Can anything else go wrong???

On the plus side my goods are apparently ready to be exported, once my payment has been received; on the downside between us the bank and I managed to cock-up the transfer so instead of US dollars the payment was made in Hong Kong dollars - if only I could get away with it (a Hong Kong dollar is about 8p compared to 61p for a US dollar!)

Having checked the paperwork the error is clear to see - in the box for amount and currency it stated the amount and US Dollars but for some reason there is another box for payment currency which was automatically completed with Hong Kong dollars as the payment is going to Hong Kong - why there is a need for both of these boxes I don't know and why they chose to go with HK dollars and not US dollars I also don't know. I have to say though the guys at Natwest were pretty good about it and have agreed to refund the £37 fee for an urgent transfer - I just have to hope that they manage to get the correct amount across to Hong Kong in time for the shipping. Fingers crossed!

Hopefully this time next week my goods will be on the high seas!

Progress (limited, but progress!)

Having been out of the office for a couple of days I got back to some good news - my goods have been delivered to the agent in China and so they are ready to be shipped (only three and a half months after I placed the order!!)

So now my attention has to turn to making sure I can sell the stuff when it arrives. I have been developing the site over the last month or so using a 3rd party hosting solution for e-commerce - again to keep costs to a minimum. I am starting to get a bit frustrated with the e-commerce solution as they appear to have launched the product to market whilst still being in the midst of testing and developing it. I have already provided at least 10 major feature developments that are required and although they are developing these it all takes time and so far they haven't committed to when they will all be fully functioning, which makes it hard to plan when my shop will be fully functioning. Some of the features are cosmetic and frustrating e.g. the ability to add additional pictures for products and some are going to make it harder to process the orders e.g. the Order tracking functionality.

I am working on work-arounds now so that if all of these functions haven't been fixed in time I will still be able to open the shop for orders on 1 October. Fingers crossed though it will all be up and working which will make my life much easier!

Update from China and Free CAD Software

After chasing the guys in China they have now confirmed that they are expecting delivery of my goods on the 10th of July which will mean they are shipped on the 20th. Hopefully I should therefore have them here in the UK by the end of August - so the 1st of October target opening date is still looking realistic.

I have decided that I need to smarten up the track layouts I have on the website so I am invesigating a CAD package - Solid Edge 2D Drafting - as you can probably guess this is a free piece of software, as with the accounting software this is the hook to hopefully get you to upgrade to their commercial 3D package, as I am only loking for 2D drawings this suits me fine and fits the JKToys ethos of minimising costs wherever possible to a tee.