Support Chat Blocked?

[GravityPatchCo]

I'm having a rough day with Etsy systems so this is just a bit of a rant...

Today I got an order from Puerto Rico with an unverified address although it does seem to be correctly formatted. I was unable to purchase a shipping label from Etsy as I usually do so I thought I would try to contact support through chat. I wasn't really expecting anything could be done about it but I thought I would give it a try. I started a chat and got connected to an Agent. I sent my question. I got a "Are you there?" so I sent my question again and after a bit got a "We haven't heard from you..." and the chat was ended! I tried to start a new chat and no response. So I dug around on the help and found a contact form and filed a support ticket. Strangely also, my support request does not show up in "My Support Requests" page of the help... but I did get a confirmation email saying they have got my ticket. So anyway, I had to just mark the order as completed with no tracking and take a hit against my 100% shipping with tracking record. I really had no other options.  I sell patches and I don't want to buy a $4 label with tracking for a $7 order so if the Pitney Bowes / Etsy flat labels can't be purchased I have no choice but to just mark completed and put a stamp on it and send it out.  

[CappuccinoLace]

 so if the Pitney Bowes / Etsy flat labels can't be purchased 

Don't think they can if the country of the address if Puerto Rico, as the letters/flats labels are domestic.

Not sure whether it should have worked if it was country USA and PR as the state though.

[GravityPatchCo]

It would make sense if they had the country as PR but it didn't. It was correctly addressed as United States with PR as the state. 

[hopeandjoystudios]

You can cancel the order. Just push the cancel button and it will instantly refund and you will get your fees back. You do need to relist it though. I don't think you get refunded the listing fee. Tell the customer "I was unable to ship to your address as it kept saying it was not verified".

[GravityPatchCo]

I considered this but I think it is a bit extreme to cancel their order over an Etsy system issue. PR addresses can be confusing, but I could verify that it was correctly formatted. I even tried rearranging the address to see if I could get it to verify but no luck. I would rather just take the perfect shipping ding rather than cancel on them when it was not their fault. 

[auntiejans]

You could try PirateShip, see if it does the same thing.  Although, seems like I'm a bit late to the party!

[GravityPatchCo]

I do have a PirateShip account and I did try the address there with no issues but I needed to purchase a Etsy flats shipping ($0.63) label not a Ground Advantage label.

[audreytherese]

Pirateship doesn't offer the letter rate like Etsy does. They say something about their services are to help businesses send packages, and they don't consider something going in an envelope a package, so they don't offer discounted pricing on it. 

[NanaLetha]

Is the country on the address showing as US or Puerto Rico? It should be US along with a zip code.

[GravityPatchCo]

US

[GravityPatchCo]

I appreciate all the ideas about the PR address... but I really came here to rant about the fact that I'm unable to chat with support! Anybody have ideas on why that happened!?

[audreytherese]

No, no idea what happened with chat or your support ticket. But I don't have much experience with dealing with support in general. As you said you weren't expecting much, and this is not something I would have ever contacted them about in the first place. 

As for why they couldn't see you responding, I would have started by trying a different browser. Did you do that?