Communication

To all of our valued customers:

I’d like to take a few moments to sit down and say Happy Autumn to you all! We’ve got so much going on right now, so I wanted to just go over a few things to help answer some questions you've been having for us right now. I’ve made a little list of things which I felt needed to be addressed which should help everyone understand a little bit more of what’s going on behind the scenes here at M.A.

Emails:

I'm SOO very sorry it takes me FOREVER to get back with you all regarding your questions about your orders. I've got 3 emails which I answer to... my main one alone has 4500 emails on it, so it takes me quite a long time to answer people; I promise, I’m not trying to ignore anyone on purpose; I’m just inundated with so many tasks that’s it’s quite overwhelming at the moment.

I kindly ask that you PLEASE just use one of these three emails addresses to reach me if you're using this outlet for contact.

admin@magicalalley.com: is our main email address -- order inquiries, contacts regarding placing orders, questions about custom work -- all general questions too.

ask-me@magicalalley.com: is used for all general questions.

pottermorewands@magicalalley.com: is used mainly for all things related to and inquiries about Pottermore wands only.

Please don't send me the same email using all three of my email addresses. It just floods me with more emails than ever before, which takes me longer and there's been times I've answered people twice not realizing that it was due to multiple duplicates. I could sit for 24/7 at my computer and still not reach everyone, answer everything, print off everything, etc., etc. Right now it's just me everyone. I juggle too many hats.

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ME MESSAGES ON FACEBOOK OR COMMENT ON THE FB IMAGES PLEASE!!!!!!

I cannot stress this enough!! I'm rarely on Facebook so they won't get seen. I don't even have the time to go onto my own fb account let alone go onto this one. It just generates another avenue of really frustrated customers with me and this is something I'm really trying to remedy.

Phone calls are the best way to reach me (if you can.) Please leave me your first and last name, your order number and your phone number so I can call you back. I’ve had several phone calls where the person has asked about ‘wanting to check on their order,’ but then just hung up before leaving me any information. My caller ID doesn’t always register whose calling or the phone number, so I have no idea who has tried to reach us.

Please also realize that we’re in Washington State.

Our normal hours of operation are: M-F 9am-5pm PST.

Your orders we’ve received:

Once a new order comes in, it goes in the cue waiting to be made. Please understand that there's going to be quite a long wait for your bespoke, custom wand. This is the only reason why we offer the 25% off of your transaction for the build-a-wand orders. We're a tiny two person company here at Magical Alley; my husband Timothy is the wandmaker. But I can promise you; his craftsmanship is like none-other. It’s worth the wait once you finally get your order.

Currently:

We've got over 3,300+ orders right now, so to say that we're just 'super busy' is an extreme understatement. We're also working on a huge 2,000 piece wand order for a Harry Potter fun run in Houston on November 4, 2018. 1,500 of these wands need to be delivered for the event. 500 are to be made after the first of the year.

We're at a countdown right now... I think the last count I asked about was around 1,130. We have exactly 1 month to finish this. For every wand Tim makes; I've to make a custom bag for it. Now this isn't including all of our own regular work orders which I make them for too. So I'm clearly REALLY FAR behind Tim.

We're both pulling 12-14 hr days, working 6 days a week to get out your customer orders and work on this order.

To put it into perspective: I’ve been starting my days at my sewing machine at 3:30 am. No joke.

Tim’s been starting out in the shop by 6:30 am and then on the machines til around 8:00 pm. His fingertips are bleeding from being on the sander all day; his fingerprints are literally sanded off on his thumbs and pointer fingers. We get his fingers healed up a bit, then it’s another day out in the shop, another box of Band-Aids.

Mornings: he works on all M.A. orders until lunchtime. Rush orders are right on the very top. Now depending on how difficult the design/time consuming the orders dictates just how many I can shove in front of him that morning. This in turn, determines just how many customers actually get their wand orders finished in that short time slot. Whatever doesn't get finished, goes on the top of the batch pile and it waits for the following day... and so on and so forth.

Afternoons: are dedicated for this large HPFR order. He needs to make 20 of these wands every day up until Halloween to get the 1500 finished. If there are any reasons why the 20 didn't get made, he has to make up for it the following day and uses the M.A. time to do it. So less of our orders get worked on and they temporarily sit longer. So this is a slow process right now until that big HPFR order is finished. After this, we’ll be back to business as usual.

THE RUSH CUE:

What this means for these wand orders: When your wand order is pulled and placed into this special batching cue, the line-up is much different for it to be made. Urgent requests, birthdays, children’s orders and or specific dated orders such as**HALLOWEEN*SAMHAIN* etc., *(they’re always made first * whenever we can.)* They go right on the very top so they’re the first to fly out the door. As for the remaining orders that follow, they’re handled and shuffled often. I try to keep it fair by organizing these in date order and keep pushing the oldest orders on the top since they’ve been waiting the longest. I’m sorry, I can never really give a good ETA on an order since this cue is continuously rotating. Exceptions can be made where Tim will take an order from me and make it immediately.

As you wait for your order, please know the continued vigilance on all backorders to get them out of our shop and into your hands as quickly as possible. We know that you're excited about getting one of our wands and we cannot thank you enough for your business. Bespoke, quality craftsmanship takes time and with only one extremely talented set of hands working on everyone's wands, patience is a virtue. We hope you have a blessed and festive season!

Tim & Terie ~