Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of receiving my first negative review at my Etsy shop. Ouch, that hurt. I am always living in fear of getting a bad review, my heart skips a beat every time I see a review has been left. It was just as bad as I feared.
It was referring to an anklet this customer bought. Unfortunately, the item broke and she was obviously frustrated. And understandably so. But so am I.
I hate it as much as anyone when something I make and sell has a problem. I never want that to happen. I do everything I can to make sure every item is perfect before I ship it, but sometimes something goes wrong. Maybe it’s just a bad part, or maybe I made a mistake.
No matter what, as I put in my shop policies, I stand behind my work and will repair any jewelry item I sell, any time, for no cost. {Except for the cost of mailing me the piece, but that is usually quite minimal.}
That’s why I am so frustrated. I want to fix the anklet for her, or do something to make this right. I wish she had contacted me first. I would have helped in a second. I’ve had to deal with a few repairs over my year and half in business, and it’s always been a easy and pretty pleasant experience. Live and learn, I guess. As they always say, you just can’t please everyone.
I’m now debating putting out a public response. I just don’t know what to say. I drafted a long response, but upon doing some research, I am finding that short and sweet, or simply letting it go are my best options. I’m still holding on to the hope that the emails I sent this customer a week ago will by some miracle be answered and we can work it out to a good solution that inspires her to change the review.
But the more I mull it over, I ‘m sure I’ll post a short response simply to assure future buyers that I will be there to help if anything happens to their item.
And I need to remember that one bad review among 110 good ones is not so bad.
At least I’m stronger now. I can handle this. And I know my items are still awesome.
© 2014, Terri. All rights reserved.
