Physical Item cancelled and refunded but it still affected my star rating

[PolyOriginals]

I had a customer buy 3 digital items and a physical one. Because of the Royal Mail cyber attack they had concerns that the physical item  wouldn't arrive on time, and it was a time critical present. I offered her a full refund for it, and she accepted. I refunded her for the physical item. However, I couldn't cancel the order as there were still the digital items that she wanted. 

Even though I had no physical item to send, I was still asked for delivery details, I filled this in as best I could, stating that nothing had been sent, the item had been cancelled/refunded and that I had kept the customer informed at all stages. 

However, I couldn't of course add a tracking number for something that had not been sent. As a result my star seller rating has been compromised. This is the only transaction that I have 'failed' to meet the criteria on.

I contacted Etsy support, and after many conversations they agreed that the Etsy set up has no way to deal with this mix of physical and digital sales, and that therefore it shows up as failure to add tracking, and there is nothing they can do about it. This was part of the latest response - 

"While it still counts against your score even if a refund has been issued, please know that the order is being treated as a physical order, as a result even if you have partially refunded it. Our system doesn't have a way to determine if you refunded the digital transactions or the physical one. While I’m not seeing any technical issues with your score, If you still think your Star Seller score was calculated incorrectly, I encourage you to let us know in the Technical Issues forum." 

So here I am in the Techniacl Issues Forum, feeling very unhappy as I did everything I could to keep my customer informed and happy, yet have been penalised for something beyond my control. It does not seem particularly fair.

Can anyone help?

Thank you.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

We can't help, we are only other sellers, we can only commiserate

[PolyOriginals]

Thank you  

[CappuccinoLace]

Your only option is to not sell physical and digital in the same store.

[PolyOriginals]

That is not really an option for me sadly at the moment, but thanks so much for the suggestion. 

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello @PolyOriginals,

As of the moment, only orders that include at least one physical item will be counted towards the On-Time Shipping metric. Orders that only include digital items will not be counted towards this score. But in the event that you partially refund the physical item on the order(mixed of digital and physical), it will still count towards your On-Time Shipping.

Kindly be assured that we will take this as a feedback and we will be sharing it with the team to consider for a future update. Please know that we take comments from the community to heart, and we make many changes to the site based on what we hear.

Thank you very much!

[SuburbanVintage]

How do I reach Etsy Staff about a physical order that was fully refunded and cancelled, but the 1 star feedback is still in my shop? I have tried to find a way to reach etsy support- but there is none- so I am responding to you in this forum hoping for a way to get help- Thank you!

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello @SuburbanVintage,

We've double-checked your Star Seller, and we can confirm that you currently have 5.0 Average Rating. If you still need help with the review, you can contact us directly. This way, we will be able to further assist you. You can contact us here.

Thank you very much!

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@SuburbanVintage 

refunds and cancellations do not remove reviews.

they stay there

[PolyOriginals]

Thank you for replying, as I sell physical items often as a result of people buying my tutorials, it is not practicable for me to have two separate shops. I am sure this exact situation deosn't happen often, but as someone who prides herself on customer service, it is a bit disappointing to loose my Star Seller rating over it. Thank you for taking it up as shometing to think about in future - I apprecaite that.