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Your feedback rating on Etsy can make or break you. Many of us are at or near 100% because we'd all rather work things out or leave a neutral rather than put a big bad negative up there. So when one of the Auxiliary tipped EB off to Etsy Labs feedback, we found it made some very interesting reading. The Labs have a total of 2160 sales, and 1632 feedback of 100%. Looking deeper shows an additional 17 neutrals. I wonder how many of these neutrals would have been negatives if the shop had been anyone other than Etsy Labs? Here's an unbelievable sample of neutrals and positives:
Well layered
"not described as well as it could be, but a great shirt nonetheless! i'll just save it for layering i guess...."Shop local
"Great print on a sunny bag, but why is the bag Made in China and not Made in Brooklyn."Wear it well
"At first I left neutral feedback for this item, because I received a t-shirt with a funky screen that wore off after two washings. Etsy saw the feedback, and two days later I had a brand new shirt and a lovely note from Julie, an admin. This restored my faith in Etsy's exemplary customer service!!! Etsy rocks!"Paid for nothing
"i didn't get the shirt:( but i still want it! adorable!!Wash carefully
xoxo"
"you guys are ultra friendly and accommodating & i love my shirt BUT it's too bad that it the shirt is now crooked after it was washed. i now have a wrap around design to sport - not too thrilled about that..."I'm gonna hurl cupcakes
"Never recieved the shirt but the Etsy staff was sweet as candy when I contacted them so I decided to turn the purchase into a donation, instead. I hope some mail handler in Brooklyn enjoys the tee! ;)"
More shirt fun
"Shirt was thinner and more faded than I thought it would be - but I'll still wear it."Shipping issues
etsy, you know i love you with all my heart -- but please, PLEASE invest in some bubblewrapped envelopes! this is the second time i've gotten dented pins in the mail. :(
29 Comments:
This is positive or neutral feedback? No wonder members of the art/craft community have been told that any association with Etsy could cast a negative pall on their professional rep.
Etsy's investors need to salvage what good ideas there are in use on the site (and there are some!) and shitcan the rest. Put the staff out on the street. Too bad there is no way to do a chargeback for their salaries and benefits.
Shame shame shame!
Ah, but admin never pay attention to feedback, do they? Anyone remember that brief featured seller who got pulled because of the state of their feedback...?
The buyer who never got their order but didn't get their money back ("call it a donation") makes my head explode.
Makes me want to read through all their positives for hidden negatives (sooo common on Etsy)
Brain. Boggles.
TWO instances of non-delivery and they didn't receive negatives????
Or...they did get negatives and Etsy Admin turned them into neutrals...wouldn't put it past them.
Ah, that pesky thing called QUALITY. You know, that takes time, and Etsy certainly is not one for patience, care and pride in their work.
Looking through the Etsy Lab shop, it's actually nice to see their attitude in the flesh. So that's what you get when you don't give a crap about hand-crafting and producing quality products. And sponsor dozens of mocking "craft classes", flatulent "video labs" thereby making it very clear that Etsy just does not care about quality.
The thing is, it shows, all over the whole damn site.
I would have clicked Negative Feedback, but these buyers were generous enough not to do that - which says a lot more for the handmade community than it does for Etsy.
Thanks for the post, EB, because this is one more section on Etsy I can ignore because it's just too damn embarassing.
Well, I imagine it had less to do with generous spirits and more to do with these guys could shut my shop down and remove the feedback.
With there less then honest approach to other areas I wouldn't be surprised if some negative comments have disappeared.
The shop local one was stupid. Did it say it was handsewn in Brooklyn? Most everyone who screen prints does so on a premade surface.
But, yeah, I have one of the free shirts from when Ets went down for a day or two unexpectedly way back when, and it bled like crazy.
I've read those comments with amusement in the past, but now the very thought of EtsyLabs selling crap makes me angry.
I bet a lot of the buyers who left positives (especially the blank positives) really wanted to leave neutral or negative.
And you just know that the poor buyers who received crap from EtsyLabs were too intimidated to give them the negatives they truly deserved.
I bought a notebook from them that came to me with dingy edges and dirt smudges, like it'd been shoved in the back of some drawer somewhere or perhaps stored on the dusty floor of the labs. I wasn't pleased.
But doesn't etsy have the power to change the negative to at least neutral?
Just saying...
You're right, some of those things deservedly would have received a negative in any other shop (how can not receiving your item be anything better than negative?). I doubt that it was generosity that caused those buyers not to click Negative - more likely they were *afraid* to do so. Who the hell wants to ensure their spot on the Admin "bad karma" blacklist?
I salute those who made less-than-exemplary comments - they were brave, even if they didn't leave the negative that was deserved. Let's hope it encourages others to be honest about their EtsyLab buying experiences.
P.S. Did you see this one (currently on page 28): "Found out the item was not in stock after I purchased . . . good at communicating what my options were at that point. Ended up refunding me my money. Thanks"
So much for following Etsy's own rule in the D&D: "Each listing must be an item available for purchase. You may not create a listing for an item that is not for sale or sold out."
The person that turned their purchase into a "donation" isn't even a seller, they had nothing to lose but still left a positive? I don't get it. And honestly, if a package I mailed to a buyer disappeared and I couldn't replace the item I wouldn't feel right keeping the buyer's money, even if they told me to. I'd either refund them or send them something else. Etsy isn't a non-profit, they don't need "donations".
in other news, the feedback for the "classes" is hysterical. whether neutral or positive they almost all seem to say: what a waste of my time and money... and the fact that so much of the feedback on classes is blank is quite telling...
P.S. Did you see this one (currently on page 28): "Found out the item was not in stock after I purchased . . . good at communicating what my options were at that point. Ended up refunding me my money. Thanks"
So much for following Etsy's own rule in the D&D: "Each listing must be an item available for purchase. You may not create a listing for an item that is not for sale or sold out."
----
In all fairness, this can happen. I had an instance several months ago in which I ripped my studio apart trying to find an item that had sold. I still can't find it. So, while it definitely sucks for the customer (I gave mine a refund and a coupon if they ever decide to come back), it's probably not a purposeful thing.
. said: "In all fairness, this can happen ... it's probably not a purposeful thing."
You're right, it's unlikely that they listed an unavailable item on purpose - but it is another instance of the overall lack of organization and poor quality that Etsy is sadly becoming known for.
I value quality. I just don't belong on etsy anymore.
Un-fucking-believable...
That's all I have to say...
Sulking, yes, that was me. I had 98%. When I was pulled, it was the day I opened my other shop.
I can only imagine sellers on Etsy fall all over themselves to please the customers at any cost, loosing a lot of money in the process, since I've never seen anyone with over 1000 sales on Ebay with 100% feedback, and it's something that Etsy seems to demand.
And there's the fun fun part that if a client buys 10 items in one transaction, and the transaction goes sour, they can leave 10 negative feedbacks, pretty much fucking up your rating for the next few years. Or that when you've solved the problem, refunded and resent, the buyer says they've received it and are happy but don't want to go to the trouble of finding the K&M, admins ignore any proof of this you might offer and refuse to step in. It's enough trouble getting them to remove the feedback from non-paying buyers.
I was also a success story that never got run, and never got a message back.
Head. Desk. Two times.
If I had feedback like that, who would buy from me?
It's possible that things are changed or deleted. I've seen it happen.
Admin buys items from seller. Leaves neutrals. The neutrals were unwarranted. and somewhat vindictive and malicious.
Seller complains. As they rightfully should.
Admin goes back and deletes the feedback for the seller.
I am glad for the seller. But it was wrong for admin to leave such feedback in the first place.
i'll vouch for the crappy shipping materials from etsylabs too - no padding, just loose in a tyvek mailer! items were creased in transit but amazingly no breakages. wasn't impressed with the quality except for the rather beautiful photo print from a seller
and it took 6 months or so for the items to arrive in the first place! but i guess that since i had just been muted i was being taught a lesson
and the lesson was www.pomomamadesign.com
Yikes! And to think I am one of their favorites. Please don't judge me by the company I keep! And I was actually thinking of ordering from them! Gotta think on that....
rather disgruntled - they didn't send you a reply? ugh, how annoying and rude! (though not surprising, I have had this happen soo many times from many different admin).
Did they at least explain to you why your featured seller thing was pulled? I don't remember being too impressed by your feedback but I certainly would have been PISSED if they chose me and then changed their minds about it, esp in public like that! They either have to have "standards" that they rigidly stick to or not: different treatment for everyone depending on the time of day is just lame.
Sulking, I got a lot of apologies for being pulled, so fair enough - I did send my interview a few months before for the Success Stories and never hear back - I later got why.
When you go on holiday, or are ill, and customers don't realize why you're not replying to convos, you get negative feedback. It's a shame there's no way to reply to it.
What?
Has that "Here are some more items from Etsy Labs" thing with the pictures showing other items ALWAYS been on their sold items?
Is that the cross-promotion idea come to life, tested on the labs first?
Wait! It's in everyone's! Did I miss something?
this is so ridiculous. if those comments were left for any one of us we'd be in the etsy void, having kissed goodbye any hope of a decent sales future. Bastards.
And pink, they just instituted the featured items old sold listings. Which makes me believe all the talk and backpedaling by admin about putting other seller's listings on our pages is total BS!!!!
They had that crap totally in the works and when everybody threw a fit they said oh no! it was just an idea we were tossing around. Lies.LIES!!!!
You know, "Etsylabs" has purchased from me, as have 3 other admin. I thought it was funny that in THREE of FOUR cases, I had to email them and ASK for payment after two days had gone by. And I was like really? Am I really emailing admin, to tell them I can't ship until they pay?? (It was at that time I saw all their neutral FB for Etsylabs....Ha, I guess other people noticed it too. Looks like their classes especially suck.)
The most hilarious part was that one of the admin even replied after three days and said "Oops! Sorry, I thought I had paid!". I mean wow, you work for Etsy and you STILL can't figure out the checkout??? A fucking embarrassment. And p.s. 2 of them never left feedback at all. Nice.
why is it that etsylabs has this:
"Here are some more items from EtsyLabs"
and common sellers don't? they took the time to add something useful like that to their own store, but all i got was a friggin spam feature!?
ooohkay. sees it now. can't see it on my own store. wow.
It isn't the Etsy Admin. I've seen neutral feedback for sellers that most assuredly should have been a flat out neutral. But people are so afraid of retaliatory feedback (that doesn't seem to get resolved) that they are timid about leaving it.
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