Friday, February 24, 2012

Driven to Distraction Etsy Tips

As a few of you know, my dad is having health problems, so I've been doing what I can by traveling two hours each way back & forth to visit, checking in daily, etc. I'm a woman: daughter, mom, step mom, sister, friend, ex-wife & self employed as an online seller on Etsy & Amazon...... like I said, a woman & juggling it all, right? WRONG.

In the last two weeks, I have sent the wrong order to a customer that needed HER order ASAP, so I had to overnight HER package the next day. The other customer then had to wait for HER package to be forwarded & was pushing up against her own deadline. When she finally got it, I had left out three pieces, two of which I couldn't find. Another woman ordered something I NEVER DID FIND & I just finished refunding her money AFTER I first sent it to the WRONG customer who was nice enough to refund it back to me.

TWO lessons come to mind, although I'm sure you can think of many more  :  /

1) When you go through your old item photos & realize you forgot to list it way back when, check your bins FIRST before you list it to make sure you STILL HAVE IT. 

2) When you bundled up & listed those items that STILL haven't sold, then get the bright idea to add to or take away from another listing & re-bundle it, TAKE THE OLD item down BEFORE you list the updated one to make sure that ALL the pieces are included.

FINALLY, if you have the luxury of taking a few days of vacation from your businesses to get yourself together when the next crisis hits, PLEASE DO. IF you're like me & DON'T have that option, then you're welcome to cut & paste this sad distraction tale on to your site to warn folks what they're in for.

Forget that. NOT in the best business practice manual I'm sure, but thanks for listening anyway.

Diane xo




3 comments:

  1. Wow, Dianne! I know exactly how this feels, and I can tell you I've had more than one nightmare wake me up to go scrambling around checking my bins.It did make me feel a lot better when once I ordered a pair of shoes from a seller on Ebay and she sent me two left shoes! I think most people are very understanding, but some folks just aren't. :(

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  2. Happened to me once - shipped the wrong item to the wrong person AND after moving the contents of my workroom from one room to another, I also had to refund a customer after spending 2 frantic days looking for something I never found. She knew I was looking & was very understanding... but still bad PR. You are so right... after those frantic days I spent a couple of days making sure everything I had listed was in my notebooks - the mostly paper shop items. Great that you brought it up - might save someone else from the same embarrassment. ~Kathy

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  3. I can recall a few times of loosing track items and freaking out thinking I cant find them again I am always double checking cause this is a fear of mine. I am sorry your going threw some rough times. My thoughts are with you ... Take care friend Hope to see you soon

    Lornajane

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