Etsy seller gigidevlin gets bitchtastic with the wrong bitch.
So, remember back in September, when I ordered a super sexy corset from a seller (gigidevlin for the curious and anyone doing their research on her before buying) on Etsy? Yeah, I ordered an adorable corset back on September 13th from an Etsy shop. I do my research on sellers, and checked her feedback before I made the purchase. She bragged in her shop information that she was proud of her 100% positive feedback, and indeed, aside from two or three neutral feedback entries, it was all positive. There were a couple of entries that said her shipping was slower than promised, but it looked like it was older and from when she first opened her shop, and since everything else was good, I placed my order. Her shop info said that her current turnaround time was 2-4 weeks, which would be plenty of time for me to get the corset, get my gown altered, and get the gown out to Vegas.
Yay, right?
No.
I hadn’t heard anything from the seller by October 13th, which I found unusual since it was a custom order and every other custom thing I’ve ever ordered online has involved copious amounts of emailing back and forth. I politely asked her for a status update, just wanting to know how things were going and when I could expect the order to be sent out, since it was for a wedding and I couldn’t get my gown altered without the corset. She replied later that day:
“So sorry for the delay! This is my busiest time of year believe it or not. I will make sure this goes out this coming week. I will send you tracking information as a follow up. Thanks again for your patience.”
I figure that it’s Halloween, people want something sexy/skanky/slutty to wear, whatever. As long as I get it in time, I’m fine if she gets the Halloween rush done, and besides, she did say that it would be shipped out the following week, which is plenty of time. I told her that wasn’t a problem and that I’d be sure to send her photos of the wedding festivities. But I didn’t get any tracking information, and two weeks after the initial inquiry I still was corset-less. However, it’s also the end of week of Halloween, and I assume that the mad rush of orders she must be have been doing should have been completed and mailed out so that the buyers have their orders in time for their parties. Still curious - did my order go out and she didn’t send me the tracking information? is it lost? - I email her again last Friday morning, this time reiterating the fact that I need the corset in order to get my gown altered, I have roughly three weeks left before I need to get the gown to my destination, and ask when I should be expecting to receive it, as it’s now two weeks after the time-frame she initially said that she would be sending it out.
“Sorry for the delay. I got so slammed with halloween orders that I had to shut my shop down about two weeks ago. I will get it out early this week, priority.”
Alright then, another promise, another time-frame. I sent her an email I on Tuesday asking her to please send me a tracking number when the item shipped, and go on with life, expecting my email with the shipping information all week. Also on Tuesday, I checked her shop and notice that she’s gotten a few more feedback entries, and no longer has a 100% positive rating. Oh now, that’s interesting. I check her feedback and see that there’s four new entries, one of which is neutral and says there were delays in shipping, and a negative entry that says “item never arrived. it was supposed to be part of a halloween costume that was promised to arrive by halloween. i even checked in with gigidevlin to make sure it would be on time and got confirmation that it would. still no word, and no item in the mail”
It’s now nearing the end of the week, and I’ve yet to hear anything from her about my order. I wasn’t intending to email her until the weekend, but I was up early, and had the time, so I fired off an email this morning. I was less friendly this time, as I was tired of waiting the additional time after having been twice told otherwise, but I was still polite with her. I simply asked her what date I could expect this to be shipped, as it was now 3 weeks overdue and she’d told me twice already that it was a priority for her. I also asked that if she wasn’t able to supply me with a date, then could at least give me the courtesy of telling me so, in order for me to make alternative arrangements. She replied to me later this afternoon.
“You had already issued a complaint with paypal which means that I have to refund your money bevause it takes them 30 days to release the funds back to me. I’m really sorry that I was not able to make you happy. My mother has terminal cancer and I’m trying to be everywhere at once. Congrats on your wedding and my apologies.”
Nope, sorry, that wasn’t me that filed a complaint with Paypal. I explained to her that I hadn’t filed a complaint (I’d much rather work things out than immediately file a complaint), and that if the corset was close enough to being done that she would be able to ship it out this weekend then to please complete it, but if she was unable to do so to please refund my money so that I could find something else.
And that’s when girlfriend went bitchtastic.
“I will refund you. This whole thing is too stressful. Thanks for your condolences on my Mother.”
Tell me she didn’t just drop a snarky, passive-aggressive attempt at a pity party into an email to a customer complaint. My customer service skills, let me show you them.
At that point, since she’s already stated that she’d be sending me a refund, I figured that everything was over and done with and left her negative feedback.
Lo and behold, I come downstairs from dinner to find another email from her, with the subject “there are no words for my loathing”:
“You are an evil evil person. How dare you leave me negative feedback. God forbid that you have to take care of a cancer patient in your family and have all the experiences that come with it. Shame on you!”
Oh no she didn’t.
It’s like she expects cancer to be a “get out of jail free” card for shitty service. I fired off an exceptionally polite response to her stating that as a matter of fact, I have dealt with terminally ill cancer patients in my family, I understand the stress it puts on a family, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I didn’t leave negative feedback because I’m pissed off at her or don’t have sympathy for her situation, but that I felt that as a seller she deserved it.
Why?
Never once did Gigi Devlin tell me that her orders were delayed because of a family health crisis, nor did her shop information say that there were delays, due Halloween or otherwise. On both times that I’d sent email inquiries, she chalked it up to Halloween orders. On both occasions, she told me that it would be sent out the following week. Both times, she could have been a decent, honest business owner, been willing to lose a potential sale, and said “Crystal, I’m having some delays because of a family emergency. I’m unable to complete your order as expected, is your time frame able handle a delay of [x number of days] or would you like a refund?”
Had she been honest about her expected shipping times from the beginning, she wouldn’t have received negative feedback; chances are we could have quietly canceled the transaction, she would have refunded my money, wouldn’t have received any feedback and no one would be the wiser. Instead, both times resulted in false promises, and based off of my conversation with the other person who left her negative feedback, she made those same false promises to her as well.
And now her feedback suffers for it.