My watches from ArtsNow have arrived! First few watches that I dropshipped to myself, just to test for myself whether this dropshipper is reliable. Watches look fair enough and quality is what I expected. Leather watches are of good quality. The metal of the sports metal watch feels a little light and just a tinnnnnny wee bit flimsy, but it’s generally well crafted. Print quality and colours on face design are accurate. Generally I am satisfied. I have actually heard a couple of scary stuff about ArtsNow shipping the wrong items, items getting lost or items arriving too late. Personally, as long as the correct items arrive eventually and doesn’t take more than a month, I am fine with using them as a dropshipper. In either case, managing your customers’ expectations is key to keeping them happy. For all my eBay listings, I include the following disclaimer:
Shipping
As all watches are crafted-to-order by our watchmakers, your watch will ship typically in 2 – 3 working days after payment is received via Hong Kong Airmail. Note that no tracking number will be provided. Thereafter, it typically takes between 10 – 18 working days (excluding weekends) for shipment arrival. However, during busy periods like Christmas seasons, this may take up to 21 working days.
This paragraph in all my watch listings pretty much covers my ass regarding expected shipping times / delays. Many thanks to the people at the ArtsNow forum who are friendly enough to share their experiences with ArtsNow delivery times, so I’m able to craft the following disclaimer which I believe is quite accurate and allows you to manage customer expectations well. In total this batch took 17 days from the order placement, including weekends to reach me, which is pretty fast for me. So ArtsNow staff, if you are reading this, good job and do keep up with the expected shipping times. Do not get slack or you may lose customers. Right now I’m very happy with the watches and reasonable shipping time though. That said, I’ve got a couple of watches in transit to eBay buyers and a few other buyers from other communities. I hope they don’t get disappointed!
