etsy backhand . . .

Just over a year ago I wrote a post about my shiny Super Seller trophy I knew it was just another etsy experiment/test but I really did like, unfortunately it only lasted about a week, thankfully I got screenshots before it disappeared.  😁

Well it's been a year so it was just time for etsy to try something else, I guess.  This time around instead of shiny trophies for "super" sellers they have gone the other direction and introduced a new metric they are calling ODR (order defect rate).  This is definitely the stick approach obviously the carrot (trophies) didn't impact how shops handle their buyers/customer service.  

So while we have all known for years that low reviews and repeated "cases" will get your shop in trouble. We now have a whole new level of detail, they have been revising the Handbook and wow. https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360036720093-Why-Did-My-Shop-Receive-a-Customer-Service-Warning-?segment=selling  

I doubt I will ever be in trouble but of course there is a lot of buzz in the forums right, many people are bothered by the wording, the vagueness, the standards themselves. 😏  Not at all surprising, I'm sure that there are a lot of shops in trouble, as a matter of fact last month there were several forum posts about warning emails from etsy apparently lots of shops got the email but didn't understand it or understand why they got it and the consensus became just "ignore it" "it must have been a error/glitch".  

Well guess what those warning emails were not a glitch or an error they were genuine warnings.  I read the Handbook stuff about the new stuff and one of the things that bugged me most was that sellers were to have no access to the "customer service performance" dashboard until they were in trouble, literally we weren't supposed to see/know our ODR until we were failing and in a position to be "under review" and up for closure. 😯

Unfortunately for etsy we (collective sellers) are smarter than etsy, so once 1 seller had access to the dashboard, someone else altered the link they posted and removed part of the url and now BAM! everyone has access to their Customer Service Performance dashboard.  You have to have a shop and you have to be logged in for this to work, notice the "your" and "me". 

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/customer-service-performance

So you can see with no cases and no low reviews and no problems with my last 10 orders my ODR is 0.00% my shop is literally perfect. However I read someone else in the forums admit that her ODR was 3.70% so even though the dashboard says the threshold is 1% that is apparently a lie because Mrs. 3.7% is still open. 😕

I miss my trophy, at least that was public and shoppers could see it, this new hidden metric is useless for buyers.  

Facebook fail. . .

Upon logging into things this morning I found a notification on Facebook about a message for RainbowMaille.

I thought "hey, cool" I don't get messages on the Facebook page very often, but when I do I always try to answer in a timely fashion because Facebook tracks that and posts in right on your page. 😏 However, when I clicked the notice to go to my inbox and respond all I got was an error page. 😕

I went to RainbowMaille's actual page and clicked on the inbox but there was nothing there, I have tried every way I know and cannot find this phantom message.  😟  Perhaps the sender deleted it?  I don't know but when I checked my email there was an email from Facebook about the message for RainbowMaille but when I click the link to respond. . . same error page.

Now I'm concerned that somehow my failure to respond will negatively effect the rating and placement of RainbowMaille's page but, I can't respond to something that does not exist, that I have no way to access or respond to.  😞

Holiday sales season. . .

Well it is officially the holiday sales season.  I have a plan and a schedule in mind for my assorted upcoming Sales events including a "Pre-Thanksgiving Sale" of course a "Black Friday" event that will actually last all weekend thru to Cyber Monday which has a set sale and an optional free shipping coupon. Plus Christmas! 😁

• Pre-Thanksgiving Sale  -  20% off orders over $20  November 21st -28th
• Black Friday event   -   25% off orders over $10  November 29th  - December 3rd
• Free shipping coupon  -  FREESHIPBF2019  valid  November 29th  - December 3rd
• Pre-Christmas Sale   -   15% off all orders  December 4th - Christmas 

I will attempt to keep my pricing similar across platforms but I'm not sure that the A.C.Moore marketplace or Zibbet will allow a coupon on top of a sale the way etsy will. Both Zibbet and A.C.Moore have Paypal based payment systems, while Etsy has more payment options. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RainbowMaille
https://marketplace.acmoore.com/rainbowmaille
https://marketplace.zibbet.com/rainbowmaille

facebook is a manipulative. . .

I know tons of people love social media and trust and believe in facebook and other sites.  BUT facebook is a manipulative bag of dicks, like a control-freak-abusive boyfriend. 😕

I hate to tell y'all that facebook is entirely about the $$$$ and what you are shown has little to do with what you want to see and more to do with what will fill zuckerberg's pockets.  😒 

Aside from allowing horrible and illegal things to be posted and not responding when certain things are reported, in spite of the written community rules, they do not always remove reported/inappropriate content.  There is a rule about not promoting illegal activities well poaching is illegal and yet there are entire groups dedicated to the celebration of/and poaching of deer.   😣  I found such a group and after recovering from the horrible photographic evidence of the illegal use of automatic weapons at night on an entire herd I reported it and after multiple reports and arguing with a rep nothing was done and the group remains, continuing the posting and promoting of illegal activities.  This is just 1 example of my bad facebook experiences.

The number of ridiculous and entirely false political memes is just insane. Zuckerberg has admitted he basically doesn't care if anything is true or not, he claims it's about freedom but it's not it's all about $$$$$.  Because for those that missed it he was talking about ads and sponsored content, which mean as long as you pay they will show your stuff to anyone and everyone regardless of actual content, truth, or basic decency. 

You may be wondering why I'm bad-mouthing facebook on my business blog, well because as a "business" page I have been exposed to the truth of facebook operations management and manipulations.   

I have been trying for 4 years to use facebook and other social media to promote my small business, because the whole world says that's the thing to do.  However, I have been thoroughly frustrated and disappointed by what a battle it has been to make any progress without paying $$$.  😟  The only way to be seen is to pay and the more you pay the better the results, so next time you see some business page with thousands and thousands of likes/followers you can bet that they paid $$$$ to have that appearance of success.  

I have "boosted" posts, promoted my page, done all the things they suggest but my budgets have been small $20-30 most of the time because I'm not made of $$$ like zuckerberg and cannot spend hundreds of dollars per campaign.  😐  So I get minimal results from ads and very slow growth organically.  

The most annoying part to me personally is that in spite of all the work I have done over the last 4 years to build my page audience, facebook does not show my posts to hardly anyone.  Seriously, I have accrued over 180 likes and followers for the RainbowMaille page but my posts are only shown to a handful of people regularly, if I'm lucky and the first few people "engage" and like or comment then it gets shown to a few more people but never to the full audience, I know this for a Fact because as a business page I have stats and numbers to prove it.

My most recent post 2 days ago, I included a plea for all who saw it to please engage to ensure seeing future posts, and in likes, comments, shares, clicks through to the blog most 23/28 did something.  First, Thanks to all those that participated.  Second, check out the screen shot which clearly shows only 28 people "reached".  That means they only showed the post to 28 of the 188 people who have clicked voluntarily to "follow" the page.  People click follow showing interest and desire to see the page's content but facebook doesn't actually show them when I post. Oh no, instead they show it to only a few people and then nag at me to pay for promotions 😒  controlling, manipulative, and greedy.  

So as you scroll through your feed, try to notice the "suggested for you" and "sponsored" crap that they shove down your throat and contemplate what things you have liked and/or followed and wanted to see that never appear, like RainbowMaille.  😞  

Jonathan Peacock . . .NO

In a facebook group post the guy running zibbet made some comments about future "upgrades" and they remind me of etsy upgrades in that not all of them will be helpful to sellers, at least not in the way they think they will be.  😕

He announced "We're also soon to launch the ability to make any product changes directly on Etsy and have it sync over to your Zibbet Admin. For example, you could update the price of your product, directly on your Etsy admin. Zibbet will recognize this change and automatically update the price across all channels connected to this product. Currently, any changes made directly on Etsy, will cause your products to become "out of sync", but we know it's important for some of you to make changes in Etsy still, due to some of the bulk edit features they have."

I'll admit this is a horrifying notion to me. 
I do NOT want things to "auto-sync".

I spent several hours of my life editing my listings when I imported them to the A.C.Moore Marketplace because I thought it would look really unprofessional to have a bunch of etsy links in my descriptions.  All my etsy listings have back-links back to the section, cross-links to matching or coordinating pieces, links to my gift wrap listing, etc.  Also I do not offer the gift wrapping in my ACCM shop so I had to remove the gift wrap sample photos that were in most of my listings.

I have slightly different pricing on some items.  I am testing "free shipping" in certain sections and specific items in my etsy shop but not the ACMM shop.

I am fully aware my listings are "out of sync" but that is fully intentional.  If they go through with this "auto-sync" BS I will have to disconnect my etsy shop altogether. Currently, on my zibbet admin next to the listings is a little "out of sync" notice that is actually a button to "push to etsy" the changes.  However, what Jonathan has said now is that it will go the other way changes made on etsy will automatically push to zibbet and all sales channels connected, which basically will undo every thing I worked so hard to differentiate.  😡

Jonathan. . .NO!!

moving house = new shop space

It has been a long process (months) but we bought a house and after all the remodeling of the bathroom and painting all the other rooms and many other projects I am finally getting around to making my new work space.  👍

I have been working by myself all week on clearing the room of excess stuff and started painting the trim and walls.

This weekend the husband helped with painting the ceiling and floor.  I was very grateful for the help as a short person painting the ceiling was looking like a bit of a nightmare. 😏  

 We also took down the ceiling fan before painting the ceiling and plan to replace it with some new better light fixtures, not sure exactly what yet, I need to go shopping and pick something. 😉

 Under that end window there is plumbing stuff in the floor already which is incredibly handy for the utility sink I plan to have for the paint studio end of the room. 😁

This will be the last wall as it is currently holding the stacks and stacks of drawers and bin units. The door goes into the office and storage closet. The closet on the right has all the boxes, paper, packing and shipping supplies. The office of course has a desk and filing cabinets, etc. The stacks of drawers need to be sorted, the black ones are the base of my original workbench, the butcher block tops are leaning by the door. The drawers that are left after the bench building make the base for the multi-drawer bin units to stack on, otherwise known as storage central. 

I am so excited!! I cannot wait to have my creative space, to have my paint easel set up again. 😇

material notes. . .

There are a lot of different types of rings not just sizes (diameter) or gauges (wire thickness) but actually different materials (metals).  

Before you buy chainmaille you might want to consider what kind you want, how often you plan to wear it, what it may be exposed to while being worn, as it may effect the longevity or appearance over time.  Some may tarnish but can be cleaned, some may lose their coating and once its gone its gone. 😕

I have used several different types of rings over the years from different suppliers.  I have favorites and I have some that I consider junk and will not use ever again. I do not like and will not use the rings sold in retail craft shops, as many things as Darice makes their rings, generally speaking, suck I had a friend buy some because she liked a specific color but the not being round and bad ends (junkness) made them a nightmare to work with.  I have tried stainless steel and although there are quality rings available, the harder stiffer metal is very hard for me to work due to some personal health limitations like having had broken wrists.  😏 

I personally prefer anodized aluminum rings from TheRingLord, they are good quality, come in many excellent colors, and are easier for me to work with while still being strong.  Also I mostly use the *saw cut version which is fairly color consistent and I plasti-dip my pliers to prevent/reduce scratching/marring the surface.

Here are some notes from TheRingLord on various metals/materials they offer, prepare for information overload. 😉

Stainless Steel Rings
Stainless steel doesn't rust and is strong and clean.
The shine level of our rings can vary - it can be compared to a stainless kitchen sink. If you need to shine up the rings you will need to research steel shot tumbling techniques.

Spring Stainless - We also offer our 16 ga and some 14g in a spring temper which is twice as hard as our standard stainless.
Spring stainless is VERY difficult to cut by hand but only slightly more difficult to cut with our machinery. Typical tensile strength of the spring stainless is 220-280KSI. This material makes the strongest armor. Use good pliers with teeth as this stuff fights back !

Titanium
Titanium is strong, corrosion resistant and hypo-allergenic.
The colors are beautiful and show the subtle reflective nature that is specific to titanium. They are less brilliant than niobium and MUCH harder to bend. 
Most of our titanium is Grade 5 alloy TI-AL6-V4. There is only 1 exception in 16g and they are not anodized. This alloy has a hard temper - comparable to spring stainless in strength, it is smooth and the colors are consistent and bright for titanium.

Anodizing titanium creates an oxide layer. The thickness of this layer creates the colors. The color will vary from batch to batch. Don't expect to be able to continue a project when ordering anodized titanium in different batches. The color will also vary and blend shades on individual wires and in batches of rings. For example teal can have blue with hints of green. You can always expect hints of the adjacent colors in titanium spectrum in the batches. This variation occurs in varying amounts from ring to ring and batch to batch. This color variation in titanium should be considered a feature. It makes this material more beautiful. The anodized layer has appropriate properties for jewelry, but it is not indestructible. It can wear off with rubbing against a harder material - care must be taken with pliers as well. The color can be affected by oils from your skin - the color is restored be washing with soap and to remove the oils.

Anodized Niobium
Niobium is strong, corrosion resistant and hypo-allergenic.
The colors are beautifully vibrant. 
Our niobium has the same strength as our sterling silver. They are quite similar in terms of workability and quality and look good together.
Anodizing niobium creates an oxide layer. The thickness of this layer creates the colors. The color will vary from batch to batch. The color will also vary and blend shades on individual wires and in batches of rings. For example peacock blue can have blue with hints of violet. You can always expect hints of the adjacent colors in niobium spectrum in the batches. This variation occurs in varying amounts from ring to ring and batch to batch. This color variation in niobium should be considered a feature. It makes this material more beautiful.
The anodized layer has appropriate properties for jewelry, but it is not indestructible. It can wear off with rubbing against a harder material - care must be taken with pliers as well.

Brass Rings
We use Jewelers Brass (alloy C226). It looks very similar to yellow gold when its not tarnished!
The strength and corrosion properties are similar to yellow brass – jeweler’s brass is about 8% stronger and costs a bit more.
Brass tarnishes but can be cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner or any commercially available brass cleaner - like Brasso.
Most brass wire you will find is soft, but our brass is 1/2 hard temper which combines strength with workability.

Enamelled Copper
Enamelled Copper is dead soft (aka weak) copper with a colored layer and plastic coat to seal it.
Silvered enamelled copper has a layer of silver plated onto the soft copper before the color and plastic. This creates brighter and lighter colors than regular enameled copper.
Enamelled Copper wire used to be consistent color and quality - it is not any more. This is due to changes made by the manufacturer of the wire - these issues have been felt by everyone buying this wire since 2010 - not just us.
The color can vary from batch to batch and gauge to guage. The plastic coating can vary in quality as well and may peal. The ends of the rings can be green due to copper corrosion. These facts are now considered normal for this product - meaning we do not consider them a defect for returns.
If you need a stronger material with vibrant and more consistent colors we recommend our saw cut anodized aluminum. 

Anodized Aluminum
We use 2 types of anodizing to make our rings.
The saw cut rings marked with an * are made using a bright anodizing process. The result is a very consistent and dud free color batch that is shiny. The ends of these rings are not anodized as they are cut after anodizing. The anodizing processed used to make these rings is FDA approved for cookware.
The machine cut rings and some of the saw cut (no *) are bulk anodized after the rings are made. The ends are anodized. These rings will have touchmarks and some duds as this process is not as consistent. This is normal.
Anodized aluminum coating is fairly hard but can be scratched with steel. Use pliers without teeth.We use a hard temper aluminum which is stronger than colored copper. Note that aluminum is 3.4 times lighter than copper.
Colors may vary from what is pictured and from batch to batch. We minimize this as much as possible, but it still happens. If you are making a project where the color must not change slightly, order the full amount of rings for the colored area in one batch.