phylogenyunlimited

[phylogenyunlimited]

Whew, well I'm finally almost done with shipping the 2000+ orders. Only around 30 are left! Then, I have to finish fulfilling PRI's last Kickstarter for the Diplocaulus plushie. After that's all done, this cutie will go live in our web store!

In the meanwhile I wanted to also share some pages from the newest Paleozoic kids book I worked on which is also now live in the PRI store! This is the third book in the series and I'm super proud of all the work I've done on these. The first half of the book is filled with fantastic art from Alana McGillis who has illustrated all our kids books. I write most of the text, do all the layouts, and put together the photo spreads that make up the second half of the book. Check out a few of them below.

[phylogenyunlimited]

On Chargebacks

So those who are following me know that I'm the staff person at Museum of the Earth who designed the Paleozoic Pals and who is responsible for shipping the thousands of orders we received in response to a viral news article in January.

We received over 2000 orders (we got 1600 through the entirety of calendar year 2024, for context) and I have been doing pretty much nothing but shipping since January 14th. So far, I've shipped 1653 orders, and there are 395 more left to go. Many of those remaining orders were placed in January. I've been living, sleeping, and breathing the shipping of packages for over a month now, while my other responsibilities are falling by the wayside as I attempt to get these orders under control. And we're down to the hundreds now, so it feels like the goal is within reach.

While it does give me the warm fuzzies that so many people wanted to support us, what does not give me the warm fuzzies is the constant barrage of angry emails I am fielding every single day from irate customers demanding to know why I haven't shipped their items yet. If you visit our website, you'll see the banner explaining our backlog. If you're emailing me, you probably visited our website. So please, know that I am doing everything I can to get your orders out as fast as I can, but I am not a superhuman. There is only so much I am capable of.

But all that aside, what really, really frustrates me is when a customer, having not even tried to contact us regarding their order, initiates a credit card chargeback.

Here is the thing about chargebacks. You may think they're super convenient. The credit card company refunds you, and you don't have to go out of your way to get in touch with whoever you purchased from. But what you may not realize is that in addition to refunding you, the card company also charges a fee to the company they're pulling money back from. In this case, the fee we received on the chargebacked order was almost the same value as the order itself.

Companies can dispute chargebacks in theory. You can submit evidence that you provided the product or service, for example. It doesn't matter if you do that or not - the bank will side with the customer anyway, and the process takes 60 days. So you wait 60 days to see if your money will be refunded, and then it isn't. One time we had a patron submit a chargeback on their museum tickets because they didn't enjoy their museum experience. They claimed that they had not received what they paid for. We disputed the chargeback and provided timestamped evidence that we had provided the patron their tickets and the duration of time they visited the museum. The bank still sided with the customer.

Please, if you're going to do a chargeback, make sure you've done everything else to get your money back first. Contact the company you bought from. Ask for a refund. While it might not be a big deal for large companies, chargebacks can do serious harm to small businesses.

Sorry for ranting, but after weeks of fielding angry emails, to wake up to a chargeback in the morning is just a lot to deal with. I hope everyone enjoys their stuff. If you happen to still be waiting for yours, know that I am working on it every day. I promise to start posting something happier once I'm done with all this shipping.

[phylogenyunlimited]

thank you for the comfy greenops boothi slippers! I'm wearing them right now :]

Yay, I'm glad you like them!

[phylogenyunlimited]

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭

[phylogenyunlimited]

Thank YOU for supporting PRI and starting the viral post!

Got my Devonian haul from PRI! 😍😍😍 Thank you @phylogenyunlimited !!!

[phylogenyunlimited]

@zinjanthropusboisei Thank you! This little guy is not mine. He was made before my time, but his popularity inspired the modern Pals line.

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭

[phylogenyunlimited]

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭

[phylogenyunlimited]

Hello! I just wanted to say how much I love the pals designs. I saw them mentioned on Tumblr in 2023 and was given a few by my brother as a Christmas gift that winter. The designs are all *chefs kiss*. Little baby me would have lost it seeing the animals from the documentaries my family raised me on brought to life in plush form.

Thank you so much <3 <3

[phylogenyunlimited]

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭

[phylogenyunlimited]

Hey there! "Poor single staff person" shipping your orders here. I'm the designer of the Pals and the person in charge of putting all the cool merch in our gift shop. I'm overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from this community and just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who has reblogged the article and commented about how much you love the Pals and our other merch. I have so much gratitude to you all, knowing that the work I've done has touched so many people. We've received almost as many orders over 48 hours as we did in the past entire calendar year so it's a very daunting task ahead but I'll do my best to get your items out to you. As OP mentioned, we're severely understaffed right now and so pretty much every remaining staff member is doing 5 people's jobs. I hope we will be able to reorder all your favorite items quickly, but restocking will also take a lot of time. That said, feel free to put your emails on the waiting lists for any out-of-stock items you love. I'm doing my best to make sure that the Pals continue and everyone can get their fix of huggable paleo plushies! <3 to you all.

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭