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The gift certificate "how-to" in the Dorque is absolute bitchfodder. It is a lame ass attempt (err fail) by Etsy to be a "normal" shopping site.
For starters, they're confusing people who don't understand that they're NOT Etsy gift certificates, they're gift certificates to the Etsy shop that issued it ONLY.
Also - Etsy is double dipping!! They encourage gift certificates because they collect fees twice for them!...once for the sale of the certificate and another time for the sale of the item the certificate is used on.
And they have a new Gift Guide for those that offer gift certificates, a little late for a new GG isn't it?! And how much notice is this for sellers to be included? Etsy-site promotion my ass. By the way, did you know there was an expedited shipping GG recently?
Other sales sites are capable of site-wide gift certificate! Dawanda (see our review) recently instituted them, a bit late for this year's holidays, but they are able to do what Etsy obviously can't.
Another has this to say:
compared to the Dawanda gift certs/vouchers (administered by the site itself), etsy is being positively dishonest in pushing sellers into believeing that gift certs are the way to go. they may have guidelines in place to remind people that a tangible article must be forthcoming from each listing but i still see no information about having to pay the fees twice
18 Comments:
Artfire's going to be have way way to set up store GC's, flat $ and % promo codes soon... an IHPS isn't in the cards last I heard though. I've heard some suggest a paypal system wher eyou pay the venue then they pay you once the buyer decides who to buy from, and that's not really viable since there are fees from buyer to the venue, then again from venue to the seller. Over 6% gone just in fees. That gets into a sticky area with banking laws, etc.
individual states have some varying rules over how much in fees can be detracted in how much time too, if they can at all.
404 error page does not exist..
Looks like etsy pulled the plug on this one~
did a quick scan of the Dorque but I see nada~
I am so surprised more sellers commenting in that article haven't questioned the double dip for fees when you use a gift certificate in your etsy shop.
there is a slight work around it though - you can issue PayPal gift certificates which should work wherever you accept payments into your paypal account. the gift cert button can be placed on your blog or webpage with minimal HTML knowledge. the buyer then just adds in the code when they checkout thru PayPal. in that way you don't get hit by etsy seller and listing fees twice
fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Charge me once, shame on you; charge me twice, shame on you, again.
Gift Certificates? FAIL.
Which of those fools came up with the brilliant idea of promoting an item that the checkout infrastructure can't process?
Besides the double transaction fees, they are an invitation for hassles when the recipient tries to redeem them and they can't check out because the invoice doesn't deduct the GC amount from their total.
These kids have ZERO business sensibility. Who's letting them make these decisions?
And regarding the article:
"This article was originally published on December 17, 2007. We've updated the content to be current as of September 8, 2008 for the upcoming holiday selling season."
Then why publish it on Dec. 17 again, when it's too late for people to promote it if they even want to? Just because that's the date from last year? It was late last year, too. Is Fail part of the strategy?
And why didn't they fix the above mentioned problems during that time between Dec. 2007 to Dec. 2008?
Someone needs a dopeslap.
Erin:
Best description of Etsy Admin I've heard in a while:
"a posse of glorified interns"
Every comment hits that Etsy nail on the lame Etsy head --- Etsy is NOT about sellers. Sellers are just not on their agenda.
I estimate that I lost about $3k in possible sales this month because:
1. I could not offer GC's
2. Etsy never notified me that I could as of 12/17
3. WAY TOO LATE for me to offer it to my customers who have been asking for one since SEPTEMBER.
That's my estimate for my store - but what about thousands of other stores that could have sold GC's????
Etsy shit right back on itself because they LOST THE MONEY they could have made as well. Which means Etsy cannot see the other side of Gold Street. They are completely without any business sense whatsoever.
And they keep fucking over sellers with everything they do not do to help their sellers sell.
If Etsy is left with 100 most-trendy stores listing Etsy-approved products for sale, they deserve every $15 item they get their 20 cents for. All those Admins will be in hog-heaven surrounded by Etsy-manufactured-trends that will feed their Etsy-created-egos.
The front page looks like a bargain bin, with all arrows pointing to a bunch of employees who are completely without a creative hair on their Etsy-egocentric heads.
and here's the info about the paypal gift certs https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Merchant/merchant/GCIntro-outside
they are easy to install tho i'm still tinkering around with the customising stuff. i've tested it out in my ecrater shop (which accepts paypal) and it worked smoothly
I so love reading the failures of Etsy! I as stated on another comment I think they must be trying to fail on purpose. There is no other way a site could fail this bad without trying!
Ops I want to be notified of more bitching!
Erin... that really is the best description I've heard, too!
I am now spending all of my time getting my Art Fire shop started and will be focused on getting my website up and running over this break I have from my day job.
I don't trust Etsy will ever do the right thing... in the three months I've been a seller there I've been underwhelmed and seeing how they are now handling GC's, I'm even more blown away by the level of their ineptness.
Ciao Etsy!
Shame in Etsy double charging fees. Personally, I have my own gift certificates.
I'm floored at the ineptitude of Etsy employees; but sadly, not surprised.
The double fee whammy with GC completely bites. If I ever decide to sell GC, I'll list them for $.20 then send a PayPal invoice for the amt of the GC. Then Etsy can get their take when a customer purchases with a GC. Pfft, assholes. (Of course, I'd get flagged up the wazoo for "fee avoidance") f'ing cupcake heads.
the gift cert stuff on etsy is really confusing. this thread http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5965993 was closed recently, citing public posting of private info as a reason among others
but this thread http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5060977, in which chillionaire warns etsy sellers of upcoming action against those offering GCs has the same "private" convo "made public" in the previous thread.
so not only has etsy suddenly had an about-face in the space of less than a year, they are encouraging other sellers into believing that GCs have been allowable for much longer than they have, have not advised sellers of change in TOU and have erroneously closed a thread and no doubt given a seller a warning about it too.
if my post makes no sense then i'm blaming the material it comes from!
EbbandFlo:
"so not only has etsy suddenly had an about-face in the space of less than a year, they are encouraging other sellers into believing that GCs have been allowable for much longer than they have, have not advised sellers of change in TOU and have erroneously closed a thread"
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I see this and think of Joe Pesci saying that line in My Cousin Vinny:
"There's a fuckin' surprise."
-JJ & Painted Bull
So now the gift certificate gift guide even went into rotation on the front page (where they rotate in Time Machine, Shop Local, etc, the shop in the top, right area). I know I'm a glass half-empty person, but I'm seeing the forums inundated with January posts on angry/confused buyers and beleaguered sellers where gift certificates are trying to be used at the wrong shops. Buyers don't understand why sellers won't honor them. Don't understand where to use their code. Sellers wondering if they should honor another shops gift certificate just to get the $5overage sale (like its $30 sale and its a $25 certificate). Buyers and sellers alike trying to get to etsy to sort out the mess. New buyers getting frustrated and deciding never to shop on etsy again.
can someone check my maths for me?
by my calculations, on a $10 gift certificate purchase almost 24% of the income goes in fees if you are using PayPal
am i the only one who thinks that this sucks?
(possibly)
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