I just noticed this thread is still ongoing...! Yikes!
A couple months ago, I tried messaging Etsy about this. I wrote it all out and detailed what we are experiencing and I got a generic, cut-and-paste reply explaining how to list digital download orders. So I tried it again, making it as clear as possible that I not only know how to list both instant download and made-to-order listings but have also sold many of both. This is a glitch on Etsy's side, it is NOT user error. Sure enough, I got almost the exact same reply from a different "support" person. Not one to give up easily, I actually tried again and requested that they escalate my support request. I think my final tally was five messages to customer service. At no point did I reach someone who understood the issue.
To recap (and this is validation for those questioning their own competence), it should be IMPOSSIBLE to list an item as "instant download" without files attached. In fact, if you tried deliberately to do such a thing right now, it would not work. The system will not allow you to list an item as "instant download" without any files attached to it. This is how you know that we're dealing with a glitch on Etsy's side, and NOT user error. (And it just happened to me again a couple weeks ago.) Because this is what's happening: I/we are listing items as "made-to-order", with NO FILES ATTACHED, so they're getting listed (again, WITH NO FILES ATTACHED), but then when someone buys them they're being processed as "instant download" and immediately marked "complete", even though THERE ARE NO FILES ATTACHED.
This should not even be possible. But it is, and I can prove that it is. Because right now, in my list of completed orders, there are multiple transactions that say "complete", "not downloaded", and when you click on what's "not downloaded", there is nothing to download there. Nothing. No files. Zip. It's also impossible for me to add downloadable files once the order is "complete".
Before some of you start running through how to send the files out some other way, I want to assure you that WE KNOW. If we're capable of creating the listing in the first place, we already know how to attach the files in Etsy Messenger or how to send the customer a Dropbox link so they can download them. The problem is, we shouldn't have to do that. It throws a monkey wrench into our workflow.
In addition, it creates transactions that CANNOT BE REVIEWED. That's right. A customer cannot leave a review for a digital item if they have yet to download it and, if there's no files attached, it's going to say "not downloaded" FOREVER. It doesn't matter how many Dropbox links we send out. The system will always show that transaction as NOT DOWNLOADED. If you're a shop without thousands of sales, struggling to maintain your Star Seller status, every sale matters. And I can guarantee you, without ever speaking to anyone official at Etsy, that those unreviewed sales do count in our reviews percentages and they count AGAINST US. They most definitely do not count in our favor.
The fact that Etsy would let this glitch continue for MONTHS and give us sellers no way to alert them of the problem, says a lot about Etsy and their priorities.
I don't have any additional help other than what has worked for me. I have been using the new listing setup for months. I did not use the button/link to go back to the old way. I'm just trying to remember to periodically check ON THE FRONT END (customer's side, not inside our editing) that my made-to-order listings still show up as that. I don't think I've ever had one say "made-to-order" on the front side (they did on the back, of course, which is why I didn't catch it) and go through as an instant download. What has happened is that an item listed correctly sold and then was switched when it was auto-renewed or I changed something in the backend and hit publish and it was switched then. During all of those occurrences, the listings still said "made-to-order" in the backend (editing side). I just didn't habitually go through the front side of all my orders and double-check that what the backend showed was accurate, until I started getting this issue.
I had thought it was fixed and then, as I said above, it happened again on an order about two weeks ago, which reminded me that I still need to periodically check the frontends of all digital listings. So all I can suggest is that you check on the front side that your listings show as "made-to-order" and, if any of them has been switched, go into editing (where it will probably STILL SAY MADE-TO-ORDER) and pick "made-to-order" again and save and publish it. Then refresh the listing on the frontend and be sure it now says "made-to-order" on the customer side.
Yes, I know and agree this is a total pain. I honestly do not understand being a large company that relies on sellers making sales and employs a whole team of developers allowing this kind of glitch to continue and not having anything in place for said sellers to report it. (Although, as of a couple months ago, they're not employing quite as many team members as they were, are they? Which, I dunno, might be an argument in favor of a few changes, Etsy. Just sayin.)
I hope this helps you, sellers.
~Veela
