The Apple Green Mengkuang Cone

I woke up today with a phone call. Seeing the number I thought it must be one of the telemarketers who want to sell insurance or holiday package. But it turned to be a potential client who works with Citigroup.

He would like to order guest favors for his (I assumed) wedding in December. This is what I suggested to him – mengkuang cone in apple green.

The only setback was when I requested him to bank in 50% deposit, he was like very sceptical stating some thing like I will run away with the money if he banks in RM300, bla bla..I told him that I will email the invoice or if he really can’t trust me, he can come over to my place to see the samples.

Oh, come on! I’ve been doing this online business for 3 years now. My clients were from UK, Australia, Brunei and Sarawak. You can’t expect me to meet every one of my online clients just to be sure that they can trust me to complete the task for them. If you can’t trust an online seller then you should go to the nearest local craft stores and find what you like, pay and take the ready made items home. You don’t come (call) to me and ask to customize 200pcs of wedding favors for your event and expect me to trust that you’ll take the completed items in 1 month time without paying any deposit.

I already placed the orders to the mengkuang supplier since I know it will take around 2-3 weeks for them to dye the mengkuang leaves, dry them in such rainy season like now, and later weave the leaves into mats, cut them into pieces and courier the mengkuang to me. Once I get the mengkuang pieces, I will start doing all the ribbons and organza to decorate the cones. All these works are really a labor of art.

I hope more people will realize that I don’t sell bulk items imported from China or Indonesia, which are all ready in packaging. I took my time and creativity to come out with something special for your wedding so the least that you can do is to appreciate the hard work I put into it. If I really hard up for your money and planning to run away with your deposit of RM300, I wouldn’t be doing this craft business, I rather go and work an executive job like what I used to do.

Sometimes it makes me think that if it is not for my passion and love for all these crafts work, I don’t know why I should put up with a difficult client like this..huhu!