Sad setback. . .

I have not posted in a month because I've been through a personal loss.  My best friend of 15+ years passed away and it has been hard. 

I am sad, it has been weeks and I still cry almost daily.  

I miss her, I find myself wanting to call her almost daily.

I have made some limited progress on setting up the workshop, and I have activated some of my listings but there is still so much to do.  Ironically, in spite of the minimal listings available and my complete lack of social media skills lately, I got an order through goimagine a couple of days after re-activating listings.  It was a bit tricky trying to pack it up for shipping. . .what with the I can't find my postal scale. . .my printer was still packed and didn't want to print when I set it up. 

Typical etsy. . .

It is really not hard to understand why over the years so many sellers and small business owners have become so disillusioned with etsy. 😒

In my experience, which has been the last 7-ish years, their customer service basically sucks.  I sometimes wonder if they even read the problems people try to present before they check a box and send off some generic reply that never addresses the problem.  Perhaps all first replies are a bots and automated or perhaps they outsourced their customer service to non-native english speakers, I don't know but what I do know is that they have never in my 7 years actually solved an issue in less than 5 email exchanges. 😔  

So here I sit in my new house, beginning the great unpacking, planning to re-open the online shops when I come across an issue with my etsy.  See back in December last year they did a special "shop camp" thing where if you followed the steps and did certain things you got 200 free listing credits.  It was pretty easy, re-do some listings, update photos, add a few videos and bingo! 200 free listing credits. 👍  Of course, I completed the steps and took those credits, and due to the way etsy works and the length of time listings are good I still had a pile of listing credits when I had to shut down for the move.  I knew the move was coming and I had been reducing the number of listings on etsy as I was transitioning to goimagine (which I like a lot more than etsy anyway).  At the point that I deactivated all my listings for the move I had over 90 listing credits left and had planned to use those to re-open.  However, when I logged in and went to my listing manager to re-activate things the credits were gone and etsy charged me.  😣 

I wrote into customer service and got a lame reply about how auto-renew works 😒(duh) and that auto-renew still takes your money while in "vacation mode" 😑 (also duh) and that the credits must have just been used up while I was shut down. 😠 Nothing quite like assuming your customers are morons you can take total advantage of.  So to clarify I replied and told them they were completely wrong, first none of my listings have ever been set to auto-renew (I'm a control freak and have always had them set to manual). Second, I never put my shop in "vacation mode" because I know it can cause many glitches, I manually deactivated all my listings and wrote a notice in my announcement section. Finally etsy listings are good for 4 months but I was only closed for 2 (April and May) and those monthly statements do not show the use of any of my credits and if things had renewed then they would not all be expired now.  😏 

I went back through all my monthly statements since being issued the credits and counted how many of them I had actually used and when so that I could add that to the customer service exchange even though etsy's customer service should be able to see that info themselves in my account.  I have replied 3 times to provide info and screenshots and point out that the info they gave me was not correct and . . . crickets.  That's right no response now. . . also no magically re-appearing credits . . .yet. 

In the meantime, many items have been relisted on the goimagine shop because it works better and is easy, just select the listings, click activate and save, no listing fees, no hassles. 💗

https://goimagine.com/rainbowmaille/ 

P.S.  It took all week but someone at Etsy finally restored my listing credits (probably because I threatened to not activate listings or re-open my shop until they did). 

Maybe next month. . .

I have picked a house and we are in the process of buying it, of course buying a house is not exactly an overnight thing so it will still be a little bit before the business is back open. 😏   

When I posted that the business would take a selling hiatus while we relocate I really had not intended for it to be this long nor had I intended for it to be a near total social media blackout. But if I'm honest it's been kind of nice not having to worry about what to post. Also I've found it's kind of depressing to scroll through my facebook or instagram feeds and see all the cool stuff that other people are making while all my stuff is in storage and I can't make anything. 😔 I see someone else's cool new chain bits or painting and all I want to do is try it. . . can I make that pattern? can I pull of that art technique?  Not to be overly dramatic but it's almost like part of me is missing or maybe it's just FOMO (fear of missing out).

Business relocation update. . .

 So. . . I (we) have relocated to Georgia. 😁  I have not found a house yet so still no date for resuming business but I am working on it and making progress.  I am hopeful that I will find the right house and be able to re-square not just my business but my life, soon (ish). 😅

Some times plans change. . .

I had a plan at the beginning of the year but then the year started and the plan went out the window. 😏  Now I find myself in a high stress, short notice, cross country move with only a loose fly by the seat of my pants plan that currently doesn't include an exact re-open date for RainbowMaille.  

Online sales are temporarily suspended while I pack it all up and move it four states away.  Both the Etsy and goimagine shops have announcements and no active listings at this time.  I do plan to re-open once the relocation is complete but it's a weird housing market out there so I'm not sure exactly when.  😉  

Happy new year, happy new plan. .

It's a new year and of course I have plans for my business. 😇

I plan to work on expanding, last year I bought my domain name, this year I have upgraded my goimagine to include Mosiac.  I am trying to decide which summer events I am signing up to vend at, both local and a bit further afield, maybe.  I am also planning to expand some product offerings like new patterns of rubber-maille, new patterns on barrettes, and maybe those cool Christmas ornaments (later in the year).  

I will once again be trying to improve my photos and get more stuff listed, that's an every year thing.  The Mosiac will be a work in progress for a while, there are so many options for the multiple banners 😅 what to say, what images to use, to link the banners to things ?  ? ?  I have to make the banners but I can't decide what they should be visually, message wise, content.  I'm going to get right on that. . .with thinking ~LOL~ because really I have to finish up my tax filing stuff, get photos of the rosette chainmaille and get all that listed before Valentine's sale kicks in which is . . . OMG 7 days. 😵

Star Seller. . .

Etsy is often glitchy and weird but this month has been especially interesting, I was randomly awarded a "star seller" badge on December 23rd like it was a Christmas present or something. 😏  I say "randomly awarded" because I know did not meet the qualifications.  I readily admit I did not qualify for December, not enough sales, not enough revenue, no fresh reviews. 

Yet right there on my shop is the little purple star, which I do appreciate as purple is my favorite color.  😇 

Now in just a few days it will be January 1st a whole new year, also a whole new review period for me to not qualify. ~LOL~  😂  I am interested to see if my current star disappears or sticks around.  I am wondering if they changed the criteria to qualify but I have re-read the articles and links from my dashboard and while there are some changes none of them should have resulted in my Christmas star. 

I am curious because while I did meet the sales and revenue this time I am still short a "fresh" review. 😕 Like all the 5 star reviews I've had in the last 6 years don't even matter.