Vindicated
May/08/2007 05:03 Filed in: Life
For those of you who read my blog, and/or the
Etsy Forums you may recall a
freak out I had a while back. Well, I've been
holding back on the story until I thought the
time is right, and now it's right.
The former Etsy Seller Wonky Tonk Tiki Lounge sent me a conversation through Etsy asking if I'd like to trade, because she wanted a new banner. I agreed. When I do trades, my policy was to "buy" each others items at full price through Etsy. This way - Etsy gets it's fee's, and both myself and the other person had a little insurance - of being able to leave feedback. Well, things were going well at first. She didn't give me any real boundaries or firm ideas of what she wanted, she said something "retro" but not "cutsie" and in the tiki / beachy type theme. So, I made her 8 banners to choose from. She loved them all, but said she "really liked" a certain one. I did this all before she "bought" my item, or I "bought" hers. This way - if she didn't like my designs, we could part ways without anything getting ugly! So, she really liked it, I reserved a listing for her and asked her to "buy it" (though no money actually changes hands in a trade) at full price. At this point, things start getting slow, I didn't hear for her a couple of days. Then I hear from her, she asks if we can do another trade, because her sister was opening an Etsy shop. She wanted to trade something from her own shop, so she could give her sis a banner to get her going. I agreed. We both agreed I should wait to "buy" anything from her until the second banner was finished - for the same as the first, didn't want to get ugly, and now the trade amount was different. So, I made 5 banners for her sister. She said she really liked a certain one, and said to go pick out "$50- $100" worth of stuff from her store, and that would be fine for the trade. I was a bit wary of that, because my banners are only $16 each, making it $32 I would be credited. I asked a her a question about a certain item, it took her a week to respond, and then she didn't answer my question. She said she wanted to hurry and finish this transaction - I replied I did too, could she answer the question for me? She finally did. Conversations were moving a lot slower at this point, she made the excuse that her power had been shut off, so, fine, I understood that. Then she convo's me and says never mind, she doesn't want the second banner, she just wants the first. Ok - I was a little miffed, because I'd pretty much wasted my time on the other banner, but whatever, you change your mind - that's why I don't ask anyone to "buy" things until they are finished. (although I do ask for 50% up front on custom orders now, thanks to her)
Well, I pick out my earrings that I want - I convo her, make sure she's ok trading with them, a few days go by, I get the ok from her and I purchase them.
A few more days go by, with no word from her - I though, maybe she was waiting for me to send the banner, so I figure, I will - since the work is already done. I send the banner and avatar. Still no word. Weeks are passing now, I convo her about once a week - "what's the status on things? did you ship the earrings?" very polite, thinking maybe she lost power again.
When 2 months pass, I decide it's time to play hardball. I send her a convo, explaining things, that I'm tired of waiting for my earrings (which never showed up) and I'm tired of not getting any response or explanation. I told her if I didn't hear from her in 24 hours, I would leave negative feedback, and report both transactions to Etsy. I didn't hear from her - so, I did.
A few days later, maybe 3 or 4 days, I get a really nasty name calling convo from her, and she's threatening to leave me neg. feedback, etc.
I replied, as nicely as possible, but that's the last I hear from her. Both transactions were reversed and fee's reimbursed by Etsy Admins.
About a month later I checked out her shop to see if she'd updated or anything, since I had never heard any kind of reply. I see my feedback that I left for her was deleted! I was livid. I made a post in the forums about it which ended up getting locked. WonkyTonk replied to the forums - which I found funny, since she's been so hard to get ahold of otherwise. Her reply was bonkers, not a big surprise. Since then I've been working with Etsy admin. Luckily I had ALL the convo's saved. I saved them as pdf's and sent them to admin. It was really black and white. I believe that they were attempting to contact her, and reinstate the feedback, but, since she failed to reply to Admin - she was banned from the site. I feel quite vindicated now. I am not a viscous person, if she had done "kiss and makeup" or at least explained herself, I'm pretty easy going, I would have worked with her. Even in the negative feedbacks I left, I said "i really hate leaving you negatives - but I feel like I have no other options" but, she didn't want it that way, so. Done and Done. I'm really happy with Etsy Admins right now. I've always thought they took a soft hand in matters that needed a strong one, and vise versa, but they really owned up and took care of the situation here, and that makes me happy as a clam.
As far as the hall of shame goes - I'm a bit wary of the legal consequences it might have. I'm thinking of starting a forum on here though.
In other news, my *REAL* shop will be open soon! Can't wait for that, I've been working on it hard!
Abbie
http://abbieroad.etsy.com
The former Etsy Seller Wonky Tonk Tiki Lounge sent me a conversation through Etsy asking if I'd like to trade, because she wanted a new banner. I agreed. When I do trades, my policy was to "buy" each others items at full price through Etsy. This way - Etsy gets it's fee's, and both myself and the other person had a little insurance - of being able to leave feedback. Well, things were going well at first. She didn't give me any real boundaries or firm ideas of what she wanted, she said something "retro" but not "cutsie" and in the tiki / beachy type theme. So, I made her 8 banners to choose from. She loved them all, but said she "really liked" a certain one. I did this all before she "bought" my item, or I "bought" hers. This way - if she didn't like my designs, we could part ways without anything getting ugly! So, she really liked it, I reserved a listing for her and asked her to "buy it" (though no money actually changes hands in a trade) at full price. At this point, things start getting slow, I didn't hear for her a couple of days. Then I hear from her, she asks if we can do another trade, because her sister was opening an Etsy shop. She wanted to trade something from her own shop, so she could give her sis a banner to get her going. I agreed. We both agreed I should wait to "buy" anything from her until the second banner was finished - for the same as the first, didn't want to get ugly, and now the trade amount was different. So, I made 5 banners for her sister. She said she really liked a certain one, and said to go pick out "$50- $100" worth of stuff from her store, and that would be fine for the trade. I was a bit wary of that, because my banners are only $16 each, making it $32 I would be credited. I asked a her a question about a certain item, it took her a week to respond, and then she didn't answer my question. She said she wanted to hurry and finish this transaction - I replied I did too, could she answer the question for me? She finally did. Conversations were moving a lot slower at this point, she made the excuse that her power had been shut off, so, fine, I understood that. Then she convo's me and says never mind, she doesn't want the second banner, she just wants the first. Ok - I was a little miffed, because I'd pretty much wasted my time on the other banner, but whatever, you change your mind - that's why I don't ask anyone to "buy" things until they are finished. (although I do ask for 50% up front on custom orders now, thanks to her)
Well, I pick out my earrings that I want - I convo her, make sure she's ok trading with them, a few days go by, I get the ok from her and I purchase them.
A few more days go by, with no word from her - I though, maybe she was waiting for me to send the banner, so I figure, I will - since the work is already done. I send the banner and avatar. Still no word. Weeks are passing now, I convo her about once a week - "what's the status on things? did you ship the earrings?" very polite, thinking maybe she lost power again.
When 2 months pass, I decide it's time to play hardball. I send her a convo, explaining things, that I'm tired of waiting for my earrings (which never showed up) and I'm tired of not getting any response or explanation. I told her if I didn't hear from her in 24 hours, I would leave negative feedback, and report both transactions to Etsy. I didn't hear from her - so, I did.
A few days later, maybe 3 or 4 days, I get a really nasty name calling convo from her, and she's threatening to leave me neg. feedback, etc.
I replied, as nicely as possible, but that's the last I hear from her. Both transactions were reversed and fee's reimbursed by Etsy Admins.
About a month later I checked out her shop to see if she'd updated or anything, since I had never heard any kind of reply. I see my feedback that I left for her was deleted! I was livid. I made a post in the forums about it which ended up getting locked. WonkyTonk replied to the forums - which I found funny, since she's been so hard to get ahold of otherwise. Her reply was bonkers, not a big surprise. Since then I've been working with Etsy admin. Luckily I had ALL the convo's saved. I saved them as pdf's and sent them to admin. It was really black and white. I believe that they were attempting to contact her, and reinstate the feedback, but, since she failed to reply to Admin - she was banned from the site. I feel quite vindicated now. I am not a viscous person, if she had done "kiss and makeup" or at least explained herself, I'm pretty easy going, I would have worked with her. Even in the negative feedbacks I left, I said "i really hate leaving you negatives - but I feel like I have no other options" but, she didn't want it that way, so. Done and Done. I'm really happy with Etsy Admins right now. I've always thought they took a soft hand in matters that needed a strong one, and vise versa, but they really owned up and took care of the situation here, and that makes me happy as a clam.
As far as the hall of shame goes - I'm a bit wary of the legal consequences it might have. I'm thinking of starting a forum on here though.
In other news, my *REAL* shop will be open soon! Can't wait for that, I've been working on it hard!
Abbie
http://abbieroad.etsy.com
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