I try to be candid when I experience business hiccups. I think that the best way to have happy customers is for them to understand where I am coming from and the challenges faced. I've struggled limited amounts with lost packages. When it happens, I feel I want to blame the post for being unreliable rather then think a customer is scamming me. But it happens so infrequently, I don't really have a policy on it currently. It's only happen 5 times in 600 orders, but I think in the future, when a package says it was delivered but the customer claims to not have received it, I will require them to pay for shipping again and require a signature for delivery as well as double confirm their address submitted. Do you think that is an unfair policy? I'd love feedback.
Here is an account of the messy lost package I'm dealing with now. A customer purchased a pokerose and charmed pokerose bouquet. It was shipped and 4 days after etsy reported it delivered they messaged me saying it never arrived. I assumed it had been stolen off their porch and said I would reship the missing products. They expressed they wanted to buy more items on top of what they'd already purchased and I told them if they wanted to purchase them, I'd include them in the replacement package for no additional shipping. I wanted to make them happy to avoid a poor review and also because they wee going to be ordering more (kind of balancing out the money I'd lost sending the replacements). They bounced all over the place with the extra things to add, wanted to make a swap with the replacement product to be something new and also asked for a discount because of all the inconvenience in the delay of them receiving the product so delayed from the original purchase date. I now feel I should not have agreed to send a completely different replacement product from the original one that never arrived, but at the time it seemed a harmless request and I like making new things over having to remake old ones. So we ironed out the details and the price and I made a new etsy listing and went ahead and made the product as well. Every night I'd have an email saying they'll buy it tonight and never did. Finally they said they didn't have the funds to buy the extra two products.
I am sending a replacement two roses to replace the ones that went missing and reselling the two extra they no longer want to buy. This has been more drama then I think necessary and I will not in the future make custom roses prior to purchase. I also will not replace product with something different if it goes missing. On top of those simple rules I'm setting for myself, I will require them to pay shipping in the future for the reshipment of a package and the additional amount to have a signature required. I hope these seem fair policies.
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| Original Bouquet |
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| Replacement Bouquet |
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| Unwanted Gengar addition. Buy it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/220490527/charmed-gengar-pokerose |
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| Unwanted Squirtle: Buy it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/160554326/charmed-pokeroses |
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| Squirtle's face is a little derp, so I'm going to make his some spunky sunglasses |
The client also critiqued the product by saying it didn't look exactly like the pokemon. I hope that any buyer ordering a charmed pokerose realized that these are clay sculpture and unique. They will never look exactly like the cartoon or even like the preview picture. If you want a perfect pokemon- you should stick to offical licensed figures. But I really love making these custom roses and don't want one bad experience to make me pull back from making more.
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