This was a though weekend… · Poster Print on Demand

Jun 10 (edited) • 👀 Etsy

This was a though weekend…

Excuse the misspelling if any, I’m typing this as I remember it 🤣

This was probably my most stressful weekend ever since I opened my shop.

I had 6 complaints in 1 day from different customers. This has not happened not even during the Christmas period. I will explain each of them as maybe they will give you some insight and help out through situation you will be put in by customers.

One customer from France left a three star review because she claimed that the A3 poster I sent was slightly too big for her frame. I rode this rodeo before with another customer from France and I already knew what happened before even contacting the customer back. What she did, she bought a 30x40 frame and ordered A3 poster. That will never work as A3 is 2 cm longer than 30x40 frame.

This happens as IKEA is advertising the 30x40 frames as ~A3 which is misleading.

She eventually changed the review to 4 star, however she didn’t admit her mistake 🤷🏻‍♂️

Second one claimed that item is not as advertised although the poster looks exactly like advertised. She was expecting the colours to look a certain way when she clearly saw in the listing that they don’t but she ordered it anyway. I refused the return and advised her to open a case with Etsy for a refund. She tried to argue but haven’t heard from her after.

Third one from Germany, was expecting to receive fine art as he complained that they are pixelated, although from the photos he sent they looked fine as large prints. Yes the pixels look more stretched compared to a small print, but on a large print they would look a bit bigger which is normal. He asked for replacement or refund. I ended up refunding as a replacement would look the same to him anyway. Lost £150 on this one but oh well. I printed on even bigger prints with no issues so I acknowledged the customer having different expectations.

Forth one claimed that it was not what he expected. I asked what was he expecting and how can I help in this situation? He just responded “It’s just not what I expected” bruh 💀. I suspect either wrong size ordered or buyer’s remorse. I advised to open a case with Etsy for refund as I cannot accept this.

The fifth, simply left a 3 star review with “I’ll leave it when I receive it”. What happened here is Etsy sends these automated notifications to customers to leave a review even before them receiving the order, which is mind blowing to me. I now have to wait for customer to receive the order then remind him to amend the review. Thanks for this Etsy. I have reported the review but they see nothing wrong with it…

The 6th one. Oh dear… This one was a complete cunt from the US who, instead of contacting me first, she straight away left a 1 star review with caption “Can’t contact seller”. I have sent her a message asking what the issue is and how can I help; nothing. In the meantime she changed the review again with “can’t get through to seller” then she opened a help request. I answered to that as well. Now if customers do not answer to their messages, I usually send them an email as well to make them aware that I have responded them on Etsy and if they can hop on Etsy to resolve their issue.

Disclaimer: She ordered an A4 print, she received an A4 print but now she wanted to replace it with a bigger print.

Since I sent her an email, she was insisting that she cannot send me messages on Etsy and we should deal with the issue there on gmail. So that was suspicious, as Etsy strongly advises not to discuss with customers outside of the platform as it’s not monitored and some customers know this. She first said that she wants a bigger print as the one ordered is too small. I advised her that if she has technical issues, I cannot help her and she should contact Etsy customer service to help her get through and so I can then help in fixing her issue (made up issue, mind you). She then said that I don’t want to help her and she doesn’t want to loose her money on something she didn’t ordered. Right, changing our story are we? 🤣.

I have contacted Etsy support at this point and informed them about this, they obviously advised to break contact with customer if she refuses to cooperate. In the meantime I have reported the review which was clearly ill intended and extortionate.

An hour later, she answered my message on Etsy 🤣. And her attitude was vile. I refused the refund but I offered her a 50% discount on the new order and advised her to open a case with Etsy for refund on her original order. She changed her review again to “Seller refuses to fix the issue, beaware!” 🤦🏻‍♂️

Then she proceeded to gaslight me. She eventually accepted the 50% discount and tried to put a new order. Not a success as she couldn’t find the voucher section under the payment button…

I gave up in the end as I couldn’t handle the two days headache she put me through and refunded her for the order and asked her to put the new order (should she still want it) at full price and of course amend the review with the service provided. As expected the review was full gaslight as it was my fault she ordered the wrong fucking size and up it to 2 stars, then a minute later to 3 stars with different words, then a minute later to 4 star with different words. Fml 😭 I replied to the review to lock it.

Then she put in a new order and I was thinking to cancel it but since customers can leave a review up to 48 hours after cancelling, I would have ended up with no money from the order and a 1 star review, so I decided to go ahead with the order and risk the one star review which she might leave for whatever reason she might make up.

And this was it. Or so I thought 🤣. Yesterday I received an email from Etsy that they removed the review because they suspected that review system was abused and extortion practices were at play. I contacted them to find out why I’m the one receiving the email. They said it was because the customer changed the review so many times, it was suspicious. Well I’m happy that the review is gone but I told them that I reported the review since mal intent was at play and they ignored it but now that I tried to fix it they interfere and remove it 🤣, although they acknowledged her behaviour and intent from the messages.

Anyway, long rant. No matter what you do, Etsy will always side with the customers, I’m still yet to be proved otherwise.

Peace out 🙃

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