Buyer can't leave "gift" message 2/20/25 - digital message only

[SugarTaffySoap]

Buyer messaged me saying she can't leave a gift message for a physical product but can leave a digital message.  What is a digital message?

This is the 3rd time I reported buyers not being able to leave a gift message when purchasing from my shop. 

I checked my listing to make sure there's no error on my end, and there isn't.  It's set up as a physical product.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Forgive me if this is too obvious but have you enabled Gift Messages for your shop?

Go to Shop Manager - Settings - Options - Offer Gift Note - Scroll to bottom - SAVE

[SugarTaffySoap]

@JJewellerySuppliesUK  Yes. I spoke with chat and they seem to think it's on the buyer's end and to tell the buyer to contact Etsy so they can investigate further.   I decided to use personalization from here on in to hopefully avoid this issue in the future.  

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

@SugarTaffySoap  That's a good idea to have it there all in the one place then they won't forget to add a note.  I think you could just keep it simple and not add the bit about doing it afterwards at checkout which just sounds complicated and best to capture it with the order. 

[SugarTaffySoap]

@JJewellerySuppliesUK  I have to revise my listings which I'm not looking forward to doing.  

[BaggieAggie]

I've just had to deal with the opposite: I'm in the UK, and today received a 'marked as gift' order from the US which includes a gift message - even though the option to add a gift message to 'marked as gift' orders was disabled last year (and yes, it's still disabled).

And it was disabled last year because I discovered that when a 'marked as gift' order includes a gift message, I cannot 'unmark as gift'. And I need to 'unmark as gift' with international orders so that I can print copies of the order for Customs.  My only option has been to print copies of the order confirmation email, which is far from ideal as the pricing is in £UK, not $US as it should be.

I started a thread on this technical issue last year which, if memory serves, was picked up by one of the mods for onward transmission to the techs, and I also contacted Support who too forwarded it to the techs. It's bad enough that it still hasn't been fixed, but that my gift message disablement is being overridden on top of that is just unbelievable.  Honestly, Etsy's IT department must be the worst in the world.  It's certainly the most incompetent I've ever experienced, that's for sure!

[FashionFallback]

We just create a new invoice ourselves in a Word document, copy and pasting the info over from the invoice or email.

[WantableDesigns]

I turned off the function to add a gift message too, when it was only printing out the top line, making it useless.

I still get the odd order with a gift message attached, despite me disabling the feature.

I think it may be something to do with the 'gift teaser' function they added not long ago.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

@BaggieAggie  If you have your postal services connected to Royal Mail or Etsy labels then you don't need to send invoices as the contents of the package are captured and retrievable by customs via the barcode.  I have never sent an invoice with any of my international shipments ever!

[NaturalAmor]

According to my chatting with the Etsy Support, the digital gift message should be the "gift teaser". Here is the info the support give me:

A gift teaser is an email notification for a gift purchased on Etsy. It includes shipping status, delivery date, tracking info, and possibly a message or image from the buyer.

That means the message and tracking will send to the recipient directly. Also I checked with the Etsy Support, from system order page seller cannot see the gift message content if the buyer ordered the gift teaser, due to "privacy concern". If the buyer want to change the message content they need to contact Etsy Support

[WantableDesigns]

Pretty sure they've told you wrong there. I get gift teasers and I can always see the gift message and it prints out on my packing slip.

[BaggieAggie]

@FashionFallback 

"We just create a new invoice ourselves in a Word document, copy and pasting the info over from the invoice or email."

That's of no use for international orders. As I said earlier, there is no way of seeing what the buyer paid in their own currency, which is what Customs require.  The invoice and order confirmation email are in the seller's currency, not the buyer's.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@NaturalAmor  The appropriate reading on an Order would show me:  "Marked as a gift" "Gift message included" and "Gift teaser added".  These 3 all together will show that it's marked as a gift, the message is included and a gift teaser was emailed to recipient.   The buyer was unable to add a gift message and I did not see on my end that there was a gift teaser.  Support and a team spent a lot of time investigating this with different order numbers I sent them, and the bottom line is they believe it's on the buyers end and that the buyer should contact Etsy Buyer Support. By the way this buyer was on a desktop.