Buyers not receiving my Etsy Messages?

[NutfieldCrafts]

Hi All, I have a problem in that I sell personalised greetings card which involves me sending a mockup of the card to the buyer for approval. I do this through Etsy Messages. I have had frequent occurrences (e.g. 2 in the last 2 days) where I have had to email them due to no answer to Messages and they say they hadn't received my message. This happens with both Guests and Account Holders.

As I do personalised cards eg starting school and good luck for exams, nearly all of my cards are time critical so I need buyers to be able to respond quickly.

I just messaged Etsy and they said they checked and there was nothing wrong. 

Can anyone suggest anything which might help please?

[ChillwolfArt]

Did you try sending the Message in both Etsy Messages and in their email? You could add a blurb at the end, "You have received this via Etsy Messages as well as email. Some Buyers prefer email over Messages." (or something like this). So you keep all correspondence on Etsy, but just in case they don't go into their Etsy Account, they will see the email.

Hope this helps.

[NutfieldCrafts]

Yes, that's what I've been doing as that's the only way I can get a reply. Although, at the moment I have one order where she replied to one email and asked for 3 separate mockups to make a choice and hasn't responded to the 5 emails I've sent since!

[bradgoodell]

@NutfieldCrafts Something to keep in mind:

Buyers who are PITA on the front end are usually equally a PITA on the backend.  Sometimes refunding and cancelling a sale on a PITA buyer can save you quite a bit of time, money, and grief.  

[CoolCyberCats]

@bradgoodell  AHHH! Using anacronyms make me feel so old and dumb! May I ask what PITA means (other then a pocketed bread)?

[bradgoodell]

@CoolCyberCats 

Pain In The A--

[bradgoodell]

I send 1 message through Etsy, then a follow up 2nd message via email, then a 3rd via Etsy.  One each day.  If it is urgent, I send the first message twice, once via Etsy and once via email.  If I do not hear from the buyer, I push the ship-by date out as far as it can go and include a message that I need the answer by X date.  (The date will be before the ship-by date to allow processing time.)  No response, cancel and refund. 

Adding, I've never had to cancel and refund, because the change of a ship-by date tends to get them moving quickly.

Pushing out the ship-by date keeps you in Etsy's good graces, while notify the customer that their order will be greatly delayed if they don't respond quickly.

Best of luck! 

[NutfieldCrafts]

I have already extended the shipping date and they replied a day later. I'll definitely start messaging and emailing from the first message with guests (I have templates set up!) and if this keeps happening I'll adopt your system! Thanks.

[CanningCrafts]

If something is time sensitive, you can send a message & offsite email at the same time. I've had customers not reply until I pushed the ship date out. So it appears that message tends to make it to customers or at least get their attention more.

Both buyers & sellers have reported having issues getting Etsy emails for years. There has been finger pointing from Etsy & email providers on where the issue resides. I believe there is a setting on Etsy where accounts can opt out of getting certain communications from Etsy, although I don't know what the default is for Seller messages. Some messages can be blocked or go into junk mail, which is out of your control

[NutfieldCrafts]

I have extended shipping on this order and it did cause her to answer once but not since. I feel as though this is heading for cancellation which is a pain as I've already spent time doing what she asked. 

[NanaLetha]

@CoolCyberCats  Pain in the backside 

[CoolCyberCats]

@NanaLetha Thank you.

I am not an anacronym user, so they throw me off when they hit. Often times I can figure it out, but other times I cannot. I kept racking my brains on PITA to non responsive customers, like "Passive Indifferent Transaction Avoiding customer". But nothing else fit! (laugh)

[mommawhazelsquilts]

NanaLetha - that's pitb -she wants to know what pita is - hint: it's not bread

[CoolCyberCats]

@mommawhazelsquilts I was able to make the backside to other word for donkey connection. (laugh)

[bradgoodell]

@CoolCyberCats I like your translation.  It's accurate too.  lol

[timelapse]

@NutfieldCrafts - Something may be screwy with messages at the moment. I had a conversation going with a seller last week/weekend, received her replies immediately here on the site, but the emails from Etsy telling me I had a message arrived a couple days (or more) later!

[NutfieldCrafts]

I did finally get a response from my slow responder and I have finally managed to send her order. I've now taken to sending a message and an email straight after. It's a bit of PITA but at least I feel I've tried my best. Thanks, everyone, for all your help.

[HatsForward]

I just had a message from a buyer saying that they didn't receive a response from their message sent to me yesterday. I always get back within a few hours and see no messages in my inbox yesterday. I wonder of this is related to something with a guest order vs registered user but have yet to confirm

[NutfieldCrafts]

It's frustrating if we can't trust the Messages system!