Creating custom order problem.

[#1]

The way we create custom orders from a customer message seems to have changed. Instead of being able to create a full listing I seem to just have a side bar to add basic details. I cannot add shipping profiles or an image to this. I have to go back into the listing once the order has been created to complete the details.

I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch.

[FINDINGMORE]

Exact situation with my shop. Took hours to complete with workarounds. And way too many messages with customer unable to check out. Who kept receiving etsy messages that items unavailable, Custom order photos, included free shipping and 1-2 weeks to ship would not process as such. Automatically defaulted to my normal 1-2 day processing time. Only way the custom order would go through. I then had to manually change the ship date, refund shipping and change order language referencing prior message with item photo. All for $12 sale. May need to rethink custom orders with this "new"custom order format.

[CollegePopArt]

This was the response I got from Support today.  Same old...we run occasional tests...

May 11, 2022, 12:42 PM EDT

Hello there, my name is Jackie and I'm an Etsy seller support specialist. Thanks for taking your time to reach out to us and for waiting patiently for my personal response. I hope you are doing well!
 
I'm reaching out about the issues you were having uploading a picture and editing other information on a custom listing. This is a new feature that Etsy is experimenting on. You should still have the ability to send any photos to the message thread and will have to manually enter shipping information into said custom listing.

We often run tests on Etsy with the goal of bringing more sales to our sellers. Even if a feature already seems to be working well, we find that there's always room for improvement and new opportunities to bring even more business. As ecommerce is continually evolving, we run experiments on Etsy to help test out ways to make it easier for buyers to find what they are looking for and make a purchase. Testing allows us to build better tools for the entire Etsy community.

We keep a careful eye on stats that tell us exactly how buyers and sellers change their behavior because of tests, but we know it’s not all about the data. We also listen to what the community is telling us via email, feedback forms, the Forums, and other avenues.
 
I hope this helps! If you're still having issues editing that custom listing, please let us know!

Jackie, Etsy Support
#standwithsmall

[GripperCardHolders]

I've been seeing the "custom order" side bar for months now and am tired of not being able to add a photo or save for later to edit it. So my solution is to create a "new" order, making it a "Private, custom order for ____(enter customer's name here), and filing in all the pertinent info. That way, I can save it, edit it or whatever, making it a true custom order! Of course, I have to pay the $0.20 fee for each one I create, but to me it's worth it and the order looks much better than what's created by the side bar.

Maybe my solution will work for you others or maybe not. I suppose it depends upon your situation, but there you are. Good luck everyone!

[KristiStickySigns]

I went through another 5 day off and on chat session a couple weeks ago again. I was pretty much told this is the way it is going to be for private custom listings so get used to it. They said to add a photo after you make the private listing but before the customer purchases it or make the listing the regular way. No explanation for why they are doing it this way besides trying to improve the customer experience. Makes no sense at all. Interesting that on the Etsy app, when you click on Create a Custom Listing in a message, you can add a photo. Like we keep all of our designs or photos on our phone to create a listing. I do not get it.

[EchoCanyonLanyards]

No, it is NOT  a temporary glitch...it has been this way for sometime. I have contacted Etsy several times (to no avail). It is HORRIBLE what they have done to custom listings.However, for some unknown reason, the "old" custom order listing template is still on the mobile app.

[PillowDetails]

I also got in touch with Support to voice my displeasure - over a month ago - over the inadequacies of this new format.

My opinions were valued, and passed onto their special TEAM.

LOL.

[HeartsByLaylaHay]

Etsy suggested I was using an incorrect Web browser! What after 2 years of using the same one suddenly it doesn't work! They completely denied they'd changed anything at all about the custom order process and I ended up informing them that I'd have to conduct my custom orders outside Etsy so as not to lose customers through incompetence (I just send the customer a PayPal invoice so both protected)

As far as I can see they still haven't fixed the issue and I can't be the only one taking the business elsewhere so they must be losing money. Why can't they just go back to the old way that worked perfectly? 

[CalendulaHandmade]

The response I got from Etsy was right out of the handbook even though I have been creating custom order listings for 5 years they walked me through the process as if I didn’t know how to do it. All that even after I had clearly explained TWICE to them that it was their new format that was creating all sorts of problems for many sellers. I wonder if they actually read the messages we send them.

[KristiStickySigns]

I was told it was a test initially. Now I am being told that is how it will be from now on. The reasoning was improving customer experience. I told them I was considering leaving Etsy because all of the things they do just makes selling on Etsy harder for us and costs us more. The representative just said sorry to hear you may go but we support you in whatever you choose. Nice.

[BlueSageCreationsCo]

I'm in the same boat as everyone else. This new process makes us sellers look like we don't know what we're doing....here's your custom order listing but don't open it yet b/c I need to complete it first.  I requested a call back from etsy support 4 times (wait time was 0) and never got a call. I also had 2 chat reps end the session right in the middle of our conversation. Does anyone know any other way to communicate with etsy? Do we even know if they give a rip that this change doesn't work for us? I'm so disgusted.

[SHMillinery]

I am having the same problems, and the customers can't even click on the link...complete disaster

[Mirinesse]

I will chime in and say this is annoying....to have to edit something after you post it looks like we are too stupid and don't know what we are doing or we are changing something on the customer trying to scam them. The old way worked fine. This new sidebar, half the info crap is just plain ridiculous.

I remember being annoyed that I would forget to add a picture to complete the custom order! Now I CAN'T add one unless I edit it!

[Joelleperle]

Hi everyone,

As I can see I am not the only one to be upset by the custom order... In my case I have to use this option for the first time and this is my problem:

I live in France and got an order from a buyer in the USA. After buying the item, she asked me if it is possible to pay some additionnal shipping fees to receive the item on June 2nd. As I don't have any express shipping option in my delivery profiles, I had to count her some extra fees for an express shipping.

So I made some research and I saw that I could create a custum order to make her pay these additionnal shipping fees (25 euros).

But when I click on "make this a custom order", I get the new sidebar on the right. But the problem is that when I want to write the custom price (25 euros), it puts automatically €2500 instead of 25 !! I can't take off the 2 zeros at the end... I tried to write 25,00 or 25.00, and tried in another browser but nothing to do, it remains like this and it drives me crazy !

Do you think it's also a technical problem from Etsy ? Or does some of you have a solution to help me ?

Thank you so much, kind regards from France.

[CalendulaHandmade]

You could try creating a regular listing titled “Custom order for...” with a generic picture. Send the link for this to your customer or just tell her to look for it. This is what I’ve been doing for my custom orders as I have given up hope that Etsy will ever fix the new Custom Order form.

[InnerMind]

Why isnt it possible to add a picture when a custom order is made ? Obviously the buyer wants to see the result of their custom made item before they want to buy it.  Why is this changed ?

[MouseGarden]

Before this was a useful feature, and now I have to make a separate listing.  This is not an improvement.  Stop destroying what works!  It didn't need "fixing".  Now I can not use it.

[thePaperFramer]

New Etsy matra: If it ain't broke, BREAK IT.

[ArcaneWandsmith]

I like "if it aint broke, you're not fiddling with it enough" - Etsy devs.

And, just to add to the general consensus - agree the new sidebar style is horrible. Amusing also, that when you use it, and then go to the listing page (to immediately edit it), you get a big notification informing you that postage isn't applied correctly on some of your listings. Gee, I wonder why?! So they even broke their own system. 

[ArcaneWandsmith]

Oh, and to add to my previous message, it's not just sucky for us, it's glitchy for our customers. Literally just this morning, from someone who was asking how to access his private listing, then got it to work, and I asked him how:

"I just keep clicking the listing button, then after a while, it brought me to the listing page. "

Think I'm just going to create "reserved for" standard listings from now on.

[thePaperFramer]

I absolutely hate the new custom order page.  In case I wasn't clear:

I ABSOLUTELY HATE THE NEW CUSTOM ORDER PAGE.

Please, please, please, please, please bring back the old page. Until that time, I am creating reserved listings instead of custom order. WTF is Etsy thinking.

[DIYslipcovers]

I think they want us to create custom reserved for listings for custom orders and to not use the create a custom order option at all.  Then, when I am creating my listings that way and choose a longer processing time from the drop down they change my selected "weeks" to days when the listing is purchased.  I create the listing with 4-6 weeks ship time and when the buyer purchases it the order then says 4-6 days!  CRAZY!  It makes me look like an inexperienced idiot and it makes ETSY look bad as well!  The commercials toot one of a kind and handmade to viewers but they really don't want us custom makers here at all.

[CalendulaHandmade]

I am amazed that this ongoing problem still hasn’t been fixed,  despite all of the reporting we’ve made to Etsy who told us weeks and weeks ago they were looking into it. Pretty shameful!!!

[KristiStickySigns]

It is set up this way on purpose. It isn't a mistake that they are going to fix. I was told they were testing it. It has been this way for months and appears that it will stay that way from now on. I stopped using that feature completely even though over 95% of my orders are custom. I just make a listing the regular way and mark it reserved. It takes a lot longer but they don't care. I am not sure of their motives.

[KlothesbyKraig]

Had the same issues as everyone else with my custom listing sidebar.  Can't use my shipping profile until I publish and quickly go to edit.  The problem with that is, if I don't know where the customer is and they purchase immediately before I can change it, as usually we are live messaging when I create the lsiting.  I'm USA, so fine if they qualify for free shipping in the US, but if they are international, they won't get charged a proper calculated shipping fee.

Also,  it does look so unprofessional to see that the custom listing was "edited" after I send it to them.

NOW, as of June, they "fixed" an issue we all had that affected Star Seller ratings regarding customers sending multiple single messages and having to reply to each one for it to be counted.  Now they are combining multiple message from same customer.  All fine and good, however, you could always only create 1 custom listing for a customer, period.  Then I had the explain to them to start a new message thread so I could attach a new custom listing to it for them.

Just had a customer come back to purchase, needing a custom listing, I couldn't create a second one (first order was custom as well), so asked them to create a second message.   Well, they said they kept trying to, but it always brought them back to the original thread.  He even said he deleted the message thread from his messages to try.  WTF???

They tried to fix something (that we asked for - not getting punished for not answering multiple message threads when one simple answer would suffice, and broke something else (custom listing creation) even further.  Now once a customer buys a custom listing, they can never buy again.

[PrettyVagrant]

Bumping this because the custom listing from a message is still a UNUSABLE MESS!

Cant add photos when you list, can look through the message to look at details while the window is up, endless scroll to enter country, can’t simply use a shipping profile.  Now I get a error for the shipping settings not be correct for the custom order.

Then when you go back to add a actual photo the customer gets a message that you edited the item, which then brings questions.

WHY WHY WHY IS THIS EVEN A THING??????????

Ca