entropy

Hey Elizabeth! I know I'm just a newbie BPAL junkie, but I did want to offer you my support and my gratitude for the GORGEOUS oils that you guys make. The wait means nothing to me. I love the fact that you're not some corporate monster and a real, struggling human being like the rest of us and I love that you are so blunt and honest in your posts. It's like buying oils from a good friend. A talented, clever, wonderful friend! Thank you for everything!

This is my first review, so bear with me if it's a little weak! There is simply nothing I can say about Snake Oil that hasn't been said before. It is my favorite perfume, and along with Queen Mab and Sin are part of the triumverate of oils I first purcahsed from my now-beloved BPAL. You never forget your first time, right? Snake Oil was the first scent I sampled from the batch of bottles and imps that I purcahsed, and I almost swooned in sheer olfactory lust! It is a warm, sensual blend both wet and dry, and has become an invaluable part of my dating artillery. In the month that I have been wearing it, I have gotten infinitely more attention from the opposite sex. Perhaps its the scent itself working its magick, or perhaps its because the warm, spicy sweetness of the blend makes me feel sexier and more confident, so I act sexier and more confident. Either way, this is the "on the prowl" scent I'm going to stick with, and I credit it with thrusting me out of my post-miserable relationship single slump! Thrusting! Great word to use in any description of this goddamn sexy scent!

My beef is with the amount CcNow charges. I understand why they have to do it, I just think its in BPAL's best interest to take control of their shipping info and credit cardpayments. And the fee that CcNow charges is much higher than PayPal's, and yet offers them less protection. I agree that people do need to be patient, as my mother makes soaps and hand-dipped incense at home (my crazy hippie mommy!) and I know how long these types of things can take to get right! The quality of BPAL perfumes is like nothing I have ever experienced, and maybe I'm a fool for saying this, but I'd wait months for a perfect bottle of Snake Oil!

Hi! Delurking to put in my two cents. Though it's not my full time gig, I've helped quite a few small businesses get started online in the past and CcNow, while being fairly easy to set up and low in price compared to most other third party processors, still has its flaws. We (meaning my clients, who had subsequently complained to me as their consultant) have had problems in the past with orders being cancelled without authorization, orders not being forwarded to the company owner's email, and shipping / cancel tags going onto orders without authorization. The service was much worse before Digitial River took them over. For a while it was near-impossible to get halfway decent customer service from them. But that's neither here nor there. They do charge the 9%, which I consider extortion, and if someone uses a stolen credit card or cancels their order, the small business that uses them does get hit with a very high fee. I think its something around $30-$40 per cancelled transaction. The seller has almost zero protection against fraud, and has no control whatsoever over the charging process. The payout schedule is ridiculous, and the seller receives no income from their sales until (correct me if I'm wrong in this, as I haven't dealt with them in a while) two weeks after the actual sale is made. If the seller sells more than $1000 then the difference defers to a payment months later. Honestly, I don't know how a company can thrive using a credit card system like the one CcNow has in place. My advice to Elizabeth and the crew would be to take back control of their money by putting a direct charge system in place, such as a Verifone system, as quickly as possible.