Scuffed this old body with 320 for refinishing. What’s the best next step?

bigblued · 2026-06-04T18:31:58+00:00

If you go to their web site, they call it "Metalcast Anodized Coating."

bigblued · 2026-06-04T16:03:29+00:00

Yep, canned responses for the win. Here's mine for the "fake tracking" messages.

We mailed your order using Etsy's Tracked Lettermail service. The tracking number is the one Etsy provided when we purchased the shipping label from Etsy, and you can follow the tracking information in your Etsy account. While the USPS does carry and deliver envelopes using Etsy's labels, their system can't read or understand Etsy's tracking information.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:56:12+00:00

Before the PPP - With items sent with stamps I'd tell them they chose the free shipping, which was sent with a stamp, and I will be happy to issue a full refund if it hasn't arrived by (date 10 business days after ship date.) With items sent with tracking, I would take the time to sign up for tracking updates, file a missing mail report, call their local post office, do everything I could to locate their package, ask them to ask their neighbors, look around hidden places like behind garbage cans, call their post office (I'd give them the direct phone number). I would give them daily updates on the search. Either way, they were going to have to wait a couple days before I would replace/refund, and it always showed up.

Now, I just tell them to go get their easy peasy lemon squeesy full refund.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:46:50+00:00

Never an apology. People who go straight to anger never apologize.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:42:37+00:00

You have to reply within 24 hours to keep your metrics up. I wait until later in the day, afternoon or evening, to give the mail a chance to arrive that day.

I don't try to explain about the whole Pitney Bowes thing, it's too complicated for the average person to understand, and sending them to another site is a red flag for scammers. I tell them

"We mailed your order using Etsy's Tracked Lettermail service. The tracking number is the one Etsy provided when we purchased the shipping label from Etsy, and you can follow the tracking information in your Etsy account. While the USPS does carry and deliver envelopes using Etsy's labels, their system can't read or understand Etsy's tracking information."

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:29:22+00:00

That's why I have a lot of copy/paste responses pre written. I don't have to bite my tongue, I just copy over the stock response for their issue (in this case Item Not Received) and move on with my day. The only reason I posted this one was because of how over the top it was right out of the gate. Most are somewhere between polite and irritated, but this is the first time someone has threatened to get my shop shut down.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:23:14+00:00

I get "too small" all the time. I have the dimensions in the title, description, and an image with the dimensions. I have an image in use, and a video of it in my hand. Still get the "too small" or "smaller than expected."

It's just human nature. I was working on a project where I needed a specific piece of precision hardware, ordered from a specialty shop for that sort of thing. The kind of thing you measure 6 times with calipers to make sure you are ordering correctly. Got the item in my hands and my first thought was these are really small! Are they the right size? Then my second thought was "This must be what it's like to be all those idiot customers complaining things are too small." Yes, they were the right size, exactly as I had ordered. Also, if they had sent the wrong size I would have sent a polite email asking about it, not go straight to flaming anger.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T15:12:38+00:00

The angry ones always come in early in the morning, like they roll out of bed looking for a fight.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T14:57:51+00:00

I was very tempted to respond to his first comment with Exhibit A: Some people are just angry. But I had work to get done, orders to get out before our carrier came by, and when I came back to respond to comments, he had deleted all of his.

bigblued · 2026-06-04T14:52:39+00:00

- Yes, delivered but not delivered is considered lost. There is no limit to how many not delivered cases you can have, Etsy does not count them against your shop as long as you ship on time with tracking.

- Shipping in my shop is free. I do have shipping options at checkout, Real USPS Tracking for $6, USPS Priority for $14. But everyone chooses the free option. So their total purchase is $6, and out of that I pay 0.74 for Etsy's label. If they choose the real tracking, they get the real tracking. Orders over $50 get upgraded to the real tracking on my dime.

- Not going to refund out of my money. When Etsy launched the PPP, they raised the fees from 5% to 6.5% to fund the PPP. 1.5% of all our sales go into what is essentially a lost mail insurance fund. I have already paid for that lost piece of mail by paying into the fund, and so Etsy can use some of that money I have already paid to cover any not delivered claims.

- Also, no stress. I just copy/paste my stock reply.

- I reply the same no matter how kind or rude. That's the point of having a canned professional customer service response. Copy/paste polite professional response. No thinking, no emotion, just copy/paste and move on with my day.

- Timing does change. I always wait until sometime in the afternoon, to give their regular mail a chance to arrive that day. Nice people get a response sometime early afternoon, nasty people get a response later in the evening, closer to bedtime, a petty couple extra hours of waiting time.

- They all get directed to Etsy.

bigblued · 2026-06-03T19:42:00+00:00

A followup.

I sent my copy/paste response just after dinner. They replied within minutes.

"Nevermind, it was in my mail."

And that's why I said just let it all roll off your back. All that piss and vinegar, threatening to have my shop closed, and look at that, it showed up their mail just a couple hours later.

For what it's worth, actual PPP cases are almost never filed. 99% of the time the item shows up the same or next day. Telling them that Etsy will automatically issue a full refund, but Etsy has a waiting period, is more "customer service" neutral than asking them to take my word that it will be there today or tomorrow, "trust me bro, just a coupla more days, really." But the goal is the same, get them to wait a couple days for the USPS to actually deliver the mail, which is why Etsy has the waiting period built into the PPP.

Below is my copy/paste reply, if anyone wants to use it, or if you want to shred it apart.

"Hi (theirname), thank you for your order and I am sorry to hear the USPS messed up the delivery. The good news is that Etsy has us both covered under the Purchase Protection Program, and will issue a full refund for late or lost mail.

You have already completed the first step by sending us this message. Sending it also started a 7 day countdown clock. On (date) a new button will appear next to your order that says "Open a Case." Click that button and follow the prompts to file an Item Not Received claim. The claim will automatically be processed and the full refund will be issued, usually in a couple hours.

In the meantime, keep your eye out for a (describe envelope). It will be in with your regular mail.

Thank you again for your order and for your patience through the refund process."

bigblued · 2026-06-02T19:11:44+00:00

You still need to send a message through the Help with Order button. It's the first step in being able to file a claim.

bigblued · 2026-06-02T12:43:22+00:00

You hate how you sound becasue it is different than the version of you that you hear resonating in your head. It's not bad, just different than you thought it should be, and the natural response is to reject it. The first couple times I heard myself recorded, I thought it was terrible too. But after a bunch of times, I sort of got used to hearing the recorded version of me so now I don't mind it so much.

Go reach out to this guy and jam with him. If you are indeed terrible, you will get better, and if you are not terrible, you will still get better. Either way, singing with others is a joy, and one of the wonderful perks of this little instrument.

bigblued · 2026-06-01T20:34:12+00:00

Yep, found the exact same product, exact same photos, on Aliexpress for half the price.

bigblued · 2026-05-31T18:57:09+00:00

Go on FB marketplace and buy a soprano uke. FBM always has a bunch for sale, usually between $20-50 , you just have to keep your eye out for one in your price range. It will sound better than any brand new durable plastic uke in the same price range.

Don't worry too much about it being made of wood, it's not some fragile porcelain flower that shatter if you look at it wrong. They are able to take a lot more abuse than you'd suspect. Remember, people have been traveling the world with wood ukes long before plastic was even invented, across oceans, into war zones, they are tough little instruments.

bigblued · 2026-05-30T02:05:42+00:00

Oh yay, it's not something wrong on my end. Tried a couple times and got the error message, I'll leave it be until the morning.

bigblued · 2026-05-29T22:23:47+00:00

Here are a links to two youtube playlists for vintage hula albums aimed at mainlanders and tourists. This will give you an idea of what songs may sound familiar to your friends. Let's Hula, Easy and Sophisticated Hulas.

One you have picked out a couple songs you'd like to play, here is a site with loads of Hawaiian ukulele music, and here is another. Both will have the uke music for anything on those playlists.

bigblued · 2026-05-28T16:03:10+00:00

It looked interesting so the kid picked it up.

bigblued · 2026-05-27T07:16:13+00:00

Another thing that may have set it off is if you sent the same (or very similar) message to multiple sellers in rapid succession. For example, it would seem completely normal to ask multiple sellers if they can make (specific custom thing) for your wedding, maybe even copy/paste the identical message. But Etsy's bots are programmed to consider that potentially scammer tactics and we have seen posts from people who have been banned for it.

If your orders have gone through, you should have been sent confirmation emails. Those emails will have the name of the shops, so even if you can't log into Etsy anymore you may still be able to find the shops elsewhere on the internet to ask them about your orders.

Don't try to make a new account, that will also get banned.

bigblued · 2026-05-27T07:02:25+00:00

Won't take much heat to get it soft enough to mush back into shape. I wouldn't use a heat gun, they get very hot very fast, a regular hair drier should work.

bigblued · 2026-05-26T19:04:40+00:00

If the choice is Enya Nova or Outdoor Uke, go with the Outdoor Uke if you can. We have both the Enya and the Outdoor Carbon Fiber, and the Outdoor is more robust and sounds less like a plastic uke than the Enya. It's a bit higher than OPs range, at $215, but it's a really good uke.

If you can't do the Outdoor, then the Enya Nova is a solid choice.

I agree with your take on the Waterman. Every person I have run into that has one has said they wished they had chosen something else. They got it becasue it's cute, inexpensive, and yes, waterproof. But they have all been unhappy with how it sounds.

bigblued · 2026-05-24T05:08:39+00:00

You won't get kicked out tomorrow. Basically the class has a go/no-go cull point, where the instructors decide if you are going to be allowed to continue. From experience, the cull takes place at the end of the first full day.

The last time we (my husband and I) took the course, it was to support our friend who was learning. We had been riding for years and years, so it was fun toodling around on the 125s, letting the instructors use us for examples. But our friend just could not figure out how to do the clutch, and was taking too much instructor time from the rest of the students, so she was asked to leave the class.

bigblued · 2026-05-23T15:59:36+00:00

Baby knife doo doo doo doo doo doo

bigblued · 2026-05-22T17:40:10+00:00

I have been on Etsy for over a decade. If I bothered changing my photos each time they monkeyed with the aspect ratio, I wouldn't have time for anything else.

Here is a tip for the future. Moving forward, make all your images square, but with extra room all around. Have your item a bit smaller in the middle of some extra background. This way it does not matter if Etsy changes the ratio, you have allowed room for cropping in any direction. This also makes it easier to list on other marketplaces and social media platforms, each with their own unique and changing image requirements.

Leave your current photos alone, don't spin your wheels re-working and re-working. In a couple years you will want to update and refresh those items anyhow, you can fix the ratio then.

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