Brony Vendor Explodes and Blames Customers for Own Mistakes on Etsy


Yeah, these vendors are passionate alright... but I guess that's a nice way of saying stupidly emotional.
Look at that, barely a week into our mini show hiatus and we've already got a drama report for you guys! I mean, it's not like it's about a major vendor, but it's a new one that has had a large sales volume recently and could easily become a convention vendor regular.

Before diving into detail let me just tell you guys that this article isn't so much about the quality of this vendor's product so much as it is the shitty way they treat customers that don't give every item they buy 5 stars (on Etsy that's a perfect star rating, btw). Even if you never see yourself buying bath bombs I think it's a good reference article for how vendors should treat their customers, especially if they claim that they're making a living off of their store. It's gonna be a long one, so sit back with a snack and enjoy. More after the break!

Once upon a time at Babscon 2016, I was vending and happened to notice a craft vendor going by the name of The Fizzy Filly. They were selling bath bombs of various sizes, something that is actually pretty unusual at a brony convention. I was quite happy to see more variety pop up at the con and near the end of Sunday bought a bunch of mystery bags from them. I was pretty new to bath bombs in general so I was excited to use them as quickly as possible. I tested them out, they were great, and so when I was done with those I used even more of my Babscon profits to spend about $50 on their Etsy store.

Baths by yourself are fun but baths with friends are better. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 About a month passed and I had used almost all the bath bombs. I was down to my last few, including a Maud Pie and a Dazzling themed one. Now, the Maud one (as of posting this article) advertises "...features fun, popping candy as well as fizzing, foaming and color changing capabilities (black to purple)! Don’t judge a rock by it’s cover...". When I used it I had to stare at it for awhile just to spot the minimal popping, and the color of the tub didn't change from black to purple. It changed from light grey to dark grey, and since the color grey makes it look like second hand bath water I was kind of grossed out. But I jumped in anyways, it smelled ok, and overall it was... ok. Now the Dazzling one on the other hand advertises red and blue color drops, making the water purple by the time the bath bomb dissolves. It also advertises a shit ton of various nice scents. What I got was light grey water and no scents once soever. A shitty bath experience overall, one that I would have drained the bath tub for if these things didn't start at $3.50 each.

Now I'm getting near the end of my supply and figure I might as well reorder since the majority of the bath bombs were pleasant. I look at my past purchases as a quick way to get a link to their store, and Etsy lets me know that I haven't put reviews for any of the previous bath bombs. Writing reviews is unnecessary to make more purchases, but as an Etsy store owner myself I know that reviews are a great way of letting potential customers know if this is a reliable store or not, so I take about half an hour out of my own personal time to write them up. 8/10 of my reviews are 5 star positive, and I even took the time to make short descriptions about how the bath bombs turned out. The two that weren't perfect reviews were 3 stars for the Maud and 1 star for the Dazzling. In the original descriptions, which Capper General will end up whipping me for not screencapping, I basically put that they both ended up being grey water instead of the colors advertised and that the Dazzling one had no noticeable scent, making it entirely useless. I told customers to avoid buying the Dazzling one.

A mere 5 minutes after I finished typing up all the reviews, I get a message from one of the store owners:

Ok, so it starts off decent enough. While as a customer I'm not required to contact them first and ask for refund, it is considered a nice thing to do. At the time I had assumed they wouldn't really care about a single 3 star and 1 star review because they literally have hundreds of other 5 star reviews. As I later point out to them, their store average would still be 5 stars, aka a perfect score. The descriptions I put in the imperfect reviews were still polite, and I never cussed out the store or told people to stop shopping from them altogether... at least not until this article.

But no, by the second message (which were minutes apart, and as such I didn't have time to say anything in between) the store owner starts getting angry and dramatic saying that the reviews were ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE and that I was telling people not to buy any of their products, completely ignoring my 8 other positive reviews. Then they start trying to guilt me by saying as a fellow Etsy shop owner I should know better. Like wow, I really love it when I give money to a shop and then they start chastising me like a little kid. And FYI, being on Etsy for less then a year and not getting anything below 4 stars isn't much of an achievement. People are known to go easier on new vendors, and yes, as far as I'm concerned you're still a newbie until you hit your first year of both online and convention sales.

So I reply within an hour, with my typical walls of text:


TLDR; If the product you get isn't as advertised and that the customer is unsatisfied they have every right to give it below 5 stars when reviewing it. Yes, I feel like that with my own store too. I mention that, because the Dazzling one wasn't even close to the description, I might have gotten a dud. AKA an accidental mistake. It's not uncommon when you buy handmade crafts on Etsy, and to be honest, after awhile it's expected that if you buy in bulk a minority will have flaws. But if that minority was a single listing then as far as Etsy is concerned it gets its own review, so that bad item is going to get a bad review.

She replies back, pretty much bribing me to ignore the quality of the product and write positive reviews if I get a refund back for the two flawed bath bombs:


Oh good, they apologized! No wait, look closer. That isn't a real apology. They say "I'm sorry you felt our products were subpar". For those of you that don't get what I'm talking about, let me tell you an example: You're in one of those moods and decide to piss in your friend's lemonade when they aren't looking, and when they drink it they immediately spit it out while you laugh at them. Now they're mad at you and expect an apology. There's two ways you could word your apology:

"I'm sorry I pissed in your lemonade."
or
"I'm sorry you feel bad about lemonade piss. IT WAS JUST A PRANK, BRO!"

Ya'll get it now? That second one isn't an apology so much as it was downgrading what they did wrong and not admitting their mistake. So after the bullshit apology, they over exaggerate how much potential damage the bad reviews could do to her store, completely ignoring my 8 other 5 star reviews, not to mention their hundreds of other positive reviews. Oh, and totally ignoring my claim that one of the bath bombs was a dud by saying that it was other people's favorite. Like, whoop de fucking do, maybe I would have liked it too if you had actually remembered to put the color drops and scents in.
Then, without me asking for it, they refund both the bath bombs, just expecting me to give them positive reviews because they paid their whore. Personally I don't even believe a 3 star product needs a refund, but who turns down free money? At this point I just want to get this over with and am willing to let this stay in the past as I avoid only those two types of bath bombs while getting a bunch of new types.

So I reply back, making an entirely unnecessary apology in order to smooth things over:


I mean shit, at this point I'm bending over backwards while they shove refund money up my asshole. I even go out of my way to let them know that for future purchases (Yes, meaning that even after getting put through all this overly dramatic bullshit I was still willing to buy from them again.), I would contact them directly before putting in an imperfect review. I even make a pretty good suggestion of maybe making some Overwatch themed bath bombs in the future.

That last message I sent was just a quick one asking where the refund money was being sent so that I could check on its processing time. After I saw that it went through I went ahead and altered the reviews. If I could have I would have just deleted the two reviews, but since Etsy doesn't allow that I had to alter them. 4 stars for the Maud one and 5 stars for the Dazzling one. Now, since I fucking hate knowingly lying to people I put in a paragraph for the Dazzling one stating that the 5 stars weren't for the bath bomb itself but for the customer service. Looking back, I guess I was still lying, at least to myself about the service...


From there I assume everything is smoothed out, and since the owner said that this was their living I figured they would appreciate another purchase. And as an extra little thumbs up, I even doubled my order from last time making the total over $100 and put in a little note with my order saying how happy I was that everything was alright again. I went to bed, and the next morning I find that the entire order is canceled. So instead of spamming them with butthurt, I just straight up ask them why they canceled it:




And holy shit, the amount of entitlement here is fucking amazing! They never once admit that they sent me a dud or ever gave me a real apology. Oh yeah, I'm sure you guys are really trying as hard as you can to make a living off of this, and yet here you are refusing a $100 order because "you hurt our feelings before you changed your reviews". You're new to the fandom and to vending in it yet here you are being as dramatic as possible telling me how devoted you are to it. 

Were you shits here for pink Celestia? What about when Faust left the show? How about during Las Pegasus Unicon? Do you even know what EFN stands for and why other media groups stood up to them, ultimately creating the very site you're reading this on? Because I was here for all of that, and I've lived through the more negative parts of the fandom. I'm even here through its unsexy shrinkage. I've vended at brony cons for years now with crafts I made with my own two hands WITHOUT a crafting assistant, and witnessed many conventions rise and fall. And when I'm not crafting, I'm working two part time jobs with online classes, and also have to keep up with social media so that my Twitter doesn't fall apart when I'm busy with the rest of my life. So don't fucking tell me how hard you work and try to puff your chest out with your shaky at best dedication. You aren't fooling anyone, and you especially aren't fooling an experienced fandom crafter.

Don't try to guilt your customer into thinking they're the problem, because they're not. You, the vendor, are. At this point, even if they publicly give a genuine apology, I don't want to buy anything from them again. But regardless, there's still a chance they'll be vending at a brony con in the near future. So I leave them with some parting words before continuing my double shift at work:


Of course, knowing them they probably didn't bother looking at it. So they probably ignored the part where I told them I wasn't going to keep this to myself. Which is too bad for them, because that was their last chance to apologize before this article was published. Hopefully after this article they actually take good customer service to heart and are nicer to other customers that have issues in the future instead of finding ways to bribe them for positive reviews and pushing all the blame on them.

Here's a listing of 50 beautifully scented 4.5 oz bath bombs for $65.00, w/ free shipping! That comes out to $1.30 per bath bomb, about a third of the price of The Fizzy Filly.
By the way, if you're interested in getting into bath bombs, a 4-5 oz bath bomb will fill a shower tub nicely. The Fizzy Filly charges up to $4 per bath bomb- quite pricey but I was originally willing to let that part slide since they were new fandom vendors. Anyways, you can get very similar bath bombs for $2 and less over on Etsy, especially if you want to buy in bulk. And shit, you can even get free shipping with many of their competitors! 

The Fizzy Filly doesn't even offer any discount codes for repeat buyers, much less free shipping. Oh, what's that, the others don't have colors like they do? Well guess what! You can get color drops for dirt cheap on Amazon, free shipping too. At this point you'd only be buying from them for the unlicensed character names, which if you combine your own color drops and MUCH cheaper bath bombs you can just do yourself. Gee whiz Fizzy Filly, I wish you had told me to buy from your competition earlier!

So, if you're a vendor reading this, I hope you pay close attention to the way you treat customers... I mean, if you weren't already. As far as I know most vendors in this fandom are very polite and understanding with their customers. And you know, as much as I cuss and am generally a saucy writer here on HN, I am a lot more polite in private messages if you ever consider buying something from me. If I do something wrong, like say ship out something late, I'll admit it right away and typically offer some sort of compensation, like a free small mystery bag with your order. Or just issue you a refund if you want it. I don't fucking force the refund on you expecting a 5 star review regardless.

(Oh, and P.S. I'm changing that Dazzling review from a 5 star to a 1 star again since it's based on customer service. And The Fizzy Filly better hope that I won't be able to review that canceled $100 purchase. Otherwise things are gonna get ugly~)

Comments (71)

  1. Well written as always.
    Nice Job.

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  2. Holy shit, can't wait to share this with the Mrs.

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    Replies
    1. Don't worry I'm sure your right hand saw all of it while you were typing.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. While it doesn't amuse me in the sense I don't use Etsy I have a feeling the customer in question isn't familiar with eBay.

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    1. Most people I know tend to use eBay more often than Etsy and presumably know said buying behavior is frowned upon.

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  5. You were a bit of a dick earlier on, and I guess that caused them to get all moody and that. Doesn't excuse later on though after you'd offered an olive branch AND a good order.

    Saw similar at BUCK (don't know if the same vendor - didn't buy, as these too were a little pricy but was very tempted) and had the same initial impression, it was nice to see something that isn't posters and plushies, and it's a clever idea in general - everyone's rooms are PACKED with merch by now which is why I barely buy anything at cons now, so consumables are a good call.

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  6. You're review is still at a 5.

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    1. I'm going to blame the pain killers for that one. Or I'm idiot who happens to be on pain killers. take you're pick.

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    2. How dare you mach me? watch you'reself!

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  7. "Look at that, barely a week into our mini show hiatus and we've already got a drama report for you guys!"
    Is that chanspeak dor "we're bored because no new episode so here some that shit that nobody except channers and stalkers care about that we dug up about a Johnny Nobody
    Get a life

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    1. I...what? They didn't like go solicit bad stories. Also what the fuck are you talking about stalkers for? Like...seriously what? But yeah the person posting about things they experienced should totes get a life, dude who makes conspiracy theories about stalkers and 4chan!

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    2. Hai Fizzy Filly.

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    3. Yea this is definitly a prime example of Yellow Journalism. "Lets make up a story about how I didnt get my way after talking down to a vendor so now they are evil and im a passive agressive angel" LOL! This internet TROLL is the worst kind of person. Nobody gives a fuck about your complaints! Damn I bet the author complain to McDonalds corporate asking for free food if there are not enough fries in their order!!

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  8. P U R P L E T R A N N Y !

    U

    R

    P


    L

    E



    T

    R

    A

    N

    N

    Y

    !

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    1. Wow, this comment sure never gets old!

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    2. Now, if someone would sell that as a bath bomb...

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    3. "Purple Tranny Bath Bomb: this sumptuous, feminine ball arrives in a flurry of smells. Orchid, magnolia, body odor, and in a spray of glitter turns the water dark purple. Concealed in the center of the ball: a dick."

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  9. I got some of their stuff at BABS. It was pretty good, so I went back to chat them up. Someone else asked if they did soaps and I think it was the lady that got snappy with them about how they'll never do soaps.

    I think I'll go with my other fandom bath bomb maker from now on. Jesus Christ what a shitty attitude.

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  10. I saw them at BABSCon and was considering getting some of their bath bombs. I ended up not doing so, though, because of other stuff that I wanted to buy, including a gift for one of my friends who couldn't make it this year.
    After reading this.... I think I'm gonna pass EVER on buying anything from them in any way.

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  11. I'm so glad Horse News is maintaining the same journalistic standards as usual, the petty whining about people they personally had beef with.

    Yeah, this person probably sold you a shitty bath bomb. But you were a shitty consumer for one-starring them without informing them of the problem and even giving them an opportunity to fix it (or hell, they might not even know they had duds being sold, if it actually was an accident), and sending your tl;dr cock-sucking multiple paragraphs would have gotten your orders banned from my shop, too.

    Don't worry though, I know your sycophants will be here shortly to tell me what a dillhole I am, so I'm sure you won't be held accountable for the fact that you fucked up first, and the seller's overreaction was ultimately your doing. Enjoy your false sense of superiority!

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    1. Oh please tell us the name of your shop, so we can avoid it like the plague.

      And oh yes, you're a dillhole..

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    2. > You fucked up first.

      Oh yeah, because getting a dud bath bomb was totally my fault Anon. And its totally my fault that the seller doesn't know how to handle dissatisfaction or own up to their own mistakes.

      Like I said, while its nice to contact them first, as a buyer I'm not required to. Didn't think they'd throw a hissy fit when I gave them 8 5 star reviews at the same time, but in the end they only seemed to care about the negatives.

      This article is just a warning for those of you considering buying from them to know what kind of seller you're dealing with and to consider the MUCH cheaper competition.

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    3. Oh gosh, as I'll state again I'm not going to pretend how Etsy works but with my online purchases elsewhere I almost always get a sheet of paper saying that if there is a reason why an order isn't perfect to contact them to not only understand it but also avoid giving the seller a failing grade (which is, 4/5, 9/10, so on and so forth). You can have something be 9.5/10 and you can love the item but a 9/10 is considered a failing grade. I think we all know this, but I've done enough shit in this fandom to know most people have their head up their asses.

      I'm also going to play the assumption that you have not had prior contact online before that and you more than likely gave them a rather horrible first impression that you were completely unwilling to deal with simple mistakes. Sure they gave you a defective bath bomb but you also paid them a disservice in return (and they're more than within what I feel parameters for such behavior. It's not being egotistical it's how much of a cesspool buying stuff online is). Look at it all you want, but if you contacted them first AND they threw a hissy fit then this article stands. I don't think it's justifiable to go out of your way to piss them off (because I honestly do not believe you're that ignorant) and write a Horse News article based on nothing more than a cascade effect.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHoXUP804vg

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    4. (Aside note: Not going to lie in that we have too much consumable merchandise that could easily sell without the MLP moniker. If I wanted a bath bomb I'd probably buy one retail if such a thing existed (Aside note: they don't work in the shower, hence my ignorance)).

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    5. @Spazmatic Zero: Why do you think there is a possibility to give wider range of scores than your fail/success scale? Is it oversight from the developers or just plain evilness towards innocent shop owners?

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    6. Why do you think YouTube switched from 5 stars to a like/dislike scale? Think about it.

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    7. Listen to Prismatic Zero, he knows what he's talking about.

      Giving a neg/less than perfect score with 0 contact to the seller is considered bad buying practice in 90% of all online interactions I've seen. This Etsy shop isn't Amazon, they can't just "suck up" negative feedback they got for bad reasons, like yours.

      I maintain that you fucked up first. The seller wouldn't have had any reason to be upset if you'd informed them of your disappointment first thing ... but then, I suppose you wouldn't have had anything to write about, and you *are* a bit hard up for material, I'm sure. But inventing drama usually ends poorly, especially when you're in the wrong so obviously.

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    8. I saw a link to this article from The Perler Pony on twitter. So I am not surprised that this Ren Haru is also an Etsy shop owner lol!!!

      www.etsy.com/shop/ThePerlerPony

      Wow this article seems more like jelousy! Ren should know better as a vendor as well, im sure if someone left bad reviews towards there products they would have reacted the same way, but judging from this article, Im sure ren would have reacted way worse! This article actually make Ren/Perler Pony look worse than the fizzy filly, because Ren's earlier coments comes across as extortion!!!

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    9. Prismatic Zero why are you so based?

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    10. Based or biased? And if so, on what?

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    11. To reply to 23:00 Anon...

      Look, the refund didn't really matter to me compared to them admitting they made one tiny mistake out of the multiple listings I ordered and giving me a genuine apology. It's not a matter of jealousy, its a matter of having standards as not just a buyer but of someone that was expecting to buy from them on a monthly basis. As a seller its their job to keep being polite and give good customer service even if they think their customer has an attitude, which to be honest I really toned down in my PMs until the last one because it felt like I was dealing with small children.

      I really was going to keep all this shit to myself until their last message, even after I unnecessarily apologized to them and ordered double my last order. But I guess trying to buy from them again was a mistake on my behalf because a crafter that can't admit to their own mistakes when they make them isn't worth buying from again, as I've realized by now.

      Look Anon, if I wanted more sales myself I'd be doing a hell of a lot more to promote my store on my Twitter account. Go ahead, check it out, it's mostly retweets and opinion tweets because I've been so busy with the rest of my life. If you read through the entire article you'd notice I put that I've currently got two jobs and online classes.

      Crafting was always a hobby for me, even when I was first starting out. It was just a way to travel, meet new friends, booze it up at cons, and make a little extra money on the side while I was broke in college.

      Kind of ironic that this vendor's core demographic is people that have sore muscles from physical work or are stressed out have to deal with a Diva vendor that can't take criticism or give a damn about de-stressing their customers in private messages. They need to change their attitude if they're not just out for a quick buck and are serious about making a living out of this.

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    12. @Spazmatic Zero
      So Youtube has a like/dislike. How fucking hilarious. So what, Facebook had only like. How is that related to Etsy or eBay?
      The 1-5 scale is there for a reason, so use it. Giving only top scores, so that sellers don't feel bad, invalidates the whole system.

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    13. Because YouTube, back before you were probably capable of using the Internet, had a 5 star system. They eventually resorted to a like/dislike system and nothing has changed. Why? Because no matter how many points assigned there are only two possible outcomes due to something called an 'average'.

      Success: The average increases.
      Failure: The average decreases.

      With eBay, I'm now aware that a Detailed Sellers Rating of below 4.8 is grounds for an account lockdown. As for Etsy...My guess is that many people will look at either ratings and buy based on that and possibly price. Got two sellers that sell bath bombs for $4 each with the same shipping? The seller with a 4.88 rating a person may pick over someone with a 4.76.

      Success

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  12. "This business is literally how I support myself"

    Christ,
    This 'business is literally' running off someone else's IP and you just admitted you are making a living off of it.
    You're not making a living, you are braking copyrights law so you don't need to get an actual job.

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  13. Basically eBay ratings paranoia. There, having a score below 4.8 is grounds for termination and funds seizure. As you are buying art on Etsy, I don't think Etsy would be that heavy-handed.

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    1. If I do start selling on eBay that's good to know.

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    2. Nah, Etsy isn't anywhere close to that! Etsy won't do anything about your shop unless multiple people report it, and even after their terrible customer service I'm not mean enough to do that to them.

      Sure, as an Etsy store owner you get really moist when all your reviews are 5 star, but its important to note here that those ratings are really for future customers to look at in order to consider any possible risks or downfalls that could happen if they order from this store. (A common example is slow shipping, since on Etsy you can pick from a variety of shipping time ranges for each listing. Some sellers will always wait until the very last day to ship.)

      I don't have much experience with Ebay as a buyer, but based on what you guys are saying its nowhere near as serious as that. My single 1 star review is just going to get washed away the moment another bulk buyer or two gives all their purchases 5 star reviews. And heck, even someone seeing my 1 star review will see my other 8 positive reviews! Their overall store review is still 5 star, and it helps sellers that Etsy ratings tend to round up. So getting dramatic about it so quickly is incredibly pointless, and actually hurts them in the long run. I hope they learn from their mistakes and are nicer to new customers in the future.

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  14. "And holy shit, the amount of entitlement here is fucking amazing!" Shame you didn't specify whose entitlement you intended... yikes.

    I hope someday you have to deal with a customer as demanding and rude as yourself, maybe it would teach you a thing or two about being a dick to sellers.

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  15. Honestly, I was on the seller's side right up until the moment she canceled your purchase. When dealing with chemicals and such there is really no way to know if something is a dud or not until it is used. It was obviously a defective product, and it could have happened to any of the bath bombs in her inventory, so immediately downscoring those particular products without contacting her first to try to resolve the issue was poor form. That said, canceling your order for such petty reasons was also a sign of a bad business. I can't sympathize with either party in this situation.

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    1. I've always been under the impression that the 'buyer is always right' when it comes to dealing with transferring money through a reputable credit processor. In theory, if PayPal is used, the seller could easily be fucked six ways from Sunday based on how the buyer perceives a problem and how PayPal handles it (it's a lot, lot worse on eBay I assure you).

      tl;dr the seller can't trust the buyer to be a dick and it wouldn't surprise me if said $100+ bombs were to be a dud.

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    2. To be a dick or not be a dick...That is the question.

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    3. Look at it from the seller's side - you have a buyer who negged you without so much as a word, and only after a protracted discussion they begrudgingly changed their reviews, but only after you refunded them. In many senses, it was feedback extortion - which would get you banned on eBay.

      And now the same buyer, who just pulled the "my food was undercooked!" trick to get free food, now wants to make another huge order - while simultaneously needling you about their refund. It doesn't lend the air of trustworthiness between buyer and seller.

      If I was the seller, my first thought would be, "great, how many of their bath bombs will be "duds" this time? how much money will I lose on this sale?" It's not worth the hassle of dealing with this buyer.

      And proving their suspicions about him correct, Ren Haru has now written a smear piece on them, for the crime of not giving Ren more free shit. Boo hoo.

      The seller is not obligated to sell to you. Ren Haru is acting like a spoiled child who shat in his bed and is now upset that there's poopie in his bed.

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    4. >I've always been under the impression that the 'buyer is always right' when it comes to dealing with transferring money through a reputable credit processor

      The buyer is right in the sense that they got a defective product. However, there is a generally agreed protocol in how to respond in such a situation. Ren did not follow it, hence why I say I was siding with the seller up until the canceled order. It sounds like the seller was willing to make it right, but she never gave her the chance before leaving a bad review.

      >And now the same buyer, who just pulled the "my food was undercooked!" trick to get free food, now wants to make another huge order

      That's not exactly what happened. As mentioned in the article, Ren did not ask for a refund. It was given without any further discussion.

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    5. That said, if 2/10 of her bath bombs were duds, I'd say she seriously needs to work on her quality control.

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    6. Which is why I'm not entirely understanding why you became mixed with the seller. It seems to be worded with nearly pure certainty that you were on their side of the fence and jumped off without a logical reason (namely, I was trying to explain why it's worse business to engage in the transaction when certain protocols are easily violated depending on whether or not it's user vs user as opposed to user vs credit/payment processor)

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    7. 03:01, if someone who had just feedback-extortioned you out of 20% of a sale was now trying to make an order twice the size and salivating for their refund at the same time, you wouldn't feel suspicious about selling to them? I'd be afraid that someone this picky would find fault with anything I sent them, and I'd rather risk losing out on $100 than lose out on $200 in money and product.

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    8. To add on to 03:23, it's well known in many communities (this one included) that there are a few Special Snowflakes who are extremely picky buyers, who are a pain in the arse to sell to. It's not "scamming" to say you don't want to deal with someone you're going to have to refund in the end anyway.

      Which, I should add, Ren Haru repeatedly proved them right, first by throwing a fit when they refused to sell to them, then by writing this article to try and slander their name, and then by childishly insisting that they're going to change the 5 stars back to 1 stars - despite promising to do otherwise after being refunded.

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    9. I changed my position on the seller because of the refusal to go through with the new order, which strikes me as very unprofessional.

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    10. It's the most professional action to stop more unprofessional things from happening. The only winning move is not to play.

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    11. To reply to 2:12

      I also considered that they were thinking about refund fraud before writing this article. But then wait, they were the ones that brought up the refund and pushed for it in the first place, as I mentioned in the article. I was even willing to settle for a one time discount code on the next purchase, which, if they were honest about trying to make a living off of this, would have benefited them more. Discount codes are a win/win: If the customer uses it you've got another purchase. If they don't, all you lost was the minute it took to make that discount code.

      And if I had tried to do refund fraud, which is a really stupid idea in the first place, especially on a slow site like Etsy, after my second purchase they could have reported it to Etsy. But I'll remind you again, I never pushed for any refunds, they did.

      Delete
    12. And to reply to 03:26 real quick before work:

      I try not to lie on purpose for things like that. If you reread my reply you'll see that I only said I would consider changing the review, because in my mind I was going to delete it. When I saw that wasn't possible (as far as I know) I changed the description to talk about the customer service so that my 5 star rating wouldn't be lying. Then after finishing my messages with them I started to fully realize just how shitty that was to and thought it was only appropriate to change it back because of that.

      Refunds should not be treated as bribes to lie on reviews, which is exactly what they did.

      Delete
    13. I think you replied to the wrong person there. Your post seems more like it is directed at the person at 3:25 than my post at 3:26.

      Delete
    14. Yes, it was directed at 3:25, not 3:26. My mistake. That's what I get for rushing replies before work!

      See Fizzy Filly, that's how easy it is to admit you messed up a little. Learn and live. : ^)

      Delete
    15. "Lie on purpose" shows that you're not working with a full bag of marbles. (Or, more likely, that you are on the autism spectrum, as many autism sufferers suffer from a very black/white mentality. "I cannot lie, I have to tell [uncomfortable truth]" is a very autism-ism.) It's not lying to say you were not happy with this purchase, but the seller gave you a full refund and made the transaction right, which fixed your problem. Leaving a review which is truthful about the situation isn't lying or bribery. It seems pretty clear to me that you are either not on the same mental playing field as the average person, or that for some mysterious reason had it out for this person. Both reasons would explain the very long, tl;dr and rambling nature of your messages to them as well as your article here.

      Speaking of black and white mentality, it would be considered theft for you to agree to leave them five star feedback in exchange for a refund, and then revert it to one star after receiving the money. If you really feel this sincerely about being morally correct, you would give them the money back for the refunded bath bombs.

      Somehow I'm doubting your "morality" extends that far, though.

      Delete
    16. 6:56 - It wouldn't surprise me if their 'truth' includes ignoring being proven wrong...

      Delete
  16. This is hardly an example of fandom drama. This is just one writer's beef with an online craft seller.

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  17. I wonder if Etsy has some method of feedback removal, bc It seems like in a clear case of feedback extortion like this the admins should be able to remove the bullshit comments for her. I hope the Fizzy Filly is looking into this.

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    Replies
    1. Go back and read the messages. Last time I checked they were the ones pushing a refund on me. I was fine with just leaving mostly positive reviews, reordering from them while avoiding the ones I didn't like, and being on my merry way. But no, they messaged me trying to guilt me instead of giving a genuine apology, and when that didn't work they treated the refund like bribe money.

      Delete
    2. Well, to be fair you're not even admitting your own errors.

      Delete
    3. What, not contacting them first? If you look above at the messages I sent them you'll see that I did apologize for not contacting them first and assuming they wouldn't care because of how many positive reviews they already had (including my own). While I still believe it was unnecessary on my behalf to apologize to them when I'm the one spending money, I wasn't lying when I sent them that message.

      Delete
    4. To assume is to make an ass out of u and me.

      I'm actually taking it a step further back (in addition to what's below) and pointing out that you didn't even bother to read the store's policies. I do think your apology in failing to do so was warranted as it's bad buying practices to blindly purchase something without reading the terms of sale.

      Delete
  18. I wanna hear what Fizzy to drag their sorry ass here and have their say, that's when shit GETS REAL.

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  19. I'm still over here rereading the article and looking through my own things and I've yet to find where the seller screwed up. Buying custom products online is a bit more extreme than say a laptop part simply because there's a ton of competition out there. Plus I like to look at activity rather than age.

    I went ahead and Google cached this: http://imgur.com/a/6GSjY

    I'm starting to really ponder though (note: The recent edits I see specifically reference this transaction, so it's good to know they're a bit faster at these things).

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  20. I only recently started bathing and cleaning myself. Thank you for giving me a glimpse of this new world and I'll be on the look-out for bathbombs in the future.

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  21. So much shilling, samefagging and blame shifting to protect a shitty online store.

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  22. I've never even heard of a bath bomb before I read this.

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  23. And what's the big deal now? You said the majority of her reviews were incredibly positive with five stars, yet she still complained about your two negative reviews.
    Then you're admitting yourself that your dazzling bath bomb was probably just a dud that got accidentally ruined during production, but not the general quality of this product.
    And she told you in her complaint that she does these sales to support herself.
    Maybe she is indeed in a grave financial situation and those sales are pretty much the only thing that keep her from living on a street and starving and she just got nervous that your negative reviews could negatively affect this important business of hers.
    Having to pay bills and trying to prevent yourself from landing on the streets is a very stressful thing and fear lets you ignore logic more than anything.
    Have you considered this?
    Maybe if you would have been friendly right at the start, writing in your review that the dazzling bath bomb was probably just a dud and not told her customers to entirely stop buying these two specific bathbombs (this was really rude and probably what made her so nervous, it only needs another customer to read this and to never buy those two products again, which can already pose a threat for her income), then she would have reacted friendly herself.
    That you reacted friendly after she complained about your rude review was too late already.
    And now you're trying to ruin her business, and maybe only income, for real by writing a negative news article where you present yourself as the victim and her as the wrongdoer, a news article that will make everyone who reads it determined to not buy from her ever, and on top, even link to a another seller of bath bombs to actively lure customers away from her.
    All because you are butthurt after she brushed you off for writing a rude review where you tried to tell her customers to not buy something from her.
    Even though she relinquished getting hundred dollars from you by deleting your latest order, I can see why she did that.
    She probably thought you would write these kinds of unfair and rude reviews again when receiving a dud or when something doesn't turn out the way you imagined it to be, so she decided to not accept orders from you anymore.
    Losing one customer who talks her other customers into not buying one of her products in his reviews is better than losing a lot of customers that got turned away by unfairly written reviews.
    I would have done the same in her situation.
    I don't know if you consider yourself a saint who tries to punish the not righteous ones, but this is really just your fault for being a prick in your review, not hers.

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