Order Queue: An Explanation and Status

May Orders Back to Normal

We've received a number of inquiries regarding the status of orders placed late last week and this week. This message is to explain where we are for recent orders placed over the week.

As of May 3, orders have returned to our usual 1-3 business day turnaround.  Early weekdays will see loner turnaround time as staff returns from work and begin processing orders that were placed after Friday's carrier pickup and throughout the weekend. We also expect another order surge next week as as our inventory is restocked.  That said, we are looking into a system to help us address this.     

Custom Order Queue: 10-14 Day Turnaround

We're continuing work through late April custom orders and have updated our turnaround time to deal with a consistently large daily order queue for custom artwork and plexi. As of today, any new orders will be processed at a minimum of 10 business days. 

In the next few weeks, we are implementing a daily "slot" queue for custom orders.  This means that we will accept a specific number of custom order requests as "slots". For example, an order containing a combination of artwork, plexi, dustwasher or other custom item request will consist of a single slot.  Once those slots are full, we will temporarily disable requests for the remainder of the day, and re-open the following day.  Details of this process will be made as we move closer to completion of this feature.

We are doing this to address the order surges that create bottlenecks in both custom and non-custom order fulfillment. We anticipate that the "slots" initiative will activate only during extreme cases, such as weather-related events that prevent staff from visiting the office, or long maintenance or repairs to the printing or laser machines.

To help us catch up with the current backlog of 300+ custom orders, we may temporarily disable custom orders for two business weeks, then stagger new orders upon reopening. This will allow us to process new orders well within a more more reasonable timeframe. This is not yet finalized. 

I thank you for your patience as we continue working to close the gap in order placement and fulfillment.