handwritten) and she explained that the regional post office could not ship express to the APO address of our customer. Maria told me I could go in to the post office for a refund and ship priority.

I attempted a refund online through the usps.com service we had used to print the label. Because it was beyond 48 hours after shipment (it's Monday, we shipped early Saturday), no refund was available automatically.

So, I load up our daughter, the package, and my wallet in the bike trailer and ride 4 miles to the post office. I get there and there is no bike rack. Plenty of security pylons, but those are easy to slip our lock right off. Bugger. Thank goodness for the newspaper machine that had a relatively secure loop I could lock through.

Bike secured, I walked into the post office with daughter, package, and wallet. I wait in line 20 minutes. When the postal worker calls me up, I explain that I need a refund because the postal service cannot fulfill my shipment needs and he gives me a blank stare. I ask for the manager Maria told me could help. More blank stare and then some mumbling.

The next associate over says, "You can't do that." I ask for clarification and he rudely tells me they can't do anything about packages shipped online. I request the manager Maria told me about. "Well, he's higher than her," my blank stare associate says. And the next one over says "Carriers don't know anything about this."

I eventually leave with my daughter, package, and wallet because I am getting no help. I know from experience that this post office and staff is often like this - no attempt at customer satisfaction and no flexible solutions.

Tonight, I will again pack up daughter, package, and wallet and drive to the airport 24 hour post office because the staff at that office has always been competent, kind and helpful. I am confident they will find a way to get my customer his Ibex gear quickly.

As soon as I get a moment (I've already spent over an hour on this today, not including writing this post) I will find a way to contact the local post office, speak to a manager, and let them know how disappointed I was with the service. Of course, I'll also need to leave feedback with the online system because if the service told when I input the address that express was not possible, I might have avoided all this trouble. Whew!

Package Handling

We use USPS to ship most packages at Baying Hound because we love the convenience of door to door delivery and the prices, especially on international packages, are impossible to beat. We usually order carrier pickups, the USPS service where carriers pick up packages directly from our door. Since they come here every day anyways, this is an ecofriendly choice too because it requires no extra transportation. Here's a picture snapped by nearly 3 year old Lil of Devie waiting for the mail.


Someday I'll take a video so you can hear her bay. I'm surprised Maria (our carrier) ever returns with the ferocity of Devie's bark.

When carrier pickup doesn't work out (usually because I forget to schedule it) we take packages directly to the post office. As often as possible we do this by bike to reduce our impact:

How to Charge for Shipping

Customers and friends, we need your help. How should we charge for shipping?

For the first two years of our webstore, we charged by weight. This is terribly tedious to maintain during postal rate increases and still sometimes overcharges customers because the weight on the item is for a one item package. Order more than one item and the actual combined weight is less than the straight sum because they share packaging.

Recently we switched to a per item charge. This is easier to communicate to customers (see our Easy Ship page) and easier to change when postal rates increase. However, if a customer buys three or four lightweight accessories, they get charged for each one and end up with a huge shipping charge. We always refund overages, but that's tedious too and probably turning customers away.

There is one more option that we haven't tried - charging for shipping based on item cost. We could do this either as a percentage of sale or rate such $5 for orders up to $20, $7.50 up to $40, etc.

We want to hear from you: What kind of shipping charge do you prefer?

By the way, we have no plans to change our most popular coupon - 'freeship50' gets Free Shipping on orders over $50!