Over the past year I've become a regular online shopper. While I've had some mediocre shopping experiences online this one takes the cake. The way I've been treated over the past two days warrants this and much more. Just to be clear I don't want to hate on Etsy - I LOVE shopping on Etsy so don't get me wrong. I've purchased many many wonderful things over the past year. This is just one of those bad experiences that I feel needs to be written about.
I never do this, I hate calling someone out however in this situation I feel it's necessary to get the word out.
Over the past few months I've been eying many pieces from (Ureshii)
this shop. I thought the pieces were versatile and great basics to add to my wardrobe. Over the past 6 months I've been avoiding buying clothing from mass market brands, doing my best to support handmade. I love supporting handmade for the high quality product and usually wonderful customer service. On occasion like with any company you might stumble upon a bad apple. Unfortunately I happened upon one this month.
The Story:
A few weeks ago I finally caved and bought a dress and skirt from the above
shop. I always get excited when I buy something on
Etsy, I'm usually over the moon with my purchases. I could not wait to receive my new dress! The plan was to wear it on my trip to San Francisco next week. The delivery man arrived with the package and as usual I was eagerly waiting at the door for his arrival. I could not wait to wear my new dress. Upon opening the envelope I could see through the plastic sleeve that my dress was packed in I was already going to have a problem. There was a gigantic hole in the front of the dress!
As a seller I felt badly for them, it's every sellers worst nightmare to overlook a glaring error when shipping packages. I'm a little OCD when I ship packages. I look over each package I send with a fine tooth comb for ANYTHING that could be a future problem for my customers. I knew they were rushed when they were shipping my package, they said they were leaving for vacation in a few days. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and contacted them regarding the situation. At this point things seemed fine, they asked me to ship the item back with the original envelope and packaging. They admitted buying a faulty bolt of fabric recently which had holes throughout it, though they did not want to admit that the dress would have been made from this bolt. They asked if it were possible that it was opened at customs, I replied that it did not appear to have been opened previously. They told me they would either repair or replace my dress and try their best to have it sent to me before I left for my trip next week. Great I thought, still hoping to have the dress to wear on my trip.
I thought nothing more about this situation until I suddenly received a full refund from the company in my PayPal account. With no explanation they refunded my money. I wondered why they would do this considering I still really wanted the dress. I contacted the seller immediately asking if they would be sending another dress or repairing the original. I was floored when they replied. The seller accused me of ripping the dress when I opened the envelope! They went on to say they didn't feel I was upfront with them about how the rip happened and did not want to send me another dress. They also said to have no further contact with them. I was and still am quite angry. I never get angry but this rubbed me in the wrong way.
There was no possible way that I ripped the item when opening the envelope as 1) I opened it by hand not with a knife or scissors, 2) The plastic sleeve that the dress was stored in was intact - no holes in it what so ever! 3) The hole in the dress was a round circular type hole (the type you see when moths eat fabric) If I had done what they were accusing me of there should have been a slash in the plastic and slash in the dress. This was crazy!
I explained this to them and they refused to listen to me continuing to accuse me of lying! I then did the only thing I could and began leaving negative feedback, before I could finish they had canceled the sale not allowing me to leave feedback! Fortunately the skirt I purchased I kept and was able to leave feedback under that listing. I usually avoid leaving negative feedback in fear of retaliation against my shop account. Unfortunately I was given no choice but to speak the truth. In doing so this shop retaliated against my shop leaving mutual negative feedback. What irks me about this is I'm following the rules, I don't have 2 separate accounts for buying/selling (which goes against Etsy's rules) and as a customer it's my right to leave justified negative feedback. In turn my shop is suffering a feedback of 99% over 100%. I don't like to be bullied into leaving a positive feedback for something that I feel was truly wrong. As much as it hurts to see my business feedback take a negative I will do it, I REFUSE to be bullied into giving a positive to someone who does not deserve it.
I hope this event will teach these people something about customer service, you MUST treat your customers with respect. We are the ones supporting you, supporting you over mass-market shops. It's offensive and disrespectful to be treated in this way. I love each and every customer that has supported me and my shop along the way. I feel extremely grateful each time someone makes a purchase with me over buying something at Target or WalMart.
Anyhow that's my rant. You will see more fun and uplifting posts from me in the near future I promise!
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Thanks all! See you soon!
A recent featured seller, and favorite of many is Sohomade. The quality craftsmanship is unbelievable for the price. I spoiled myself this summer and purchased the highly coveted tea dress. At $85 you will receive a gorgeous dress made of beautiful vintage fabrics that is fully lined and finished on the inside. The cinch belt it comes with is worth the money alone! I've worn it several times this summer over T's and with skirts. I will definitely be purchasing something here again. (Hubby says I have to wait until after we do a few reno's on the new house though ;)
And Last but certainly not least is one of my all time favs. Modest Maven will custom make a T-Shirt to fit you perfectly, on top of that adorn it with beautiful handmade appliques. I get compliments all the time and the turnaround for receiving this custom T was unbelievable! $40.00 will get you a one of a kind top that is sure to last you years.
I've been quite the shopaholic this summer huh? Unfortunately I have to take a break from $$ so much as the DH and I are buying our first house. The joys of home ownership ;) However, I'm sure before December hits I will be back to my regular habits.
If you're interested in WINNING some John Met Betty Goodnes, today is your chance!! Today my feature on Lillyella was posted! Check it out for a chance to win a free mini clutch or credit of $45.00 or more.
It is unfortunate but something had to give the first thing that suffered was the blog, the second was withdrawing from the Indie Banditas Bazaar (Happening this weekend, you should go!) 
Thanks for stopping by and entering! The contest winner will be contacted by e-mail. Again thank you all for your support, it's been an amazing week!
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