Not All Bad Etsy Shop Reviews Are Legit

Am I a lover of Etsy?! Heck yes!! Do you I have several Etsy shops? Yes I do!! Because of the fact that I both buy and sell on Etsy I have made a disturbing observation: not all bad Etsy shop reviews are warranted.

I have been blessed with all 99% positive reviews on all transactions in my shops which goes hand in hand with the fact that I take these shops very seriously, they are my primary source of income. I started a new custom frame shop last year and have received a few complaints all of which were unwarranted. Let me explain. I am very clear in my item descriptions that the photo frames I use are wood craft frames with no glass front and no backer. Not only do I state that in each listing and provide photos, I also state that on my front shop page. But I got a few poor reviews stating frame did not have glass or backer.

Read people!!! It's so frustrating. Why are you leaving me a poor review, hurting my sales because you didn't read the item description before purchasing? If you want a frame with glass and a backer, trust me, I completely understand so don't purchase from my shop. If I legitimately did something wrong and deserve the bad review, bring it but when I am upfront about something before you purchase why are you penalizing me for it after you receive. Or private message me after you receive and 'fess up that you didn't read the description and maybe we can work something out but don't automatically put me on blast for your indiscretion.

Being that I take my shops seriously these couple poor reviews made me really upset so I started checking out some other shop reviews. I looked for shops that had a lot of sales and primarily positive feedback and what I found was really really upsetting. Shops could have five stars after five stars and then there is a one star review. I read what the complaint was and again they were complaining about something that was given in the info in the item description. For example, one person wrote "I didn't think it would be that small." But in all these shop's listings the dimensions are given. If the buyer was unsure of the size they should have whipped out a ruler before ordering. Again a lazy buyer is hurting someone's legit business. I found instances like this over and over again.

Don't get me wrong are there poorly run shops with bad products? Yes, of course there are so you do need to be careful when purchasing and look at sales and reviews but please do yourself and the shop owner a favor and read the bad reviews. If a shop has almost all positive reviews and you see just a handful of bad ones, read the reviews. In almost all instances you will find complaints about something that was openly mentioned in item description and in that case the shop was not at fault.

So now I will step down off my soapbox and wish you a wonderful day!! xoxoxo

Etsy Sellers Beware

I was having a good day until I got a message from a fellow Etsy seller this evening with some disturbing news.  She told me that another seller was using using other shop's photos and listing for half price. My photos were among those stolen. So now when someone searches for a "hot pink tutu" they will see two tutus identical in photos but one for half the cost.

Problem is the buyer will undoubtedly go with the less expensive choice but won't get item photographed. This seller can try to duplicate my item but it will not be the same especially for price listed. There's no way because my products are reasonably priced and this seller is offering free shipping. There is no profit for this seller to make. So one of two things is happening. Customer is getting an inferior item unlike one in stolen photograph. Or since this seller made over 60 sales in two days they are never planning on sending any products and just stealing the money.

Not to mention how can you put out a quality product with so many sales in a day without a long turnaround time. I am beyond frustrated because I take pride in my products and now there is someone out there ruining it for us all. I reported this shop to Etsy and I hope they will be shut down promptly before more buyers are duped and good shop owners lose deserved business.

So I learned a very important lesson. You must put a watermark or your shop's name somewhere on your photo. I opted for right across the tutu because you can still see the item but it cannot be cropped out by those who make a habit of stealing intellectual property. Hopefully this should stop all my photos from being stolen in the future. It's just a shame we have to do this because a select few cannot respect others intellectual and artistic property. Please protect your shops and edit all of your photos so nobody can steal your images, take it from someone who said: "It will never happen to me."

Before and After