How Do You Know Shop Is Reliable?

[FjeldDesign]

Hi All, I would like to wake a discussion about how do you know the shop is reliable on Etsy.

I buy mainly jewelry making findings and there is numerous shop that sells them. I read shop policies before I order and check also feedbacks, but is this tell the truth of shop´s reliable?

My friend bought on Etsy jewelry making findings, because here in Finland the prices are quite expensive. The shop haven´t policies, but feedbacks look great: over 10 000 positive feedback, 250 neutral feedback and less than 200 negative feedback. She though that shop is reliable supplier but then turns out that shop owner never send items what she has order from her and it was trouble to communicate with seller. Finally she had to claim money back because the seller was not willing to send the order again.

How long is a reasonable time to wait for an order marking as a "Shipped"?

[Former_Member]

I bought my supplies in etsy too.. Shop that I bought has many positive feedbacks but quite a few negatives too.. But I get my orders fast and always a great customer service. Once there was one broken item but shop owner offer me refund or she can send me new one when I order next time.
So I in my opinion feedbacks don´t always tell whole truth.
I mark my items shipped when I have send them (1-2 days), but sometimes in custom orders it take few extra days. So perhaps a week is maximum time that I would wait that order is marked shipped?

[Former_Member]

it depends when items are marked as shipped. i have bought things that were made to order and were shipped after 10 business days. but i knew before hand that it would take some time until it would be shipped.
if you would like to know when your items are shipped look at the listing. sellers can list a processing time, there are several options from 1 business day to a few weeks.
if your items are not shipped in the giver period you can be suspicious and contact the seller to ask

[Inugurumi]

When I'm not sure about the seller, I always send a convo and ask some questions. If she/he responds quickly and in a professional manner, I will buy from them. If they never respond or write as if texting back to a friend, I won't probably buy from that seller. I don't mean being friendly is bad, but I am talking about being rude (no "thank you" or hi,) not spelling out words (ie, u for you etc.,) or doesn't know how to write sentence.

I understand there are many non English native sellers on Etsy (and I am one of them) but you can tell the difference when people make mistakes because they are not native or because they don't care. So far, all the sellers I bought from responded quickly and very professional manner, and I never had any problem with them.

[Former_Member]

There is nothing wrong with sending the shop a short convo inquiring about an item. Any supply seller who really appreciates your business will take the time to answer.

I quite often get questions about many of the products that I carry and I'll try to answer within 24 hours.

As for how fast a shop ships, there's nothing wrong with asking about that as well. I try to have a 'processing time' in each of my orders that allows me 2 business days for shipping. But in 90% of the cases what you order today will be shipped out the following day.

Any order that I receive, regardless of the size is confirmed with a quick email to let the customer know when the package will ship and roughly when to expect it. I find that it also serves as a great way to find out how my customers have found my shop.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

The time it takes for an item to arrive rather depends on where it was shipped to. Obviously items going to the other side of the world will take quite a bit of time and some of my paintings have taken as long as 6 weeks (although this was near christmas time).

Paypal say that you have 45 days within which to file a claim. I think this is quite a long time to wait and under normal circumstances, items should be with you well within this time frame.

I always send a little convo to ask when my item is likely to arrive if I feel it has taken quite a long time. Usually sellers are forthcoming with information.

As far as feedback is concerned, personally, despite the fact a sellers may have thousands of positive feedbacks, if they have 250 neutrals and 200 negatives, I would not take the risk. I know you cannot please all of the people all of the time but for me this would be a warning bell. That's 450 unhappy customers, that's about 5% which I think is too high.