Customers aren't being charged the sale price when I have multiple sales

[SunSoakedPlants]

This has happened twice. I have 20% off my entire store. I have certain items that are 50% off. I don't expect the 50% off items to have 70% off. Just the 50%.

One customer bought one item that was 20% off and the other was 50% off. Both items were discounted 20% off.  Customer complained. I contacted customer support and they told me that because that one item has 20% AND 50% listed, it defaulted to just 20%. Ok. Don't like that, but whatever. Refunded the customer and they were happy.

Before I could make changes so that all items were only listed under one sale, the second time happened, the same scenario. Two items, one was 20% and one was 50%. Customer was charged 50% off one item and the other item was full price. 

I've talked to CS, about 6 different people. They all tell me different things. One said that I can't do a promo code and a sale at the same time (these are sales not promo codes). Then another told me that they can't do sales and offer free shipping (not sure what free shipping has to do with it). Two people just sent the definitions of what a promo code was and a sale was to highlight the difference (again, promo code info is irrelevant to my problem).

I just got another message from a different CS person and they are telling me that they can't apply two different sales to an order, and since the two items have different sales percentages, only the highest one is applied. While it's a problem that only one item got their discount (the 50%), it would be WAY worse if they applied 50% to the entire order. Profit margin go poof.  But in the end, what he's saying isn't what actually happened. 

So, I'm pretty frustrated at this point. I don't think anyone I've talked to actually knows what they are talking about. Does anyone else have problems when people buy multiple items on sale that are different percentages off?

[BagmakerSupply]

@SunSoakedPlants: The "problem" is probably a confusion by the system when two sales are being applied to the same item and the system is not set up for that, Etsy even says you cannot apply two discounts to one listing during checkout at the same time - not a solution but a possible explanation.

"... can't do sales and offer free shipping ..." By the way, the only exception to multiple discount codes is that you CAN offer a free shipping coupon on top of a percent off coupon.

[SunSoakedPlants]

Yeah, that's probably the reason. It's just that the resulting glitch was different with two different orders. It's just so much easier to make my whole store 20% off rather than hunt and peck 90% of my inventory manually. You know, 20% off of everything except these five things. I appreciate your response.

[PrimFun]

One can do sales and free shipping. 

[CappuccinoLace]

Yeah there was a thread about 4 days ago, they had 1 item at 75% off, and 1 at 50% off, and it was giving 50% off both in cart, instead of individually; which is how it always worked in the past. After all that's the reason you can run multiple different sales of different %'s.

Something has clearly changed in the background, whether intentionally or due to a glitch.

[SunSoakedPlants]

Oh wow, I need to find that thread. The idea that you can't buy two sale items with different discounts is nonsensical. Thank you.

[BagmakerSupply]

@CappuccinoLace: That is really odd - we just had an order with three items on sale (each at a different percentage off) and all were applied correctly. The only time we see an issue is when there is a store-wide promo code which seems to be applied to everything even if an individual listing is on sale at a larger discount.

[CappuccinoLace]

@BagmakerSupply @SunSoakedPlants  here's the thread.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/All-Things-Finance/1-2-4-Etsy-says/m-p/143375482

And I tested his items myself and it did indeed drop the 75% off listing to 50% when the other 50% listing was added to cart.

Really strange.

[CrazyOldLadyJewelry]

Always keep in mind more often than not you are having a conversation with a bot. I have brought similar issues to CS and the bot started telling me things that had zero to do with what I was asking.

Does anyone know why our sales are not allowed to run longer than 30 days? You would think Etsy's dumbing down of Etsy they would want things marked down indefinitely.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

they can't run more than 30 days, as it's illegal in many countries,
more than 30 days means it's no longer a sale, and the lower price should be listed as the new normal price, not a sale price

yes, if you want the lower price as the new normal price, then list it as the lower price indefinitely, not a sale price, which it is not

[SunSoakedPlants]

You know, I thought when I was talking to them that it felt like a chatGPT doom cycle. That's incredibly frustrating. Any idea how we can get this issue in front of an actual person who can see that there's problems and not just with mine? Do I ask my customers to make a claim? Welcome to contact customer service themselves? 

[CrazyOldLadyJewelry]

is there a link somewhere that states I cannot switch up the items I have on sale. And how long I can have an item on sale?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

https://www.etsy.com/ca/seller-handbook/article/167818446889

The Sales and Coupons tool in the Marketing section of your Shop Manager lets you schedule and run percentage-off sales (between 10% to 70%) for selected items in your shop for a defined period of time (up to 30 days).

[SunnytyDE]

@CrazyOldLadyJewelry  the length that you are able to offer items for the sale price varies from state to state and from one country to another.

It falls under deceptive business practices and is regulated. It's up to each of us to inform ourselves of the law in our own country/state and also the law of the places we have in our shipping profiles.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@CrazyOldLadyJewelry 

No link, but personal experience.  Worked for a fabric store chain in San Diego.  Fabric was on sale for a couple of months.  Fabric went off sale.  Customer complained to FTC.  Owners had to go to court, lost case, paid a hefty fine and court costs.  Afterwards the FTC haunted us for over a year, checking to make sure we weren't in violation.

[EnfleurageLilac]

I have often tried to figure out if I have one item at 40% off and the entire store goes on 20% off what price will the item at 40% off be now? I thought Etsy was taking the 40% item and discounting it another 20% on one order this happened but on subsequent orders the whole order received a 20% discount and the 40% off item did not get it's 40% off, only 20% off.

So same question, sorry no answer here for you,,, Hello Etsy, what is the Etsy math on this issue?

[BagmakerSupply]

@EnfleurageLilac: Our experience is that a shop-wide sale essentially overrides individual listing sales discounts. It would never be 40% + 20% (Etsy does not allow coupon stacking except for free shipping / percent off pairs). We agree that the expected behavior would be that the highest discount an individual listing could have would be applied to that listing.