Normally this isn’t something I would post about here but OH MY GOD I have been dealing with the biggest load of nonsense over on etsy for the past week and I have to get it out. It’s really long, I’m sorry 🙁
I know etsy; I like etsy (USUALLY). I sell a lot on etsy and I’d like to thinkI do a good job of it- if you look at my 300+ reviews, 99% of them are 5 stars. I also buy a lot on etsy and while I’ve had some kind of lame experiences in the past, for the most part it’s been great.
Until I tried to order from a shop called Indie Nook (i’m not going to link them but feel free to google them if you want).
I can’t even remember how I found it- I think I was just searching for like “bunny t-shirt” or something because I was looking for Easter gifts for the girls. I realized after I placed the order that I’d actually seen the shop mentioned a while ago on a couple blogs- one promoting it, aaaaand one was GOMI. I guess the shop USED to be called “Indian Nook,” which is of course whack as hell, so they must have changed it? The account is still under the original name though.
ANYWAYS. Bunny shirts. This shop had tank tops available in both toddler and youth sizes with a super adorable bunny printed on the front, and the toddler size also had little shorts printed with matching bunnies. SO CUTE! I really liked the of them and the shop had a 4-star rating so even though it was a little pricey ($74 including shipping) I decided to go ahead and order.
This was when I had the first sign that something was a bit off, because the listings were a confusing mess. The shirt by itself was available in six different sizes and three different colours, but the seller wasn’t using variations for the listing. If you aren’t familiar, variations are when a seller has an item available with different options, they can list them all in a drop-down menu that the customer then chooses from when placing the order. For example on my “Feminist Killjoy” banner listing, I have variations for “Letter Colour” and “Heart Colour,” and people can choose which ones they want without having to message me and wait for my response/for me to put up a special listing. Since there were no variations, I had to include the size (12) and colour (brown) in the “notes to seller” box.
The listing for the two-piece outfit was even more screwed up. Again, the tops were available in three different colours, and in tees AND tanks, with different sizes for each. Now, this listing DID use variations so I was able to select the size and colour I wanted (2T tank in brown, to match the shirt for Sym), however there was also some weirdness where the description and several of the pictures were of leggings, NOT shorts, so I also had to put in the “notes to seller’ that I would like confirmation that I would be receiving shorts, NOT leggings. Additionally I asked for confirmation that I would be able to receive the clothes before Easter- the seller lists a 2-4 (OR LONGER) production time, but seeing as I was placing my order seven weeks in advance I was fairly confident I would get my order in time.
The seller replied to me very quickly and there was a little confusion about the shirt sizes- I think she thought I wanted a 12 MONTH shirt rather than a 12 YEAR shirt, but we got it sorted out. In spite of the confusion, at that point I was very happy with the seller’s communication, and confident with my purchase.
On April 1st (an entire month later) I received a message from her, saying that American Apparel hadn’t included the size 12 tank in her order from them, but she was placing a new, rush order for it and as the other items were ready to go she would be sending them out that day. I thanked her for the update, and a week and a half later I got the package in the mail. It was postmarked April 2nd, so not the day I was told they would ship, and when I opened it up I found that I’d been sent the wrong colour shirt! Instead of the brown, I had been sent neon pink.
At this point I was still hopeful (perhaps unreasonably so) that I would receive the shirt for Sym, but the whole point was for them to be matching. Plus, while the brown shirt was pictured with the bunny printed on the front, for the pink shirt the bunny was printed on an off-white patch that was sewn to the shirt, which is not a look I liked.
This was last Friday, April 11th, and I knew the only way the problem would be resolved in time for Easter would be if it was taken care of straight away. I immediately messaged the seller on etsy, but the shop was on vacation mode and I didn’t know if they were checking messages in a timely fashion. It was at this point I thought to take a look at the actual reviews instead of just the overall rating, and so it was also at this point that I realized I’D MADE A HUGE MISTAKE.
That overall 4-star review rating is actually the result of a mix of 5-star reviews with 1-star reviews. Super pissed off 1-star reviews. 1-star reviews from people who didn’t receive their orders for over two months and had to file a claim with paypal to get their money back. Also, I don’t think some of the 5-star reviews should count as I literally saw one that said “I haven’t received it!!! But I bet it’s amazing:)” WHAT THE HELL, THAT’S NOT HOW REVIEWS WORK. There were a lot of complaints about how the seller didn’t reply to messages and the only way people were able to get a response was to comment on their instagram, so that’s what I did, and it worked; I immediately got a reply saying to message her on etsy with my username & order number and she’d sort it out straight away.
Even though I already messaged her on etsy, I messaged her again and then I waited… and waited… and waited! Apparently “straight away” means something different to me than to this seller because other than a hasty instagram comment on Friday night saying that she hadn’t forgotten about me I received no response ALL WEEKEND. On Monday, April 14th I sent yet another message asking if I could please just get a refund as it was clear I wouldn’t have the order by Easter. Once again, I received no response, so on Tuesday the 15th I posted on their Instagram account again, in an admittedly pissed off way, calling her out for ignoring my etsy messages. My comment was IMMEDIATELY deleted, so I posted another comment calling her out for deleting my previous comment but still not replying on etsy. FINALLY this worked and I got a reply from her on etsy, or rather, from a different person because I guess there are two people involved with the shop. The message read “We are refunding you, I did email you back, sorry for the troubles. Best wishes.” Now, idk if you know how etsy messages work, but all the communication between two people is is together in one long conversation, like facebook messages, and other than the vacation mode auto-reply I’d received no messages at all from them since April 1st. We could both obviously see that so I don’t understand why they would lie about it.
Before I could even reply to that message, I received a SECOND MESSAGE, this one saying “Can we send you a 2t tri blend rabbit tank, but not the 12, can we refund you for that tank? We can priority ship it to you. Theres no clear skies anytime soon for the tri blend coffee tank unfortunately.” Then, before I could reply to that they sent a THIRD message: “we literally just found a tri coffee bunny tee in a 12 and can ship it to you now if you want it!”
So this shirt that they told me WEEKS ago they didn’t have, now they suddenly have it ready to ship? So either I was lied to when I was told it wasn’t available, which would be INSANE, or their workspace is just as chaotic and disorganized as their shop & communication. I’m inclined to believe the latter, since this shop is clearly an out-of-control mess. I replied, saying “If you can guarantee that they’ll get here (Vancouver, BC, Canada) by Thursday- I need them for an Easter gift so there’s no point unless I can get them before the weekend, and Friday is a holiday so there’s no mail that day, or on Saturdays. If I can get them in time, or if you refund me I will be happy to change my review to reflect that.” I think that message is pretty unambiguous; it says SEND THEM ONLY IF YOU CAN GUARANTEE I WILL GET THEM IN TWO DAYS (remember this messaging was taking place on Tuesday), OTHERWISE JUST REFUND ME.
I didn’t hear anything back after that, but I woke up Wednesday feeling relieved our long national nightmare of this etsy mess was finally over. They would have to know that even with priority shipping it would be impossible to get the shirts to me on time- I looked it up on the USPS site and international priority shipping takes 3-5 business days. I sent what I thought would be my absolute final etsy message yesterday morning saying that since there was quite obviously no way I would get the shirts when I needed them to please just refund me now. I also included a comprehensive 5-point plan for how they could fix every single thing that is going wrong with their shop, streamline their ordering process, reduce complaints and keep their customers happy. I’M JUST THAT NICE.
A few hours later I sat down to work on some of my own etsy orders (which I always ship in a timely fashion, cough cough) and watch some Keeping Up With the Kardashians, when I got an email notification on my phone. “Another package for your order is on the way!” WAIT. WHAT. This can’t be right, but no, yes, they shipped the shirts when I specifically asked them not to unless they could guarantee delivery by Thursday. I sent YET ANOTHER message, expressing my displeasure that they completely ignored my request, but knowing I’d get no response I AGAIN was reduced to leaving comments on their instagram.
I admit it; I blew up. I put my capslock on to ask WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE, WHY DID YOU SEND THIS PACKAGE, I TOLD YOU NOT TO SEND THIS PACKAGE. I may have used the word “incompetence”. The seller told me to “calm down” and said that she spent $33 to priority ship it, and it would only take 3 business days! To be perfectly honest I’m not entirely sure that this person knows what a business day even is.
I told her I was sorry she wasted that $33 because I was going to refuse delivery when the package arrives, which will inevitably be after Easter. The absurdity was TOO MUCH, so I said “Is this a joke? It has to be a joke. JUST REFUND ME.” At this point the seller decided to take her toys and go home and blocked me on instagram. I think this is the first time I’ve been blocked on instagram! Truly a proud moment for myself. A few minutes later I got an email that my etsy order had been cancelled, and a little while after that I got a refund for one of the items (the shirt meant for Sym, which I never received), with a note that they’ll refund me for the others once I’ve returned them. I’ll also have to refuse delivery on the other shirts, which is funny because the seller will be charged for the return shipping. HA HA.
So I guess I won? But GOOD LORD WHAT A MESS. The really stupid part is that size 12 shirt that was apparently just hangin’ around their disorganized workspace this whole time. If they had their shit together and realized they had that shirt back on April 1st, they could have just put it in with the other items and sent them all together. And MAYBE something would have sparked in their brains and they would have remembered the 2 shirts were supposed to match and swapped out the neon pink for the brown tank I originally wanted. Then everything would have arrived together, in plenty of time for Easter, neither of us would have had to waste our time on this stupid fight and our money on sending these things back and forth, and I would have left them a good review! And honestly, if their other recent reviews are anything to go on, they could have used it.
At the time I was dealing with this, in their last three pages of reviews there were fifteen 4- and 5-star reviews (fourteen if you discount the person who left 5 stars before even receiving their order, wth) and THIRTEEN 1-star reviews. If I was getting those kind of reviews I would be ashamed. I sincerely hope they read over the suggestions I sent and take them to heart, because if not their business is going to be crushed under it’s own weight.
I decided to make this post because of my order being cancelled- etsy cancellations take a few days to process but I think once it’s finished processing my reviews will be erased, and I wanted to share what an absolute pain this shop was to deal with, as a warning to other potential customers. WARNING: INDIE NOOK IS THE LITERAL WORST, DO NOT DEAL WITH INDIE NOOK UNLESS YOU HAVE UNLIMITED PATIENCE AND CAN PLACE YOUR ORDER A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE ITEMS ARE NEEDED. I also want a public record in case they try to screw with me by not refunding the rest of my money. I’ll just finish by saying: I HAVE SCREENCAPS OF EVERYTHING.
UPDATE: I was finally able to get a full refund from these shady grifters, you can read about it here.