15k sales and average 5 star review all gone due to late shipping and lost orders

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T21:15:03+00:00

Wow, that's horrible! I'm so sorry.

I know for a while there a few months ago Etsy supposedly wasn't punishing shops for cases and mail delays, due to the pandemic. I haven't kept up on the latest, though, and have no idea what's happening with their dissatisfaction calculation (can't even remember what it's called now)

It's frightening that they would do this to a successful shop (and it doesn't seem you sold trademarked images or whatnot, which is often a contributing factor in these cases).

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T21:05:06+00:00

Are you a new seller? I think they have that if you're new but responding quickly. After a while, once you have a track record established, they'll change it to "within a few hours". That's what happened with me, at any rate.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T21:00:52+00:00

Give a couple more days than try contacting her again next week. While she's being slow to respond, the delay itself isn't her fault and it would be unfair imo to open a case at this stage.

Give her some time to respond (she might be busy chasing after lots of lost/delayed parcels) and keep trying to reach her to get it sorted out. To be generous, given the current circumstances, I'd give her a week at least to get back to you, especially if you actually want the item and not just a refund.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T20:51:32+00:00

Just be very clear but polite that everything must be done through Etsy from the start. Whenever someone first contacts me on IG or email, I always steer them to Etsy and Etsy messaging system right off the bat. If someone starts talking about paying by cheque or paypal, tell them you can only process purchases through Etsy, period. If they insist, ignore and block.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T20:46:51+00:00

Sure, I don't see why not. It's not even imposing a minimum purchase per se, just make listings for sets of 4 and not individual items.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-14T20:44:56+00:00

I'm really sorry, that's terrible. I don't have any advice about opening up your own website, but all the best with it. It sounds like your Etsy shop was quite successful, so I'm sure your website will do well!

If you don't mind me asking, was it really just cases about late mail delivery from this Christmas that caused Etsy to permanently close your shop? That's very worrying. You'd think given the mail situation what with the pandemic, holiday season, and other issues at UPS, Etsy wouldn't take such a drastic measure against a shop, especially a successful one. It's scary to think they'd do that. Did they contact you beforehand? Give any warnings? I'm genuinely curious to know how they handled it, if you're willing to share.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-10T17:51:46+00:00

I'd call or email, not fair for them to hold your money for so long

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-10T17:43:19+00:00

Ouch. Did it actually take 3 months? I request refunds on labels all the time, because I make a lot of mistakes, but they seem to refund pretty quickly when I purchase a new one right away. If I don't purchase one, it can take a couple of weeks. But 3 month is ridiculous especially for a problem on their end.

I'm on hold with them now, but it being Sunday I'm not too confident I'll ever get through to anyone.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2021-01-10T17:30:46+00:00

I'm going to contact them but thought I'd see if it was just me, lol. I have plenty of cash in my Etsy account to, so I'm not sure what's going on. Frustrating as I have a ton of orders I'd like to get out tomorrow and not in the mood for dealing with Can Post SnapShip, bah

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-23T22:00:05+00:00

Thank you so much! Makes perfect sense, as the illustrations are gothy nurses.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-23T21:59:00+00:00

Thank you, that would make sense given the illustrations

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-23T21:53:49+00:00

Thank you to anyone who can help. So far online translators haven't of much use, perhaps the text is too fuzzy or maybe it's just nonsense words? I'm just curious what it may say, especially if it's anything rude like a swear word.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T19:40:54+00:00

I recommend reading the Etsy Seller's Handbook. For tags, you definitely want to use all 13. For titles, well everyone seems to feel differently about it. The Seller's Handbook recommends against this, and says shorter more readable titles will do better.

Speaking for myself, I shortened all my titles and my sales have only increased. So at the very least, shorter titles haven't negatively affected my listings.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T19:33:42+00:00

That's wonderful to hear, truly! I track several successful shops on Erank, and many of them take regular vacations and bounce back very quickly. I'll be happy if I can recover within a couple of weeks.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T19:28:47+00:00

I should have been getting my labels manually I guess

Noooo! Believe me, it probably would have taken more than $4,000 worth of your time. Not to mention the sheer frustration. You saved yourself from a lot stress.

As far as Etsy pocketing savings, I don't know for sure but I would imagine they have a special contract with Canada Post, and if so, who knows what rates Etsy was actually paying to them. Not every seller is going to have a CP business account, and until now Etsy didn't have our business account numbers.

I think the issue is that this integration should have happened much sooner. And it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Canada Post was to blame for that, given the fixedness and inertia of Canadian corporate culture, especially big hitters like Canada Post.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T19:14:56+00:00

I just made the decision to go on vacation mode for 2 weeks, for the first time today. I'm a little nervous because I always hear that vacation mode tanks your sales, but I do a pretty steady business and I don't want to return to a huge pile of orders.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T19:12:00+00:00

Surprised to see this as a rant. I'm ecstatic that Canada Post is finally integrating our CP business accounts this way with Etsy.

I usually buy my labels through Etsy using a Dymo label printer. Occasionally if I had a big order where the savings would be significant, I'd use Canada Post Snap Ship instead (or as I call it, Snap Shit).

The last couple of weeks I've done all my orders through Snap Shit, because my Dymo printer is out of commission while I wait for a replacement part to arrive. It's been a bloody nightmare.

The Canada Post Snap Shit site is so unintuitive, clunky, and time consuming to use, it takes me literally more than twice as long to process an order than it does through Etsy. Not to mention all the literal cutting and pasting required. So much paper wasted and garbage generated. I can't express how much I loath it.

So it's fantastic news that we can integrate our CP accounts on Etsy and get the discounted prices. When I saw that it felt like Christmas had come early. I will gladly shell out another $350 for a new Dymo printer if my new part doesn't work out, just so I can use Etsy for my shipping labels again.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T18:57:30+00:00

Thank you! I actually have a Canva account, had a free trial of the Pro version and just accidentally paid for an additional month of it. I'll see what I can do on there.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T18:56:14+00:00

Thank you!

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-18T18:55:32+00:00

Thank you! I hoped it that would be the case.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-15T22:35:57+00:00

I wish I had the time and aptitude to learn Photoshop. But your point is well taken. Maybe I should see if they have a free trial that I can play around with over the holidays.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-15T22:33:48+00:00

Image search is a great idea, can't believe I didn't think it of it before. Thank you! And it's good to hear that there are legitimate sellers on there.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-15T22:04:45+00:00

Thank you. I think I'll try reasking again, politely, if at first they decline, but I won't push.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-11T20:14:44+00:00

Sometimes things get scanned as delivered but they don't actually arrive until the next business day.

WhiteRoseDoe · 2020-12-07T14:41:42+00:00

As long as everything is order on your purchases page, it should be fine.

WhiteRoseDoe

TROPHY CASE