To paraphrase my experience, I purchased items from a seller that did a “bait and switch” and gave me a product smaller and worth less value than what I paid. Even with my prior contact before the sale, this seller intentionally withheld information about the current stock that she had and let me checkout anyway. After waiting over 2 weeks patiently (BTW this seller lives 2 hours away and I believe she didn’t ship the package when stated) I opened my envelope to find something that I did not order. There wasn’t a packing slip, invoice, or note included in the envelope..just handwritten on the plastic bag in sharpie, “These smaller so more”. So you can imagine my being upset after waiting over 2 weeks for a local seller to ship me items that I did not order.
When I contacted this seller she was defensive and blamed me for not reading her policies, as well as calling me various names and speaking to me in a condescending manner. I later found out she’s a Bay Area dentist (business must not be so good if she’s selling supplies) and she may feel she’s above everyone else, so no wonder many customers that left negative feedback for her shop also mentioned the condescending attitude. For Etsy this is against their TOU for any seller on their site. You simply cannot change someone’s order at will if it’s not what’s in the listing that the customer paid for, period.
“4. Listing and Selling
Listing Description: By listing an item on the Site you warrant that you and all aspects of the item comply with Etsy’s published policies. You also warrant that you may legally sell the item. You must accurately describe your item and all terms of sale in your Etsy shop. Your listings may only include text descriptions, graphics, pictures and other content relevant to the sale of that item. All items must be listed in an appropriate category with appropriate tags. Each listing must accurately and completely describe the item/items for sale in that listing. If the “in stock” quantity is more than one, all items in that listing must be identical. Each unique item must have its own listing.”
So the lesson here boys and girls is:
1} Do read as MANY of the feedback’s left for the Seller as well as what they leave for their customers. How they leave feedback speaks volumes about their character and integrity.
2} If they have over 50 negatives that should make you worry, over 100 should make you run.
3} If someone does a “bait and switch” do contact Etsy since it’s against their TOU to list something and send another product in its place.
4} If you receive something not as described do try to open a Paypal dispute.
5} If Paypal fails go straight to your credit card and proceed with a chargeback. Most credit cards have buyer protections in place.
Happy Holidays!!
I’ve decided to revise my post because Etsy handled it! I guess they figured it was bad enough she was dishonest and her slapping me with retaliatory negative feedback was unwarranted. I was angry and disappointed that I was cheated and then blamed for it that I wanted to warn everyone about situations like this but honestly I really don’t want to read this post months later and feel that anger again so I’ve revised it to stick to the facts. :}
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