Paid orders, buyer disappears - Etsy

[alpha2]

On 4/24/2019 at 6:55 AM, JLSleather said:

Left a number, then doesn't answer it (I DON"T KNOW WHO THAT IS!)

What's yer shop?  Glad to refer a few when the walleye are biting

 

Alpha2leatherworks. Thanks, Jeff

[mikesc]

Text don't call, then you have a trace..with time stamp.

[Lobo]

I never dealt with Etsy, always took orders via e-mail link on my website. When payment was received the order went into the production schedule. When completed I sent an e-mail notification and mailed out the package.

Shipped an order to a customer in Houston, TX. Package was returned "addressee unknown". Sent another e-mail, never heard from the customer again. Held the order for a year, then sold it.

Sent out an order to a customer, then was contacted by his widow. Poor guy passed away after placing and paying for the order. I took it back and refunded sale price.

Sent out an order to a customer with an apartment address. Thirty days later she had not received her order, so I made up another one and sent it to her business address. Shortly after she contacted me, her original (opened) package had been found in the bushes outside the apartment house. Apparently the mail thief wasn't interested in a new holster.

Received a bank check in payment for an order, including a delivery address. Completed the order, sent the package to that address. Customer contacted me couple weeks later, no package. Sent him the mailing information, he went ballistic; the address provided by his bank was his FORMER ADDRESS, over a year old. Fortunately the package came back to me and I was able to send it to the new address.

Used PayPal for on-line payments for quite a few years. PayPal requires delivery to the registered address, and quite a few of those are out of date. Thus a fraud protection policy can result in lost shipments.

Then there was the customer in Israel, ordered a holster with request for no identifying markings, mailed to a PO Box address (no name), paid for the order with US currency in an envelope with no return address.

I learned about taking foreign checks or money orders when a Canadian customer sent me a check (denominated in US dollars) written on his Canadian bank. Deposited the check in my business account, then saw the next bank statement showing a $70 fee for processing a foreign check. The check was for $85.00 US.

Several European customers were irate when they received their deliveries and found out that their governments expected them to pay the import duties and/or Value Added Taxes.

Several celebrity customers insisted on having purchases sent to an agent's or employee's address, apparently didn't want me to know where they lived.

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

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

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.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Gregg From Keystone Sewing
info@keysew.com

[alpha2]

OP update...

Finally heard from the client. Her brother hooked her up with a hatband, so she wanted to cancel the order. I gave her the refund, gladly. She actually said my service was "stellar", and she'd keep me in mind in the future. I'm thinking of changing my address and email.

Jeff

[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.