Those who have been reading here for awhile know that GayHankies.com is a one-man show. I run the web site. I check the credit-card authorizations. I print your packing slip, gather your product, and get it all getting ready for mailing. I put the shipping label on, finalize the credit card charge, and then enter the results in an accounting package. I take the orders to the post office for mailing. And every week I check to see if I need to order more product to fill orders again. And again. And again.

I’ve always been afraid that I will make some horrible mistake on somebody’s order, but for the two and one-half years I’ve been doing this, I never have. Until now.

Last week I somehow switched the shipping labels on the orders for two customers. The order for customer “A” had the shipping label for customer “B” and vice-versa. This meant that each person got the other person’s order. There was one item that each customer had in common, but everything else on their orders was different.

I didn’t know about this for a couple days, until one of the customers sent me an email. He was very nice about it, just writing to let me know and ask what to do. As soon as I saw it — after I got over my shock and embarrassment — I wrote back and told him to send back the items which he should not have received. I would send him in the next day’s mail all of the items he should have received, along with a coupon for 10% off his next order. And, I said that I would credit back to his account his cost for return postage.

This customer was very agreeable, and it worked out fine. I also wrote to the other customer and send him his missing items, but I never heard back from him. As of today, he hasn’t returned the things he received by mistake; I gather he can do that under law and it’s just part of my cost of doing business. And my cost for making a mistake.

What I most regret in this is my failure to maintain total privacy for customer information. Each customer in this incident was able to see the other customer’s name and address. I’ve apologized to each of them, sincerely, and I’m taking steps to double- and triple-check everything I do to make sure this never happens again.

The bottom line is that I want to run this business as professionally as I can. I want to provide top-notch customer service. I prize my repeat customers, and I enjoy seeing you come back again and again. For all my customers, I want to get and keep your confidence. All of that begins with me, doing the best I can and correcting every single mistake — whatever it is — as soon and as fairly as possible.

There’s been a great response to the English Poppers I added to the site last week, and I’m please to see that so many of you guys are also giving Formula X and Australia’s Real Gold a try. I’ve been able to obtain these from a wholesaler who is new for me, and so far, the relationship is working out well. Look for more new Aromas to come on-site in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, some of our European brands are in short supply. Bronx is out of stock as I write this, and Trance is running low. If you like these, go ahead and order them now. I might not be able to restock these as quickly as the ones from American suppliers, but you can reserve yours now to make sure you get it when it comes in.

Surely you’ve seen those commercials on TV with the identity theft theme. The guy who may be around my age speaking in voice of the teenage girl about the leather bustier she bought with his credit card: “It lifts and separates!” Jane Russell, in her 80s, must be amused. And so am I.

Of course, it illustrates something important: Your identity matters. Your credit matters. It matters to you. And it matters to me, too.

Awhile back I had an email from a customer who was concerned about credit card security. He wanted to know what this web site did with the credit card information collected from customers, and he also wanted to know who was storing the data. His concern, clearly, was whether it was safe and kept by a reputable company.

In my answer to him, I included this:

It’s good that you are paying attention to credit card security and identity theft issues. As an Internet merchant, I have to pay a lot of attention to this, and I’m really glad to hear that customers appreciate it.

To answer your questions, the VISA and MasterCard associations do not allow us to keep customer credit card information on our system for any longer than it takes to process their credit card transaction.

What this means is that after a credit-card transaction is approved and completed, nearly all of the credit card information is deleted from my system. I keep the cardholder name, the last four digits of the card number, and the expiration date. That’s all, but it’s not enough to process another charge to the account or steal your identity.

I went on to explain to this customer that I have a “merchant account” for credit card processing with a service which is a division of one of the large companies in the financial services industry. They act as a clearing-house for millions of businesses, not just web sites but also retail stores, ATMs, point-of-sale terminals (like when you swipe your card at a gas pump), money-wiring services, and more. Their regulations and procedures are strict, and they are a leader in their field.

The bottom line is that this is a serious business. It’s a big responsibility being entrusted with your money and your information, and I want to treat it as carefully as I do my own.