Question about 1 star nukes on Etsy

[RetroMonde]

I'm asking for help for a friend. DS's girlfriend sells on Etsy and recently sold 9 vintage bandanas to a single buyer who received them 10 days ago. She contacted S this AM saying that none were vintage (absolutely incorrect), that she'd found them for $1.99 each and purchased those and hoped that S is happy with her money from the fraudulent transaction. Then she left 9 1-star reviews without filing a SNAD, asking for a refund or giving S a chance to respond (it was early AM here on the West coast). My friend is devastated cause those damn reviews pop up all over active listings now and vintage bandanas are a large part of her sales.

If it was eBay I'd have all kinds of advice for her but it's Etsy; you can't even contact a live person there to discuss the situation. DS is crafting a message to Etsy but I'm not very optimistic about the response they'll get cause they want buyer/seller make nice together. I tried to research the buyer to see if this is a pattern but can't even find her purchases anymore. 

Any suggestions on how she might proceed? She can't respond to the feedback yet cause once you do it's set in stone and can't be removed. Ugh!! Help!! 

[RetroMonde]

I suggested she post on the Etsy forum about this issue and ask for advice how to handle the situation. She had about 8-10 replies before receiving this response from an Etsy Mod and having the original post removed and blocked from replies.

ETSY MOD- This sounds like a tricky situation and it looks like you've gotten some good feedback.

While it's OK seek advice on dealing with reviews in the Forums, we ask that members refrain from posting identifying review or transaction details. Because the Forums are public to both buyers and sellers, this can be seen as disparaging. I'm just closing this up now.



After doing a lot of research on Etsy feedback and conflict resolution, I'm not feeling ANY Etsy love today. At least eBay offers solutions; we may not always like them but we have avenues to explore and written policy. That's eBay 10 points, Etsy 1 today.  

[frakinfashion]

Yikes, what a horror show! So sorry for that poor girl. I have no clue as to what to do. Just wanted to say yikes. If she gets any good advice, please let us know. Maybe she could repost on the forum sanitizing for identifying info.

[chapeaunoir]

Etsy really doesn't give a crap - even in their help files they'll say "If you’re unable to resolve the issue to your or the buyer’s satisfaction, you can opt to learn from the experience and move on."

However,  this is an extreme and vindictive move on the part of the buyer and there should be some recourse, particularly when the merchandise is authentic.  I've had a one star review there before and the person accused me of selling her non-authentic Edwardian merchandise - I contacted her first but she was one of these mobile idiots and had no idea what the hell she was buying to begin with and wouldn't change anything.

I didn't see the thread - does it still exist? The mods are very invasive on that board, but don't help much other than that.  There should be some recourse, though, if the buyer absolutely will NOT change anything.

How does it stand right now?

ETA:  I just found the thread - the mod shut it down at the worst time as your friend was starting to get real hard facts as to authentication and how to present her case to Etsy. The mod obviously didn't bother to read the thread or she would have known that. That's the only advice I have - if there is verification that it IS vintage, and the buyer was WRONG, and refuses to admit it, this should be grounds to remove the one-stars.

If they won't, and there's verified evidence, then after each review post, dryly and without emotion state that evidence - don't even vary the wording. Her buyers will know that she's been unfairly nuked.

This is the one big problem I have with Etsy - there's so little seller support.

[RetroMonde]

I'm so unhappy with their lack of seller support it's not funny! Shauna waited a day to cool down then we group-wrote a response to the buyers email saying we were sorry she was unhappy with her purchase and that the bandanas were at least 20 years old as per etsy's regs. Then we sent an email to Etsy very calmly stating the facts that 1) the buyer didn't give S the chance to reply before leaving her negs, 2) that it was a clear case of buyers remorse since she admitted she purchased them elsewhere for $2, and 3) that she implied the seller was dishonest in the review. She said she respected the right of the buyer to leave a review of her opinion but her leaving 9 cut & paste reviews for what amounted to a single multiple-item transaction was excessive and could affect Shauna's ability to sell on Etsy. We suggested that if Etsy couldn't remove all the negs (cause she basically called her dishonest in the review) then could they at least consolidate the 9 reviews into one for the entire transaction.

So now we're waiting on a reply from Etsy; I don't expect the buyer to respond and would rather she didn't. S is gonna do some new listings this afternoon after we go shopping. I'm trying to keep her encouraged but she's already had someone contact her and mention the 9 NEGS... ouch!! Fingers crossed Etsy comes thru. I may close my 2nd shop there if they don't offer her some help.

[Deleted]

My DD recently opened a shop on Etsy, hasn't sold anything yet but I'm part of an etsy group on FB and yes some of the buyers are crazy and mean on there. Most of the others buyer realize that when they read the FB though and it doesn't seem to effect the sellers, sales in the end. I think if she just sticks to it she will get over those 9 negs just fine, even if Etsy doesn't remove them. Anyone will be able to see it was all from one buyer and they were just crazy and mad they over paid for them.

[chapeaunoir]

Her overall score is still quite good, and if Etsy does not help in resolution, the calm factual reply to each neg will answer any questions as to the authenticity of merchandise. In three feedbacks that mess will drop off the landing page.

This is really too bad and I'm sorry someone wrote her about it - hopefully to commiserate and help, not to hassle her about it.

Going forward, is there anything that can be done to prevent this, i.e., more pieces of information, etc., in the listing? There's already good info in the title, but I'm wondering in the bandanna world if there's something else that can be included? Of course, it's hard to prevent vindictive nutcases to begin with.

[RetroMonde]

Thanks guys! She just now got her canned response from Etsy... I'm spitting mad as my Gramma would have said. They they basically told her "SO sorry, work with the customer." WTH kind of response is that? A f'n canned reply? Don't they think that IF she could have worked with the buyer that she would have? It's just a damn shame when one vindictive buyer suffering from a mega-case of buyers remorse can nuke your ratings and the seller has absolutely no recourse. Hmm, deja vu of years of dealing with defects & dings on eBay. Sigh... I'm so sick & tired of people/small sellers getting shafted by their selling partners or mean buyers.I wanna block the b***h since I sell lots of bandanas there too but you can't block on Etsy. I will refuse to sell to her tho... Etsy can deal with that how they want to.

Dating older bandanas is pretty easy but dating newer bandanas is difficult because many companies used the same patterns. There's different RNs but that's little help. We stopped by the fabric/craft store earlier and saw the same bandana print being sold. These in particular had a label that said Made in India. All you can go on is the corner markings, the way the bandana feels (modern cotton has a different hand), made in China, a black or wonky elephant, a ribbon label sewn into the hem or... the list goes on. From 1996 to today is sort-of a gray area; we do our best to make sure our bandanas are actual vintage and not just old looking. It sorta helps that DH has been a bandana user for decades and I've washed them all those years. And the fashion bandanas common in the 80s-90s are easy cause acid wash finish, southwestern prints etc were fads of a certain era.

Oh, and yes, the person that contacted her and mentioned the reviews was a sympathetic seller with a question about something else. Thanks a lot for letting me vent and the sympathy for my friend.  SaveSave

[Deleted]

Yep same response as the FB group sellers get. Etsy pretty much sucks for sellers but the good news is it equally sucks for all and they give you lots of room to leave a factual reply to their psycho crazy buyer rants. One lady on there got a 1 because the buyer said it took to long for her do a custom applique and the PO took to long to deliver her item. Well it took so long to do the applique because the customer didn't include what she wanted it to say when she checked out like she was suppose to so it took forever to get the info from her. As far as the PO delay, nothing the seller could do about that. In other words nothing about it was the sellers fault but that didn't make a difference, Etsy wouldn't do anything except say work it out with the buyer. Another ordered a custom applique and said she wanted it in purple, demanded a full refund because it turned out she wanted the bag in purple, bag color wasn't even an option LOL

[RetroMonde]

Wow, that's a whacked buyer... shame on Etsy for not providing better customer service to their sellers to deal with these trainwreck customers! Really most transactions go smoothly but the ones that go south end up WAY off track. And a cut and paste reply is NOT adequate CS. Oh well, she's gonna keep on working but I want her to get her stuff onto another venue.

[chapeaunoir]

She can try ArtYah - some people are having luck over there.

There's an exodus from Etsy right now - 60,000 shops were shut down because they wouldn't take Etsy payments (Etsy makes its money from 'services'), but a bunch of people (like myself) jumped on there to sell in the last two years, so a lot of turmoil.

Fortunately, you can refuse to deal with a buyer or cancel an order without repercussions if you don't do it a lot.

Shauna's shop will be OK - it's just unfair and really sucks. I'd work on those replies.

[RetroMonde]

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I think there's a snowballs chance in Hell of the buyer revising those stars and I personally wouldn't grovel with an a-hole buyer. She really outed herself imho. Work with the buyer indeed. Still PO'd about that.

[frakinfashion]

It just occurred to me that this is the consequence of Etsy acting as a venue rather than as the uber police like eBay does. We all want eBay to be more of a venue and get out of our business. It's hard to strike the right balance.