Local pick up docked my star seller chance

[BugFlowerArt]

I think there needs to be an accommodation for local pick up in the star seller program when you select that feature.

[NanaLetha]

As do many other sellers. Without a tracking number I have no idea how the seller could prove they delivered the item.

[LastCentury]

Well, there is the chance that the seller could leave a review for the item... and that would be proof to Etsy that the item was received but no, a happy reviewing customer is not good enough for them. I have a local customer who even posted an image with their review for a local pick up. 

[LastCentury]

ugh, that ^^^ should have read: "...that the Buyer could leave a review for the item..."

[thePaperFramer]

Local Pickup SNAFUs rank second in the most posted  Star Seller issues. Only Messaging failures get more posts here. We see several a week where the seller has not read the Star Seller policies and then comes here after they get dinged. Not only do you get dinged, you lose all Seller Protections. If you use local pickups you are rolling the dice.

[BugFlowerArt]

I don't do it often but in this case it was a neighbor who ordered. It made no sense to mail it when they could walk a block and pick it up at my house.

[dorothydomingo]

@thePaperFramer 

If your local deliveries are to buyers you know, there is no dice rolling. Selling to friends, neighbors, coworkers of spouses, friends of your kids. The possibilities for local sales is endless.

I sold a piece from an Instagram post over the summer before I even had a chance to list it here to my daughter's friend. I invoiced her thru PayPal and she picked it up in person. I could have listed it here and added to my sales tally, but in addition to not having to take additional photos, there was that thought in the back of my head that Etsy would penalize me for a local pickup. So I didn't list it here.

I frequently sell work to my husband's colleagues during the holiday shopping season. They follow me on Instagram. Etsy is going to lose more transaction fees if I sell pieces shown on my IG account and they buy them fresh out of the kiln. I'm so confident about the transaction I take a check from them, and they get the work delivered by my hubby when he goes in to the office.

I can't be the only one who makes sales like this during the holidays. Etsy really should figure out a way for us to list/sell to our regular local customers. I missed out on Star Seller last Christmas because I had quite a few of those purchases. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle them this year, but it seems foolish for Etsy to lose those transaction fees because they don't trust me to handle my local customers responsibly.

[TickleYourWitch]

If a seller is willing to take the risk of a pickup going awry they should be allowed for. I’ve done oodles of local pickups and haven’t had a single issue. It’s annoying that this dings me in SS. I use a buyer opt in coupon that takes off the shipping so my pickups are all tagged as such. There are messages arranging a meet up.

After pickup, I usually follow up with a message saying “I’m glad you were able to pick up and save the shipping.” This usually triggers an acknowledgment from the customer. I feel this covers my butt well enough and like I said it’s never been an issue. 

It’s stupid Etsy won’t allow this when they claim to be promoting sustainability and localization to reduce carbon footprint. 

[TBQSC]

A cheap & easy solution ... mail your customer the packing slip / a thank you note / s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g!  It costs virtually nothing (53-cents?) via Etsy Labels and it WILL give you a valid tracking number that WILL count towards SS.

[LastCentury]

@TBQSC That provides zero seller protection. The buyer can say all they got was a receipt, not the item they paid for. They file a claim, include a picture of the envelope showing the tracking number and money is refunded. How will you explain your side in that claim?

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

Whether the delivery / pickup policy is right or wrong, Etsy has been clear about it. If you have not yet done so, you might want to read https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling and https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000338067-How-to-Offer-Local-Pickup-or-Delivery?segment=s...

The latter link states:

Will local pickup orders be part of my evaluation for a Star Seller badge?

All physical listing orders must include a valid tracking number or a shipping label purchased on Etsy to be considered for a Star Seller badge. At this time, we’re unable to make exceptions for local pickup orders.

[TickleYourWitch]

@TBQSC Unfortunately the receipt option is only available to US sellers. We can't purchase lettermail postage on Etsy here in Canada.

[LastCentury]

The receipt option is not available to anyone. US sellers may use it to game the system but it has zero seller protection.

[TBQSC]

@TickleYourWitch Oh bummer ... I'm so sorry ... wishing you all the best in finding an happy solution!

[TheKitchenImp]

I had a really appalling conversation with Etsy about this over chat. In it, the so-called customer service person told me that I should either pay for something I wasn't going to use (e.g. a note) or simply enter another tracking number in the space. I told her that I thought it was absurd to essentially tell me to commit fraud and she denied that was what she was doing. But really, in essence, it was what she was asking. It's one of those bizarre Etsy blind spots. There are things that I love about Etsy; this is most definitely not one.

[TickleYourWitch]

It does work to enter a number with the same amount of digits. But they’ve also told us doing so can make you lose your star seller forever. So not exactly a solution. So stupid. 

[BugFlowerArt]

In my situation it was a neighbor who purchased from me. They only needed to walk a block or two and pick it up at my house. So it just seemed pointless to buy shipping labels, or mail it to them. I was not going to borrow the tracking number from my other order as it would be fraud.

Well lesson learned next time I'll take the listing off etsy and sell directly.

[EightMileVintage]

Open a second shop and put the listing there for your buyer. I have a second shop that I haven't been using for anything other than local pickups. It will never be a star seller but it doesn't matter. I get the sale, the buyer saves on shipping and Etsy gets its fees. Everybody wins.

[SmudgePlant]

I don't actually believe it's fraud to enter your own tracking number. They give you a choice of choosing "Other" as a shipping carrier. It turned out I was the "Other" when I walked the package over to a neighbor's house.  At the beginning of Star Seller, I was penalized once for not entering tracking and then I entered "Other" and my own tracking number for the second delivery. (Etsy may have changed accepting this since then.)

The next time I saw my neighbor, and she asked about more products, I told her to order from my website or me personally. I gave her a discount because I didn't have to pay Etsy fees.

[BagmakerSupply]

@SmudgePlant  :  You are correct that it is not fraud to enter your own tracking number if it is legitimate, but Etsy says it will not count for Star Seller. "Other" is not a shipper that AfterShip (Etsy's third party vendor for tracking and tracking number validation) recognizes. The suggestion that @TheKitchenImp received from Etsy support would be fraud.

[SmudgePlant]

@BagmakerSupplyIf Etsy told her to enter "Other" and a tracking number it would not be fraud. Etsy might not be able to track it but they are the ones that give us the "Other" option.

If she is the "Other" then she gets to enter her own tracking number.

If they don't want us to have that option then they need to get rid of the "Other".

(I realize shipping this way may not count for Star Seller.)

[WyrembelskisVintage]

Just mark the listing as shipped through the system, make a bogus tracking number so you don’t get docked. Then tell the customer to disregard the shipping notification. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@SmudgePlant  :  I interpreted the suggestion TheKitchenImp received to be to enter a recognized shipper (like USPS) and put in a fake tracking number so that it would qualify as shipped with tracking. That is fraud and if the package is never scanned it will at some point revert to being considered shipped without tracking. "Other" is a legitimate option but as you said will not count for Star Seller.

[TBQSC]

@LastCentury  In-person delivery provides zero seller protection … buyer could say they never received their order and seller could not prove it without providing a valid tracking #, which provides seller protection and preserves your SSR (OP’s complaint).

[BugFlowerArt]

I'm still trying to recover my rating from this incident and one other, where I had tracking, but some reason etsy didn't count it. I don't know if it was because I copied it wrong or if etsy was expecting the same address as on the order, when my customer (family) had moved and preferred her new address.