Advice?

[dressedallinfur.livejournal.com]

Hello A_B community, I do apologize if this isn't the place to ask, this is my first time posting here, but
I was wondering if you could give me some advice.
Recently I had put up a notice on my etsy shop that I couldn't take any more commissions because I am starting school. A day later another etsy user bought a commission from me without contacting me first. I have sent them a message five days ago and two days ago I had sent them another and they haven't contacted me back. Also, they didn't provide any information on what they wanted in the notes section too. How long should I wait before I should contact them again? Should I cancel it and refund them if they do not contact me at all?

Comments

[mazz.livejournal.com]

I would just cancel and refund and then take off the ability to commission you on etsy so it doesn't happen again while you're too busy.

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this. Honestly I would have refunded the money immediately, with a quick note explaining that you aren't taking commissions, please watch your etsy shop for future openings.

[gatekat.livejournal.com]

If you aren't taking commissions, don't be bullied into it.
Refund the money and remove the ability to buy them from the shop.

[dressedallinfur.livejournal.com]

Thank you for giving me the advice, I contacted her this time with email and she responded and now we are moving along with completing the order. :)

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

"putting up notices" that you cant take something isnt enough, if an item is available in your shop for purchase, than people presume it's available. Make sure you only have listings up for things you can do.

[keaalu.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'm not overly familiar with Etsy, but as I recall you don't HAVE to visit the seller's shop? home-page? (not sure what to call it) to purchase something, do you? You can got directly to the item, if you find it through a search. So if there's only a notice on the front page of the shop to say something isn't available, you might well have this problem again if the item still shows up by searching for it.

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

exactly.

[ibagface.livejournal.com]

If your planning to be too busy to do orders on Etsy then id suggest putting your shop into hiatus and reopening when you have time. If you are able to do a few items here and there only list them on your etsy. That will stop you running into this again.

In the future however, if something like this happens cancel the item, refund the money and apologize to the person for your mistake of keeping the item up.

[draike.livejournal.com]

Iirc, Etsy still has what's called a "vacation" mode. It makes it so nothing is available to buy in your shop (all your listings essentially go on hold) and allows you to put up a notice saying how long you'll be gone for and when you expect to return. This way you can reopen during school breaks or wait until summer to start taking commissions again and not worry about anyone making purchases when you can't fulfill them.