Paid orders, buyer disappears - Etsy

[JLSleather]

On 4/26/2019 at 8:30 AM, alpha2 said:

Alpha2leatherworks. Thanks, Jeff

Bookmarked.

[JLSleather]

On 4/26/2019 at 9:31 AM, Lobo said:

Some days in the business were a little more interesting than other days

Yah.. tha's the muted version

This stuff always happens.  Cutesy COMPOUNDS the problem by frequently (not constant, but frequent) changing the layout.  So, people COULD get used to seeing how long it will take to get their purchased item - say for example - in the upper right corner.  But by next month, that info is placed somewhere else on the page, with no link to where it went.  So they have to hunt. 

And some find my stuff on Google Ads or Google shopping, which then links to cutesy listing, so they go to the trouble of signing up because they've never used it before, and they are shown "only 1 available", though the listing clearly states they aren't made until they are ordered.

All that to say that with your own site, YOU control what they see and where, and how it's laid out.  MANY issues can be eliminated (well, reduced anyway) by CLEARLY SHOWING how buyers or potential buyers can contact you.

[Mark842]

On 4/26/2019 at 8:33 AM, Gregg From Keystone Sewing said:

If you are at it long enough, these things will happen.  I've had people come to pick up repairs that were parked at our shop for years.  The walk in like nothing happened after we had long given up on them.  And expect us to have their machine ready.

Another woman came in and said that she put a deposit down on a machine over a year ago and wanted us to give her money back.  Her explanation was that she was just coming out jail and needed to get her life back straight and that she wanted the machine but really wanted the money back as she could really use it.  I feel she almost walked right out jail to our shop because she knew we had her money like we were a bank.  Yes, we gave her money back in full for sure. 

Another one, and I mean with with respect, but it's just a fact that this guy on the other end of the phone sounded like he had one foot in the grave.  He sent a deposit, and within a week or two we did everything we could to contact him.  We had his phone and fax number (this was a while back) and the were eventually disconnected.  We never did hear back from that guy.

Had a similar on the jail client. Had a customer that gave us a substantial down payment (5 figures) on a custom motorcycle build. He was in our shop once or twice a week following progress and going over details. All the sudden poof! Gone. No contact no nothing...days, weeks, months, years. Got tired of seeing it sit on my sales floor and having it piss me off everyday so I hired a P.I. Guy was in prison doing life. Found out by law I could legally sell it but only at enough to cover my losses. We were able to add into those losses reasonable storage but it still wound up be a crappy deal. No more pay as you go deals on custom builds after that for us.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

19 hours ago, Mark842 said:

Had a similar on the jail client. Had a customer that gave us a substantial down payment (5 figures) on a custom motorcycle build. He was in our shop once or twice a week following progress and going over details. All the sudden poof! Gone. No contact no nothing...days, weeks, months, years. Got tired of seeing it sit on my sales floor and having it piss me off everyday so I hired a P.I. Guy was in prison doing life. Found out by law I could legally sell it but only at enough to cover my losses. We were able to add into those losses reasonable storage but it still wound up be a crappy deal. No more pay as you go deals on custom builds after that for us.

Roger that sir.  Our industry standard has been 50% down up front on custom equipment.  When we get stuck with a custom sewing machine, often it's a machine that is valuable to 1 person, company or group.  Nobody will ever pay for the labor, materials that go into a custom machine that absolutely positively no one other than the original buyer can ever make use of.