Fess up to your boneheaded blunders (and tell us how you fixed them).

[Former_Member]

We learn from our mistakes, right? Let's hope so. My funniest one was when I hurried to finish a new nature illustration of a bird. I was very happy with it and I slapped it up in my shop right away.

A few hours (and a Facebook and Twitter promotion) later, I looked back at the listing and discovered much to my horror that the bird only had ONE LEG! Whoops!

I immediately deactivated the listing, worked a second leg into the painting (thank heaven it was possible), and put in new photos. Whew!

I'm just glad I found that blunder when I did!

Your turn. :)

[Former_Member]

Anna,
I want your crippled birdie! lol

I feel like, as a new seller, I make a lot of mistakes. I made one recently with postage. The post office was closed and I was antsy to get my order shipped so I went ahead and slapped two stamps on it and sent it off. Of course it showed up at my door the next day. Lovely isn't it?

[Former_Member]

I cut out, sewed together and packed a custom baby jacket IN THE WRONG SIZE! I have no idea what I was thinking and I, luckily, realized it when I do my "final check" before shipping the package off. Thankfully, I had lots more materials left and I've never done it since.

[Former_Member]

I'm going to preface this by saying, I was new to Etsy when this happened. A customer wanted a Christmas belt, but I had no Christmas ribbon in stock. I told her I'd be willing to order some since I wanted to make some other belts for Christmas anyway. I suggested a few I was comfortable with (because they were on Etsy), but she wanted one off-site. I said okay, ordered it, made the belt, yadda yadda yadda...all before she had even purchased the listing. Dumb, very dumb. Because of course, when I contacted her, oh like 5 times, she never responded. I still have that belt hanging in my storage closet. You'll see it come Christmas-listing time. :)

[BaloolahB]

Do you mean selling your last pink strand of bunting at a fair, not deactivating the listing on etsy and selling it again the next day, I had to run around like a crazy woman to find a laser to use at short notice!!

[NakedRatDestash]

i sold a little package of miniature animals. when it was time to ship, i could
not find it anywhere!! had to tell the customer and refund her money. well many months later, i just found it! in an obscure place. i packaged it and shipped it to her without telling her...as a gift...:))

[ForgedMettleJewelry]

Ah, let's see. I think my biggest screw up SO FAR, and their have been many, is when I was sanding one of the piston heads on my piston earrings. Because it was still in its clay state it was pretty fragile. and apparently I was holding it too tight, I didn't want to drop it so it would break, but in turn I still broke the thing from holding it to tight, into FOUR pieces. Probably set me back a day having to fix it and making sure it would hold up. but in the long run I still have them in my shop...

[Former_Member]

Ooh, those are some good ones. Makes me feel better, knowing that I'm not alone. :)

[spacefem]

i dropped an envelope in the mail with two stamps and drove down the road and realized "that's not enough! crap, it's gonna come back!" So I got another package ready (luckily it was a supply), sent it with proper postage... and the first package never did come back. the buyer just got a super sweet deal. heck.

the other mistake I made recently was marking an order "shipped" when it wasn't shipped, and when customers use direct checkout there's no undo! and I couldn't ship for another week. I actually STOPPED selling supplies that I didn't have in my house, I thought it was okay to list them as backordered and promise a shipping date but I was like you know what, crap, I'm too much of an idiot for that.

oh, and I lost a handmade item once. it was a zipper pouch, it'd fallen into the headbands box. I couldn't find it anywhere when the order came in and scrambled to make a new one, found the first one weeks later. greaaaat.

[EclectasieDesigns]

I sewed together an apron and didn't notice until it was all done that the design was upside down!

[PIXELGRINphotography]

Oh Julie! That's amazing!!! I would of loved to be that person, what a pleasant surprise! Did she ever contact you back or thank you? I would of in a heartbeat.

Most recently, I saved a few draft listings that I just copied from one. I uploaded the photos on my computer and just typed silly stuff into the title, and description so I could work and post it later on my ipad. Well I accidentally published one of the listings without realizing it until I went to edit it later on.. It had a bunch of views hours later by the time that I figured it out. I felt super silly but laughed it off and just quickly deactivated it and made my changes. oops! Now I'm just extra careful that I press the wrong button and when I make draft copies to work on later, I do a little extra work rather than just typing "kahkshdas" into the title for later -- just in case!

[Former_Member]

Glad I'm not the only one with "oops!" moments!

One of my favorites happened when I was cutting out fabric for a pattern, and realized that I had cut out two of the pieces exactly the same as each other, so they ended up not lining up correctly when I went to pin them. Not sure I explained that well, but it was a funny moment!

Oh yes, and let's not forget the time one of the toys was sucked up by the vacuum cleaner... and survived without any signs of abuse! My cats got to keep that one, of course:)

[Former_Member]

Julie, what a lovely story!

I have made blunders in the past in the crafting process. When I get impatient and tug the thread through a dream catcher too quickly, it knots and I have to start all over again. Of course, 99% of the time this happens when the dream catcher is almost done.

Probably my worst public blunder was when I once forgot to include a free gift that was promised in a promotion. I sent a second package with 2 free gifts and a handmade apology card. The buyer sent me a convo when she received it to say she didn't know about the promotion in the first place, but that she was very grateful!

[Former_Member]

Kelly, sucking up the toy is actually something you could mention in your shop!! The toy is durable!

The first time I wore my dream catcher earrings for durability testing (and some live promoting) it was the windiest day ever. I couldn't stop touching my ears to make sure the feathers hadn't blown off. It rained at one point and I had no umbrella. They dried out and survived in perfect condition. =D

[Former_Member]

Good point, Samantha!

Your earrings sound super-durable!

[Former_Member]

Hm...most recently (cause there have been many!) I took a Silver PMC clay class at the bead and button show. I'm not really big on simply doing the assigned class project, so when she said we could design our own I was excited! I wanted to try to make butterfly wings.

I drew out the design, got it approved, and started working. I was a bit behind everyone else, and was rushing to get my piece dried. I was picking it up from the mug warmer and it slid right off the paper in the middle of the teachers warning to be careful that it doesn't slide off the paper when picking it up...

I ended up with only one wing that day!

[philosophiacreations]

Working with different types of beads is cathartic for me, so it's not uncommon to take study breaks to create. Well, last Christmas & around exam time, I stopped to work on a multiple strand seed bead necklace I had in mind for a while. Not paying attention to what I was doing (at ALL, obviously), I strung probably 8 or 9 strands before realizing that I had used two matching toggle clasp halves on either side. So I had to go back, shorten every strand, and attach them to the appropriate clasp-half.

And actually, this is the first time I've admitted to something like this... for better or for worse, right? D:

[philosophiacreations]

I've also had a couple of really odd but silly typos get overlooked (in my listing titles, no less). I just fixed them as soon as I saw them, and hoped my visitors got a good laugh too.

[Former_Member]

Michelle - to prevent that from happening again, you can wait to attach the clasp till the end. Either use tape to secure the ends or (what I do) tie a knot, but leave plenty of room to cut off the knot and still have space to attach a clasp.

I've done that same thing before >.>

[Former_Member]

Ugh. I totally blundered just now. I was packaging my second official order ever, and, in a moment of extreme clumsiness that I can barely explain, squashed the sea shell pendant under my chair leg. I sent my customer an apologetic email offering them a few options to replace the piece, but I'm totally mortified and want to crawl into a hole and die.

[correenscdesigns]

I can't think of anything at the moment. But this morning, I searched for my little silver thread scissors for about 40 minutes (they are my go-to scissors and I needed them bad). Frustrated I reached into my pocket to grab my ipod and found the little silver thread scissors. Felt silly for another 40 minutes - goof ball!

[Former_Member]

I was in such a hurry one time when gift wrapping & packaging orders that I wrapped up a ring in a jewelry box, set it aside, went to get an envelope, came back & grabbed an EMPTY box that was next to the one I had just wrapped. I tied it up all pretty with ribbon, a splash of confetti & mailed it to my OVERSEES customer.

She was not amused when it arrived...

[Former_Member]

Late one night I was printing some envelopes for an order of wedding invitations. I was messing around on the computer, watching a baking show on tv and totally not paying attention to the envelopes. Once they had all printed, I finally noticed that the toner in my printer was leaking and left a yellow streak straight down every single envelope! I had to order more envelopes (and pay the rush shipping), reprint and then ship them to Australia (more rush shipping charges). Pretty much ate up all of my profit on that order! Note to self: No more Cupcake Wars until I am done working!

[Former_Member]

I offered to meet someone locally to deliver her invitations because she was in a rush to get them out... Then I realized I forgot to bring the matching envelopes! I had to meet her again the next day. I felt so stupid.