Googly Ooops!

• Posted on 15 August 2023
• By Gravity Sorcere
• 0

If you emailed us at [email protected], this is why we didn't respond, and a general response the spammy dudes who emailed us over the past few years.

Ok.  Well. 

Where to begin this fun?

As the countless emails I just discovered has indicated there are many things I am still learning.  The short of it is that since the new website launched somewhere around February of 2021 every email that was sent to [email protected] has not been received.  There is quite a bit on the list.  

I am super sorry if I missed anyone’s issue with an order.  Delightfully, and somehow it seems that I managed to get notified on most of those as far as I could tell.  So some of the emails got through.  Which is probably why it took so long to realize how much I had missed.  A lot of the emails were asking questions, and a lot that I have found so far were SPAM.

The issue has been fixed….as far as I can tell.  Hopefully the rest of this post comes across more as reasons than excuses, because reasons have solutions and excuses do not.  

To all of the SEO spamming folks who have endlessly reminded me of how terrible our website is ranking, and how there are endless things that could be better.  Firstly, I do not need you to tell me all of the stuff that is wrong on my site preventing me from getting top rankings, I need to learn how it’s wrong, and how to fix it. Secondly, I don’t need to BS my reviews, I don’t need to purchase fake ones, I don’t need you to flood my site with all your fake bots, because none of that stuff is an actual measure of how I am doing as an online website.  All the fake cherry picking nonsense of Amazon has no place here.  If there is a customer issue, I need to know about it so that I can fix it to the best of my ability.  If a customer is really stoked, our main goal, I need to know it so I can keep doing the behaviors that actually matter, serving. 

At it’s heart, the real deal, I am a solo operator, doing my best to serve my community.  I am not on online store, I just happen to be online.  I am a local skate shop, with an online presence.  I have a strong belief in the service I provide, and do my absolute best to let that carry the weight of my businesses success.  There are times and situations that service breaks down or is less than ideal, but it is in experiencing those mistakes, missteps, and learning moments that the way forward can be found.  It is by making those mistakes that I learn how to do what I do the best I can.  I believe that in facing those mistakes and being the one facing them, then I can provide the needed solutions.  I don’t shortcut, because a shortcut doesn’t fix jack monkey squat.  

This however is the reason that when you do order through the site, you get a hand written note on your packing list.  When you forget to order hardware it is just included, because it’s kind of obvious what the intent is.  This is the reason why if at all humanly possible your order leaves the day you order it, or the next day.  A local shop wants you to maximize your skate moments, not miss out on sessions because five points later on the supply chain you are finally getting the item you ordered.  I want to talk skating, not because I know everything, but because I am so dang hungry to learn something new, to connect this random point to another random point, giving a broader bigger picture than just completing a transaction.

Collectors.  

My dudes of skating’s past, present, and maybe future.  While I can appreciate your zeal of holding on to bits of skatings moments and products, I am a local shop.  I ordered the products into the shop to be skated, they are skate products.  The dudes that appreciate the gear for it’s moment in time I can totally vibe with.  How all these products tell the story of a company and it’s expression through time is fascinating to say the least.  When we send a product off, it is under the impression of it’s use being fulfilled and it being enjoyed.  If you are purchasing it to resell for later date, if you could give us a heads up when you order, then I can give the you the 411 on whether the box is dented.  I can tell you if this was the last one, so maybe it’s a little sun bleached on the wall.  

If you don’t tell me on the order, “Hey I am a picky pants that isn’t actually going to skate this, I want to save it in my basement to resale for a later date.” Then I am going to assume that as long as the product isn’t damaged or defective and still skate able that you are going to be stoked to get it.  If I know it’s for a collector.  I can save you the time, the money, and the effort of dealing with some tiny local shop who sells all our items at MSRP not marked up because of how “rare” it is.  I want you to be stoked, not bummed, that the box is dented…the box not even the product, come on now.

If you’ve called the shop, emailed the shop, came into the shop, chatted with the shop via Instagram, Discord, Facebook, Google, or our YouTube channel, well you’ve only talked with one person.  Asking the same question a different way on a different platform will still probably get you the same answer, because I am the dude that does all of that.  There is no manager, helper, associate, or what not.  You are not able to manipulate “different people” because you are just talking to one dude, myself.  So attempts at these kind of conversations typically don’t end the best.  We are straight forward, honest, and delightfully dedicated to service so subtle attempts at being clever to gain advantage are noted, and not needed to get fair treatment.  There is Room Enough for everyone on a skateboard, because of this belief our goal is equal treatment to everyone to the best of my ability.

That basically covers all the emails we received over the past few years.  Once again, I am super sorry for any I missed, for folks reaching out I didn’t respond to I just hope you didn’t take it personal, it was my bad.  We should be on the up and up, and who knows maybe I can squeeze in some more time for these Blog posts.  

When I do say us, or we, then that US and WE is talking about the Stoked Community.  This is both our Discord server, the absolute best way to see what we are up to on the day to day, as well as our Rewards Ideal.  For real, If you do not live in the Kansas City area, but still shop with us then sign up for the Stoked Community Rewards.  Every dollar you spend gives you a Stoken, or as the system calls it a point.  The Stokens can be redeemed for discounts off of wheels, bearings, shirts, stickers, Kendamas, window surfers to name the things that are on the rewards right now.  As I learn the more on how to work this then hopefully I can use this to get free shipping on orders and things like that.  Not signing up for it doesn’t help me, to help you.  

Thank you, thank you, than you to everyone that has purchased something from our online store, from our physical store, if you’ve liked some of our posts on the various social media platforms, or just interacted with us in general.  Thank you for being on this journey with us, with me, with what a local shop can do, and become.  I believe somehow folks have lost sight of what a retailer should and can do, I feel like so many people have forgotten what service could be and should be, so I hope that when you open a box from us, or walk into the shop, or interact with us through the ether that it delivers on my main focus, to get you stoked.  To get you so stoked, you set aside our daily differences, our different back grounds, and ideas and just to go out give some high fives, skate, and just share the amazing passion we have around the toys we play with.  At the end of the day, that is what we do, we play, we learn, we love, and we grow.  I am stoked for the friends we have made along the way, and the friends that are on the way.  

You Stoked Yet?