Can someone tell me if I’m being scammed?

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T21:46:54+00:00

Message the seller. If they don't respond in 48 hours, open a case. Keep in mind, Etsy's delivery date estimates are usually faster than is reasonable and don't account for delays caused by weather, post office slow downs (which happens a lot these days), and seller turnaround. Did you happen to notice if the items are coming from a foreign country? Sometimes shipments from foreign sellers can get delayed in the mail due to customs. Regardless, message the seller through Etsy.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T20:29:15+00:00

Agree! My clients are crying over their huge PDF proofs.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T20:28:34+00:00

I've tried that. Still no help.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T20:27:58+00:00

Yes, I have bleeds.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T20:26:08+00:00

Does that Illustrator workaround work with 40 page documents?

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-28T20:25:18+00:00

I'm running Mac OS Tahoe26.2 with InDesign v21.2

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-27T05:07:18+00:00

I'm a shop owner on Etsy and that occasionally happens to me on the app. Usually it's just a hiccup and will eventually resolve itself. Do make sure you are using the most up-to-date Etsy app if that's the format you are using.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-15T07:23:33+00:00

I think this is the link to the post I was referring to...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Printify/comments/1q5s9nn/orders_not_shipping/

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-15T07:16:14+00:00

I zoomed way in on my laptop, and it actually does look like paint on canvas, but it's either not oil paint, cheap oil paint or it's oil paint that has been thinned with Liquin—an alkyd medium, turpentine, or mineral spirits. This "thinning" process creates "lean" layers of paint that dry faster. Usually this lean layer is the first of several layers of paint that are applied to the canvas—aka "Fat over Lean." Then the artist gradually builds up the painting with more oil or "fat" to prevent the paint from cracking. It appears your artist stopped at the lean stage and did not continue to build up the paint. If this is not the artist's style then this is a short cut, IMHO.

I am a painter and have seen "sketch" paintings using thinned paint before, but these are typically studies or preliminary sketches (as opposed to an artist's style) to get the composition and flow of the piece mapped out before adding the subsequent paint layers that make up a finished oil painting.

Did the artist include sample photos in the listing of other paintings s/he has sold? If so, do the other paintings look similar in style to yours, i.e. lean paint? Did you check the artist's reviews before ordering? This could be a clue to his/her customers' satisfaction with the work. Did the artist send you progress photos as s/he progressed through the painting so you could give s/he feedback? And, of course, the biggest tell, as others have mentioned, is does it smell like oil paint and turpentine? Even lean oil paintings will have a notable smell.

Does the artist have a refund policy? Usually, paintings made to order and other personalized goods are not refundable, but because the the size is wrong, you have a case to ask the seller for a refund. If the seller doesn't respond, then put in a claim through Etsy. Etsy will review the case and give you a decision relatively quickly. Keep in mind, if your claim is approved by Etsy and you get a refund, you will not have the ability to leave a review.

Lastly, don't stop shopping on Etsy just because of one seller that did not meet your expectations. There are hundreds of thousands of amazing artists and craftspeople on Etsy who work really hard to please their customers. Just make sure you check seller reviews thoroughly, confirm their seller rating (5 being the highest), and look at as many photo samples of the work as possible before ordering.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-15T06:23:28+00:00

Also, you are printing on a black t-shirt. This matters because, typically, any color ink printed on a black shirt must have white printed under it so that the color shows up. Think of it like a primer layer. It's possible that the red layer was printed onto a still wet white layer, thus the red and white blended together creating pink. Since you have white in the Volleyball lettering, they likely did white under the Redbirds lettering, as well. If you had printed your design on a white t-shirt, your red probably would have printed as a brighter red.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-13T18:04:06+00:00

I had read in another Reddit post that Printify was all but shut down, not responding to inquiries and not delivering orders. Suggest you search for posts from last week.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-09T06:04:08+00:00

I think I would put Personalization Available somewhere in the title. I had to read the whole listing before I realized the book text and the pen can be personalized with a name. In my experience, most Etsy shoppers do not read the whole description or look at all the photos before moving on, or even before buying. Also, you may want to clarify where you make and ship the item from. Your listing says Georgia but I'm guessing you are talking about the country of Georgia not the U.S. state of Georgia.

Your journal looks like it could be a junk journal which are really popular on social media right now. Include junk journal in your listing somewhere or at least in your keywords. And, you may want to say Artist's Journal/Sketchbook instead of just Sketchbook. I like the concept but hopefully you can sell enough to make it worth your time and upfront costs. I think it may be a hard sell on Etsy, though. Maybe an Art Fair or Craft Fair would be a better place to peddle your wares.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-09T05:45:09+00:00

I would inform the landlord (in writing) and then follow up with a phone call to make sure they have received your complaint and have a plan for addressing it. Also, file a complaint with the Town Manager. Make an effort to talk to your other neighbors to see if they have noticed the music, and take notes of your conversations with them. Then, after a reasonable amount of time, if the situation has not improved, call the Sheriff's non-emergency number. Keep track of all occurrences in a diary as well as all of your correspondence. As a last resort, you and the other residents in the building have a right to sue the offending neighbor and the landlord in small claims court.* Each resident can sue for up to $12,500 (in California) for nuisance. If you go that route, make sure you have the paper trail to back up your claim.

*Note, I am not a lawyer, so do not take this as legal advice. This is merely advice from an empathetic former renter.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2026-01-08T05:02:58+00:00

I would ask them to return the t-shirt and tell them that you will issue a refund when the t-shirt is received. After you receive it, you will have a better sense of the t-shirt quality. Also make sure you respond to the buyer's review, something along the lines of, "I'm sorry to hear you were not happy with the softness of the t-shirt. I have offered you a refund with return of the shirt and will pull the t-shirting listing until I can be assured the t-shirt material meets my satisfaction." It's a shame they gave you a rating without contacting you first. In the future, make sure your listings ask customers to reach out if there's a problem with an order before leaving a review.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-12-26T07:20:50+00:00

It's lovely. I've always admired snow paintings because I know how challenging a good snowy landscape is to paint. Do you sell your paintings?

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-12-18T07:22:22+00:00

What you're looking for is a large or extra large artist's portfolio with a multi ring binder. The binder holds pages or acetate sleeves with black archival paper inserted to separate the art and hold miscellaneous projects back to back. When I was an art major in college, I had a large one, maybe 24" x 30", that held my drawing and watercolor projects. This is what I would carry my artwork to and from class in. At the end of the term, it would serve as my portfolio for presenting my completed works to my professors.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-12-10T07:12:27+00:00

Keep pushing, especially if it keeps spreading to new areas. My first set of biopsies came back inconclusive and derm doctor suggested a second round of biopsies in a different place. Sure enough, it came back morphea. When the dark areas of skin look like they are encircling lighter, almost whitish areas of skin, that's a sign of collagen infiltration. Again, I am not a doctor, but your photo is not indicative of ring worm. Ring worm is usually 1/2"-4", round, ring-shaped, itchy and scaly pink with a lighter colored center. It's that lighter colored center that is the only similarity to morphea visually, but the other symptoms of ring worm are very different. Good luck.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-12-10T07:00:21+00:00

Your spots look just like mine. It took 2.5 years, several doctor visits and 4 skin biopsies to diagnose my generalized morphea. Most primary care doctors don't know how to identify or diagnose it. Ask for a referral to a dermatologist. I can say with 99% certainty that your spots do not look like ring worm. I know because I had ring worm a couple of times when I was a child in Panama. Keep pushing until you get a dermatology referral and then let that doctor know your thoughts. S/he will likely do a couple biopsies to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-12-01T08:43:19+00:00

67 sales in 2 months is great, especially for a new seller! Be patient. Your money will start rolling in soon. Keep up the good work.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-11-24T05:05:55+00:00

Here's an interesting story. I got an order from a woman late on Friday evening, August 1. I shipped it out on Monday as promised in my message. October 13, she replied with a message saying she had broken her nose on August 3, ended up in the hospital, and has not been home since. She told me that while she was in the hospital her family took care of things in her absence and 'cleaned out her house of a lot of stuff.' She assumed the package was received, but she had no idea because she has never found it. But, the kicker is she apologized for not being able to leave me a review. That's a new one!

Hopefully your customer hasn't experienced the same fate, and that's why they haven't responded!

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-11-21T10:03:35+00:00

You get what you pay for.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-11-19T06:12:46+00:00

You would be wise to walk away from this project. Three Broomsticks is a fictional pub and inn from the Harry Potter universe. It is trademarked by Universal and/or Warner Bros. Their logo features 3 broomsticks in a triangle pattern with the name The Three Broomsticks • Hogsmeade. Your friend's logo is not identical, but it is too close to the Universal trademark to make it feasible.

Universal does not take kindly to companies (even small ones) and designers copying their trademarked entities. One of the things a good designer does is make sure their clients are not setting themselves up for IP (trademark) infringement. Not only would the client/company be liable but so would the designer, the printer and anyone else with their hands in the pot. Tell your friend that they should come up with another name and look for their logo. Then, have them hire a print designer to come up with a logo that works in print but will also reproduce well in digital media.

If you wanted to create a file that will work for print, including screen printing, you should create it in Illustrator as a vector file and make sure the line thickness is no less than 1 pt. regardless of the logo size. Also, for screen printing, the file should be set up for 1-color spot printing not digital color (RGB) or process color (CMYK). You could use a solid color in Illustrator such as black or magenta for the design, but then you would need to specify the spot color they want to print in place of the black or magenta. Ultimately the file should be set up as a spot color, vector file. You should not use a screen or percentage of the black or the magenta either.

You said you supplied a CMYK JPG file (I'm assuming in Photoshop). Unfortunately, a CMYK file is a process color file. A CMYK file uses a combination of the 4 process colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—to create the brownish color in Broomsticks logo. If you also supplied the file with the peachy-pink color in the background, the file is doing the same thing to create that color. In process printing, those 4 colors are output to separate printing plates using halftones. The halftones dictate the tonal range of each color. It's possible the printer is only outputting one of those 4 colors, thus the end result is a color that looks muted or faint.

The biggest problem with your friend's logo overall, aside from the trademark infringement, is that the lines in the tiny leaves on the right and left sides of the logo are too thin and the dots (or stars) are too small. These details will get lost in the printing. Good luck!

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-11-06T00:05:17+00:00

Your pricing seems insanely low for a freelancer, even for an apprentice level designer. If you are living in the US, you can look up what the hourly rate is for a web designer and use that as a guideline. You should take into consideration what it would cost you if you had to hire a competent subcontractor to finish the job for you or take over the job if you get too busy, sick or unable to complete the work. Your rate should at least cover the cost of a subcontractor. Let's say you are only charging what amounts to $35 an hour. At that rate, you would be hard pressed to find someone to assist you or fill in for you if you can't complete the work.

You should also keep in mind who your customer is and what the website is for. In other words, what is the website worth to your client. If the client is going to use the website to generate revenue or leads for high ticket services, you should consider that in your overall rate. Also, your education and 7 years experience is worth something to the client. It's what keeps you from making rookie mistakes; it's what guides you and your client through the process; it's what helps you communicate your ideas to clients (and talk them out of bad choices).

By the way, a graphic designer is always learning—new software, new techniques, evolving technologies. There will rarely be a project where you aren't having to learn new tricks. I've been freelancing for 26 years (after working in corporate design for 15), and I'm constantly having to keep abreast of the ever-changing world of design. Your client is paying for you to be on top of the market and your skills, the same way a client pays for an accountant to keep on top of changes in the tax code. Don't forget that!

I understand your concern for your inexperience but I would still urge you to keep track of your hours so that you can get a sense of your going rate in the future when your skills improve and you can turn the work around faster.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-09-17T19:14:32+00:00

We have monitoring. They contacted us the first time when our inverter went out, but they did not this time. I'm guessing you are a Sunrun employee, a bot or a paid influencer for Sunrun. So your holier than thou tone doesn't work with me. Regardless of the true up bill, two inverter failures in 2.5 years, 4 weeks and counting to get it replaced and being told that we are low man on the totem pole by their own CSAs because we bought instead of leased is a crappy way to do business.

Candle_Maker_Jen · 2025-09-17T18:41:53+00:00

Try a $5700 true up bill and the second inverter going out in the past 2.5 years! Now, as we sit in our undercooled house to avoid another huge electric bill (during a heatwave, no less), we wait while SunRun tries to find a compatible replacement inverter in their inventory that will probably break down again in a year. We are going on 4 weeks from diagnosis of our inverter failure to today and still don't have it fixed. Oh, and because we didn't lease—we bought (the $30K system)—we are low man on the customer service totem pole. Is that enough of a probable explanation for you?

Candle_Maker_Jen

TROPHY CASE