People like this don’t know how to communicate with normal human beings and have to hire interpreters. Unfortunately, they’ve yet to discover a reliable human to reptoid translator, and lawyers were the next closest thing.
You are absolutely correct. Right now my husband is going through this with one of his customers. It’s not that the situation is even close to needing professional help, the people just refuse to talk to him themselves.
This is one of the worst Etsy seller/customer interactions I’ve ever read.
I’m not sure where they got the notion it’s ok to talk to people like that! What was wrong with the buyer’s initial reply anyway? Blegh! I think they need more than just interpreters…
Exactly! They do advertise their prints as being 10″ long so it was a completely legitimate complaint.
I think the seller was a collections telemarketer previously, the “we know where you work and are going to harass you there” is the oldest trick in that book. Too bad Etsy will never scold this asshole for “being mean,” she makes them too much money.
+136
Rainey
October 13, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Seriously, the correct response to the buyer’s initial reply was “I’m very sorry for the listing mistake.”
If the size listed was approximate, it should have been noted as approximate. Just because they and a lot of their customers deal in antique prints enough to just ~know~ that’s how it is doesn’t mean they should assume that every single person who might buy from them knows that by 8×10″ they mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 8×10″.’ And if that’s really the case, wouldn’t it behoove them to list the actual size of each print, so that the people know what kind of custom framing and/or cutting of prints they’re getting themselves into?
But I guess that would require them not being sacks of crap.
+170
nicoengland
October 14, 2011 at 10:47 am
Seriously, if it was me and the size listed was 8 by 10″ I would have bought an 8 by 10″ frame and when it got to be would have been pretty pissed that the print wouldn’t fit… You don’t have to deal in antiques to be attracted to the art, and complete disclosure would have been a better route to go, but you’re right, that would require them to let go and stop being such an ass hat…
+65
nicoengland
October 14, 2011 at 10:48 am
oops… Should have been when it got to me…
+1
Tinkerdoodle
October 14, 2011 at 1:12 am
It’s pretty hard to find a decent, nice translator that speak douchebagish.
Sounds more srs bsns than “I’m telling my mommy” or “I’ll talk about you to my girlfriends” because everyone will believe anything you tell them on the Internet.
As a preschool teacher, this is exactly how their little arguments go…whining and crying for no damn good reason.
The buyer could have left a negative comment..instead she did neutral. And I’m glad she changed it… being a dick about something doesn’t make things better!
Suspicious how if you scroll through their pages and pages of positive reviews you’ll find clusters of 10-20 that all have the same comment. “Love it” or just a smiley emoticon. 20 people all rated them on the same day and all just decided to leave a smiley?
It’s shortened from LeCoeurDuFer – which I use for most screennames – because it was amateur translated to mean “The Heart of Iron” in English.
Most people think it’s douche-y, but then I tell them that I have a mechanical heart valve and it’s just my way of making lemonade when life jams lemons in your ventricles.
+455
facepalm
October 13, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Your point is taken and a valid one, but as a former etsy seller, I can vouch that there are many people who will buy multiple items and then just leave the same feedback for all of them. (And this happens a lot when people have a wide variety of inexpensive items, which I’m assuming the book pages are) It was easier to figure out back when you could see everyone’s usernames in the feedback, but I’m guessing that’s what it is.
@Facepalm, go ahead, label me a wimp, but maybe I’m in the minority. When I purchase several items from the same seller, I word each feedback differently, maybe focusing on one aspect (packaging, communication, etc.). My first Etsy purchases were multiples from the same seller and he used the same feedback 4x, but it didn’t bother me (selling knitting and crocheting supplies that his sister had accumulated and then she died…maybe it wasn’t true, but I was a newbie and the prices were good).
In any case, I don’t go overboard with praise, but if I had a good experience, why not extend a honest compliment? Then again, I have all of 21 purchases, so it’s not a big deal.
(I know you’re not being defensive or offensive. I just wanted to put in my two cents.)
+38
skwishy
October 14, 2011 at 5:16 am
You know I had a friend who used to say “when life gives you lemons, put them down your shirt and become a drag queen.”
+158
kmeghan
October 14, 2011 at 3:03 pm
I was wondering the same thing…maybe they bought their own things and put positive feedback.
and, I’m so jazzed I got 156 likes I’m a cheeseball.
+20
alice88wa
October 13, 2011 at 7:57 pm
So, I found the account and I’m trying to find the feedback in question just for kicks. But… can you not sort feedback by positive, neutral, negative? Is Etsy going to make me haul my ass through 175 pages of replies to look for the bad ones? Am I missing something here?
Are you saying the feedback could be removed? For what – objecting to the douchenozzly behavior of the seller? Isn’t that kind of the point of being able to leave feedback??
+70
KeganKhaos
October 14, 2011 at 8:51 pm
I believe you have the ability to remove feedback if you wish. I had a lady send me a framed print, and it came in way later than promised, and slightly damaged. She had really great reviews all across the board, so I figured it was a fluke, and left her a neutral review. It’s gone now though, so I think it was removed… Which is ridiculous.
+31
mockingbird1979
October 16, 2011 at 10:59 am
Plus, I’m looking at the feedback, and where does this seller get that she has some 12,000 feedback ratings? I see on the account that it only has like 3500..
I cry for the bird that’s still alive and living with that twatwaffle.
+29
Toastlette
October 13, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Maybe if they had one, they could explain copyright to them. One of their pieces is a print of Alice from the old books. Their cut and paste info on the item states: “We hold the copyrights to all of our prints.”
For some odd reason it drives me batshit when people do that.
The reason there are so many Alice in Wonderland images on Etsy is because the original text and illustrations are no longer copyrighted.
“When the Alice books were published, they were copyright protected until 42 years after the first publication or 7 years after the author’s death, whichever was the longer. Later, the 1911 Act replaced the 1842 Copyright Act which extended the period to 50 years after the author’s death.
This means that the copyright on “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” subsisted until 1907 and that of “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there” until 1948. As Tenniel died in 1914, his illustrations came out of copyright in 1964.”
Rackety frack. I got into a huge flame war with someone about that years ago. There was a website called “Themestream” & it paid .10 per page view. The chick was posting shit from famous dead people with a tag like “these tips should come in handy…” I know it was only a dime, but she’d then flog the horse all over the place & rack up hundreds of views. So she’d make $50 bucks coercing stupid people to click on ‘her’ article written by Tennyson.
+45
Alan
October 14, 2011 at 12:28 pm
It drives you batshit because either she’s ignorant and self-entitled, or evil and knowingly lying. Neither one is acceptable.
You’d think people into being “above” the crappiness of society, and into the good and the happy and the handmade and cupcakey, they wouldn’t want to be part of the system, using “the man” etc…
They’re cutting apart rare (according to their descriptions) old books and slapping copyright free images on them, probably with an inkjet printer. They’re not “above” anything IMO.
I hope to fuck those books are in unsalvageable condition before they destroy them because it breaks my heart to think people are “upcycling” actual valuable books to slap their “art” on them.
But I’m an actual printmaker who hand-pulls prints from an etching press, so what do I know?
THANK YOU. I was starting to get twitchy fingers about CUTTING UP ANTIQUE BOOKS. As a collector of antique children’s books (and, I do it for love, not value, so I am perfectly happy with a kid’s scribbled name on the cover, or a note from Great-Aunt Edna, Christmas 1920) I cringed over the notion of hacking prints out of books.
There was an awful problem a few years ago where someone (s) was sneaking in to the Library of Congress and cutting all of the color plates out of old botanical books and field guides and then selling them. This is why we can’t have nice things (like open stacks).
This person doesn’t actually cut the prints out of books. She cuts the pages out of books and runs them through her printer to print antique looking book plate images on the old paper.
+9
kmeghan
October 14, 2011 at 3:08 pm
I would rather have an inscription in my books…makes me feel like they’ve lived a full life.
(I have had a book taken apart because I liked some of the art. To be fair, the covers were ripped off, and it was going to the junk pile. I need to have them matted and framed some day soon)
+25
lilkender
October 14, 2011 at 7:38 am
I’m just a nerd who loves books but I feel the same way!
seriously why do this to a book in the first place! it is ok if you cant fix said book. It is just as bad as the people who take old books, rebind them terribly and ask mega money for them.
hang on, i wanna get this right, cos we’re just setting up our shop… do we have to have a lawyer? or is one of our cats a reasonable substitute, since we’re kinda low on funds…? or could we like… measure everything we sell and skip this whole bit? OR could we have a “lawyer” that we threaten people with, but like… don’t actually have… or would people see through that kinda thing and just kinda… laugh at us?
As a lawyer, I can tell you that people seem to think we have magical powers that can right every wrong ever committed against them, and that a nastygram from someone with “Esq.” after their names solves all problems.
Unless I missed that class at law school, I assure you we are not magical.
However, I did learn in law school that libel=written and slander=spoken. If you are going to use fancy legal terms to make threats, at least take two seconds to google them.
That’s one thing I’ve noticed in every single one of these, “I’m gonna get my lawyer!” threats. They all lack the basic understanding between the libel and slander. If they had that much real experience sending their lawyers after people I’d think they might know what the offense was. But then again I always hope and dream people are smarter than they really are.
They definitely have problems asserting any sort of defamation claim, and are certainly missing elements specific to libel, but for the love, at least get the whole slander vs. libel thing correct. Is that too much to ask for?
+29
Gwill
October 14, 2011 at 4:36 am
Slander sounds more dramatic somehow. I can imagine someone in a Victorian gown making the Munch face and exclaiming “Gasp! That’s slander!”.
For libel I just see some bespectacled man with thinning hair, in a brown suit, sitting at a desk sighing: “Yes… We might have a case for libel here…”
Really? My boss keeps offering to write nasty letters to anyone and everyone who does me the slightest wrong, under the premise that sternly-worded letters from lawyers are indeed magical, and will make all my problems go away.
jealousfatlooser.gigantimous
October 14, 2011 at 7:35 am
My daughter is a lawyer and now working for our company. She has to constantly remind her father that she can’t “magic” things to happen the way he wants them to.
No, it was at the bar exam that they handed out the magic wands.
I always loved that my professors repeatedly told us, “If you ever have a client that insists on suing ‘for the principle of the thing,’ then RUN DON’T WALK in the opposite direction.”
Unless they pay you a huge amount in advance? Even then, they’re probably the sort of people who would turn around and sue YOU, their lawyer, when they didn’t get the magic happy ending they wanted.
How is it that most of their feedback using the same wording? “great communication and very personable” is repeated over and over. How many people genuinely comment on a shop’s owner? Usually comments focus more on the product.
I’d like to know that shop name, so I never accidentally purchase from it.
Also, I really HATE when people initiate a conversation and then when it doesn’t go their way say “don’t talk to me”. You started the discussion. Stop replying if you want it to stop.
BlackBaroque, but they seem to have a problem with numbers. The buyer was annoyed that “8×10″ was not accurate and the seller boasts of 12,000 sales, but it’s actually 3,523 (unless they have more than one shop). Oh, and although they take the pages from antique maps, they “hold the copyright for all prints.” I give up.
Actually, it’s 12256 sales (items sold) and 3,523 feedback. So, people bought multiple items. 99% positive isn’t really that impressive with those numbers, IMO.
You’re correct. I didn’t realize this until I read further down the comments. Thanks!
(That wasn’t condescending was it? Because I honestly appreciate the clarification. And I don’t know where you work.)
+208
carthorse
October 13, 2011 at 6:07 pm
agree – only 28% leave feed back.
so 72% of items purchases were not shiny enough to make buyers happy enough to leave a comment, emoticon, or even to only click the +.
It enough for me to tear apart a dictionary myself & find a sharpie in the junk drawer.
Hey – I’ve even got a red one…
Well, you get the option to leave feedback for every single item sold. So… 1/4th of people buying from you leaving feedback is pretty bad. Especially given that most people seem to have more like 60% or more leaving feedback. I just checked mine, it’s over 75%.
Also, I don’t have anything less than 100% positive because any time a customer has a problem, I try to resolve it without being a raging cunt.
And given I’m off my meds, well. I’ll let that speak for itself.
+41
incrustacean
October 13, 2011 at 5:11 pm
How difficult is it to get an accurate measurement on something? Their bullshit three paragraph response to “It was described as 8×10 and was 8×10.5″ was ridiculous and somewhat irrelevant.
Considering all the boilerplate crap she puts in her listings (with little black hearts, too—as if she’s a goth cupcake), she could put in a sizing explanation.
She’s from the Legolas school of measuring: she REFUSES.
Y’know, especially since for framing purposes that half-inch is the difference between having to size up or not.
+128
kat
October 14, 2011 at 2:12 am
A: Whenever I was stuck dealing with the public, we strictly adhered to the rule that the customer is always right. Even low-class, minimum wage places like McDonalds have staff with enough professionalism to respect that rule.
B: If it wasn’t the size stated, then it wasn’t! You can’t argue that away!
C: That stuff about “everyone” preferring their pics a little oversized is silly! If your art turns out too big, you need a new fram or to cut the image which is indeed a shame, and yet, if your art is a bit UNDERsized, well, that’s why god gave us matting, no biggie!
+64
segmentis
February 6, 2012 at 2:04 pm
It’s the difference from a cheap to reasonably-priced standard frame and sell-your-firstborn custom framing, too.
+7
Lizzz3
October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Shit! Thanks for the info. I had some of their shit faved. Fixed that real quick!
Don’t you wish we could “hide” or “block” people on Etsy the way you can on Facebook? We’ve learned of at least a dozen shops to avoid just from Regretsy talk, and I already forget most of their names. I’m afraid of forgetting & accidentally walking into an ugly scene like this.
+35
fairywithfangs
October 13, 2011 at 5:33 pm
I actually knew that from the avatar – but in my defense I bought from them several months ago. Funny thing is – I almost gave them a neutral as well because the print was 8 by 10 and it wouldn’t fit in the frame I had for it – now I see I avoided a lawsuit.
Yes! Me drunk and me respond too! I have a long list of stores I refuse to give my business, and I’d like this one added to the list… why yes, I do have to knit my own clothes, why do you ask?
From the comments left in the feedback it appears that she literally just sends the pages through the printer, so even for quality’s sake you should buy elsewhere. It even looks like her designs are just modge podged or colored from images she didn’t draw/design/take. So fire up Gimp and tear up an old dictionary from Good Will.
…and by that I mean it’s kind of hilarious to see identical works side by side with such a blatant price difference. How does the more expensive one not get passed over?
What must the profit margin for these things be? You spend what…$3.00 max on an outdated encyclopedia at a thrift store with 1000 pages in it and run it through an ink jet printer or bust out your standard large stamp set (because I’ve seen the same damned peacock 8 times now…and that owl is pretty ubiquitous too)and crank dozens of these things out in a sitting…
It’s probably possible to undercut all of them by 95% and still turn a decent profit when factoring in time and materials invested. (Making a substantial amount of money off this cheap crap is another factor entirely…but that’s where the bolstering comes in.)
So we should pay extra for the rare books that we don’t get to read, and that now no one else gets to read, either?
+42
CraptopussFuckery
October 14, 2011 at 12:55 am
I actually felt sick reading the description on their items. They are essentially pulling apart and destroying antique books for the sake of “art and upcycling” and to “recycle giving them new life” they don’t need a new life it’s a book.
I want to buy something from them now just to be able to enter into a dialogue with them, but then I’d be giving them money which I truly don’t want to do. Dilemma, i’m sure more beer will help me decide
+57
Boojum
October 13, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Or just search BlackBaroque on Google. The Etsy store is the first result. And the second. And lots more info about them below.
Search on Etsy “Alice in Wonderland Print” and Black Baroque doesn’t even come up on the first page…but the prints do.
I actually bought “antique book prints” from a different seller a few months back for the purposes of modest and affordable decoration. When they were describing what the buyer bought in the thread, I could have sworn it was the same seller…but their name began with a P, not a B.
A part of me will always wonder if the prints were actually printed by hand, not with an inkjet.
No, PRRINT. With two “r”s somehow. Though it really could have been anyone. There are at least 8 people creating the same product. Down to the picture.
+8
lollerskates
October 13, 2011 at 10:25 pm
On a completely unrelated note, Rowsdower, I love your username.
Hell yes! They kept prolonging the conversation and replying trying to be RIGHT. When that didn’t work they threatened that she’d better stop. Now I want to buy from them just so I can give negavtive feedback. THis makes me feel all stabby.
I had that happen on Facebook recently. My boyfriend’s ex (psycho chick, refused to MOVE OUT after they broke up, to the point where he had to take her to court to legally evict her), found out we were dating and messaged me. I flat out told her I wanted nothing to do with her (as politely and cuttingly as possible, refraining from swears), and went on with my day. She messaged me back, swearing and cursing me. TWICE. Then she blocked ME!! Handy, that report button …
See, this is the 4th time this month I’ve come across an Etsy shop that I want to add to an “anti-favorite” list. They really need to make that shit happen.
To be fair, one of the other shops I looked at said they used books that were going to be destroyed. Libraries pulp old books all the time, and the librarians aren’t even allowed to try and save any of them.
To put this in perspective, most of the books that get pulped are books that are in bad condition or outdated. It’d be like forcing your grandchildren to try to read Twilight if we kept them.
+74
fvd
October 13, 2011 at 5:44 pm
At my library, anything that we weed is available for staff to take if they want, anything we consider potentially saleable goes to the book sale for twenty-five cents. Each library will have it’s own policies. There’s only so much room, and leaving books about AIDS from the 1980′s on the shelves for undiscriminating college students to use in their papers doesn’t really serve our mission.
+155
Gwill
October 14, 2011 at 4:51 am
*lalalalala* I can’t hear you!
-2
upcycledcreamygoodness
October 13, 2011 at 4:57 pm
cutting up old books, and the number of people doing it on etsy just makes my eyes water. its criminal
manybellsdown is 100% right. Lots of antique books get destroyed, en masse, all the time. This seller (and the other people doing this) look like they’re using a lot of dictionaries, copies of which will be in archives for anyone who really wants them. Plus, from 100+ years ago, a lot of the bindings are in too poor condition even to use them as books. As a writer and lit scholar and general book champion, I still like this — at least they’re serving some purpose.
Also, now that I know this is A Thing, I looked through listings for book prints of some of my favorite extremely predictable image types, and I think BlackBaroque has distinctly better designs. . . and I’m still not buying from her/them. I’ll hope someone else with a good design sense and a friendly business presence jumps on this.
I don’t think those are even real book pages used for bases. Well maybe the actual text copied from the books but not their actual leaves. They all seem to be typeset in the same way. It all looks scanned and manipulated to me.
Given that they’re not saying anything about their print process, I’d say they’re running them through an inkjet printer because pretty much any other process would be a selling point. “I shit this out of my inkjet,” just doesn’t sound very romantic.
Yep and most of the “art” illustrations they are using have been in the public domain for years – available at clipart dot com. One week subscription = thousands of images for $15. Or buy a Dover collection book.
It really annoys me that they claim copyright to those images.
Are you the person who donates their 40-year-old copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica to the library because “it’s a perfectly good book”? Hint: if it’s not something the library needs and is in good condition, it’s not getting added to the collection. If it is yellowed, faded, dusty, smells like a smoker and looks like your pet hippopotamus pissed on it before you brought it over, it’s not even going to get taken at a book give-away.
/the librarian who’s tired of hearing folks whinging about old and manky books being thrown out.
/the library paraprofessional that has to touch all those books to throw them out and who may now be addicted to hand sanitizer.
+86
shewearsfunnyhat
October 13, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Nope, I refuse to buy an encyclopedia because the library always has one when I need it. I just hate to see people cutting up antique books without knowledge of their value. Sure, everyones grandma has the complete encyclopedia so thats not such a tragedy but cutting up a100 year old children’s magazines is.
I also have a kindle and love it. Its great because I can read most of the classics for free. I still go to the library for real books that I want to read that are not free on the kindle. I also use my kindle to store knitting patterns and PDF’s so they are always on hand.
I’m assuming you’ve seen this site about weeding then, but just in case… http://awfullibrarybooks.net/
I went through the entire site one night. There were some where I was snort-laughing! Thanks for putting up with so much BS, librarians. : )
+45
shewearsfunnyhat
October 13, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Also, I prefer to donate money and time to the library instead books. I dont know what the library needs or wants so I give them money a few times a year and give it to them. One time I made a silly not serous request that they not use my money to by any books in the Twilight series. The person over the phone laughed and said it would go towards getting more porn computers instead.
+81
haroldlovesmaude
October 13, 2011 at 9:37 pm
We donate to the library by keeping all of their stuff way longer than they want us to.
+94
EricaVee
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
I tried running the owl through TinEye and nothing came up.
There are some odd prints here. Take this one; the image itself is strange enough, but to have it printed on a page from A Brief History of the United States takes it into surrealist territory.
Wow. Terrible business. I’m with the person who asked, I never would’ve known about antique printing, and when that person asked they should’ve said, like they did in the second comment, and explained it better BEFORE the person bought.
I agree, what is the name of this person so I can avoid in the future
maybe I’ll make some prints, but I am not in the mood to get ink all over my boobs tonight. And this is only if I haven’t already sent my old college textbooks to the recycling center. Those are the only “antique” books I’m willing to destroy for art, since their out of date and nobody wants them.
Ohhh if you can just get a condescending look on the faces of those adorable little owls …
+7
Dallitude
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
But looking up where I work and my physical location, that’s not harassment. Not at all.
Call your favorite Whaaaaaambulance chasing lawyer from Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe; watch as they laugh in your face when you tell them the facts and merits of the case.
Some people, I swear, make me not want to live on this planet anymore.
I was thinking the same thing.
A neutral comment got the seller’s knickers in a twist. and then when the buyer had backed the seller into a corner they suggested… suggested mind you, that no more emails be exchanged. One more informing the seller of the change in feedback and they threaten legal action.
While the McDonald’s case did spark off a rise in frivolous lawsuits, that particular case was actually pretty legitimate. The coffee being handed out of a restaurant window did not need to be hot enough to melt flesh. The particulars of the case don’t seem to get remembered, though, so the physical injuries the woman suffered get dismissed as being much less severe than they actually were.
Cracked.com listed her in a lawsuit article they did, comedy of course, but they mentioned that at first all she wanted was McD to pay the medical costs of $22,000 (I think that was it) because her skin was sloughing off her thighs.
Had McD not pushed the matter in court, it might not have been so famous.
Not to mention the lovely fact that the McDonalds defense included the argument that a 79 year old woman shouldn’t be compensated as highly for THIRD DEGREE BURNS ON HER GENITALS because of her age.
The compensatory damages were comparatively moderate. The bulk of the award was punitive, and decided by the jury because the evidence they heard had them well convinced of McDonald’s douchebaggery.
“Tort Reform” is a pet cry of big business, that has been masterfully spun in order to suck in supporters who truly get fucked over by it.
Yeah, I think she needed a square foot of skin grafts or something. It was actually legitimately a horrible injury. But it does serve to represent the whole cultural shift towards expecting other people to watch out for us.
Coffee is brewed at near boiling temps, and that is enough to more than scald and blister many layers of skin. I’m not downplaying her injuries, I’ve done it myself, albeit not with coffee hot off the burner.
I should have chosen a more ridiculous example I guess, like the woman who set the Cruise control in her Winnebago, got up from the driver’s seat and went in the back to make a sandwich.
She sued and won because the owner’s manual didn’t specifically state that the CC only controlled the speed and not the direction of the vehicle.
aaron, actually, the coffee was not just at boiling, but at 185-190 degrees. you should read this page http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts which explains how she actually had a legit case, 3rd degree burns and skin grafts, and that mcdonald’s policy was to keep coffee at 185 degrees rather than 130-140, which is what people are used to from their home coffee pots. they also had hundreds of complaints from previous customers who had burned themselves, some as badly as that lady, but hadn’t changed their policy.
Yeah, actual lawyer weighing in here, as opposed to in-crafters’-minds lawyer. Please go watch the documentary Hot Coffee. That lawsuit was not only not at all frivolous, it’s been used to protect corporations from compensating victims when they are absolutely responsible for the injuries.
So, you know: not similar. If I had a dollar for every time someone misused the term “slander,” I could pay off my law school loans.
Thanks! I can’t take the credit for it though. I asked my bunny what he thought I should use for a screen name, and he promptly hopped into his litter pan, took a dump and, well, there ya go. Instant screen name.
You know, until the last 2 or 3 emails, it looked okay to me. I don’t think they were condescending; and they’re right, 23 negs out of 12000 is less than 1 in 500. Sorry, I can’t buy into the seller being the total b!tch on this one.
They really weren’t that bad until they made it seem like the person wasn’t being realistic in having their own opinion. The comment that started the snowball rolling was the “no one has ever complained about it before”…it’s like a guy being told he’s bad in bed.
Part of running a business is avoiding becoming defensive when someone presents a possible problem. This person is just way too emotional and turned it into a personal attack on the buyer which is never a good solution if you’re trying to attract other buyers.
Yes, exactly (re: becoming defensive). While I’m mostly in the, “who cares if you had to trim it a bit?” camp, she was also given misleading information. I’d be annoyed by that, too. And the seller should have just apologized and left it at that.
I agree entirely. Had the seller offered their rationale (in a few sentences rather than a few paragraphs)and then said something like “However, we understand why you were frustrated and will do our best to make the situation clear with future customer,” all would have ended well. So unnecessary!
Cowboy Leg Beautiful Pole
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
The first part might not have seemed so condescending if the buyer had been the one who initiated the complaint. However, when you contact THEM and they give you a direct answer to your question, the smart thing to do is to say “thank you for your feedback” and chalk it up to experience.
I’ve complained to companies about their crappy products or services and have been repeatedly told, “Well, m’am, you’re the first one to complain!” SOMEONE has to be first (and now I’m looking forward to the next time I have to do that, so I can yell “FIRST!” just because I can).
Studies have shown that if a business fucks up but then makes it right again, the customer ends up more loyal than they would’ve been if everything had gone well from the getgo. This could’ve been a huge opportunity for the seller – if she’d initiated contact with the customer in order to hear and learn from their opinions instead of just yelling “YOU’RE WRONG SO NYAH NYAH!”
Yeah, I don’t get it. I used to sell my art, and I intentionally made all my work fit standard frames usually 8 by 10 in fact, to make it easier to frame with an off the shelf frame, both for myself and for my patrons. If I were this seller, I would have apologized and offered a replacement print free of charge, especially since it looks like her “Prints” are just run through a printer. I’ve gone out of my way to replace the frames I sold my work in due to minor scratches, and one guy I did that for bought four other pieces, then promoted my work on his blog. I guess if I could have been a douche like BlackBaroque I’d still be working as an artist.
Harassing someone into leaving positive feedback is not the way to win customers. It is also weird that when asked about the size of the print, they could have explained the lengthy thing about antique prints then, and not after the customer complained about it.
Seriously. If I had an Etsy shop and brought something like that to my attention, I’d thank them and make changes to the goddamn listing. Because it takes sooooooo much effort to do that. What a cuntwagon.
Exactly. I don’t sell on Etsy, but I do sell online somewhere, and I’m glad when people point out an error to me so I’m not confusing and ticking off tons of people without knowing about it.
Oh, my personal favorite in message #2 is the ultra passive aggressively condescending “We are sorry you thought something so easy to take care of was worth giving us a strike for.”
you are so stoooopiiid you could not even take care of this.
How did gnurph69 not read #2 and go what a douchebag?
What kind of seller gets an email saying, “Exactly how big is your print?” and replies with 8X10 instead of 8X10.5 then scolds the buyer for not psychically knowing that 8X10 really means “somewhere around 8X10, but not really, but we don’t care to actually measure because you should know that old book pages aren’t always 8X10, what kind of dumbshit are you?”
Maybe it’s the sense of entitlement on the part of the seller, because yes, they only have 23 negative comments and yet they were peeved enough to contact the buyer and make him/her explain WHY the feedback was NEUTRAL rather than positive.
And then the seller became an all-out condescending twat about what seems like a legit concern on the part of the buyer.
23 Neutral and 23 Negative – that would be enough to make me think twice before ordering from them. Seller very defensive about it too – fancy trying to pressure someone into changing their feedback!!
I thought it was promising at first that they asked why it was neutral – if it was something they could have fixed, they could have legitimately got that change to positive, and if it was something they could only fix for future buyers, they could have improved their shop. But no, it turned out it was all about trying to bully the buyer into giving them positive feedback, regardless of whether they deserved it.
See, I kind of thought they came out of the gate defensive “was there a reason” usually elicits a “none of your damn business” response from me. But I’m salty like that.
Good customer relations in my mind would have started with something like “Was there something we could have done better”.
Of course either way it went to hell in a handbasket PDQ
Yeah, it was poorly phrased from the get-go, but that early on I was willing to assume the person writing was just a little socially awkward and didn’t know to/how to phrase things to be sure it didn’t sound confrontational. But yeah, then they went straight up douche creek in their douchecanoe as soon as the buyer offered the constructive criticism they had appeared to be asking for in their initial message.
+11
Bubble_Lord
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Owl-face was overly defensive to the point of being offensive and rude in their second post, the way they said that no-one has ever had a problem before implies that it is the customer’s fault instead of Owl-face’s.
Owl-face then tries to blackmail or persuade the customer into changing their rating, which is just a stupid and rude move.
then in the next email Owl-face says that most people know about antique prints, implying again that the customer is stupid, and it goes downhill from there.
I didn’t think it was so bad at first, but looking at it again the description was pretty condescending, especially when they went on about giving neutral feedback over something “so easy to fix” … because chopping up something you bought is, like, SO easy (obviously it’s easy to do, just not desirable and makes little sense). And starting your second bit with “Nonsense. We were not condescending at all,” is rather douchey. Also, the “we” stuff is real creepy. I doubt the both of them honestly sat there and typed it out together.
Also… when someone at Etsy says to do something, you OBEY, damn it.
The “we” stuff is even more bizarre when you realize that the “we” in question is the seller and her dog (look at BlackBaroque’s profile and you’ll see what I mean).
I like this line…
She uses chinese labor…
This was our last store. After 10 years of owning stores, though I created many new products during that time, I am done. I now have a new product I will be manufacturing this year using the same company in China I used for our Pet Lounge products which were featured in Country Living. I’m always working on something new!
And more proof she’s bat-shit crazy;
♥This interview was conducted by Merlin, Poni & Alexandra’s bird. He was offered a job with the “Rolling Stones” magazine, but they would not allow him enough breaks during the day, to play with his tiger who he is in love with. So he keeps a low profile and is a sort of, silent partner with Black Baroque. However Merlin, and Poni will attest to this, being a chatty birdie, is not too silent! lol
Actually, thinking about it – no, trimming something to 8×10″ and keeping the edge clean and the corners square would not be easy for me to do at home. I’d want a board shear for that, since my scissor-cut edges are inevitably wobbly and presumably I’d want this print to look good. Someone who sells thousands of prints online is the one who should be expected to own and use a board shear, not the random buyer who’s been lied to about the size of the print.
Exactly. I bought a couple of prints (from a seller actually here on Regretsy) that I love. She drew them, and they are beautiful, and she discounted them for us Regretsians.
BUT she said they were 8X10, and then when I got them they were printed on 8.5X11 cardstock. Which I then had to trim down to fit into the frames i bought. And which I kinda fucked up. You can’t see it when they are framed, thank goodness, but the edges look like shit.
I never said anything because a) Regretsian and b) discount and c) gorgeous, d) and I wasn’t upset or anything but it was a little annoying, but if I had emailed her to let her know and she had responded like this, I’d have been pretty pissed off.
The thing that bothers me more is that the buyer DIDN’T contact the seller. Obviously it wasn’t a huge deal to the buyer until the seller decided she needed to know why she got a neutral feedback. The seller could have kept her trap shut and none of this would have happened.
The great thing about having an online shop is that when people piss you off you have time to have a cup of tea and complain to your family about this idiot whinning about some stupid shit. Then you read their message again and maybe you realize they’re not such an idiot – maybe it’s you.
12256 sales is what it says on her shop page. Not everybody leaves feedback. Why should they? They buy something, they receive the thing, that’s the end of it.
That’s probably it. 9,000 people said “This is not quite what I thought I ordered, but it’s not worth the shipping and the negative feedback from the seller to send it back.”
Am I the only person disturbed by the feedback they post for anyone who buys something?
“Buyer, Buyer, we love you! Thank you for your purchase too! You made our day being so sweet! Doing business with you was such a treat! Excellent buyer in every way! Poni gives this buyer 4 paws up! XO, President Poni & Alexandra”
I totally was, though your username makes me nervous to agree to that >.>
+25
FareLaVolpe
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Christ on a crutch, that couldn’t be tackier if she signed off with a glittery merman.
+46
mutzali
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
So I guess the “we” who are so concerned includes her and her little dog? Maybe she should let the dog handle the feedback from now on.
+40
L-Cubed
October 13, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I’m concerned that she’s named her dog “President Poni.” 1.) What is the dog “president” of? and 2.) Isn’t she concerned she’ll give the dog a complex calling it “poni?”
+23
Dawn
October 13, 2011 at 7:51 pm
What is most disturbing about their feedback is that in contrast to their cutesy copypasta response for positive feedback, their response to negative feedback is positively vicious and personal in nature. Creepy, creepy.
+29
manybellsdown
October 13, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Yeah it gets even better if you sort through the feedback she’s left for the few negatives. Pretty much anyone who got a negative is accused of lying, deceit, and having an “ulterior motive”.
+14
unionponi
October 13, 2011 at 11:30 pm
No relation, I promise! I may be a fat, jealous loser, but I’m not a fat jealous loser dog president. At least I don’t think so.
+26
FireKraken
October 16, 2011 at 8:08 pm
My personal favorite, even better than the slightly gruesome image of her dog dead with its paws in the air, is when she decides to break pattern to tell us all what AN ART PRINT means:
“Buyer noted in her feedback that our print was pixelated and it looked as if it had been printed on. This is one of our best sellers that we have been selling for over a year now and all have loved it. We are not sure what she meant by her comment about printing since she did not contact us before leaving feedback, but this is an art “print” and it is made by being printed. We question a person’s motive when they mark the box neutral, but leave negative comments. We state in our policies if for any reason you are not happy with your order to please contact us before leaving feedback so we may do all we can to put a smile back on your face and in your heart.”
+12
vintageness
October 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
“BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY. “
From page 90:
“BEWARE!!!!! Extremely rude seller. I enquired about my missing parcel and was told it was my problem. They did not offer to help me in anyway whatsoever. I had asked for the parcel to be sent to my Mum’s address as she is home all the time to receive parcels. During checkout there is an option to choose the address the parcel is to be shipped so clearly within the rules of Etsy. The address I chose was my Mum’s address – the address was not some random stranger I could not trust. Regardless of whether the order was to be sent to my residence or my Mum’s, the fact remains it has not turned up at either address. Seller was extremely rude during each and every email and was not at all sympathetic to the situation. I put in a paypal dispute and heard nothing from the seller nor have I ever received the order. An extremely negative experience and my first on Etsy. Thankfully sellers like this on Etsy are rare indeed.”
+71
Lizzz3
October 13, 2011 at 6:10 pm
I found the last bit of this particularly interesting from page 94:
“Print was great, but the sellers themselves were extremely rude throughout the process. I didn’t receive my package for over three weeks and whenever I would send them a message the overall tone was one of poor customer service and rude “bedside manner”. Although they did work with me, I always felt as if I were a bother to them and they constantly acted superior, using quotation marks to empthasize that I, the buyer, was wrong.”
From Page 148: “Admittedly I neglected to thoroughly read the shipping policies, however when I contacted the seller, instead of politely pointing me to the page I had missed, I was told that “You probably should not have ordered through us” if I didnt agree with their policies. Don’t worry BlackBaroque, I won’t anymore! A simple misunderstanding ruined by a terrible response. Not impressed.”
“Upon canceling the sale, then this seller became abusive. So when you read her negative feedback which I am sure she will leave, please consider how many sales I have had in all of my shops these past few years, how I have until now, have all excellent feedback from happy buyers and sellers.”
She has some pretty epic bullshit to say if you look at page 114 too. Talks about customer service and how her leaving negative feedback is an “unfortunate warning” to other customers, how Etsy is so awesome, how she is a great seller herself and couldn’t understand why someone was a dick to her. I WONDER
+24
raginglooner
October 14, 2011 at 10:51 pm
The fuck?
“In addition we are confused as why she would not contact us in a kind manner having dealt with orders lost with her own customers, we would think she would know that kindness is the best way to work out any situation. A very negative experience.” (This was a negative comment BlackBaroque left for the person who had the item shipped to their mother’s place.)
How can someone’s head get this far up their own ass?
Ye gods! Sorry for the massive link…I don’t seem to know my html as well as I thought…
+15
synapsid
October 14, 2011 at 10:36 am
Those closing tags can be tricky bastards huh.
+4
Gwill
October 14, 2011 at 6:13 am
Gems on page 90, 94, 125-126, 144 and 148.
Most negatives seem to be about the rudeness of the seller more than the quality of the products. People unhappy about the quality seems to have left neutral.
MotherFUCKER. She lives in New England?? I’ve dealt with some crazy-ass people in my time… I wonder if she has patronized any of my former places of employment?
I agree that 23 out of that many is not bad feedback at all, but giving neutral feedback because of a little misinformation is totally right. Their first response was batshit and it went downhill from there, to something more like, the batshit that batshit shits out.
I am a little uncomfortable with the use of the term “borderline personality disorder” in an assumptive, derogatory way. Mental illness is plagued by stigma and this sort of thing contributes to it. As a sufferer myself, I try hard to not inflict it on others, but until I discovered “mindfulness”, it was a near impossibility.
What about people who are “batshit” crazy. I bet they don’t like being stigmatized either. It’s hard enough to be diagnosed batshit but then to have people make fun of it is worse.
Not to mention how bats might feel about it!
But no one ever cries over the dead bats.
+47
BirdPie
October 13, 2011 at 6:20 pm
As a fellow diagnosed crazy person, I have to admit – a condition like borderline personality disorder is nearly always unpleasant for the people around that person. Hell, most mental illnesses are. Can’t really deny that fact, even while trying to achieve the very important task of stopping stigma against us. It would be better to say “maybe the seller DOES have a mental disorder and so we should be more sympathetic to her behaviour”.
I have unintentionally driven people away most of my life, so I know exactly what you mean. I do crack crazy jokes about myself, though, because humor helps me get through the day-to-day bullshit.
+13
Twight Rose
October 17, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Hmmm. I am bipolar II, myself, and I hold the opposite opinion. I have gone to great lengths to make sure I am NOT being a douchecanoe to the people who have to live with me, and it royally pisses me off when I see people with diagnosable mental conditions who AREN’T trying to be less of a douchecanoe.
I am a staunch advocate of being open about mental conditions and combating the stigma around mental illness. Part of this is calling out a fellow sufferer when it looks to me like they are using their condition to abuse others. Compassion, yes! Excuses, no.
+18
oh-hell
October 18, 2011 at 11:47 am
It warms my jealous loser heart that we are talking about mental illness and stigma in such a reasonable, well-informed way. I love you, Regretsians. I’ve been both a patient and a student counselor (on the couch AND sitting next to it, so to speak) and while I do think that people should try to understand the misery of mental illness, I commend anyone who has one and doesn’t exploit it as an excuse to be nasty without suffering the consequences. I stick up for the mentally ill and talk about my own problems openly (depression/GAD/OCD, with a dash of borderline– oh joy!) but I’ve also cut people out of my life for being abusive, even if the illness caused that behavior. I’m a friend, a lover, and a sister, not a martyr. Whether the disease made you try to kill me or you just felt like it, the danger is the same.
And BlackBaroque is definitely being a twatwaffle. Yeah, I called out– you wanna piece of me, Etsy? Put up your dukes, cupcakes.
+11
Catethulhu
October 20, 2011 at 7:51 am
I would say that it sounds more like Narcissistic Personality Disorder. “The problem is you, not me” is their mantra. When everyone is playing up to their vanities and fawning over them, everything is peachy, as soon as someone is less than admiring, then the NPD person flies off the handle. They cannot deal with reality in hardly any capacity and live in their own little magical worlds. As soon as someone even hints at reality, they freak the fuck out.
Really, It could all have been solved with the word “approximately” before the dimensions – I mean she provides dimensions in TENTHS OF CENTIMETERS for crissakes.
Holy shit. Can you imagine the discourse with people who initially leave negative feedback? This was a motherlovin’ NEUTRAL one. However, this pretty much is the definition of Etsy; if you don’t love for people to piss on you whilst you leave positive feedback stating it was rain (a heavenly, warm summer shower at that), lawyers get involved. EVERYONE LOVE OUR YOONEEK (and probably re-sold) LISTINGS OR FEAR THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW!
I would love to see the conversations with people who left negative feedback. Like the person that said the ink started bleeding off her print after 2 weeks.
2 weeks?! That’s some really cheap-ass ink. What did she use, dyed bird shit? (Maybe that’s the bird’s contribution. All natural and upcycled, wot-wot.)
I’m stuck between being affronted that businesspeople bully their clientele like that, and being embarrassed for said businesspeople. Embarrassed for them, for their parents, for Etsy, for the concept of business itself, for our whole species, really.
What the hell is with people claiming “ZOMG HARASSMENT” every time somebody says something vaguely critical? My favorite is when their retaliation is a thousand times more intense than the apparent wrongs against them. What a tool.
When I was in college for studio art there was a girl in my Painting 3 class who would paint the most hideous sci-fi/fantasy characters that she made up. I’m talking dragons, aliens, demons with wings, etc. Not only were they very badly rendered and conceptually one dimentinal, her painting technique was on par with a 3rd graders. Whenever we had critiques, any negative feedback from the other classmates or the teacher would result in her screaming and crying. A full on tantrum. We were all really careful to word our criticism in such a way that she wouldn’t dissolve in tears yelling about how we all hated her. It was tough. I’m not sure how she made it so far in a fine arts college.
It’s a shame you had to deal with that. I’ve been through a fine arts high school (writing) and am now in a graphic design program, and thank Helen all my professors are too tough to let people get away with it. As a wee 14-year-old wannabe writer, I was informed on our first day of high school poetry workshop that if you can’t handle constructive criticism, you can’t handle reality. Tantrums got squashed in the first week, and anyone having more than one was told privately to suck it up or get out. The design program I’m in now is the same way. Not that they were/are mean about it– cruel, UNconstructive criticism is equally unwelcome– but it’s taught me to have a thicker skin, puncture my ego once in a while, and take the high road when people get nasty. I can’t imagine that anyone like your classmate, mpkocto, would last more than a few seconds in a professional design firm. Teachers need to quit holding our hands and remind us of these things more often.
I love it when people use google translator. It makes everything you say sound like a robot. I wish I could have responded back with psuedobot speak. It would have gone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get that. Did you mean nuticles?” “You said that you marked positive for herpes. Is that correct?” “You have sent 12,200 prince to 30 cuntries? Please note that offensive language will not be tolerated per the rules on Etsy. Your comment has been forwarded to the administrator. While under review, your account may be suspended for up to twenty-four years. If you think this is in error, please fill out the questionnaire that will be mailed to you via snail mail. Have a handcrafty day.”
There are only so many sellers on there with Antique Book Prints whose shops start with B. And who, as soon as you open the link, brag about the 12,000 prints they’ve shipped around the world. You too can figure out who they are. I’ll give you a hint, it’s within the first two pages, and, um, if it ain’t blackbaroque, don’t fix it?!
Exactly. If I buy a pair of shoes online (something I rarely do for THIS very reason) and ask for a 12, and then send a 14 and say “No one’s complained before” that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t fit, does it?
I WAS siding with the seller at first, but I found myself increasingly face palming as the conversation went on. A simple “I apologize for the inconvenience, we will try to be clearer in the future.” could’ve ended the whole thing. It was NEUTRAL feedback, for Helen’s sake. Why get so offensive?
…and if she’d apologized and emailed a coupon code for 25% off their next purchase, I bet the buyer even would’ve changed their feedback to positive (and probably shopped there again, to use that coupon!). No threats, lawyers, or condescension necessary.
Yeah they work… but lets take for example my shop…I have a sale that states in every listing and on my front page: Buy 5 items receive free shipping (USA ONLY) and I have a had a few people that apparently couldn’t read and used the coupon code for 4,3,2 and even one item! When that happens I just deal with it, unless I of course someone buys something big that absolutely must have a shipping payment.
Etsy needs to fix up their coupon codes so you can customize them better!
+6
moholiest
October 13, 2011 at 4:51 pm
The seller states an extremely precise size in her listings: no approximately, no variance disclaimer, something she really shouldn’t do, not that that alone should warrant neutral feedback. Really should’ve just taken the high road, anyway: apologizing for the misunderstanding would’ve ended the exchange.
If she asked what the exact size was and the seller didn’t explain the variation thing, than the seller deserved the neutral. What ticks me off as an eBay seller (with eBay it’s pretty much impossible to change your feedback, so it’s a little different) is when buyers don’t even give me the chance to fix things before leaving a permanent mark on my selling record. Though, if it’s changeable, this was just the buyer’s way of letting the seller know they screwed up and give them a chance to earn positive feedback. Which they royally fucked up.
I’ve also gotten it from the other side, too. I left a guy POSITIVE feedback, just commented that MAYBE he should try finding a box that fit the product so it didn’t stick out of the box exposing wires and making it look like a bomb. Then he sent me TWO nasty, horrible emails, accusing me of being in a loveless marriage and other crazy shit. Made me wonder what he had left for me if I had dared to leave a negative. I wish I had!
Yes, I know what you mean. Leaving positive feedback with a little complaint is a NICE thing for an ebay buyer to do. If I got one of those as a seller I would be relieved at my close call of a neutral or negative feedback.
My god, if I got valuable suggestions for my business and the feedback was still marked “positive”, I’d wanna mail the customer a present! My reputation stays clean and I’ve learned how to improve my business – it doesn’t get any better than that!
I do that sometimes on Ebay–I call it “passive aggressively positive feedback.” I’m not marring their feedback rating, but letting them know there was something displeasing.
You know, like the Vera Bradley purse I bought that arrived today *just* in a Priority Mail box. No plastic around it or anything. Good thing it didn’t come yesterday when we had storms, or it would have been ruined.
I’ve had sellers rip my head off and shit down my throat for that! for leaving a “+” with a little complaint. They said (I am not quoting here!)”Why would you be so vicious and evil and RUIN my whole life’s work when you should have just given me the chance to make it right?!?!?!”
Well, honestly, because I am AFRAID to email someone a complaint precisely because it’s like jogging in a minefield. So I just wanna drop off my rating and run like hell! Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do you’re going to get a scary note once in a while.
Yeah, ebay feedback has made me super angry in the past. Had a dude that didn’t send payment for a whole month before I moved, I had my mail forwarded and everything. He left me negative feedback for cancelling the order!
Yeah, I don’t even know why he assumed I was married…which I am, but still. He sent one email and then ANOTHER before I had even replied to the first. Like he had all this venom to spew then thought of some more and couldn’t wait for my reply. At first I started to tell him to scale back on whatever meds he was on, or get on some, but then I just replied asking him if he was fucking insane and told him to never contact me again.
yup….. “nonsense…..now you done pissed me off bitch and I am going to scare you with lawyers and claiming to know where you live.” NONSENSE SILLY. WE ARE LOVELY, POLITE FUCKING PEOPLE.
The seller has marked all of her items as “approx. 8×10″ or “approx. 7×10″ so her original comments were fair. Somewhere in her third post, though, the happy juice started kicking in. The crazy juice followed soon after.
♥About your print: You will receive one book page but not the exact page as shown in this listing as they come from one book making each page one of a kind. The page size is 8 x 10. Frame is not included.
They have a pile of stock photoshops for Etsy items, and they print as needed… you don’t even know what your print will REALLY look like till it shows up.
Rubies, maybe she added that just today after thinking about this feedback & realising it was a legit complaint?
(Even if it WAS the buyer’s mistake, you’re supposed to say “I’m sorry you were confused” y’know, to be DIPLOMATIC!)
So stupid… honestly, who leaves it .5″ extra and consider that a lot of spare space? That’s .25″ to cut from both ends and cutting that small amount off increases the chances of a wonky cut (I cut everything by hand and it’s slipped more than a few times).
I’m afraid of what Etsy’s response would be. Would they side with the seller because the buyer wasn’t all cupcakes? Or would they just roll their eyes? I can’t imagine anyone taking this complaint seriously!
They would just roll their eyes and go back to playing with the fake mustaches. They give no shits at all about what happens to the sellers (I’m not sure as a buyer). If both parties don’t want to “Kiss and Make Up” (Oh gods, don’t started on how badly I hate that function) then I guess too bad.
ALSO, I DARE someone to send something like that to my place of employment. Knowing my co-workers, shit would end up in the trash before I even caught a whiff of it.
The description of the whole antique-printing thing should be on the site so the buyer can decide whether or not s/he wants to get caught up in such “nonsense!” And contacting someone who put a “neutral” as feedback to ask why … I don’t know, it just seems, “You don’t like me! Why don’t you like me? You should LIKE me!!!!!” juvenile.
Both my parents were in the printing industry, and I often helped my father with projects. My late MIL was an antiques dealer. I’ve done more graphics/layout/publishing in my career than I can remember. And I still don’t know what the hell the seller was talking about.
I’ve seen sellers comment on neutral feedback on eBay, for example, to see if there was any reason for it and anything they could improve upon. THAT is how you do it. Don’t hassle them, just ask if there is anything you can do to improve the experience in the future.
I’m pretty sure she just cuts out book pages and runs them through her printer. So there’s no need for elaborate explanations of how speeeeeeecial her process is, just accurate sizes.
There’s nothing wrong with a nice “Hi, is there something I could improve on?” If you think the buyer’s complaint was valid, you work on it. If not, you say “Thank you for your feedback” and ignore the comment. Easy-peasy.
Condescending, passive aggressive, and completely conflict escalating text in initial seller response. My old boss would have had my ass for that kind of “tone”. The fact that they initiated the contact means that they should have said simply “so sorry we failed to satisfy you, we will review our page to ensure we are more clear in future”. Whether they do so or not, this politely and pleasantly closes the correspondence. They might even have had future sales from this person.
But apparently being a condescending asshole was more important than being in a business.
I swear sometimes it feels like half the world is being run by fucking amateurs who just don’t give a shit. Or maybe I am just old and bitter.
I think there are as many immature assholes today as there were hundreds of years ago, for what it’s worth. But the internet shines the light on them all.
Gah, it’s like turning on the lights in the kitchen and finding hundreds of roaches.
Did “Keeping a Customer for life” remind anyone else of the video of Hoss’ Owner, with the padlelock on the interior door next to the drawing of a woman with an unsettling caption?
I have officially broken my Regretsy hymen to comment on this one. This seller bought merch from me, methodically stalked my sales for months and then opened her floodgates to cut me down at the knees….
Did anyone name the name yet?
Gah! Sorry to disappoint, but unless Towel Mike got a D-cup implant (then waited a number of years), there is not much resemblance. I’m more like Dishrag Madge.
Is this real life? It must be because you can’t make this shit up.
It’s funny how it’s the people with the least amount of education who are always ready to start a fight and then end it with, “don’t say anything back or I’m telling on you.” The lack of education is evident by the the poorly composed paragraphs, run on sentences and horrific grammar. I hope they see this and read all of the feedback. I don’t know the seller or the buyer, making my opinion completely unbiased, and I can tell you the seller is a professional Nut Job from Trailer Trash Kingdom.
Hmmmm…. If you look at their shop, they have these Alice in Wonderland prints, made from the original illustrations from the book. Fair use, or copyright infringement?
What really gets me is that mostly all of the work is from fair use and open domain vintage images, but they are claiming these are “OUR ORIGINAL DESIGN & CONCEPT”
Surrounding your lie with hearts is bad misdirection! Lies! Lies! I demand retribution! For the owners of the work! Even if they’re dead! *sharpens pitchfork*
Alice in Wonderland text and illustrations are fair use. They haven’t been under copyright for a long time, which is why there’s so much Alicewashing in the world of crafts.
That doesn’t explain the Etsy Hello Kitty Club. Sanrio will sell just about anyone a license but you have to pay the fee. Also, some old works are protected. Or somewhat protected. Like Peter Pan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy#Copyright_status
“the work is still under copyright in several countries.”
She has a print of an Iris, which is actually really pretty, but I know exactly where it came from – an antique german botany book that’s available online. So it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine that everything else she has was downloaded from somewhere…
*waits for letter from magical dog lawyer*
I’ve seen things like this before and, being a self-confessed word nerd and bookoholic I kind of like them – as in ONE or TWO in my office but I always thought there must be more to it than running an old piece of paper through a color copier. It’s not?
Opening sentence for one of the items, which I had to read several times before fully understanding: “At the end of each day, Black Baroque’s President Poni,(our puppy), my husband “Handsome” and I, all go for a walk on the beach with Poni.”
AKA My dog, my husband and I go to the beach with my dog. Even Microsoft Word will give you that little green line under that sentence, giving you at least an inclination that it doesn’t make sense.
Telling everyone about your husband’s pet name in the same sentance you tell everyone your puppy’s name too is a little creepy… and that’s coming from someone whose husband is known in private as “soft’n'vulnerable”.
Maybe Poni is her son, named after “President Poni,(our puppy)”.
Then it becomes: my dog that I love the very best, my husband whose name I can’t remember, and I, go for a walk and also we take our kid who is named after the dog because did I mention my dog is really special and the president?
Maybe I am not “etsy-educated” and I am misunderstanding this completely but isn’t “12,000 shipments” very different to the “3478″ positive feedbacks they actually have on their page? I would feel like a super-duper e-detective for finding the page of it weren’t for the niggling suspicion that I am actually a deranged stalker.
Is giving feedback essential, or an option? Or are they just assuming that the several 1,000 people who theoretically haven’t replied are as happy as clams?
Some people bought several items but only left one feedback? Or some people left neutrals/negatives and got reamed out & threatened so they took their feedbacks down?
Wait, so the seller messaged the buyer first and then tells the buyer to stop messaging them because it’s harassment? I mean, I could see if the buyer just kept sending message after message, but the buyer was simply responding to the message the SELLER sent. How the everloving fuck is that harassment?
The buyer didn’t immediately grovel and ask forgiveness for leaving a neutral feedback, then scurry to change it in a timely fashion. So to the seller, that’s harassment. *nods sagely*
Talk about bat shit crazy. When she says “we” she’s referring to herself and her dog.
Extra helping of crazy? Read her profile. It’s written as an interview conducted by her bird!”
“♥This interview was conducted by Merlin, Poni & Alexandra’s bird. He was offered a job with the “Rolling Stones” magazine, but they would not allow him enough breaks during the day, to play with his tiger who he is in love with. So he keeps a low profile and is a sort of, silent partner with Black Baroque. However Merlin, and Poni will attest to this, being a chatty birdie, is not too silent! lol”
Her shop announcement is so full of little hearts, I want to stab something. My fave is this:
“♥WE DO NOT SELL THE FRAMES AND WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU CAN BUY THEM♥Sorry.”
So you display all your work in a frame that you do not sell, and don’t know where to get it? I kinda want to convo her, and ask her if they sell those frames
♥♥♥We are the first shop on Etsy to use the five antique books our book pages are from for our prints. Our books are very rare and very expensive. We have antiquarian book dealers in the USA and in Europe who find our books for us. We are also the first shop to use banners & quotes you see on our prints. Our book pages and banners with quotes are all a part of our signature Black Baroque Design and Concept that we created first and are thrilled to offer you!
Oh gods. If those supposed ‘antiquarian book dealers’ knew what they were doing with these ‘very rare and very expensive’ books, they’d tell them to get lost so fast, their bird’s head would spin.
Ugh, might as well rip my heart out if they seriously do use “very rare and very expensive” books! It was one thing when the comments above were talking about crappy old books that would be destroyed anyway because they’re too damaged to salvage (I’m sure there would at least be some viable pages in them, anyway) but quite another to claim that you have book dealers seek out these fabulous old books only so you can cut them up and print shit on them!
+42
aliceblue
October 13, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Agree inmediasres. Our law library is constantly getting rid of outdated materials or old casebooks as they go online. Also, the local used bookstore has a shelf of freebie that no one wants. Why not use them? Many are old. In fact I think that I may swing my the library and see if I can get there before the recyclers; I haven’t had copier fun since the crying eagle TP
+17
Lanus
October 14, 2011 at 5:51 am
If I weren’t certain that they were lying sacks of shit, I’d cry for the books.
I suspect they find remnants from the library book sale, and I refuse to entertain the notion that these are actual good books.
+23
elou
October 14, 2011 at 6:00 am
Everytime I see something rare and expensive I have this overwhelming urge to print pictures of moustaches with moustaches on it.
They don’t know where the frames are sold because I bet you that the frame is added in Photoshop. It’s a virtual frame!!
The pictures in the listings that are actual photographs of the prints (at least on the couple that I peeked at) have the print in a plastic bag, with a plain backing. The “room shot” is poorly photoshopped – and (to my eyes) the print looks bigger “on” the wall than the dimensions in the description would indicate.
As an artist who sells prints too, the seller’s reaction was wrong on so many levels. When framing half an inch can make a huge difference. They should have sent her a new print, and made sure it was the size they told her it was, for starters. It’s not like that seller even prints his/her own artwork, it’s all just free use clip art.
Oh man I cannot WAIT to see the complete shit fit this seller’s going to throw when they see their conversation posted here.
I am so excited to see her rage that I could just shit. I can see her being suspicious of every single sale she has from this point on. D’ya think she’ll learn anything from this? Like maybe not to be a horrible self righteous cunt to complete strangers?
Another fine opportunity for the law firm of Koppian and Paystin! Never mind that there’s nothing in this conversation that constitutes slander and/or harassment, lets throw around some big legal scary terms while letting you know we’ve secretly been stalking you. We know where you live, expect to be served papers in the shower you harasser you.
Isn’t the ‘answer’ to libel (or slander) the same, truth? I mean, that’s the defense, isn’t it, ’tis true?’
since it Isn’t 8 x 10 its not libelous to say it isn’t, and as to whether or not a reasonable person would consider her ‘difficult’ well… perhaps they can President Poni as a witness.
I LOVE condescending owls! They should print that on f-ing old paper. Also, why are we not flooding that shop owner with messages asking “what size are your prints?”
Look underneath your comment box where it shows the allowed HTML tags. You want the one that says img src (image source), and your picture’s URL goes inside the quotations. Be sure to preview before you post. If it doesn’t work, you can always link us.
THis has to be a classic case of somebody inadvertently sitting down wrong and squashing their own balls. Can’t remember where I read, but it said that most arguments, and 80% of international conflicts could be avoided if people would learn to say, “Pardon me, I just sat on my testicles, and it’s quite painful. Will you excuse me for a moment while I get better situated?” rather than lashing out at whoever they are conversing with.
Thank you for this comment. It brings to light a sad social issue that is easily corrected by taking a deep breath and rearranging your nutsack. If more people would just be mindful of the nutsack! Thank you!
I read this out loud to my spouse and he got all thoughtful, and said “Y’know, that’s so true!”
Maybe the female version of this is beaning yourself in the breast as you sit down.
the pages are from books printed in the 1800s (this hurts my heart for some reason). ALL of those are now Public Domain. (ALL OF THEM)
She then puts “antique” pictures on top of them in some old-timey way (I’m wondering if she’s using a dot-matrix printer for that part).. not specifying what that printing process is. I suspect ink jet or laser printer. Whatever.
My point about that is that the images printed on the public domain book pager are ALSO PUBLIC DOMAIN.
yeah I am trying to figure this trend out, so you tear up priceless antique books and print clip arts on top of the pages?
Wow, why am I not capitalizing on this like the 100 or so other etsy sellers doing it
I have two pitch forks. Would you like me to sharpen yours for you?
But wait, I gotta get that Midol first…
(Really though, the copyright thing is laughable. I googled vintage octopus image and nearly all the ones she is using are out there for anyone to download.)
from the feedback(negative):
“The owl is very pixelated and to be honest when I read that something is printed I think screen printed. So when I bought this to find out that this was computer printed, I was pretty bummed out. oh well.”
Maybe not a DM, but from this and other feedback, def comp printed.
if you look at the photo from the listing (or one of the other owl print listings), you can SEE the pixellation in the image.
This means they are using “antique” clip art from some clipart collection that they purchased (if we’re “lucky”) and enlarged it beyond where they should have.
God forbid they find some nice etchings and scan them in themselves and then knock out the background. That would involve some actual, you know, skill.
Is anyone else entirely unimpressed by shit printed on antique books? Or is anyone else at least saddened by the fact antique books are mutilated for these derpy things?
I can understand using old books for drawing paper if you are a starving artist and can’t afford good supplies, and the stuff you’re producing is “practice” or “sketches” – I believe this was something done in prior centuries.
But this trend is … I don’t know, akin to sticking empty wine bottles on a dead tree or something.
I love how she claims they are “very rare and very expensive” books. Not THAT expensive if she’s willing to rip them up and print random things on them…
But they can be expensive—she just doesn’t give a shit. Besides, if a 100-page book costs $100, and she sells each crapped-on page for $10, then she profits $400.
I’m NOT doing math the way that seller did, confusing sales and feedback. Let me explain (I’m a book nerd, please forgive me). Technically what she’s selling is a “leaf,” since (for example) page 15 and 16 of a book are two pages, but she’s not splitting the paper. So, class, she tears out the 50 “leaves,” from the 100-page book that cost her $100, slaps some badly enlarged clip art shit on them and, wa-la, earns $400 profit in blood money from raped books. No, I’m not bitter, why do you ask?
And then only charge $12 for them. Just thought of that a moment ago… if her materials are as expensive as she claims, she’s really undercutting her own cost-to-profit ratio. Derp.
I wonder what was so hard about saying “our prints are APPROXIMATELY 8×10 but may vary slightly due to the method of printing.” Too many words of more than syllable? Does it hurt?
This is a little irrelevant, but something I intensely dislike about Etsy is that, unlike on eBay (or Amazon, where you can read the 1-star/2-star/etc. reviews separately – or any other site, on which you can ‘view from lowest to highest rating’), you’re unable to read the negative or neutral comments unless you go through all 175+ pages of feedback. Is there not a way to do this…?
I whipped up a quick excel/vba macro to grab comments for a shop. Just paste it in, change the shop name at the top, and it will scrape etsy’s site and drop the comments in excel. It took about 5 minutes to get them all for the 175 pages of comments against this person’s site.
Wait…I just had a horribly unsettling thought. They claim to have sold 12,000+ pieces of that bullshit. They sell them for $10 a piece. They’ve made near $120,000 (I’m sure there is some sort of supplies fees). I think I’ll go put my head in the oven.
Not necessarily. They claim they use “very rare and very expensive” books, and many of the items boast free shipping. So profit margins would be awfully low, if all that is true.
I don’t know why I keep saying “they” when the other “seller” is her bloody dog.
All I got to say about the claim that she uses “very rare and very expensive books” is: that is absolute BULLSHIT. Unless she really IS batshit crazy, no seller in their right mind would ever cut up an expensive book for craft materials. She’s full of shit on a lot of levels and that is level #1.
It reminds me of the time I ordered some hello kitty stickers on ebay…It took over a month and a half for the stickers to get there (Had to email the seller to remind them), and they didn’t send me what I ordered…So I gave them Negative feedback, and they responded by giving me Negative feedback for “being mean.”
All I know is that I would never want to meet this person in real life. Sounds like a deranged hipster. “Yeah, I use these books, they are really, really old and antique even. Oh and incredibly expensive, you could never afford to buy the whole book. However because I am such an artistic genius, I took the time to teach myself PhotoShop. Especially the copy-paste feature. I spent hours painstakingly creating and copyrighting these images just to print them on my home printer so that you, the feeble-minded uneducated masses may have a taste of what its like to be me. Youre welcome. ” *i only imagine this to be an actual quote, just like they imagine they invented Alice, and the idea of printing on paper. * <3 <3
YOU’RE* GODDAMNIT!
Ahem.
While I do understand the seller’s initial response about cutting the paper, harassment? For fuck’s sake? Maybe this seller should team up with the Internet Copyright Protection Alliance or whatever the hell it is called to fight for civility on the internet or some shit.
I know you’re not referring to me! I am typing from a phone and therefore exempt from the grammar police! I demand you stop harassing me! Also take back your comment, or I’ll tell Helen on you! I may know where you work.
You’re right. I wasn’t referring to you. I misread the op as misusing ‘your’ instead of misspelling ‘neutral.’
I work at SUNY Buffalo. Where I teach math, not English. Primarily sober, although not always.
I sell vintage china and depression glass on eBay, and I leave feedback for sellers as soon as I’m paid. None of this “I’ll leave feedback once you leave feedback telling me you’re happy with your purchase” bullshit. The buyer has taken all the risk at that point–they’ve sent actual money, while I have yet to fulfill my end of the bargain. I tell them I’ve left positive feedback, and I don’t whine at them to leave me feedback. To me, that defeats the whole point of the process. Sellers who try to bully people into feedback piss me off. (But it does give me a little thrill when my number goes up one!)
When I’ve bought from a seller with that policy, I generally don’t leave any feedback, and let the next buyer wonder why the sales numbers are greater than the feedbacks.
I sell on etsy, but I leave feedback for buyers about once a month when the “you need to leave feedback!” link pops up and I go “Crap, I do need to leave feedback, don’t I?” It’s not passive aggressive, just forgetful.
She’s signing her emails as Alexandra & Poni. Why are the emails from the DOG as well? Perhaps it explains the spelling and run on sentences. She is dictating the emails to Poni the dog.
I was innocently scrolling through Regretsy in the absolutely silent library, and when I saw this I barked out laughter like a seal.
Then the girl next to me glared, and she looked JUST LIKE the owl.
Which made me laugh even more.
Now I’m sitting here snickering from behind my hand and shaking silently.
You could say… it’s a hoot.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Oh man, thank you so much for that CSI: Miami reference! I usually don’t comment, but this hilarity is making my day! Except for the irrationally rude and condescending seller with the dog lawyer, printing on “rare, antique” paper, which just fills me with the fiery rage of a thousand suns.
People may have pointed this out before, but check out page 23. The repeated entry on there pretty much proves that “3478 positive replies” is an inflated figure, not the real one. Someone that nasty wouldn’t be getting such uniformly positive feedback. The seller’s work isn’t even that great, if you ask me. Certainly doesn’t justify such an ego. Why do people suck so much?
from the feedback…..”So rude when all I wanted was another print that wasn’t screwed up. Seller poorly and cheaply packages these prints and then gave me a 24 hour time limit to respond to them on labor day weekend. Didn’t work for me. Think I’ll make my own now. since i cant have the one i paid for. can’t be that hard right?”
If someone who is in a business partnership with her dog and bird, threatens to call their attorneys, perhaps by “lawyers” she means the firm made up of herself, the hermit crab, and their ficus tree.
I really want to see a cartoon of that. I can see the lady (in a suit) sitting next to the crab and the ficus (also in suits). They all have little laptops and notepads sitting in front of them. Well the hermit crab’s suit is more painted on his shell.
“We’re so confident in how great we are that we definitely don’t feel the need to bitch you out for your neutral rating, you complete and utter bastard piece of shit, we know where you work and live and what kind of person you are. What your Etsy step before we lawyer the shit out of you and your choice to rate us according to your experience which is how Etsy is set up. How dare you not do what we want you to regardless of how you feel!”
“BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY. ”
So I had nothing to do tonight but watch TV and went through all their feedback to find the negatives – because Etsy wants to hide them all and not let you read just those.
Basically ALL of the negatives are due to the seller being rude and unhelpful. This stretches back through 2010 – GET A CLUE LADY! Business, you’re doing it wrong.
Thank you Thank you Thank you for posting this so other customers can avoid her. Poorly done work can be forgiven and perhaps forgotten, but I HATE ASSHOLES.
“Very grumpy lady ordered some prints and they where printed on questionable text of a book me tined it to her, and she kinda freaked out in an email baack to me. It’s a shame because the prints are lovely and would have ordered more. Butworried about having to deal with such a sour personality ! ” http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque/feedback?page=128
what a bunch of BS… if the print is 8″x10″ the print is 8″x10″ if it’s 8″x10.5″ JUST SAY THAT!!! IN THE LISTING!!!
I have a few things listed that are not perfect sizes (sometimes when you hand cut something it’s not exact and I *gasp* SAY SO IN THE LISTING THAT THE SIZE IS APPROX (because it’s often less than a 16th of an inch off, if something is expressable in 1/4 inch or more increments that’s not “extra” paper… its the THE SIZE OF THE ITEM!!!
I clicked on the very first listing in her shop, an “Owl Bicycle Bike Print.” When I read the description I seriously thought it was something she copied from Regretsy:
“What a better way to pass the day then perched on a bike! Our Steampunk Owl with his top hat and friendly Octopus are taking a break from a day of fun on a antique bike that anyone with a love of bicycles would love to have.”
“Oh and here is a nother thought for you, Etsy has rules about harassment and abuse so we suggest you do not email us again.”
I’m guessing that they don’t want to be emailed again because they don’t want to keep breaking those rules. Unless it’s only harassment if it comes from the buyer. Or if blatant threats are toats ok. With Etsy it’s hard to tell.
(Also the fact that there’s not a comma after the ‘Oh’, a colon after you and a period after abuse is really bugging me. It’s probably just a style choice – and this isn’t a term paper – but I still like my threats to have correct punctuation and panache.)
The shop is Black Baroque http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackBaroque
I’ve had similar threats made from her as well.
Have a look at her saccharin shop description and enjoy knowing the truth that lies beneath. Knowledge is power or something.
All this over 1/2 of an inch? Really? The buyer is all butthurt over 1/2 an inch??? This buyer needs to get a fuckin clue, dig out the scissors and trim the damned thing down to fit the size of whatever the fuck her ego is.
Yeah seems like the buyer was willing to let it slide until the seller got nasty about it. And honestly, how hard is it to say 10.5″ in the listing? People buy 8x10s so they can frame them easily. Not everyone is comfortable taking a knife to something they just bought.
If I had to recut the print to fit the frame, I would have to find a t square, pencil, scissors, and still would screw it up somehow. It would take me forever!
If I knew the print was larger, I would just buy a larger frame and mat it , easy peasy.
I understand the neutral.
Well, I understand the neutral. I wouldn’t be able to trim it without a lot of hassle and would probably mess up the print. I am inept like that. However, if the seller had told them the print was bigger, they could have gotten a bigger frame and matted it or something, no cutting needed.
there WAS no buyer butthurt – they answered the seller’s (hidden) butthurt question about why they gave her a neutral with just the facts and no name calling.
Then the seller’s butthurt came out all over the place, in response to the honest answer she’d requested.
So stupid because the point of customer feedback is NOT to get yourself a perfect rating, but to improve what you’re doing – in my non Etsy website, I’ve used complaints and feedback from customers to improve my service over the past 11 years.
Half an inch is a non-negligible amount of space. Trimming that much would seriously throw off the proportions of a work of art.
Fortunately, clip art randomly shat out on an unrelated page of text (no matter how old) isn’t a work of art. But it’s still a fucking hassle and you don’t insult your customers and then tell them to do your job for you.
I wonder if that person is speaking with the Royal We or if she’s like that Neverending Story turtle. “We haven’t spoken to anyone else for thousands of years, so we started talking to ourselves.”
Beyond the vast expanse of fuckery in the seller’s emails, I don’t understand why she thought a neutral merited an email response in the first place. It’s neutral, for fuck’s sake – not good, not bad, just the normal condition.
I feel like this culture of it being the norm to leave positive, even if the experience was really just average and didn’t involve great service or an exceptional product, is part of the same attitude that dictates that even the losing kids soccer team gets foot-high trophies. These people don’t want to earn their accolades anymore, but they expect to just be handed them.
exactly! I could not get over how she went on and on about how they make their prints – for the sole reason of saying, we hope you will think of all the positive things we did for you so reconsider your feedback. In other words, I deserve a medal for doing my job.
How many people kept their participation ribbons for coming in last? We’ve all gotten them, I’m sure. (After all, we are fat, jealous losers.)
How many people kept their 1st, 2nd or 3rd place ribbons?
I think this is an interesting question. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to get a widely applicable answer here. We’re a self-selected group of cynics with standards. I suspect most of us lost our participation ribbons quite quickly through neglect or disinterest. Further, I suspect the general public, and cupcakes in particular, hang onto their faux achievement banners more conscientiously.
chix_nuggets_r_all_lips_and_aholes
October 13, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I can’t even get to the part of the seller being a rude, self-important, cunt. I am still stuck back at the part where she is cutting up antique books to print over them. What in hell’s name craft is this? This is why we can’t have nice things. Some craftard with an ink jet printer is going to cause more damage than all my kids combined.
I just looked closely at her Urchin print “as featured in Coastal Living magazine.” That is a fucking old law book. The reason you have to look for them is that NO ONE wants them, everything is digitized or at least on fiche, and the books have red rot and smell funky (not good old books but nasty old book). With the exceptions of big research law libraries and maybe collectors, laws of the territories is NOT a desirable title. Make one feel better about the allegedly “expensive, antique” books just being old shit that she rips up, but shows she is a glitter sucking, lying twatwaffle.
Do any law libraries still have Matthew Bender books, especially the Bender Binder ones? I used to work for them, many years before computers, and it was such a pain to update those books, adding 89 pages between the old 59 and 60, skipping 200 pages when the new material was less, and having annoying cupcake law students (some were intelligent and serious about the work). I remember one who, when she had to fill out her timesheet, asked, “Is there a code for bullshitting?” No, she was not one of the intelligent ones. But I digress.
I had a friend’s cousin who worked for them too, in the late 80s. MB was bought out by Lexis. Aspen, Wiley, LCP, CBC, Harrison, all gone or bought up by Lexis or West. Most online now so not so much updating. Red rot is very messy but not too gross – just decaying paper/leather that stains hand/clothes. Less gross than mildew or mold.
Good eye, aliceblue. She also appears to have come across an old “Collier’s cyclopedia of commercial and social information blah blah blah…” which you can get a copy worthy of destroying for less than $30. Collectible, if in perfect condition, but hardly “rare” or “expensive.”
Though I doubt the words “Poop or get off the pot” really adds to the value.
Speaking as someone who’s tried to sell a very old book once, condition and rarity plays a huge part in value. If it’s common as dirt and defaced, might as well cut it up because it’s probably worth a dollar. If that.
Totally had this seller and some of her prints in my favorites. Not anymore. Also, these prints would be incredibly easy to make, just so you know.
On top of that, I would be surprised if the buyer is the one that gets in trouble with etsy. I once was in a similar situation where someone was harassing me, and then told me they reported me for harassment! And of course etsy gave me a warning. Such bullshit.
I am guessing it is going to be followed by a bunch of neutrals and negs with whimsicle ways to say how they felt the seller treated them.
I wouldn’t worry about her getting too much from this in the long run.
I bet you my lunch money she’ll make an appearance….you think she was loaded for bear after an unexplained neutral? LOL This will give her rage boner supreme!
OMG – the whole time I was reading this all I could think of was this seller HAD to be my coworker. The frickin attitude and psychosis was soooooo her. But then I remembered her writing style and knew it wasn’t her.
No. Said coworker self-published a book and gave me a signed copy which I tried to read. I couldn’t get past the first paragraph where she wrote the word I’ll as I’ ll. *shudder*
…is it wrong that I’m kind of annoyed with both of them? I’ve bought plenty of awkwardly-sized things in the past, and I just grab the old x-acto knife… :S .5 isn’t *that* much… On the other hand, the seller seems like a creepy stalker for chasing someone (albeit online) for a neutral… :S Fail on every side?
TBH, the one neutral I got in my store, I did convo the giver myself – simply because I wanted to know what I’d gotten wrong, and if they would like me to refund them.
I don’t think it’s creepy to ask why a buyer isn’t satisfied, if you intend to try and put things right for them. On the other hand, if you then tell them that you know where they live and you’re coming for their asses with internet lawyers, that’s a different story…
Notice the customer said that she did cut it to fit. But the thing is…she shouldn’t have to. The seller should have been straight forward and told her the exact size of the print.
What amuses me the most is how the seller seemed annoyed that a customer would e-mail her with a question. Like the seller is some superstar who isn’t to be questioned. I was honestly expecting to see this statement somewhere in the e-mail exchange: “How dare a customer have a question about one of my items!! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I’m BlackBaroque, bitch!”
Oh this is great! Take a look at the feedback SHE leaves. So posivie so “SWEET,”(vomits quietly) so the same fucking thing over, and over, and over – it’s a form thank you. At least rotate 2 or 3 of them you dysfunctional glitter-cunt.
BlackBaroque says:
Buyer, Buyer, we love you! Thank you for your purchase too! You made our day being so sweet! Doing business with you was such a treat! Excellent buyer in every way! Poni gives this buyer 4 paws up! XO, President Poni & Alexandra
I suspect that one day Poni will get so sick of this that “four paws up” will mean that it committed suicide rathr than suffer one more day on Earth with that glitter-cunt (love the term, Aliceblue!).
I have many antique books; my most prized being a copy of Julius Ceasar’s ‘Gallic Wars’ from 1884. All the pages are the same size. I don’t understand what this woman is rambling about. Books have been printed using pretty much the same basic method since the invention of moveable type in the middle ages. So not only is she condescending, she’s a bullshitter to boot.
Also; 12,200 orders fulfilled? This makes me sad. Think of all the books that this evil woman has destroyed to turn into hipster douchebag art. Even mediocre books deserve a little respect
OMG, Puppy Sandwich… I so love it that you have a nineteenth-century copy of De Bello Gallico!!!!! I will now admit my dirty, filthy secret here– that reading this book gave me a decidedly un-dainty girl boner for Julius Caesar. He can cross my Rubicon any day!!!
You can probably find them as free clip art on the internet. Take them and some used book paper to Kinko’s or do it yourself if you have an inkjet printer, and there you go.
All of her images that I looked up are from clip artists. Some are free, others are sold in packages for relatively small fees. A few are even on iStockPhoto.
There are actually a lot of people selling prints on old paper from books on Etsy (with a lot using the same art). I’m sure you could find a seller who is actually nice to buy from instead.
Thank fuck there are still some sane people out here, so glad I found this site! After reading the crap on Etsy forums I seriously started doubting my sanity!
Oh and if anyone is interested I have some lovely correspondence on how to respond to negative feedback just sayin’
ok, so I went through all review pages, and compiled all relevant negative reviews.
August 12, 2010
Admittedly I neglected to thoroughly read the shipping policies, however when I contacted the seller, instead of politely pointing me to the page I had missed, I was told that “You probably should not have ordered through us” if I didnt agree with their policies. Don’t worry BlackBaroque, I won’t anymore! A simple misunderstanding ruined by a terrible response. Not impressed.
August 23, 2010
Very Rude. Will not work with customer over shipping misunderstanding.
Oct 14, 2010
Incredibly rude!!!
Oct 14, 2010
Very grumpy lady ordered some prints and they where printed on questionable text of a book me tined it to her, and she kinda freaked out in an email baack to me. It’s a shame because the prints are lovely and would have ordered more. Butworried about having to deal with such a sour personality!
Dec 23, 2010
Print was great, but the sellers themselves were extremely rude throughout the process. I didn’t receive my package for over three weeks and whenever I would send them a message the overall tone was one of poor customer service and rude “bedside manner”. Although they did work with me, I always felt as if I were a bother to them and they constantly acted superior, using quotation marks to empthasize that I, the buyer, was wrong.
Jan 15, 2011
BEWARE!!!!! Extremely rude seller. I enquired about my missing parcel and was told it was my problem. They did not offer to help me in anyway whatsoever. I had asked for the parcel to be sent to my Mum’s address as she is home all the time to receive parcels. During checkout there is an option to choose the address the parcel is to be shipped so clearly within the rules of Etsy. The address I chose was my Mum’s address – the address was not some random stranger I could not trust. Regardless of whether the order was to be sent to my residence or my Mum’s, the fact remains it has not turned up at either address. Seller was extremely rude during each and every email and was not at all sympathetic to the situation. I put in a paypal dispute and heard nothing from the seller nor have I ever received the order. An extremely negative experience and my first on Etsy. Thankfully sellers like this on Etsy are rare indeed.
Mar 24, 2011
I received damaged product from this shop and they refused to replace the item or take responsibility to not appropriately protecting their product.
Jul 1, 2011
BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY.
Sep 6, 2011
So rude when all I wanted was another print that wasn’t screwed up. Seller poorly and cheaply packages these prints and then gave me a 24 hour time limit to respond to them on labor day weekend. Didn’t work for me. Think I’ll make my own now. since i cant have the one i paid for. can’t be that hard right?
You know, I know I’m not an etsy superstar and I don’t write a fricking novel in my descriptions or have catchy titles or belong to admin’s 5 fav treasury teams. But I am an artist, and I do sell prints and this is why I just list the fucking image size and the paper size clearly in actual measurements. Because I’m persnickety – I also have a graphic that shows how the fucking image is positioned on the paper.
And you know what? Being literal and concise — I have never experienced this problem. I know, I’m dull as dirt, right?
After reading one of the (pauses to count) 18 paragraphs in one of their listings, well, my eyes glazed over and I suffered amazement that they have sold that much. Who the fuck reads all that?
I love how the seller refers to “people like her” as pretty much idiots, but yet when the buyer suggests that the sizing could be explained better, it’s considered harassment.
…because she’s made $120,000 off of Etsy buyers so far, and hasn’t paid a cent in taxes? Ya gotta do something to launder all that cash so the govvmint doesn’t find out…
But how does the dog drive the golf cart? He has no thumbs, so he can’t steer and IDK how he’d work the pedals and still be able to see where he’s going.
0
kyjellybutthurt
October 14, 2011 at 6:37 am
“We pimped it out ourselves, spray painting it and all. Now Poni has inherited it. We love to have wine and go for a drive in our neighborhood. All the little girls think I am Barbie. The kids in the neighborhood love to go for a ride. Sometimes Poni and I just go out for a quick ride and end up getting home 3 hrs later so many kids want a ride. The price of fame!”
oh dear God, imagine her rolling down the street in that, wine in hand, screaming at the kids “nonsense! I am not drunk, now stop harassing me or I will ::hiccup:: call my lawyer.”
“We bought this for our other little boy Dakota before he passed away.” I thought she meant an actual little boy and was horrified that her young son had died. Then I realized she probably meant her last dog and was free to ask WHY you would “pimp it out” like a Barbie car for your little boy Dakota.
There’s an ice cream parlor by my sister’s house. Super old-fashioned, everything in a lacy-candy-Easter sickly green and pink motif, with some creepy-ass Alice in Wonderland murals. They haven’t redecorated the place in probably thirty years, maybe more. Now I see they were just waiting for this woman. She’s got that same quaintly feminine nightmare style, but hers is so much more modern.
I have to admit, the existence of the husband unnerves me. The decor is a symptom of a kind of crazy that shouldn’t get that far if anyone is around to stop it.
So she has a kitchen with unreal amounts of counter space, plenty of natural light, and a special stovetop unit for lobster pots, right next to the “cooking sink.” And she chooses to focus on her pink toaster and her “gorgeous goblets” that she bought at Bergdorf Goodman. Because actual cooking is too much trouble — but thank god, Handsome loves to cook!
When I look at that kitchen, I think of the nearly two decades I spent in New York City, cooking and baking in 18″x 14″ ovens, in kitchens with less than a square foot of counter space. I think of the Rube Goldberg contraptions I used to build just to have enough room to place my goddamn cooling racks. And then I want to set that goddamn pink toaster on fire.
(Disclaimer, because I have been to law school: The preceding sentence is not an expression of express or implied intent to actually set that goddamn pink toaster on fire.)
Is it bad that I would really love this house if someone hadn’t vomited Pepto all over the walls? She strikes me as the type to use up WAY too much blue painter’s tape. -_-
it means the iron heart.gallic wars 1884 was a first edition, signed by ceasar. i’ve got that one too. can’t put it in my bookcase because all the pages are different in size.. that’s because “special people” were hired to print this jewel. and apparently “special people”buy this, tear out the pages and sell them to “special people”….
That buyer had no chance of getting a sane response out of this seller. Poor lady. She answered in earnest, honestly, nothing mean. Seller lady came into it purely loaded for bear and to lower the boom. What a sad, little, mean person.
Years ago, someone told me: Look at an argument. Odds are that the person doing the most talking is WRONG. Looks like this is a great example of that.
I’m new-ish to Etsy but have been selling on ebay since ’98. I have 100% feedback but over the years, you can’t help but get complaints and some negatives. And I have dealt with some genuinely dumb buyers. Examples: Not reading descriptions, breaking stuff and THEN wanting a refund. One lady blamed me for what the post office clearly did. Anyway…my point is I turned and told my family about my annoyance and shit but then wrote to the person and just politely asked what I could do to fix it and then DID it. And then put them on my “no fucking way” list for future sales. Done.
This seller needs formal therapy to deal with her issues rather than waiting like a spider to verbally jump on buyers with legit issues. She’s the definition of a grown up bully.
You find the account, it’s enlightening to ready the unhappy comments. Talking about damaged or poorly printed at the sellers fault, and their rudeness in return when you try to work out an exchange.
The seller got a little giddy at the end, but I totally agree with them at first. To leave a neutral for something as petty having to trim a print 1/2 an inch? What a moron. I would have been irked,too. Even if she listed that it was approx., PEOPLE DO NOT READ!!!
I can not even tell you how many times I have had people ask the most basic questions that are listed 3 times over in my shop.
Wow, this is a mean seller….I can see where he/she was provoking this situation way beyond what was necessary. And honestly, if the paper is 8 x 10.5 or 8.5 x 10, that should be clearly stated that there is ‘excess’ paper. A bit obnoxious. I’m an Etsy seller and I would have bit my tongue, apologized to the customer and promptly corrected my listing’s print information (since technically, antique paper or no, I would have been in the wrong). I’ve had some unreasonable customers that I wanted to say some not so kind things to (like the above seller) but I bit my tongue. I’ve almost always been able to have the difficult customer walk away reasonably happy with the discussion, not threatened. Many have been return customers.
Yes, there is the whole issue of THE ITEM NOT BEING AS DESCRIBED, even if it is by a half-inch, which the seller refuses to take responsibility for.
I’m half-tempted to buy something from them, hope it’s “defective,” and then dress them down royally when they threaten to sue me. Harassment? Two replies to a conversation are harassment? Slander? First off, it’s libel, and secondly, you’d have to prove your business had been harmed by it. What a dope.
Actually, I think the buyer should have replied with, “Excuse me, dear, could you have your mommy or daddy come to the computer? I realize I’m discussing business with an 8-year-old who doesn’t understand legal realities and good business practices.”
Their polices does have the word…Approximate size…in the description. But this is no excuse for not having it listed in the listing.
My favorite part of their policies is this…If your pkg is lost due to the Post Office, etc, we still deserve good feedback from you as your pkg was sent. If you feel you cannot buy from us in the event that your pkg may be lost, you are unwilling to buy insurance or a delivery confirmation, and you feel you would be unable to give us good feedback in this situation, then you should not buy from Black Baroque.
These are the terms of our shop. If you buy from Black Baroque you are agreeing to those terms. Thank you for stopping by our shop. Have a nice day!
HOW do I know they even shipped the package…I can easily get a paypal refund by filing a complaint!
I understand that it is frustrating when a customer doesn’t read policies thoroughly, but isn’t it the seller’s job to answer questions and make the customer’s experience as pleasant and hassle-free as possible, even if a problem pops up that isn’t technically the seller’s fault?
I’m going to guess that this chick didn’t do any research into starting a business before doing so, because any business professional will tell you that good customer service is one of the most important aspects of a business.
Also: those are some pretty intense threats she made in her final e-mail. I am hoping that this person reported her to Etsy.
Between viewing that flickr stream of her living space, which looks like she’s a highly anal-retentive pink smurf who lives in a lacquered cupcake, and the negative feedback she gets (when it goes bad, it goes BAD), it really must gall Alexandra (not to mention Poni, who, while I love dogs I gotta say, looks like she was gifted with an extra puppeh chromosome) not to have 100% positive feedback. This is a “no wire hangers” bitch for sure.
Something very similar happened to me with my CardboardSea shop, I got a letter from a customer saying (in a less than positive way) that she had specifically asked for me for measurement, And that she was holding the item in her hand and I.had.measured.it.wrong! And you know, I was kinda pissed, then I realized, OMG, Gwen you dumb shit You measured that wrong – d’oh! So I apologized (very nicely) and sent her back her money.. and she sent me back my thing. And then she even left me nice feedback… What the hell, I had No Idea I coulda called Koppin and Pastin and sued her for being stupid enough to try to buy something from an idiot like meself…
Hold the goddamned presses…er, inkjet printers. I have a copy of one of the “Rare” and “Expensive” books she tore apart right here in my sticky little fingers, “Collier’s Cyclopedia of commercial and social information….” Guess what? All the pages are the same size. Now, there’s an off chance that the reason her’s is “rare” is that there was some printing snafu and so there was a limited printing of freakishly poorly sized pages, but honestly, I think she’s full of crap. ALL OF THE PAGES ARE 8″x10.5″.
The most beautiful thing about this lady, I think, is that she is printing on acid damaged paper (and badly masking it in her photoshopped example prints) and making money off it because it’s *~*ANTIQUE*~*. Twelve bucks for a trite little inkjet print that has a shorter lifespan than the average parrot?? SIGN ME UP.
Yeah, I was wondering if she screened at all for acidity and brittleness when choosing books – the era I’d guess she’s pulling pages from, I’d assume her source pages are all pretty heavily loaded with lignin. But if they were already brittle, they wouldn’t make it through her inkjet, so there’s that.
The first time I ever used Etsy, I had to cancel one of my orders. The seller accepted to do so, but since I had had no real interaction with them, I selected a “neutral” feedback. The next day I got a message, and all it said was “WHY U GIVE NEUTRAL FEEDBACK???” She wrote an awful customer review about me, and I felt forced to “kiss and make up” :/ I switched my review of her to “positive”.
I would have been glad to have done that if she had just talked to me like a normal human being– but she just freaked me out. I didn’t buy anything off Etsy for a long time after that.
The seller is CLEARLY harrassing the buyer. How absurd to threaten to call your lawyer when you, the seller, instigated the conversation and took psychotic to a whole new level by threatening the purchaser and finding out “where she works”. Creepy. Just creepy. Oh yeah, any lawyer would laugh at this. Good luck trying to find one to take it!
Wow, just wow. That rivals my bank’s customer service, and I had a manager call me a stupid bitch and hang up on me once.
All she had to do was contact the buyer and offer her a replacement or a refund. Those “prints” can’t cost that much to make. My shit costs WAY more to make than a print and the only negative I ever had, I bit the bullet, offered a full credit for the item price, and got a positive in return.
Her house scares me. It’s gorgeous, yes, but at the same time it’s… wrong. It’s like the inside of a doll’s house, it looks like no one lives there, and I mean she has a husband but there’s nothing of him there either. There’s just… frills. Seriously, it gives me the shivers.
This woman verges on stupidity. Given the prints, and what shes doing, the claims that shes a “graphic designer who worked for agencies in NYC” is a big fat lie. I say this based on the few negative comments – they out her about not knowing how to do a decent print job. A skill you need on a above average level if you don’t want ripped off as a Graphic designer.
I love how she first says that cutting the print down to 8 x 10 “would be impossible” and in that same paragraph chides the buyer for leaving a neutral over something “so easy to take care of.”
I suppose if I ever get neutral feedback and it’s not explained right there in the feedback, I might convo them and ask “Is there anything I can do to make your purchase experience more pleasurable?” Short of giving them oral sex, I mean.
This seller clearly stalked the buyer from the get-go. It’s so surreal I still can’t wrap my head around it. I’ll toss in a guess of Borderline Personality Disorder. Nah, that’d be an insult to people with BPD!
To me, neutral feedback means “I paid money and got the thing I was expecting and everything was adequate.”
I reserve positive feedback for something extra outside of the defined parameters of the transaction. I think that it’s a shame that we now live in a world where positive feedback is given out purely for just not fucking up. It’s like saying “I entered into this transaction expecting you to completely fuck me over, and I am pleasantly surprised to discover that you have done as the terms of our agreement required you to do.”
It’s like giving every kid at school sports day a medal just for turning up.
Agreed. It’s one reason why I hate writing letters of recommendation; it conflicts with my senses of accuracy and honesty. I usually offer specific details about what the person did well, and try to be as positive and sincere as I can, but I’m just not a person capable of blowing rainbow bubbles with glitter and sparkles.
I mean, what’s more useful:
a) GREAT SELLER!!!!! A++++++ WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN!!!!!
or
b) Seller sent item properly; was as described. Packaged well. Would buy from again.
I’m kinda torn between saying “OH HOW ADORB!!” or puking from all the pink and shabby chic shit all over the place.
And either I feel sorry for her dog and her husband not having ONE masculine THING anywhere in her house and store (note: She redecorated the “Men’s Dept” to something more Shi-Shi & Fru-Fru) OR figure it takes a real man to make that place his home.
OH THE DICHOTOMY! I either need more coffee or a stiff drink.
That dog is seriously cute. He does somewhat resemble a pony. A fuzzy one.
My husband leaves the home decor to me, since he doesn’t care much about that stuff, but I am very careful to choose things that are not ridiculously feminine. I do like ridiculously feminine things, but those are either in “my” areas of the bedroom or packed away for when I finally clear the spare room for crafting space.
It looked bad from the start when the seller has gigantic walls of text, compared to the buyer’s polite, succinct remarks. Very happy to see the Etsy buyer stick to her/his guns, don’t let the cupcakes get you down!
Assholes are everywhere and they know you’ll tire before they do. I wish I could hug this customer. Not in a creepy way…well, maybe slightly creepy. She stood her same-ass ground in the face of Crazy and that is hard to do…especially over an extended period of time.
A negative comment she left for one of her buyers:
“Buyer noted in her feedback that our print was pixelated and it looked as if it had been printed on. This is one of our best sellers that we have been selling for over a year now and all have loved it. We are not sure what she meant by her comment about printing since she did not contact us before leaving feedback, but this is an art “print” and it is made by being printed. We question a person’s motive when they mark the box neutral, but leave negative comments. We state in our policies if for any reason you are not happy with your order to please contact us before leaving feedback so we may do all we can to put a smile back on your face and in your heart.”
hirefrank just announced Etsy’s abandoned lots of their new we’ll tell you again which sellers are faves from their lineup. They already nixed the value of Feedback, I never use it or look at it because there’s a more than a 50/50 chance on Etsy that you’ll never get what you thought you paid for. This seller/buyer conversation is indicative of the bottoming out at Etsy from inside out. The source of this crap is Etsy itself.
I just have a mental picture of someone with way too much free time to dink with doily-land decorating and extra-lengthy butthurt emails. Waay too much free time.
And I suspect the “husband*” is buried in the cellar. Alongside all the other “husbands”.
as a painter I see the value of not destroying someone else’s priceless artform (a book) to create your own. Truly imaginative, creative people create something from nothing–that’s one of the definitions of magic.
Wait a fucking second. The seller is obviously out of their damn mind. Why didn’t they refund the buyer the 1/100th of a penny in labor for cutting a 1/2 an inch? Problem solved.
@#181… if she was cutting up anything other than crap that hobos wouldn’t even stuff into their trousers for warmth, I’d be inclined to agree. That she chooses to cut up old tomes of law etc., I have no real problem with. Calling it “art” and trying to copyright it, on the other hand…
What DOES get up my nose is quotes like this:
“♥Poni our puppy is the president and he handles all business matters. I am just a lowly artist. Please direct all inquiries to him.”
In other words, “Shit goes down, and the dog cops the flak. Sue *him* if you think you’re being shafted.”
The vitriol continues apace: “If your pkg is lost due to the Post Office, etc, we still deserve good feedback from you as your pkg was sent.” – excuse me?? By that logic I can stick a poorly-wrapped dog turd in a box and send it to the wrong address, and still expect positive feedback.
Side note: Am awaiting a reply regarding her blatantly contradicting S&H charges. Stay tuned!
I work for a law firm and I am proud to say we do not employee douchebag lawyers that run around suing people for Etsy harassment or because you stole their crying eagle. Etsy is giving our profession a bad name. Can I sue for emotional distress now?
October 13, 2011 at 4:26 pm
What is it with these people and lawyers?!
October 13, 2011 at 4:29 pm
People like this don’t know how to communicate with normal human beings and have to hire interpreters. Unfortunately, they’ve yet to discover a reliable human to reptoid translator, and lawyers were the next closest thing.
October 13, 2011 at 6:43 pm
You are absolutely correct. Right now my husband is going through this with one of his customers. It’s not that the situation is even close to needing professional help, the people just refuse to talk to him themselves.
This is one of the worst Etsy seller/customer interactions I’ve ever read.
October 13, 2011 at 7:02 pm
I’m not sure where they got the notion it’s ok to talk to people like that! What was wrong with the buyer’s initial reply anyway? Blegh! I think they need more than just interpreters…
October 13, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Exactly! They do advertise their prints as being 10″ long so it was a completely legitimate complaint.
I think the seller was a collections telemarketer previously, the “we know where you work and are going to harass you there” is the oldest trick in that book. Too bad Etsy will never scold this asshole for “being mean,” she makes them too much money.
October 13, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Seriously, the correct response to the buyer’s initial reply was “I’m very sorry for the listing mistake.”
October 13, 2011 at 11:19 pm
If the size listed was approximate, it should have been noted as approximate. Just because they and a lot of their customers deal in antique prints enough to just ~know~ that’s how it is doesn’t mean they should assume that every single person who might buy from them knows that by 8×10″ they mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 8×10″.’ And if that’s really the case, wouldn’t it behoove them to list the actual size of each print, so that the people know what kind of custom framing and/or cutting of prints they’re getting themselves into?
But I guess that would require them not being sacks of crap.
October 14, 2011 at 10:47 am
Seriously, if it was me and the size listed was 8 by 10″ I would have bought an 8 by 10″ frame and when it got to be would have been pretty pissed that the print wouldn’t fit… You don’t have to deal in antiques to be attracted to the art, and complete disclosure would have been a better route to go, but you’re right, that would require them to let go and stop being such an ass hat…
October 14, 2011 at 10:48 am
oops… Should have been when it got to me…
October 14, 2011 at 1:12 am
It’s pretty hard to find a decent, nice translator that speak douchebagish.
October 14, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Not to be rude, but I believe that’s “douchecanoesh”
October 14, 2011 at 11:02 am
The best part? The seller is totally the type of person that would start posting in the comments defending themselves and shit. Those are my favs!!
October 15, 2011 at 6:59 pm
I love that you are my sister.
I wouldn’t be surprised if etsy punished the buyer. Someone cries “MEANIE!” and that’s all the evidence etsy police need.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Sounds more srs bsns than “I’m telling my mommy” or “I’ll talk about you to my girlfriends” because everyone will believe anything you tell them on the Internet.
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
I think when they say lawyer, they are confused with preschool teacher.
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
As a preschool teacher, this is exactly how their little arguments go…whining and crying for no damn good reason.
The buyer could have left a negative comment..instead she did neutral. And I’m glad she changed it… being a dick about something doesn’t make things better!
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Suspicious how if you scroll through their pages and pages of positive reviews you’ll find clusters of 10-20 that all have the same comment. “Love it” or just a smiley emoticon. 20 people all rated them on the same day and all just decided to leave a smiley?
Yeah, that’s classy.
October 13, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Not to mention a good reason for the positive feedback. Side note, love your screen name <3
October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm
It’s shortened from LeCoeurDuFer – which I use for most screennames – because it was amateur translated to mean “The Heart of Iron” in English.
Most people think it’s douche-y, but then I tell them that I have a mechanical heart valve and it’s just my way of making lemonade when life jams lemons in your ventricles.
October 13, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Your point is taken and a valid one, but as a former etsy seller, I can vouch that there are many people who will buy multiple items and then just leave the same feedback for all of them. (And this happens a lot when people have a wide variety of inexpensive items, which I’m assuming the book pages are) It was easier to figure out back when you could see everyone’s usernames in the feedback, but I’m guessing that’s what it is.
October 13, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Where is a link to the seller?
October 13, 2011 at 6:49 pm
@Facepalm, go ahead, label me a wimp, but maybe I’m in the minority. When I purchase several items from the same seller, I word each feedback differently, maybe focusing on one aspect (packaging, communication, etc.). My first Etsy purchases were multiples from the same seller and he used the same feedback 4x, but it didn’t bother me (selling knitting and crocheting supplies that his sister had accumulated and then she died…maybe it wasn’t true, but I was a newbie and the prices were good).
In any case, I don’t go overboard with praise, but if I had a good experience, why not extend a honest compliment? Then again, I have all of 21 purchases, so it’s not a big deal.
(I know you’re not being defensive or offensive. I just wanted to put in my two cents.)
October 14, 2011 at 5:16 am
You know I had a friend who used to say “when life gives you lemons, put them down your shirt and become a drag queen.”
October 14, 2011 at 3:03 pm
I was wondering the same thing…maybe they bought their own things and put positive feedback.
and, I’m so jazzed I got 156 likes
I’m a cheeseball.
October 13, 2011 at 7:57 pm
So, I found the account and I’m trying to find the feedback in question just for kicks. But… can you not sort feedback by positive, neutral, negative? Is Etsy going to make me haul my ass through 175 pages of replies to look for the bad ones? Am I missing something here?
October 13, 2011 at 9:06 pm
They were going to let you sort by negatives until they realized it meant they’d have to take the Etsy server offline for calling out.
October 13, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Seeing as this conversation happened very recently, I’d say the feedback was either removed or is the neutral one one the first page.
October 13, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Wait wait wait.
Are you saying the feedback could be removed? For what – objecting to the douchenozzly behavior of the seller? Isn’t that kind of the point of being able to leave feedback??
October 14, 2011 at 8:51 pm
I believe you have the ability to remove feedback if you wish. I had a lady send me a framed print, and it came in way later than promised, and slightly damaged. She had really great reviews all across the board, so I figured it was a fluke, and left her a neutral review. It’s gone now though, so I think it was removed… Which is ridiculous.
October 16, 2011 at 10:59 am
Plus, I’m looking at the feedback, and where does this seller get that she has some 12,000 feedback ratings? I see on the account that it only has like 3500..
October 13, 2011 at 8:20 pm
October 13, 2011 at 8:44 pm
This is endlessly inspiring, yo.
October 14, 2011 at 4:54 am
I love this so much.
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
its screams “i am self important”. Its such a load of crap
October 13, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Well, the seller, her dog and bird are always right. It’s an Etsy rule. The bird said so.
October 14, 2011 at 12:16 am
This whole buyer/seller exchange makes me long to cry for the dead bird.
October 14, 2011 at 9:16 am
I cry for the bird that’s still alive and living with that twatwaffle.
October 13, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Maybe if they had one, they could explain copyright to them. One of their pieces is a print of Alice from the old books. Their cut and paste info on the item states: “We hold the copyrights to all of our prints.”
For some odd reason it drives me batshit when people do that.
October 13, 2011 at 5:03 pm
The reason there are so many Alice in Wonderland images on Etsy is because the original text and illustrations are no longer copyrighted.
“When the Alice books were published, they were copyright protected until 42 years after the first publication or 7 years after the author’s death, whichever was the longer. Later, the 1911 Act replaced the 1842 Copyright Act which extended the period to 50 years after the author’s death.
This means that the copyright on “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” subsisted until 1907 and that of “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there” until 1948. As Tenniel died in 1914, his illustrations came out of copyright in 1964.”
October 13, 2011 at 5:19 pm
That’s true, but the seller certainly doesn’t hold the copyright either.
October 13, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Exactly why it makes me crazy, I think. It’s like downloading a book from Project Gutenberg, then selling it on Cafepress and saying you own it.
October 13, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Or that you wrote it.
October 13, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Rackety frack. I got into a huge flame war with someone about that years ago. There was a website called “Themestream” & it paid .10 per page view. The chick was posting shit from famous dead people with a tag like “these tips should come in handy…” I know it was only a dime, but she’d then flog the horse all over the place & rack up hundreds of views. So she’d make $50 bucks coercing stupid people to click on ‘her’ article written by Tennyson.
October 14, 2011 at 12:28 pm
It drives you batshit because either she’s ignorant and self-entitled, or evil and knowingly lying. Neither one is acceptable.
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
You’d think people into being “above” the crappiness of society, and into the good and the happy and the handmade and cupcakey, they wouldn’t want to be part of the system, using “the man” etc…
October 13, 2011 at 7:09 pm
“handmade and the cupcakey” made me giggle, I will now describe moments of happiness as moments of cupcakeyness.
October 13, 2011 at 10:41 pm
They’re cutting apart rare (according to their descriptions) old books and slapping copyright free images on them, probably with an inkjet printer. They’re not “above” anything IMO.
I hope to fuck those books are in unsalvageable condition before they destroy them because it breaks my heart to think people are “upcycling” actual valuable books to slap their “art” on them.
But I’m an actual printmaker who hand-pulls prints from an etching press, so what do I know?
October 14, 2011 at 5:21 am
THANK YOU. I was starting to get twitchy fingers about CUTTING UP ANTIQUE BOOKS. As a collector of antique children’s books (and, I do it for love, not value, so I am perfectly happy with a kid’s scribbled name on the cover, or a note from Great-Aunt Edna, Christmas 1920) I cringed over the notion of hacking prints out of books.
There was an awful problem a few years ago where someone (s) was sneaking in to the Library of Congress and cutting all of the color plates out of old botanical books and field guides and then selling them. This is why we can’t have nice things (like open stacks).
October 14, 2011 at 10:45 am
This person doesn’t actually cut the prints out of books. She cuts the pages out of books and runs them through her printer to print antique looking book plate images on the old paper.
October 14, 2011 at 3:08 pm
I would rather have an inscription in my books…makes me feel like they’ve lived a full life.
(I have had a book taken apart because I liked some of the art. To be fair, the covers were ripped off, and it was going to the junk pile. I need to have them matted and framed some day soon)
October 14, 2011 at 7:38 am
I’m just a nerd who loves books but I feel the same way!
October 14, 2011 at 8:36 am
I didn’t even want to go there, or I’d cry….
October 14, 2011 at 8:06 pm
seriously why do this to a book in the first place! it is ok if you cant fix said book. It is just as bad as the people who take old books, rebind them terribly and ask mega money for them.
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
I think all Etsy sellers have lawyers like all bigots have a [insert race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation here] friend.
October 13, 2011 at 7:30 pm
I’ll have you know some of my best friends are lawyers.
No, wait, that was cats, some of my best friends are cats. My mistake.
October 14, 2011 at 2:15 am
I want to give you all the thumbs up spiders…
October 14, 2011 at 7:45 am
To be fair, cats and lawyers operate with the same approximate level of altruism. It’s a common mistake.
October 14, 2011 at 10:00 am
Comparing lawyers to cats is highly insulting. To the cats, that is.
October 14, 2011 at 1:32 pm
hang on, i wanna get this right, cos we’re just setting up our shop… do we have to have a lawyer? or is one of our cats a reasonable substitute, since we’re kinda low on funds…? or could we like… measure everything we sell and skip this whole bit? OR could we have a “lawyer” that we threaten people with, but like… don’t actually have… or would people see through that kinda thing and just kinda… laugh at us?
October 18, 2011 at 2:09 pm
UndercoverAngel, you need this cat.
October 13, 2011 at 5:35 pm
These people do not have lawyers anymore than they have common sense.
October 13, 2011 at 5:58 pm
And they no doubt don’t have lawyers who DO have common sense. I’d turn someone like that down in a heartbeat.
October 13, 2011 at 7:00 pm
As a lawyer, I can tell you that people seem to think we have magical powers that can right every wrong ever committed against them, and that a nastygram from someone with “Esq.” after their names solves all problems.
Unless I missed that class at law school, I assure you we are not magical.
October 13, 2011 at 7:17 pm
However, I did learn in law school that libel=written and slander=spoken. If you are going to use fancy legal terms to make threats, at least take two seconds to google them.
October 13, 2011 at 7:40 pm
That’s one thing I’ve noticed in every single one of these, “I’m gonna get my lawyer!” threats. They all lack the basic understanding between the libel and slander. If they had that much real experience sending their lawyers after people I’d think they might know what the offense was. But then again I always hope and dream people are smarter than they really are.
October 14, 2011 at 12:19 am
Well, and my question on that whole ‘slander’ bit (knowing they meant libel, indeed) was…how is it even libel if it’s an email between parties?
October 14, 2011 at 11:25 am
They definitely have problems asserting any sort of defamation claim, and are certainly missing elements specific to libel, but for the love, at least get the whole slander vs. libel thing correct. Is that too much to ask for?
October 14, 2011 at 4:36 am
Slander sounds more dramatic somehow. I can imagine someone in a Victorian gown making the Munch face and exclaiming “Gasp! That’s slander!”.
For libel I just see some bespectacled man with thinning hair, in a brown suit, sitting at a desk sighing: “Yes… We might have a case for libel here…”
October 13, 2011 at 9:05 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 9:06 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 9:46 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Aha, see, that’s EXACTLY what I would expect a magical lawyer to say.
They always deny it.
October 14, 2011 at 12:03 am
Really? My boss keeps offering to write nasty letters to anyone and everyone who does me the slightest wrong, under the premise that sternly-worded letters from lawyers are indeed magical, and will make all my problems go away.
I would rather get paid, honestly.
October 14, 2011 at 4:54 am
But lawyers are magical! And Trumpy was magical. Therefore Trumpy WAS A LAWYER!
Movie sign!
Hey, anything for a gratuitous MST3K reference.
October 14, 2011 at 12:48 pm
“Trumpy! You can do legal things!”
October 14, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I love you so hard right now, fluffermom.
October 14, 2011 at 7:35 am
My daughter is a lawyer and now working for our company. She has to constantly remind her father that she can’t “magic” things to happen the way he wants them to.
October 14, 2011 at 10:12 am
No, it was at the bar exam that they handed out the magic wands.
I always loved that my professors repeatedly told us, “If you ever have a client that insists on suing ‘for the principle of the thing,’ then RUN DON’T WALK in the opposite direction.”
October 14, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Unless they pay you a huge amount in advance? Even then, they’re probably the sort of people who would turn around and sue YOU, their lawyer, when they didn’t get the magic happy ending they wanted.
October 13, 2011 at 7:54 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 7:56 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 7:57 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 8:39 pm
they’re keeping me in broadband and norcos. Lawyers, not crazy fucks.
October 14, 2011 at 7:48 am
How is it that most of their feedback using the same wording? “great communication and very personable” is repeated over and over. How many people genuinely comment on a shop’s owner? Usually comments focus more on the product.
October 14, 2011 at 3:44 pm
And how is it that they can afford lawyers?
February 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm
The 350% profit margin on crap stolen from a cemetery probably helps.
October 13, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I’d like to know that shop name, so I never accidentally purchase from it.
Also, I really HATE when people initiate a conversation and then when it doesn’t go their way say “don’t talk to me”. You started the discussion. Stop replying if you want it to stop.
October 13, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Yes, please let us know what shop it is so I don’t accidentally stumble upon it.
October 13, 2011 at 4:32 pm
I want to know the name of the shop so I can buy something from them and give them a neutral review.
I’m bored.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I love you, NanaB.
October 13, 2011 at 5:04 pm
BlackBaroque, but they seem to have a problem with numbers. The buyer was annoyed that “8×10″ was not accurate and the seller boasts of 12,000 sales, but it’s actually 3,523 (unless they have more than one shop). Oh, and although they take the pages from antique maps, they “hold the copyright for all prints.” I give up.
October 13, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Actually, it’s 12256 sales (items sold) and 3,523 feedback. So, people bought multiple items. 99% positive isn’t really that impressive with those numbers, IMO.
October 13, 2011 at 5:19 pm
You’re correct. I didn’t realize this until I read further down the comments. Thanks!
(That wasn’t condescending was it? Because I honestly appreciate the clarification. And I don’t know where you work.)
October 13, 2011 at 6:07 pm
agree – only 28% leave feed back.
so 72% of items purchases were not shiny enough to make buyers happy enough to leave a comment, emoticon, or even to only click the +.
It enough for me to tear apart a dictionary myself & find a sharpie in the junk drawer.
Hey – I’ve even got a red one…
October 14, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Well, you get the option to leave feedback for every single item sold. So… 1/4th of people buying from you leaving feedback is pretty bad. Especially given that most people seem to have more like 60% or more leaving feedback. I just checked mine, it’s over 75%.
Also, I don’t have anything less than 100% positive because any time a customer has a problem, I try to resolve it without being a raging cunt.
And given I’m off my meds, well. I’ll let that speak for itself.
October 13, 2011 at 5:11 pm
How difficult is it to get an accurate measurement on something? Their bullshit three paragraph response to “It was described as 8×10 and was 8×10.5″ was ridiculous and somewhat irrelevant.
Get a fuckin’ ruler!
October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Considering all the boilerplate crap she puts in her listings (with little black hearts, too—as if she’s a goth cupcake), she could put in a sizing explanation.
October 13, 2011 at 5:29 pm
She’s from the Legolas school of measuring: she REFUSES.
Y’know, especially since for framing purposes that half-inch is the difference between having to size up or not.
October 14, 2011 at 2:12 am
A: Whenever I was stuck dealing with the public, we strictly adhered to the rule that the customer is always right. Even low-class, minimum wage places like McDonalds have staff with enough professionalism to respect that rule.
B: If it wasn’t the size stated, then it wasn’t! You can’t argue that away!
C: That stuff about “everyone” preferring their pics a little oversized is silly! If your art turns out too big, you need a new fram or to cut the image which is indeed a shame, and yet, if your art is a bit UNDERsized, well, that’s why god gave us matting, no biggie!
February 6, 2012 at 2:04 pm
It’s the difference from a cheap to reasonably-priced standard frame and sell-your-firstborn custom framing, too.
October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Shit! Thanks for the info. I had some of their shit faved. Fixed that real quick!
October 14, 2011 at 2:19 am
Don’t you wish we could “hide” or “block” people on Etsy the way you can on Facebook? We’ve learned of at least a dozen shops to avoid just from Regretsy talk, and I already forget most of their names. I’m afraid of forgetting & accidentally walking into an ugly scene like this.
October 13, 2011 at 5:33 pm
I actually knew that from the avatar – but in my defense I bought from them several months ago. Funny thing is – I almost gave them a neutral as well because the print was 8 by 10 and it wouldn’t fit in the frame I had for it – now I see I avoided a lawsuit.
October 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm
OOOhhhh…I love this…the Regretsy Detectives on the case! LOL!! I love you Mugs!!
October 13, 2011 at 6:52 pm
You’re a sweetie, but I (among some other Regretsy detectives) didn’t realize—at first—that the seller was talking about total sales, not feedback.
October 13, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Who the fuck in their right mind thinks ‘President Poni’ is an intimidating name?
October 14, 2011 at 11:31 am
Vice President Fifi?
October 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Done. Keep y’all posted.
October 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
*gets comfy and eats her bowl of popcorn*
October 13, 2011 at 7:13 pm
NanaB, If I wasn’t married (and hetero) I’d marry you. Or at least offer to be your housemaid!
October 13, 2011 at 9:07 pm
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October 13, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Yes! Me drunk and me respond too! I have a long list of stores I refuse to give my business, and I’d like this one added to the list… why yes, I do have to knit my own clothes, why do you ask?
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I’d like to know who they are as well.
October 13, 2011 at 5:17 pm
BlackBaroque
October 13, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Thanks!
October 13, 2011 at 6:39 pm
I just did an Etsy search for “blackbaroque” using my phone and it auto corrected to “black arians”. DamnYouAutoCorrect!
October 15, 2011 at 10:11 am
I just tried to type Etsy into my web browser and my brain autocorrected it to Regretsy. I’d say DamnYouBrain, but it knew exactly what I meant.
October 13, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Of course they have to reply. It’s classic Regretsy-style butthurt:
LAST WORD IS MINE!
October 13, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Search Handmade on Etsy for “antique book prints”. She’s on the first page by relevancy. You’re going to have to click the items to find the icon.
Don’t send her messages when you find her, though. I just agree that a person like this doesn’t need my business.
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Found it. And until this post, I never realized that Antique Book Prints were something I needed. I just won’t be buying them from WhinyOwl.
October 13, 2011 at 9:29 pm
From the comments left in the feedback it appears that she literally just sends the pages through the printer, so even for quality’s sake you should buy elsewhere. It even looks like her designs are just modge podged or colored from images she didn’t draw/design/take. So fire up Gimp and tear up an old dictionary from Good Will.
October 13, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Well, duh, it’s a printer. That’s how you make prints, right?
…Right?? Whiny McOwl is pretty sure that’s how that works.
October 14, 2011 at 12:20 am
I have a 1932 copy of Willem van Loon’s Geography of the World. I could NEVER do anything to it. It’s fucking amazing.
Besides, it’s only worth $30.00 and I’d rather read it myself.
October 14, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Wow, little did I know the old dictionary from the 60′s I have was a GOLDMINE waiting to happen.
October 13, 2011 at 5:30 pm
PRRINT undercuts BlackBaroque by $2.00.
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
…and by that I mean it’s kind of hilarious to see identical works side by side with such a blatant price difference. How does the more expensive one not get passed over?
What must the profit margin for these things be? You spend what…$3.00 max on an outdated encyclopedia at a thrift store with 1000 pages in it and run it through an ink jet printer or bust out your standard large stamp set (because I’ve seen the same damned peacock 8 times now…and that owl is pretty ubiquitous too)and crank dozens of these things out in a sitting…
It’s probably possible to undercut all of them by 95% and still turn a decent profit when factoring in time and materials invested. (Making a substantial amount of money off this cheap crap is another factor entirely…but that’s where the bolstering comes in.)
October 13, 2011 at 6:55 pm
Slander! The listing says they were VERY rare and VERY expensive books.
October 13, 2011 at 11:32 pm
So we should pay extra for the rare books that we don’t get to read, and that now no one else gets to read, either?
October 14, 2011 at 12:55 am
I actually felt sick reading the description on their items. They are essentially pulling apart and destroying antique books for the sake of “art and upcycling” and to “recycle giving them new life” they don’t need a new life it’s a book.
I want to buy something from them now just to be able to enter into a dialogue with them, but then I’d be giving them money which I truly don’t want to do. Dilemma, i’m sure more beer will help me decide
October 13, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Or just search BlackBaroque on Google. The Etsy store is the first result. And the second. And lots more info about them below.
October 13, 2011 at 9:02 pm
My reply was before people outed the shop name.
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
I snooped and seller is BlackBaroque
October 13, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Ooh, I was just coming back to say the same thing!
Googled “antique book prints on etsy” and there it was!
October 13, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Search on Etsy “Alice in Wonderland Print” and Black Baroque doesn’t even come up on the first page…but the prints do.
I actually bought “antique book prints” from a different seller a few months back for the purposes of modest and affordable decoration. When they were describing what the buyer bought in the thread, I could have sworn it was the same seller…but their name began with a P, not a B.
A part of me will always wonder if the prints were actually printed by hand, not with an inkjet.
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Was it Poni’s Parlor? Because her profile states she sells under that name as well
October 13, 2011 at 6:06 pm
No, PRRINT. With two “r”s somehow. Though it really could have been anyone. There are at least 8 people creating the same product. Down to the picture.
October 13, 2011 at 10:25 pm
On a completely unrelated note, Rowsdower, I love your username.
October 14, 2011 at 4:50 am
Rowsdower-mobile, AWAY!
March 19, 2012 at 9:52 am
So, Rowsdower, is that a stupid name, or…?
November 10, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Seller is actually Alexandra Wolf, who appears to have even created her own IMDB page…after one gig as set dresser.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523453756&sk=info
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3506613/
October 13, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Hell yes! They kept prolonging the conversation and replying trying to be RIGHT. When that didn’t work they threatened that she’d better stop. Now I want to buy from them just so I can give negavtive feedback. THis makes me feel all stabby.
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Not negative, do it NEUTRAL. At least you’ll get some entertaining conversation from it.
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Blackbaroque
October 13, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Ooh some jerk did that to me today with the “do not contact me again!” Such drama.
February 23, 2012 at 2:06 pm
I had that happen on Facebook recently. My boyfriend’s ex (psycho chick, refused to MOVE OUT after they broke up, to the point where he had to take her to court to legally evict her), found out we were dating and messaged me. I flat out told her I wanted nothing to do with her (as politely and cuttingly as possible, refraining from swears), and went on with my day. She messaged me back, swearing and cursing me. TWICE. Then she blocked ME!! Handy, that report button …
October 13, 2011 at 6:48 pm
See, this is the 4th time this month I’ve come across an Etsy shop that I want to add to an “anti-favorite” list. They really need to make that shit happen.
October 13, 2011 at 4:27 pm
“We knew this was the kind of person you were” and “we know your place of business”
Because that’s not harassment. Nonsense!
October 13, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Srsly. I’d feel pretty harassed if you were making threats based on my physical location.
October 13, 2011 at 4:28 pm
That’s not creepy stalker behavior either!
October 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Not as long as they yell “SURPRISE!” first, no.
October 13, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Mugsy, I am putting that in my restraining orders from now on.
October 13, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Lemon Floor Wax, I could insist that you’ll be using copyrighted material without my permission, but you’d probably countersue me, wouldn’t you?
October 13, 2011 at 7:49 pm
I don’t want to talk to you anymore! fingers in ears Lalalalalalalala!
October 13, 2011 at 8:27 pm
I think the wrong person is calling a lawyer here.
October 13, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Wow, let me just rush right over and buy something from that shop.
No, fuck it, I don’t really need the abuse.
October 13, 2011 at 4:34 pm
“Oh you came here for an argument. I’m sorry, this is abuse! For an argument go two doors down to the right.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
This isn’t an argument, it’s just contradiction!
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
No it isn’t!
October 13, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Yes it is!
October 13, 2011 at 4:46 pm
No, it isn’t!
October 13, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Well some people do pay for that.
October 13, 2011 at 5:54 pm
OR he might just be arguing in his spare time.
October 13, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I guess we know where that $3 difference between their prices and PRRINT’s come from… the abuse!
October 13, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Bullshit. What crafter can afford a lawyer?
October 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm
They can if they got their own law education from snippets of legalese they heard on TV.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
By crafting do you mean cutting shit out of old books?
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
According to this seller, yes:
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/10/08/weekend-flashback-taken-for-granite/
October 13, 2011 at 4:42 pm
For cutting up old books, period, they should be shot with a ball of their own shit.
October 13, 2011 at 4:48 pm
To be fair, one of the other shops I looked at said they used books that were going to be destroyed. Libraries pulp old books all the time, and the librarians aren’t even allowed to try and save any of them.
October 13, 2011 at 5:18 pm
To put this in perspective, most of the books that get pulped are books that are in bad condition or outdated. It’d be like forcing your grandchildren to try to read Twilight if we kept them.
October 13, 2011 at 5:44 pm
At my library, anything that we weed is available for staff to take if they want, anything we consider potentially saleable goes to the book sale for twenty-five cents. Each library will have it’s own policies. There’s only so much room, and leaving books about AIDS from the 1980′s on the shelves for undiscriminating college students to use in their papers doesn’t really serve our mission.
October 14, 2011 at 4:51 am
*lalalalala* I can’t hear you!
October 13, 2011 at 4:57 pm
cutting up old books, and the number of people doing it on etsy just makes my eyes water. its criminal
October 13, 2011 at 5:26 pm
I don’t know, not every old book is a classic. There was a lot of crap published back then, too.
October 13, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I look forward to the day when this will be the fate of copies of Twilight.
October 14, 2011 at 12:25 am
There’s always, crap, but that crap makes for crappy prints, so it kind of cycles itself into non-existence.
October 15, 2011 at 11:33 am
Haha. Unseeliepixie has come up with a way to make Twilight even worse.
October 13, 2011 at 5:27 pm
manybellsdown is 100% right. Lots of antique books get destroyed, en masse, all the time. This seller (and the other people doing this) look like they’re using a lot of dictionaries, copies of which will be in archives for anyone who really wants them. Plus, from 100+ years ago, a lot of the bindings are in too poor condition even to use them as books. As a writer and lit scholar and general book champion, I still like this — at least they’re serving some purpose.
Also, now that I know this is A Thing, I looked through listings for book prints of some of my favorite extremely predictable image types, and I think BlackBaroque has distinctly better designs. . . and I’m still not buying from her/them. I’ll hope someone else with a good design sense and a friendly business presence jumps on this.
October 13, 2011 at 7:56 pm
It shouldn’t be that hard for someone with talent… the startup for linoleum block printing isn’t too bad.
October 13, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Need more thumbs.
October 13, 2011 at 4:54 pm
I might be missing something here, but are they just using a printer to print an image on top of a book page?
October 13, 2011 at 5:00 pm
That’s what it looks like from the feedback. A couple people even said the image was obviously pixelated.
October 13, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I don’t think those are even real book pages used for bases. Well maybe the actual text copied from the books but not their actual leaves. They all seem to be typeset in the same way. It all looks scanned and manipulated to me.
October 13, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Given that they’re not saying anything about their print process, I’d say they’re running them through an inkjet printer because pretty much any other process would be a selling point. “I shit this out of my inkjet,” just doesn’t sound very romantic.
October 14, 2011 at 5:45 am
Yep and most of the “art” illustrations they are using have been in the public domain for years – available at clipart dot com. One week subscription = thousands of images for $15. Or buy a Dover collection book.
It really annoys me that they claim copyright to those images.
October 14, 2011 at 11:32 am
They probably downloaded the Dover books from a torrent.
March 6, 2012 at 9:31 am
They probably ARE lawyers. Like me; my J.D. is so useless, I ought to use it to craft something whimsicle.
October 13, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Are you fucking kidding me.
October 13, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Wow. These guys really understand customer service.
October 13, 2011 at 4:29 pm
NEED SHOP NAME. NEED SHOP NAME! GOOGLING “OWL PICTURE + ETSY” NOT LIKELY TO GET DESIRED RESULTS.
October 13, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Try “Antique book prints” in Handmade search. She’ll be on the relevancy search. Don’t convo her, though.
October 13, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Its sad to see so many books get cut up in the name of “art” They are wasting a perfectly good book and its so tragic.
October 13, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Are you the person who donates their 40-year-old copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica to the library because “it’s a perfectly good book”? Hint: if it’s not something the library needs and is in good condition, it’s not getting added to the collection. If it is yellowed, faded, dusty, smells like a smoker and looks like your pet hippopotamus pissed on it before you brought it over, it’s not even going to get taken at a book give-away.
/the librarian who’s tired of hearing folks whinging about old and manky books being thrown out.
October 13, 2011 at 5:50 pm
^this
/the library paraprofessional that has to touch all those books to throw them out and who may now be addicted to hand sanitizer.
October 13, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Nope, I refuse to buy an encyclopedia because the library always has one when I need it. I just hate to see people cutting up antique books without knowledge of their value. Sure, everyones grandma has the complete encyclopedia so thats not such a tragedy but cutting up a100 year old children’s magazines is.
I also have a kindle and love it. Its great because I can read most of the classics for free. I still go to the library for real books that I want to read that are not free on the kindle. I also use my kindle to store knitting patterns and PDF’s so they are always on hand.
October 13, 2011 at 6:06 pm
I’m assuming you’ve seen this site about weeding then, but just in case… http://awfullibrarybooks.net/
I went through the entire site one night. There were some where I was snort-laughing! Thanks for putting up with so much BS, librarians. : )
October 13, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Also, I prefer to donate money and time to the library instead books. I dont know what the library needs or wants so I give them money a few times a year and give it to them. One time I made a silly not serous request that they not use my money to by any books in the Twilight series. The person over the phone laughed and said it would go towards getting more porn computers instead.
October 13, 2011 at 9:37 pm
We donate to the library by keeping all of their stuff way longer than they want us to.
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
I tried running the owl through TinEye and nothing came up.
October 13, 2011 at 5:02 pm
tineye never seems to work for me. even on my own pics i know i have posted online lol.
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
BlackBaroque is the seller
October 13, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I found it. I don’t know if I should post it here or not… I mean, this seller is an asshole, but is that too far?
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Welp I guess someone beat me to it so my ethical qualms are over! http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque
October 14, 2011 at 6:14 pm
There are some odd prints here. Take this one; the image itself is strange enough, but to have it printed on a page from A Brief History of the United States takes it into surrealist territory.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62706516/upcycled-dictionary-page-upcycled-book?ref=v1_other_2
March 19, 2012 at 9:59 am
I need that print. You have no idea how much I need that.
October 13, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Absolute cuntery. All that whimsy over at Etsy is turning people nasty.
October 13, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Someone probably peed on their cupcakes.
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
No, no, no, it was on their prints… that’s what gives it that “antique” look.
October 13, 2011 at 7:39 pm
That nice yellowed look?
October 13, 2011 at 11:53 pm
Sad, sad waste of frosting. SIGH.
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
OMG. It’s like the buyer accidentally uncorked a bottle of bat-shit crazy.
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
They had me at “nuetral”
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Wow. Terrible business. I’m with the person who asked, I never would’ve known about antique printing, and when that person asked they should’ve said, like they did in the second comment, and explained it better BEFORE the person bought.
I agree, what is the name of this person so I can avoid in the future
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Looks like I’ll be cancelling my order for an antique print of The Great Crying Glitter Eagle.
By the way…has anyone made a Crying Glitter Eagle goatse yet?
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
I so want to make a picture of that stupid owl saying “YOU HAVE A NICE DAY”
October 13, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Hey, I don’t sell prints.
Yet.
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
I want it when you do!
October 13, 2011 at 5:25 pm
I sell painfully cute dolls inspired by Regretsy.
maybe I’ll make some prints, but I am not in the mood to get ink all over my boobs tonight. And this is only if I haven’t already sent my old college textbooks to the recycling center. Those are the only “antique” books I’m willing to destroy for art, since their out of date and nobody wants them.
October 13, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Ohhh if you can just get a condescending look on the faces of those adorable little owls …
October 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm
But looking up where I work and my physical location, that’s not harassment. Not at all.
Call your favorite Whaaaaaambulance chasing lawyer from Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe; watch as they laugh in your face when you tell them the facts and merits of the case.
Some people, I swear, make me not want to live on this planet anymore.
October 13, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Someone call the WAAAAHmbulance cause there’s gonna be a WAAAAAAHccident.
Haha thanks for reminding me of that.
October 13, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Yeah, I’m sorry, but we at DCH Lol don’t handle negative feedback, we only go after Regretsians.
October 13, 2011 at 7:39 pm
October 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm
I get so tired of these people thinking that the minute someone is mean to them they have the grounds to file a lawsuit.
“Slander and Harassment” is not the name of the new Coldplay album, ya twits.
October 13, 2011 at 4:46 pm
I was thinking the same thing.
A neutral comment got the seller’s knickers in a twist. and then when the buyer had backed the seller into a corner they suggested… suggested mind you, that no more emails be exchanged. One more informing the seller of the change in feedback and they threaten legal action.
It’s the McDonald’s coffee ordeal all over again…
October 13, 2011 at 11:42 pm
While the McDonald’s case did spark off a rise in frivolous lawsuits, that particular case was actually pretty legitimate. The coffee being handed out of a restaurant window did not need to be hot enough to melt flesh. The particulars of the case don’t seem to get remembered, though, so the physical injuries the woman suffered get dismissed as being much less severe than they actually were.
October 14, 2011 at 12:32 am
Cracked.com listed her in a lawsuit article they did, comedy of course, but they mentioned that at first all she wanted was McD to pay the medical costs of $22,000 (I think that was it) because her skin was sloughing off her thighs.
Had McD not pushed the matter in court, it might not have been so famous.
October 14, 2011 at 5:39 am
Not to mention the lovely fact that the McDonalds defense included the argument that a 79 year old woman shouldn’t be compensated as highly for THIRD DEGREE BURNS ON HER GENITALS because of her age.
The compensatory damages were comparatively moderate. The bulk of the award was punitive, and decided by the jury because the evidence they heard had them well convinced of McDonald’s douchebaggery.
“Tort Reform” is a pet cry of big business, that has been masterfully spun in order to suck in supporters who truly get fucked over by it.
watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKRjxeQnT4&feature=player_embedded
October 14, 2011 at 2:28 am
Yeah, I think she needed a square foot of skin grafts or something. It was actually legitimately a horrible injury. But it does serve to represent the whole cultural shift towards expecting other people to watch out for us.
October 14, 2011 at 2:40 am
Coffee is brewed at near boiling temps, and that is enough to more than scald and blister many layers of skin. I’m not downplaying her injuries, I’ve done it myself, albeit not with coffee hot off the burner.
I should have chosen a more ridiculous example I guess, like the woman who set the Cruise control in her Winnebago, got up from the driver’s seat and went in the back to make a sandwich.
She sued and won because the owner’s manual didn’t specifically state that the CC only controlled the speed and not the direction of the vehicle.
October 15, 2011 at 8:15 am
Picking an urban legend doesn’t help your argument.
BTW, these cases are false too.
October 15, 2011 at 8:16 am
And by these cases I mean this link.
November 13, 2011 at 6:40 am
aaron, actually, the coffee was not just at boiling, but at 185-190 degrees. you should read this page http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts which explains how she actually had a legit case, 3rd degree burns and skin grafts, and that mcdonald’s policy was to keep coffee at 185 degrees rather than 130-140, which is what people are used to from their home coffee pots. they also had hundreds of complaints from previous customers who had burned themselves, some as badly as that lady, but hadn’t changed their policy.
October 14, 2011 at 7:03 am
Yeah, actual lawyer weighing in here, as opposed to in-crafters’-minds lawyer. Please go watch the documentary Hot Coffee. That lawsuit was not only not at all frivolous, it’s been used to protect corporations from compensating victims when they are absolutely responsible for the injuries.
So, you know: not similar. If I had a dollar for every time someone misused the term “slander,” I could pay off my law school loans.
October 13, 2011 at 7:43 pm
October 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Can someone please make a flounce cat for this?
October 13, 2011 at 4:46 pm
There aren’t enough cats in the world. But I’d still like to see one. Too bad I don’t have the skills!
October 13, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Work prevents me. They disable all of the fun stuff.
October 13, 2011 at 5:16 pm
October 13, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I fucking love your screen name haha. awesome.
October 14, 2011 at 11:30 am
Thanks! I can’t take the credit for it though. I asked my bunny what he thought I should use for a screen name, and he promptly hopped into his litter pan, took a dump and, well, there ya go. Instant screen name.
October 14, 2011 at 9:41 pm
There’s nothing wrong with that, at least you’re not signing all your posts “4 paws up from my bunny and his turds”
October 17, 2011 at 4:06 pm
HI-LARIOUS
October 13, 2011 at 7:58 pm
October 14, 2011 at 8:17 am
I love you so hard lemon bombs.
October 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm
WOW, what is with these sociopathic, narcissistic, jack-wagon, douche-tools?
So, they figure by being bullying and condescending, that they can accuse someone of being harassing, yet they’ve done nothing of the sort??
It’s obvious by the email exchange who the real bully is. I hope that buyer doesn’t get the shaft from Etsy, but we all know the seller won’t either.
“We have already found where you work…”
WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?
OH I KNOW.
Assmuncher was a creditor/bill collector in their previous job.
Sorry, that sort of thing irks me. Can you tell?
Now I’m off to eat my Jack Daniel’s Ramen.
October 13, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Your post just gave me a fantastic idea… I shall have to consult my beading supplies.
October 14, 2011 at 2:50 am
I’m in suspense here! REALLY want to know what you have planned!
Don’t leave me hanging! LOL
Might just be the highlight of my night!
October 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 4:33 pm
‘We knew this was the kind of person you were’
October 13, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Well hey there, Picard. What happened to your barn owl mask?
October 13, 2011 at 4:35 pm
They really weren’t that bad until they made it seem like the person wasn’t being realistic in having their own opinion. The comment that started the snowball rolling was the “no one has ever complained about it before”…it’s like a guy being told he’s bad in bed.
Part of running a business is avoiding becoming defensive when someone presents a possible problem. This person is just way too emotional and turned it into a personal attack on the buyer which is never a good solution if you’re trying to attract other buyers.
October 13, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Yes, exactly (re: becoming defensive). While I’m mostly in the, “who cares if you had to trim it a bit?” camp, she was also given misleading information. I’d be annoyed by that, too. And the seller should have just apologized and left it at that.
October 13, 2011 at 9:37 pm
I agree entirely. Had the seller offered their rationale (in a few sentences rather than a few paragraphs)and then said something like “However, we understand why you were frustrated and will do our best to make the situation clear with future customer,” all would have ended well. So unnecessary!
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
The first part might not have seemed so condescending if the buyer had been the one who initiated the complaint. However, when you contact THEM and they give you a direct answer to your question, the smart thing to do is to say “thank you for your feedback” and chalk it up to experience.
October 13, 2011 at 5:10 pm
I’ve complained to companies about their crappy products or services and have been repeatedly told, “Well, m’am, you’re the first one to complain!” SOMEONE has to be first (and now I’m looking forward to the next time I have to do that, so I can yell “FIRST!” just because I can).
October 13, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Studies have shown that if a business fucks up but then makes it right again, the customer ends up more loyal than they would’ve been if everything had gone well from the getgo. This could’ve been a huge opportunity for the seller – if she’d initiated contact with the customer in order to hear and learn from their opinions instead of just yelling “YOU’RE WRONG SO NYAH NYAH!”
October 14, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Yeah, I don’t get it. I used to sell my art, and I intentionally made all my work fit standard frames usually 8 by 10 in fact, to make it easier to frame with an off the shelf frame, both for myself and for my patrons. If I were this seller, I would have apologized and offered a replacement print free of charge, especially since it looks like her “Prints” are just run through a printer. I’ve gone out of my way to replace the frames I sold my work in due to minor scratches, and one guy I did that for bought four other pieces, then promoted my work on his blog. I guess if I could have been a douche like BlackBaroque I’d still be working as an artist.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Harassing someone into leaving positive feedback is not the way to win customers. It is also weird that when asked about the size of the print, they could have explained the lengthy thing about antique prints then, and not after the customer complained about it.
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Buyer orders a 8×10 print.
Seller sends 8×10.5 print.
Buyer gives neutral feedback for not getting what they ordered.
Seller explains sizing issues after sending print.
Buyer suggests seller explain sizing issues before sending print.
Seller calls buyer nitpicky, rude, and quickly threatens legal action.
…
No, pretty sure the seller is the bitch here.
October 13, 2011 at 5:24 pm
I’m also pretty sure the seller needs to buy a fuckin’ ruler and accurately measure their prints.
October 13, 2011 at 9:21 pm
They have that ruler. It was otherwise occupied measuring their colossal ego.
October 13, 2011 at 10:59 pm
I like how they think their shit is so awesome everyone should be hiring a professional framer to mat and frame the piece at a larger size.
8×10 is a selling point because it is a standard frame size. People buy 8×10 because they don’t want to spend the money for custom framing!
October 13, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Seriously. If I had an Etsy shop and brought something like that to my attention, I’d thank them and make changes to the goddamn listing. Because it takes sooooooo much effort to do that. What a cuntwagon.
October 13, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Exactly. I don’t sell on Etsy, but I do sell online somewhere, and I’m glad when people point out an error to me so I’m not confusing and ticking off tons of people without knowing about it.
October 13, 2011 at 8:37 pm
I think when I open my shop, I’m going to sell bracelets that are “about 8 inches, I’m pretty sure.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Oh, my personal favorite in message #2 is the ultra passive aggressively condescending “We are sorry you thought something so easy to take care of was worth giving us a strike for.”
you are so stoooopiiid you could not even take care of this.
October 13, 2011 at 4:53 pm
GET OUT OF MY BRAINS
October 13, 2011 at 8:57 pm
If it’s so “easy to take care of’, perhaps the seller could’ve trimmed it herself before sending it out.
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Seller’s mail #2 was pretty douchey: “We are sorry you thought something so easy to take care of was worth giving us a strike for.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:50 pm
jinx
October 13, 2011 at 4:57 pm
*gives NanaB a Coke* Or some coke. Whatever.
October 13, 2011 at 7:25 pm
How did gnurph69 not read #2 and go what a douchebag?
What kind of seller gets an email saying, “Exactly how big is your print?” and replies with 8X10 instead of 8X10.5 then scolds the buyer for not psychically knowing that 8X10 really means “somewhere around 8X10, but not really, but we don’t care to actually measure because you should know that old book pages aren’t always 8X10, what kind of dumbshit are you?”
October 13, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Maybe it’s the sense of entitlement on the part of the seller, because yes, they only have 23 negative comments and yet they were peeved enough to contact the buyer and make him/her explain WHY the feedback was NEUTRAL rather than positive.
And then the seller became an all-out condescending twat about what seems like a legit concern on the part of the buyer.
October 13, 2011 at 5:03 pm
23 Neutral and 23 Negative – that would be enough to make me think twice before ordering from them. Seller very defensive about it too – fancy trying to pressure someone into changing their feedback!!
October 13, 2011 at 11:49 pm
I thought it was promising at first that they asked why it was neutral – if it was something they could have fixed, they could have legitimately got that change to positive, and if it was something they could only fix for future buyers, they could have improved their shop. But no, it turned out it was all about trying to bully the buyer into giving them positive feedback, regardless of whether they deserved it.
October 14, 2011 at 1:58 pm
See, I kind of thought they came out of the gate defensive “was there a reason” usually elicits a “none of your damn business” response from me. But I’m salty like that.
Good customer relations in my mind would have started with something like “Was there something we could have done better”.
Of course either way it went to hell in a handbasket PDQ
October 14, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Yeah, it was poorly phrased from the get-go, but that early on I was willing to assume the person writing was just a little socially awkward and didn’t know to/how to phrase things to be sure it didn’t sound confrontational. But yeah, then they went straight up douche creek in their douchecanoe as soon as the buyer offered the constructive criticism they had appeared to be asking for in their initial message.
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Owl-face was overly defensive to the point of being offensive and rude in their second post, the way they said that no-one has ever had a problem before implies that it is the customer’s fault instead of Owl-face’s.
Owl-face then tries to blackmail or persuade the customer into changing their rating, which is just a stupid and rude move.
then in the next email Owl-face says that most people know about antique prints, implying again that the customer is stupid, and it goes downhill from there.
tl;dr Owl-face is a bitch.
October 13, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I didn’t think it was so bad at first, but looking at it again the description was pretty condescending, especially when they went on about giving neutral feedback over something “so easy to fix” … because chopping up something you bought is, like, SO easy (obviously it’s easy to do, just not desirable and makes little sense). And starting your second bit with “Nonsense. We were not condescending at all,” is rather douchey. Also, the “we” stuff is real creepy. I doubt the both of them honestly sat there and typed it out together.
Also… when someone at Etsy says to do something, you OBEY, damn it.
October 13, 2011 at 5:27 pm
The “we” stuff is even more bizarre when you realize that the “we” in question is the seller and her dog (look at BlackBaroque’s profile and you’ll see what I mean).
October 13, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Perhaps she was using the royal “we.” That would fit with her overall “my shit doesn’t stink” demeanor.
October 13, 2011 at 6:43 pm
That’s how I read it.
October 13, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I was wondering if the seller was using the Royal ‘We’ or the Ecclesiastical ‘We’. Nice to know they’re including their dog in their douchery.
October 13, 2011 at 6:48 pm
“Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.’” — Mark Twain
October 13, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I like this line…
She uses chinese labor…
This was our last store. After 10 years of owning stores, though I created many new products during that time, I am done. I now have a new product I will be manufacturing this year using the same company in China I used for our Pet Lounge products which were featured in Country Living. I’m always working on something new!
And more proof she’s bat-shit crazy;
♥This interview was conducted by Merlin, Poni & Alexandra’s bird. He was offered a job with the “Rolling Stones” magazine, but they would not allow him enough breaks during the day, to play with his tiger who he is in love with. So he keeps a low profile and is a sort of, silent partner with Black Baroque. However Merlin, and Poni will attest to this, being a chatty birdie, is not too silent! lol
October 13, 2011 at 8:40 pm
This is the sort of thing that is going to drive me to a bell tower with something automatic and high caliber.
October 14, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I have been looking for this part of the discussion. “We”? Seriously? That just creeps me the fuck out.
October 13, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Actually, thinking about it – no, trimming something to 8×10″ and keeping the edge clean and the corners square would not be easy for me to do at home. I’d want a board shear for that, since my scissor-cut edges are inevitably wobbly and presumably I’d want this print to look good. Someone who sells thousands of prints online is the one who should be expected to own and use a board shear, not the random buyer who’s been lied to about the size of the print.
October 14, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Exactly. I bought a couple of prints (from a seller actually here on Regretsy) that I love. She drew them, and they are beautiful, and she discounted them for us Regretsians.
BUT she said they were 8X10, and then when I got them they were printed on 8.5X11 cardstock. Which I then had to trim down to fit into the frames i bought. And which I kinda fucked up. You can’t see it when they are framed, thank goodness, but the edges look like shit.
I never said anything because a) Regretsian and b) discount and c) gorgeous, d) and I wasn’t upset or anything but it was a little annoying, but if I had emailed her to let her know and she had responded like this, I’d have been pretty pissed off.
October 17, 2011 at 6:25 pm
The thing that bothers me more is that the buyer DIDN’T contact the seller. Obviously it wasn’t a huge deal to the buyer until the seller decided she needed to know why she got a neutral feedback. The seller could have kept her trap shut and none of this would have happened.
October 13, 2011 at 4:56 pm
The great thing about having an online shop is that when people piss you off you have time to have a cup of tea and complain to your family about this idiot whinning about some stupid shit. Then you read their message again and maybe you realize they’re not such an idiot – maybe it’s you.
October 13, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Or you never realize you’re the idiot, and you just continue to go through life as a pain in the ass.
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
She has 3000-something feedbacks, not 12,000. Could be she’s just exaggerating or adding in other selling venues.
October 13, 2011 at 5:09 pm
12256 sales is what it says on her shop page. Not everybody leaves feedback. Why should they? They buy something, they receive the thing, that’s the end of it.
October 13, 2011 at 5:17 pm
I think she’s one of those cupcakes who translates 9,000 no feedbacks as 9,000 positives – rather than 9,000 neutrals.
October 14, 2011 at 11:18 am
That’s probably it. 9,000 people said “This is not quite what I thought I ordered, but it’s not worth the shipping and the negative feedback from the seller to send it back.”
October 13, 2011 at 5:29 pm
A lot of them are suspiciously similar. 15 identical positives in one day makes me wonder.
October 13, 2011 at 5:46 pm
When I buy multiple items from a seller I leave them the same or similar feedback for each item. I assume that’s what’s happening here.
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
I was just assuming someone bought several prints and then copy-pasted feedback on each one. Still weird.
October 13, 2011 at 4:32 pm
“WE SAW YOUR NUETRAL” should be emblazoned forever in cross-stitch.
October 13, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I’ve never heard it called that before! Maybe it should be cross-stitched onto some panties?
October 13, 2011 at 5:48 pm
Embroidered over the Swiss flag of course!
October 13, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Is that plural for nutria?
October 14, 2011 at 2:43 am
I love it!
What’s she mean by asking the customer to change it then? Maybe in the glitzy world of Nutria-Showing the owners diaper their beasts?
October 13, 2011 at 10:44 pm
On it.
October 13, 2011 at 11:50 pm
I love you forever. Unless you’re nuetral, in which case GTFO. And leave me positive feedback.
October 14, 2011 at 9:31 am
I totally finished this last night but I need sequins so that I can make it really srsbsnz.
October 13, 2011 at 11:11 pm
October 13, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Requesting re-vamp of original macro to reflect correct spelling of “nuetral”.
October 14, 2011 at 1:41 pm
October 14, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Super work!
October 14, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I wish I had more thumbs up to give . . . awesome!
October 14, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Good lord, you must stitch like the wind!
October 15, 2011 at 10:38 am
Thank you guys so much!!! It didn’t take too long because it was a solid color and I copy/pasted the pattern.
October 15, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 15, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Oh, hah. I didn’t even catch that in the message. Good eye.
October 13, 2011 at 4:33 pm
NAME NAMES. POINT FINGERS.
October 13, 2011 at 4:38 pm
http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque/feedback?ref=ls_feedback
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Excellent work detective!
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Good work, Gumshoe!
October 13, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Holy fuck the copy/paste form feedback she leaves for others literally made me shrink back from my monitor in horror.
October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm
There’s a particularly interesting entry on page 32. Lots of capitalization and everything!
October 13, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Am I the only person disturbed by the feedback they post for anyone who buys something?
“Buyer, Buyer, we love you! Thank you for your purchase too! You made our day being so sweet! Doing business with you was such a treat! Excellent buyer in every way! Poni gives this buyer 4 paws up! XO, President Poni & Alexandra”
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
I totally was, though your username makes me nervous to agree to that >.>
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Christ on a crutch, that couldn’t be tackier if she signed off with a glittery merman.
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
So I guess the “we” who are so concerned includes her and her little dog? Maybe she should let the dog handle the feedback from now on.
October 13, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I’m concerned that she’s named her dog “President Poni.” 1.) What is the dog “president” of? and 2.) Isn’t she concerned she’ll give the dog a complex calling it “poni?”
October 13, 2011 at 7:51 pm
What is most disturbing about their feedback is that in contrast to their cutesy copypasta response for positive feedback, their response to negative feedback is positively vicious and personal in nature. Creepy, creepy.
October 13, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Yeah it gets even better if you sort through the feedback she’s left for the few negatives. Pretty much anyone who got a negative is accused of lying, deceit, and having an “ulterior motive”.
October 13, 2011 at 11:30 pm
No relation, I promise! I may be a fat, jealous loser, but I’m not a fat jealous loser dog president. At least I don’t think so.
October 16, 2011 at 8:08 pm
My personal favorite, even better than the slightly gruesome image of her dog dead with its paws in the air, is when she decides to break pattern to tell us all what AN ART PRINT means:
“Buyer noted in her feedback that our print was pixelated and it looked as if it had been printed on. This is one of our best sellers that we have been selling for over a year now and all have loved it. We are not sure what she meant by her comment about printing since she did not contact us before leaving feedback, but this is an art “print” and it is made by being printed. We question a person’s motive when they mark the box neutral, but leave negative comments. We state in our policies if for any reason you are not happy with your order to please contact us before leaving feedback so we may do all we can to put a smile back on your face and in your heart.”
October 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
“BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY. “
October 13, 2011 at 6:08 pm
From page 90:
“BEWARE!!!!! Extremely rude seller. I enquired about my missing parcel and was told it was my problem. They did not offer to help me in anyway whatsoever. I had asked for the parcel to be sent to my Mum’s address as she is home all the time to receive parcels. During checkout there is an option to choose the address the parcel is to be shipped so clearly within the rules of Etsy. The address I chose was my Mum’s address – the address was not some random stranger I could not trust. Regardless of whether the order was to be sent to my residence or my Mum’s, the fact remains it has not turned up at either address. Seller was extremely rude during each and every email and was not at all sympathetic to the situation. I put in a paypal dispute and heard nothing from the seller nor have I ever received the order. An extremely negative experience and my first on Etsy. Thankfully sellers like this on Etsy are rare indeed.”
October 13, 2011 at 6:10 pm
I found the last bit of this particularly interesting from page 94:
“Print was great, but the sellers themselves were extremely rude throughout the process. I didn’t receive my package for over three weeks and whenever I would send them a message the overall tone was one of poor customer service and rude “bedside manner”. Although they did work with me, I always felt as if I were a bother to them and they constantly acted superior, using quotation marks to empthasize that I, the buyer, was wrong.”
October 13, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Did you see the positives on page 72?
*Fast shipping, but the artwork isn’t 8×10, it’s 8.5×11, so the frames I bought don’t fit. But I love it anyway!
So… They have known there was a problem for a while now.
October 13, 2011 at 9:32 pm
From Page 148: “Admittedly I neglected to thoroughly read the shipping policies, however when I contacted the seller, instead of politely pointing me to the page I had missed, I was told that “You probably should not have ordered through us” if I didnt agree with their policies. Don’t worry BlackBaroque, I won’t anymore! A simple misunderstanding ruined by a terrible response. Not impressed.”
October 14, 2011 at 9:40 am
“Upon canceling the sale, then this seller became abusive. So when you read her negative feedback which I am sure she will leave, please consider how many sales I have had in all of my shops these past few years, how I have until now, have all excellent feedback from happy buyers and sellers.”
She has some pretty epic bullshit to say if you look at page 114 too. Talks about customer service and how her leaving negative feedback is an “unfortunate warning” to other customers, how Etsy is so awesome, how she is a great seller herself and couldn’t understand why someone was a dick to her. I WONDER
October 14, 2011 at 10:51 pm
The fuck?
“In addition we are confused as why she would not contact us in a kind manner having dealt with orders lost with her own customers, we would think she would know that kindness is the best way to work out any situation. A very negative experience.” (This was a negative comment BlackBaroque left for the person who had the item shipped to their mother’s place.)
How can someone’s head get this far up their own ass?
October 13, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I was impressed by that feedback as well.
BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY.
October 13, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Ye gods! Sorry for the massive link…I don’t seem to know my html as well as I thought…
October 14, 2011 at 10:36 am
Those closing tags can be tricky bastards huh.
October 14, 2011 at 6:13 am
Gems on page 90, 94, 125-126, 144 and 148.
Most negatives seem to be about the rudeness of the seller more than the quality of the products. People unhappy about the quality seems to have left neutral.
October 13, 2011 at 4:50 pm
YOU. ARE. AWESOME.
October 13, 2011 at 7:47 pm
MotherFUCKER. She lives in New England?? I’ve dealt with some crazy-ass people in my time… I wonder if she has patronized any of my former places of employment?
October 13, 2011 at 10:08 pm
New England BY THE SEA. As opposed to New England somewhere near Nebraska.
October 14, 2011 at 10:37 am
New England is a tad populous so…
I’m thinking no.
October 17, 2011 at 3:41 pm
^^ Another great phrase to put on a sampler!
October 13, 2011 at 4:35 pm
I agree that 23 out of that many is not bad feedback at all, but giving neutral feedback because of a little misinformation is totally right. Their first response was batshit and it went downhill from there, to something more like, the batshit that batshit shits out.
October 13, 2011 at 4:58 pm
It went from batshit to borderline personality disorder after that first post.
October 13, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I am a little uncomfortable with the use of the term “borderline personality disorder” in an assumptive, derogatory way. Mental illness is plagued by stigma and this sort of thing contributes to it. As a sufferer myself, I try hard to not inflict it on others, but until I discovered “mindfulness”, it was a near impossibility.
October 13, 2011 at 5:48 pm
What about people who are “batshit” crazy. I bet they don’t like being stigmatized either. It’s hard enough to be diagnosed batshit but then to have people make fun of it is worse.
October 13, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Couldn’t agree more!
October 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Not to mention how bats might feel about it!
But no one ever cries over the dead bats.
October 13, 2011 at 6:20 pm
As a fellow diagnosed crazy person, I have to admit – a condition like borderline personality disorder is nearly always unpleasant for the people around that person. Hell, most mental illnesses are. Can’t really deny that fact, even while trying to achieve the very important task of stopping stigma against us. It would be better to say “maybe the seller DOES have a mental disorder and so we should be more sympathetic to her behaviour”.
October 13, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I have unintentionally driven people away most of my life, so I know exactly what you mean. I do crack crazy jokes about myself, though, because humor helps me get through the day-to-day bullshit.
October 17, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Hmmm. I am bipolar II, myself, and I hold the opposite opinion. I have gone to great lengths to make sure I am NOT being a douchecanoe to the people who have to live with me, and it royally pisses me off when I see people with diagnosable mental conditions who AREN’T trying to be less of a douchecanoe.
I am a staunch advocate of being open about mental conditions and combating the stigma around mental illness. Part of this is calling out a fellow sufferer when it looks to me like they are using their condition to abuse others. Compassion, yes! Excuses, no.
October 18, 2011 at 11:47 am
It warms my jealous loser heart that we are talking about mental illness and stigma in such a reasonable, well-informed way. I love you, Regretsians. I’ve been both a patient and a student counselor (on the couch AND sitting next to it, so to speak) and while I do think that people should try to understand the misery of mental illness, I commend anyone who has one and doesn’t exploit it as an excuse to be nasty without suffering the consequences. I stick up for the mentally ill and talk about my own problems openly (depression/GAD/OCD, with a dash of borderline– oh joy!) but I’ve also cut people out of my life for being abusive, even if the illness caused that behavior. I’m a friend, a lover, and a sister, not a martyr. Whether the disease made you try to kill me or you just felt like it, the danger is the same.
And BlackBaroque is definitely being a twatwaffle. Yeah, I called out– you wanna piece of me, Etsy? Put up your dukes, cupcakes.
October 20, 2011 at 7:51 am
I would say that it sounds more like Narcissistic Personality Disorder. “The problem is you, not me” is their mantra. When everyone is playing up to their vanities and fawning over them, everything is peachy, as soon as someone is less than admiring, then the NPD person flies off the handle. They cannot deal with reality in hardly any capacity and live in their own little magical worlds. As soon as someone even hints at reality, they freak the fuck out.
October 13, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Really, It could all have been solved with the word “approximately” before the dimensions – I mean she provides dimensions in TENTHS OF CENTIMETERS for crissakes.
October 14, 2011 at 10:42 am
I seeing people oblivious to how significant digits work.
October 14, 2011 at 10:43 am
I <3*
I don't however <3 this keyboard…
October 13, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Holy shit. Can you imagine the discourse with people who initially leave negative feedback? This was a motherlovin’ NEUTRAL one. However, this pretty much is the definition of Etsy; if you don’t love for people to piss on you whilst you leave positive feedback stating it was rain (a heavenly, warm summer shower at that), lawyers get involved. EVERYONE LOVE OUR YOONEEK (and probably re-sold) LISTINGS OR FEAR THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW!
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I would love to see the conversations with people who left negative feedback. Like the person that said the ink started bleeding off her print after 2 weeks.
October 13, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Jeez, the seller probably had her whole family killed.
October 18, 2011 at 11:50 am
2 weeks?! That’s some really cheap-ass ink. What did she use, dyed bird shit? (Maybe that’s the bird’s contribution. All natural and upcycled, wot-wot.)
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
*nuetral
October 13, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Condescention, Whiney Butthurt, Sic my Lawyer on You
P
Are all Etsy sellers total douchewads?
October 13, 2011 at 6:35 pm
No, just the select few.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
OH snap. Never mind. I found her. **sneaks away**
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Oh vomit, there are little black hearts peppered all over her descriptions. Why? I don’t get that.
October 13, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Because she is a blaguard.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Not just Whimsical Fuckery, but copious ass bagery. Some one should roll up to that printer and thunder kick her/him whatever in the cunt.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I’m stuck between being affronted that businesspeople bully their clientele like that, and being embarrassed for said businesspeople. Embarrassed for them, for their parents, for Etsy, for the concept of business itself, for our whole species, really.
October 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
She’s sold 12,000 antique prints? Really? Hmmmmm.
October 13, 2011 at 4:37 pm
What the hell is with people claiming “ZOMG HARASSMENT” every time somebody says something vaguely critical? My favorite is when their retaliation is a thousand times more intense than the apparent wrongs against them. What a tool.
October 14, 2011 at 10:46 am
People are getting worse and worse at responding to legitimate criticisms, even nicely worded ones.
Makes art and design classes very interesting these days.
October 14, 2011 at 7:57 pm
When I was in college for studio art there was a girl in my Painting 3 class who would paint the most hideous sci-fi/fantasy characters that she made up. I’m talking dragons, aliens, demons with wings, etc. Not only were they very badly rendered and conceptually one dimentinal, her painting technique was on par with a 3rd graders. Whenever we had critiques, any negative feedback from the other classmates or the teacher would result in her screaming and crying. A full on tantrum. We were all really careful to word our criticism in such a way that she wouldn’t dissolve in tears yelling about how we all hated her. It was tough. I’m not sure how she made it so far in a fine arts college.
October 14, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Apparently, she made it that far by making it impossible to criticize her!
October 18, 2011 at 12:04 pm
It’s a shame you had to deal with that. I’ve been through a fine arts high school (writing) and am now in a graphic design program, and thank Helen all my professors are too tough to let people get away with it. As a wee 14-year-old wannabe writer, I was informed on our first day of high school poetry workshop that if you can’t handle constructive criticism, you can’t handle reality. Tantrums got squashed in the first week, and anyone having more than one was told privately to suck it up or get out. The design program I’m in now is the same way. Not that they were/are mean about it– cruel, UNconstructive criticism is equally unwelcome– but it’s taught me to have a thicker skin, puncture my ego once in a while, and take the high road when people get nasty. I can’t imagine that anyone like your classmate, mpkocto, would last more than a few seconds in a professional design firm. Teachers need to quit holding our hands and remind us of these things more often.
October 13, 2011 at 4:37 pm
I love it when people use google translator. It makes everything you say sound like a robot. I wish I could have responded back with psuedobot speak. It would have gone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get that. Did you mean nuticles?” “You said that you marked positive for herpes. Is that correct?” “You have sent 12,200 prince to 30 cuntries? Please note that offensive language will not be tolerated per the rules on Etsy. Your comment has been forwarded to the administrator. While under review, your account may be suspended for up to twenty-four years. If you think this is in error, please fill out the questionnaire that will be mailed to you via snail mail. Have a handcrafty day.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:37 pm
There are only so many sellers on there with Antique Book Prints whose shops start with B. And who, as soon as you open the link, brag about the 12,000 prints they’ve shipped around the world. You too can figure out who they are. I’ll give you a hint, it’s within the first two pages, and, um, if it ain’t blackbaroque, don’t fix it?!
October 13, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
But if you asked what size it was, and they didn’t explain that it might be bigger and just gave you the wrong size, wouldn’t that bother you?
October 13, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Exactly. If I buy a pair of shoes online (something I rarely do for THIS very reason) and ask for a 12, and then send a 14 and say “No one’s complained before” that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t fit, does it?
October 13, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I WAS siding with the seller at first, but I found myself increasingly face palming as the conversation went on. A simple “I apologize for the inconvenience, we will try to be clearer in the future.” could’ve ended the whole thing. It was NEUTRAL feedback, for Helen’s sake. Why get so offensive?
October 13, 2011 at 9:19 pm
…and if she’d apologized and emailed a coupon code for 25% off their next purchase, I bet the buyer even would’ve changed their feedback to positive (and probably shopped there again, to use that coupon!). No threats, lawyers, or condescension necessary.
October 13, 2011 at 9:20 pm
(Do Etsy coupon codes work yet? I had heard highly mixed reviews…)
October 13, 2011 at 11:56 pm
The only reviews I read were neutral and I’ve been afraid to ask them about it.
October 14, 2011 at 2:32 am
You get comment of the day from me StayPuftSmores
October 14, 2011 at 6:31 am
Yeah they work… but lets take for example my shop…I have a sale that states in every listing and on my front page: Buy 5 items receive free shipping (USA ONLY) and I have a had a few people that apparently couldn’t read and used the coupon code for 4,3,2 and even one item! When that happens I just deal with it, unless I of course someone buys something big that absolutely must have a shipping payment.
Etsy needs to fix up their coupon codes so you can customize them better!
October 13, 2011 at 4:51 pm
The seller states an extremely precise size in her listings: no approximately, no variance disclaimer, something she really shouldn’t do, not that that alone should warrant neutral feedback. Really should’ve just taken the high road, anyway: apologizing for the misunderstanding would’ve ended the exchange.
October 13, 2011 at 5:07 pm
If she asked what the exact size was and the seller didn’t explain the variation thing, than the seller deserved the neutral. What ticks me off as an eBay seller (with eBay it’s pretty much impossible to change your feedback, so it’s a little different) is when buyers don’t even give me the chance to fix things before leaving a permanent mark on my selling record. Though, if it’s changeable, this was just the buyer’s way of letting the seller know they screwed up and give them a chance to earn positive feedback. Which they royally fucked up.
I’ve also gotten it from the other side, too. I left a guy POSITIVE feedback, just commented that MAYBE he should try finding a box that fit the product so it didn’t stick out of the box exposing wires and making it look like a bomb. Then he sent me TWO nasty, horrible emails, accusing me of being in a loveless marriage and other crazy shit. Made me wonder what he had left for me if I had dared to leave a negative. I wish I had!
October 13, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Oh, and playing the lawyer card like that is just silly. What the hell.
October 13, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Yes, I know what you mean. Leaving positive feedback with a little complaint is a NICE thing for an ebay buyer to do. If I got one of those as a seller I would be relieved at my close call of a neutral or negative feedback.
October 13, 2011 at 9:27 pm
My god, if I got valuable suggestions for my business and the feedback was still marked “positive”, I’d wanna mail the customer a present! My reputation stays clean and I’ve learned how to improve my business – it doesn’t get any better than that!
October 14, 2011 at 12:31 am
I do that sometimes on Ebay–I call it “passive aggressively positive feedback.” I’m not marring their feedback rating, but letting them know there was something displeasing.
You know, like the Vera Bradley purse I bought that arrived today *just* in a Priority Mail box. No plastic around it or anything. Good thing it didn’t come yesterday when we had storms, or it would have been ruined.
October 14, 2011 at 3:07 am
I’ve had sellers rip my head off and shit down my throat for that! for leaving a “+” with a little complaint. They said (I am not quoting here!)”Why would you be so vicious and evil and RUIN my whole life’s work when you should have just given me the chance to make it right?!?!?!”
Well, honestly, because I am AFRAID to email someone a complaint precisely because it’s like jogging in a minefield. So I just wanna drop off my rating and run like hell! Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do you’re going to get a scary note once in a while.
October 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Yeah, ebay feedback has made me super angry in the past. Had a dude that didn’t send payment for a whole month before I moved, I had my mail forwarded and everything. He left me negative feedback for cancelling the order!
October 13, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Loveless marriage? What the fuck did that have to do with the transaction? People are so quick to stoop to personal attacks these days.
October 14, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Yeah, I don’t even know why he assumed I was married…which I am, but still. He sent one email and then ANOTHER before I had even replied to the first. Like he had all this venom to spew then thought of some more and couldn’t wait for my reply. At first I started to tell him to scale back on whatever meds he was on, or get on some, but then I just replied asking him if he was fucking insane and told him to never contact me again.
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Wow, what a cunt.
“Nonsense. We were not condescending at all.”
I don’t think they know what condescending means. >_>
October 13, 2011 at 5:51 pm
yup….. “nonsense…..now you done pissed me off bitch and I am going to scare you with lawyers and claiming to know where you live.” NONSENSE SILLY. WE ARE LOVELY, POLITE FUCKING PEOPLE.
October 13, 2011 at 8:28 pm
No no, not a cunt. She lacks the depth and the charm.
(I don’t know who William Styron was referring to originally, but it’s a hell of a good line.)
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 7:16 pm
quote from the desc in question.
♥About your print: You will receive one book page but not the exact page as shown in this listing as they come from one book making each page one of a kind. The page size is 8 x 10. Frame is not included.
They have a pile of stock photoshops for Etsy items, and they print as needed… you don’t even know what your print will REALLY look like till it shows up.
October 14, 2011 at 3:12 am
Rubies, maybe she added that just today after thinking about this feedback & realising it was a legit complaint?
(Even if it WAS the buyer’s mistake, you’re supposed to say “I’m sorry you were confused” y’know, to be DIPLOMATIC!)
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
So stupid… honestly, who leaves it .5″ extra and consider that a lot of spare space? That’s .25″ to cut from both ends and cutting that small amount off increases the chances of a wonky cut (I cut everything by hand and it’s slipped more than a few times).
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 pm
I’m afraid of what Etsy’s response would be. Would they side with the seller because the buyer wasn’t all cupcakes? Or would they just roll their eyes? I can’t imagine anyone taking this complaint seriously!
October 13, 2011 at 5:13 pm
They would just roll their eyes and go back to playing with the fake mustaches. They give no shits at all about what happens to the sellers (I’m not sure as a buyer). If both parties don’t want to “Kiss and Make Up” (Oh gods, don’t started on how badly I hate that function) then I guess too bad.
October 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
And you can easily find her page by searching on Etsy for antique paper owl 8×10
October 13, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I feel like Etsy is going to find a way to close email threads. “No calling out! Your emails is done. kthx xoxo.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:44 pm
ALSO, I DARE someone to send something like that to my place of employment. Knowing my co-workers, shit would end up in the trash before I even caught a whiff of it.
October 13, 2011 at 4:42 pm
The description of the whole antique-printing thing should be on the site so the buyer can decide whether or not s/he wants to get caught up in such “nonsense!” And contacting someone who put a “neutral” as feedback to ask why … I don’t know, it just seems, “You don’t like me! Why don’t you like me? You should LIKE me!!!!!” juvenile.
Both my parents were in the printing industry, and I often helped my father with projects. My late MIL was an antiques dealer. I’ve done more graphics/layout/publishing in my career than I can remember. And I still don’t know what the hell the seller was talking about.
October 13, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I’ve seen sellers comment on neutral feedback on eBay, for example, to see if there was any reason for it and anything they could improve upon. THAT is how you do it. Don’t hassle them, just ask if there is anything you can do to improve the experience in the future.
October 13, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I’m pretty sure she just cuts out book pages and runs them through her printer. So there’s no need for elaborate explanations of how speeeeeeecial her process is, just accurate sizes.
October 13, 2011 at 8:22 pm
There’s nothing wrong with a nice “Hi, is there something I could improve on?” If you think the buyer’s complaint was valid, you work on it. If not, you say “Thank you for your feedback” and ignore the comment. Easy-peasy.
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Condescending, passive aggressive, and completely conflict escalating text in initial seller response. My old boss would have had my ass for that kind of “tone”. The fact that they initiated the contact means that they should have said simply “so sorry we failed to satisfy you, we will review our page to ensure we are more clear in future”. Whether they do so or not, this politely and pleasantly closes the correspondence. They might even have had future sales from this person.
But apparently being a condescending asshole was more important than being in a business.
I swear sometimes it feels like half the world is being run by fucking amateurs who just don’t give a shit. Or maybe I am just old and bitter.
October 13, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I think there are as many immature assholes today as there were hundreds of years ago, for what it’s worth. But the internet shines the light on them all.
Gah, it’s like turning on the lights in the kitchen and finding hundreds of roaches.
October 17, 2011 at 4:16 pm
OH MY GOD YOU’VE BEEN IN MY KITCHEN!!!
October 13, 2011 at 9:57 pm
“I swear sometimes it feels like half the world is being run by fucking amateurs who just don’t give a shit. Or maybe I am just old and bitter.”
Me too…and it’s both.
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Did “Keeping a Customer for life” remind anyone else of the video of Hoss’ Owner, with the padlelock on the interior door next to the drawing of a woman with an unsettling caption?
Anyone?
October 13, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Someone send this to the State Department!
Our Republic cannot stand for long being deprived of skills like these in our diplomatic corps!
October 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I have officially broken my Regretsy hymen to comment on this one. This seller bought merch from me, methodically stalked my sales for months and then opened her floodgates to cut me down at the knees….
Did anyone name the name yet?
October 13, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Wait what? We must hear this story.
October 14, 2011 at 6:30 am
Are you mad?! You think I want to be sitting in front of a grand jury with Judge Border Collie presiding?
October 14, 2011 at 10:10 am
COME ON. You can’t make an opening like that and then just leave us hanging, waiting for more.
Who do you think you are? Towel Mike?!
(No, really. Are you Towel Mike? Because that would really be awesome.)
October 14, 2011 at 11:00 am
Gah! Sorry to disappoint, but unless Towel Mike got a D-cup implant (then waited a number of years), there is not much resemblance. I’m more like Dishrag Madge.
October 13, 2011 at 6:17 pm
We must hear this tale. Please please please share!
October 13, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Share! Destroy! And welcome!
October 14, 2011 at 10:57 am
By the way, losing my R virginity didn’t hurt much (for long), and that 20 dollar bill on the nightstand really bought a lot of spaghetti-ohs.
October 13, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Since when does Regretsy care about calling someone out? The store is BlackBaroque.
October 13, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 4:51 pm
…And I can only see 3523 feedbacks in their profile. What happened to the other 8677 people they claim were satisfied?
October 13, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Whew – you said it, not me. I’m officially getting out of Dodge before she sets her talking dog on me.
October 13, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Did anyone else notice the side bar ad for lawyer here? It says “You never know when you are going to need one”
October 13, 2011 at 4:47 pm
In case you weren’t aware:
October 13, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Yeah and you better not say anything back or I’M TELLING.
October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Great face on that cat.
October 13, 2011 at 4:48 pm
When someone interprets your tone as condescending, the correct response is to say “I’m so sorry” and start over.
The correct response is not to dismiss their opinion completely and become INTENTIONALLY condescending.
October 13, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Or go the Miss Piggy route and reply, “Moi?”
October 13, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Is this real life? It must be because you can’t make this shit up.
It’s funny how it’s the people with the least amount of education who are always ready to start a fight and then end it with, “don’t say anything back or I’m telling on you.” The lack of education is evident by the the poorly composed paragraphs, run on sentences and horrific grammar. I hope they see this and read all of the feedback. I don’t know the seller or the buyer, making my opinion completely unbiased, and I can tell you the seller is a professional Nut Job from Trailer Trash Kingdom.
October 16, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Not necessarily Trailer Trash Kingdom. I’ve known and tutored plenty of people from the upper middle classes that moronic. And that entitled.
October 13, 2011 at 4:53 pm
It’s “blackbaroque.”
October 13, 2011 at 4:53 pm
oh god that is such an immature way to deal with a customer………..
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Nonsense. We were not condescending at all. Let me explain what condescending means. I’ll use small words.
October 13, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Fucking brilliant.
October 13, 2011 at 4:55 pm
I personally like to read it in Owl’s voice from Winnie the Pooh. It adds a sense of sophistication I think.
October 13, 2011 at 6:10 pm
The neccessary dorsal muscles…
October 13, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Hmmmm…. If you look at their shop, they have these Alice in Wonderland prints, made from the original illustrations from the book. Fair use, or copyright infringement?
October 13, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Some of the Tenniel drawings for Alice are public domain in the US.
October 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
What really gets me is that mostly all of the work is from fair use and open domain vintage images, but they are claiming these are “OUR ORIGINAL DESIGN & CONCEPT”
Surrounding your lie with hearts is bad misdirection! Lies! Lies! I demand retribution! For the owners of the work! Even if they’re dead! *sharpens pitchfork*
wait. Lemme take some midol first…
October 13, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Alice in Wonderland text and illustrations are fair use. They haven’t been under copyright for a long time, which is why there’s so much Alicewashing in the world of crafts.
October 13, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Yes, although it’s only the old illustrations. The more current ones (like Disney) are copyrighted.
October 15, 2011 at 11:47 am
That doesn’t explain the Etsy Hello Kitty Club. Sanrio will sell just about anyone a license but you have to pay the fee. Also, some old works are protected. Or somewhat protected. Like Peter Pan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy#Copyright_status
“the work is still under copyright in several countries.”
October 13, 2011 at 6:20 pm
She has a print of an Iris, which is actually really pretty, but I know exactly where it came from – an antique german botany book that’s available online. So it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine that everything else she has was downloaded from somewhere…
*waits for letter from magical dog lawyer*
October 13, 2011 at 9:18 pm
She gets some of it from the same place I get my images, from the Graphics Fairy Blog.
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/
Except that I credit Karen on every one of my listings that uses those images. I don’t say they are mine and surround it with black hearts.
October 18, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for the tip, AntB! I will of course credit Karen for the art– and send her a photo of any projects I make with her stuff.
October 13, 2011 at 4:59 pm
ahhhh…passive aggressive at its finest
October 13, 2011 at 5:00 pm
So let me get this straight……take an old book….tear the pages out…put it in a printer and then print a picture over it….hmmmm
October 13, 2011 at 7:21 pm
inorit?
October 13, 2011 at 8:09 pm
I’ve seen things like this before and, being a self-confessed word nerd and bookoholic I kind of like them – as in ONE or TWO in my office but I always thought there must be more to it than running an old piece of paper through a color copier. It’s not?
October 13, 2011 at 9:22 pm
No. Well, you do it at photo quality.
Here, try this:
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2010/10/instant-halloween-art-printable_12.html
It is all ready formatted for printing the patina and everything. Instructions are right there.
October 13, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Cool, thanks for the info. – I see an old law book rescued from the recycle pile.
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Opening sentence for one of the items, which I had to read several times before fully understanding: “At the end of each day, Black Baroque’s President Poni,(our puppy), my husband “Handsome” and I, all go for a walk on the beach with Poni.”
AKA My dog, my husband and I go to the beach with my dog. Even Microsoft Word will give you that little green line under that sentence, giving you at least an inclination that it doesn’t make sense.
Thank God they treat their customers right.
October 13, 2011 at 5:09 pm
She must have taken the coleslaw and zydeco class
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Does she mean her husband is the pony in their play sessions? OR she herself? ANd is the dog involved?
October 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Telling everyone about your husband’s pet name in the same sentance you tell everyone your puppy’s name too is a little creepy… and that’s coming from someone whose husband is known in private as “soft’n'vulnerable”.
October 14, 2011 at 8:33 am
Maybe Poni is her son, named after “President Poni,(our puppy)”.
Then it becomes: my dog that I love the very best, my husband whose name I can’t remember, and I, go for a walk and also we take our kid who is named after the dog because did I mention my dog is really special and the president?
October 13, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Maybe I am not “etsy-educated” and I am misunderstanding this completely but isn’t “12,000 shipments” very different to the “3478″ positive feedbacks they actually have on their page? I would feel like a super-duper e-detective for finding the page of it weren’t for the niggling suspicion that I am actually a deranged stalker.
October 13, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Is giving feedback essential, or an option? Or are they just assuming that the several 1,000 people who theoretically haven’t replied are as happy as clams?
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Well being a big time seller (11 items and counting) I have only 3 feedback. (2 from a seller and 1 from a buyer) Maybe not every buyer left feedback.
October 13, 2011 at 5:23 pm
12256 sales
I assume that’s where the magic number came from.
October 14, 2011 at 3:19 am
Some people bought several items but only left one feedback? Or some people left neutrals/negatives and got reamed out & threatened so they took their feedbacks down?
October 13, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Wait, so the seller messaged the buyer first and then tells the buyer to stop messaging them because it’s harassment? I mean, I could see if the buyer just kept sending message after message, but the buyer was simply responding to the message the SELLER sent. How the everloving fuck is that harassment?
October 13, 2011 at 6:24 pm
The buyer didn’t immediately grovel and ask forgiveness for leaving a neutral feedback, then scurry to change it in a timely fashion. So to the seller, that’s harassment. *nods sagely*
October 13, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Talk about bat shit crazy. When she says “we” she’s referring to herself and her dog.
Extra helping of crazy? Read her profile. It’s written as an interview conducted by her bird!”
“♥This interview was conducted by Merlin, Poni & Alexandra’s bird. He was offered a job with the “Rolling Stones” magazine, but they would not allow him enough breaks during the day, to play with his tiger who he is in love with. So he keeps a low profile and is a sort of, silent partner with Black Baroque. However Merlin, and Poni will attest to this, being a chatty birdie, is not too silent! lol”
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
oops…sorry about the bold
October 13, 2011 at 5:08 pm
You were emphasizing how extra special they are. Extra, extra special.
October 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm
That bird should be taken away from her. Living with her must be animal cruelty.
October 13, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Her shop announcement is so full of little hearts, I want to stab something. My fave is this:
“♥WE DO NOT SELL THE FRAMES AND WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU CAN BUY THEM♥Sorry.”
So you display all your work in a frame that you do not sell, and don’t know where to get it? I kinda want to convo her, and ask her if they sell those frames
October 13, 2011 at 5:28 pm
p.s. I don’t even understand this paragraph:
♥♥♥We are the first shop on Etsy to use the five antique books our book pages are from for our prints. Our books are very rare and very expensive. We have antiquarian book dealers in the USA and in Europe who find our books for us. We are also the first shop to use banners & quotes you see on our prints. Our book pages and banners with quotes are all a part of our signature Black Baroque Design and Concept that we created first and are thrilled to offer you!
October 13, 2011 at 6:07 pm
If I were an Antiquarian bookseller, I would charge triple if I knew the books were going to be destroyed.
October 13, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Our books are very rare and very expensive.
Oh gods. If those supposed ‘antiquarian book dealers’ knew what they were doing with these ‘very rare and very expensive’ books, they’d tell them to get lost so fast, their bird’s head would spin.
October 13, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Ugh, might as well rip my heart out if they seriously do use “very rare and very expensive” books! It was one thing when the comments above were talking about crappy old books that would be destroyed anyway because they’re too damaged to salvage (I’m sure there would at least be some viable pages in them, anyway) but quite another to claim that you have book dealers seek out these fabulous old books only so you can cut them up and print shit on them!
October 13, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Agree inmediasres. Our law library is constantly getting rid of outdated materials or old casebooks as they go online. Also, the local used bookstore has a shelf of freebie that no one wants. Why not use them? Many are old. In fact I think that I may swing my the library and see if I can get there before the recyclers; I haven’t had copier fun since the crying eagle TP
October 14, 2011 at 5:51 am
If I weren’t certain that they were lying sacks of shit, I’d cry for the books.
I suspect they find remnants from the library book sale, and I refuse to entertain the notion that these are actual good books.
October 14, 2011 at 6:00 am
Everytime I see something rare and expensive I have this overwhelming urge to print pictures of moustaches with moustaches on it.
October 13, 2011 at 8:10 pm
They don’t know where the frames are sold because I bet you that the frame is added in Photoshop. It’s a virtual frame!!
The pictures in the listings that are actual photographs of the prints (at least on the couple that I peeked at) have the print in a plastic bag, with a plain backing. The “room shot” is poorly photoshopped – and (to my eyes) the print looks bigger “on” the wall than the dimensions in the description would indicate.
October 13, 2011 at 8:13 pm
How do you not know where you got it? The frame fairy visited? Probably just does not want to say “bought it at the Dollar Store.”
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
So in other words, this crazy bitch is Etsy personified…
October 13, 2011 at 8:14 pm
IT’S ALIVE!!
October 13, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Holy fucking shit.
October 13, 2011 at 6:43 pm
crazy on a cracker…seriously….
October 13, 2011 at 7:35 pm
$50 says the bird is her lawyer.
October 13, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Not just a lawyer, the Legal Department.
October 13, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Oh yes, the bird and the dog.
October 13, 2011 at 9:27 pm
There’s some sort of joke about a cat scan and a lab report in here somewhere, but I haven’t taken enough Vicodin to make it…
October 13, 2011 at 5:04 pm
As an artist who sells prints too, the seller’s reaction was wrong on so many levels. When framing half an inch can make a huge difference. They should have sent her a new print, and made sure it was the size they told her it was, for starters. It’s not like that seller even prints his/her own artwork, it’s all just free use clip art.
Oh man I cannot WAIT to see the complete shit fit this seller’s going to throw when they see their conversation posted here.
October 13, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I know, right? I’m salivating waiting for Phase 2 of Condescending Antiquarian Book Destroyer vs. Everybody Else.
October 13, 2011 at 8:57 pm
I am so excited to see her rage that I could just shit. I can see her being suspicious of every single sale she has from this point on. D’ya think she’ll learn anything from this? Like maybe not to be a horrible self righteous cunt to complete strangers?
October 13, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Another fine opportunity for the law firm of Koppian and Paystin! Never mind that there’s nothing in this conversation that constitutes slander and/or harassment, lets throw around some big legal scary terms while letting you know we’ve secretly been stalking you. We know where you live, expect to be served papers in the shower you harasser you.
Gah I hate people
October 13, 2011 at 6:55 pm
It’s amazing how many people have no idea what the word “slander” means. Or what the difference between slander and libel is.
Why are so many people so stupid? Why?
October 14, 2011 at 10:35 am
Isn’t the ‘answer’ to libel (or slander) the same, truth? I mean, that’s the defense, isn’t it, ’tis true?’
since it Isn’t 8 x 10 its not libelous to say it isn’t, and as to whether or not a reasonable person would consider her ‘difficult’ well… perhaps they can President Poni as a witness.
October 13, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Can condescending owls be the new flounce cats? PLEASE?
October 13, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Yes!
(Wait, someone did die and make me Queen Shit, right?)
October 13, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Now I want to change my screen name.
October 13, 2011 at 5:41 pm
I LOVE condescending owls! They should print that on f-ing old paper. Also, why are we not flooding that shop owner with messages asking “what size are your prints?”
October 13, 2011 at 6:13 pm
It’s hard to be mad about the condescension when they’re so adorable.
October 13, 2011 at 8:42 pm
I KNOW. I LOVE IT. Condescending Owls >>>> Disapproving Rabbits, right?!
October 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Perfection.
October 13, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Aww…how do I paste a picture into here? I have the perfect owl picture…
October 13, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Look underneath your comment box where it shows the allowed HTML tags. You want the one that says img src (image source), and your picture’s URL goes inside the quotations. Be sure to preview before you post. If it doesn’t work, you can always link us.
October 13, 2011 at 9:09 pm
October 14, 2011 at 5:36 am
These are definitely the most fabulous flounce owls I have ever seen. I love ‘This is why I do okra’ owl!
October 17, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Ten thousand babies, lemon bombs. Ten thousand babies.
October 14, 2011 at 7:27 am
Isn’t there enough room in the world for BOTH flounce cats and condescending owls? Can’t we all just get along?
October 14, 2011 at 6:35 pm
And glitter tear eagles!
October 13, 2011 at 5:09 pm
THis has to be a classic case of somebody inadvertently sitting down wrong and squashing their own balls. Can’t remember where I read, but it said that most arguments, and 80% of international conflicts could be avoided if people would learn to say, “Pardon me, I just sat on my testicles, and it’s quite painful. Will you excuse me for a moment while I get better situated?” rather than lashing out at whoever they are conversing with.
October 13, 2011 at 9:41 pm
not enough thumbs for how hard I laughed at this.
October 14, 2011 at 12:32 am
I love this comment so hard.
October 14, 2011 at 5:36 am
Thank you for this comment. It brings to light a sad social issue that is easily corrected by taking a deep breath and rearranging your nutsack. If more people would just be mindful of the nutsack! Thank you!
October 14, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I read this out loud to my spouse and he got all thoughtful, and said “Y’know, that’s so true!”
Maybe the female version of this is beaning yourself in the breast as you sit down.
October 13, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Also in her listings are the following tidbits:
the pages are from books printed in the 1800s (this hurts my heart for some reason). ALL of those are now Public Domain. (ALL OF THEM)
She then puts “antique” pictures on top of them in some old-timey way (I’m wondering if she’s using a dot-matrix printer for that part).. not specifying what that printing process is. I suspect ink jet or laser printer. Whatever.
My point about that is that the images printed on the public domain book pager are ALSO PUBLIC DOMAIN.
THEN she says “everything is copyright by me”
I don’t think so.
October 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm
yeah I am trying to figure this trend out, so you tear up priceless antique books and print clip arts on top of the pages?
Wow, why am I not capitalizing on this like the 100 or so other etsy sellers doing it
October 13, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I have two pitch forks. Would you like me to sharpen yours for you?
But wait, I gotta get that Midol first…
(Really though, the copyright thing is laughable. I googled vintage octopus image and nearly all the ones she is using are out there for anyone to download.)
October 13, 2011 at 5:29 pm
from the feedback(negative):
“The owl is very pixelated and to be honest when I read that something is printed I think screen printed. So when I bought this to find out that this was computer printed, I was pretty bummed out. oh well.”
Maybe not a DM, but from this and other feedback, def comp printed.
October 13, 2011 at 5:31 pm
http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque/feedback?page=124
Apparently the pages used could have some… questionable subject matter as well…
October 13, 2011 at 6:09 pm
if you look at the photo from the listing (or one of the other owl print listings), you can SEE the pixellation in the image.
This means they are using “antique” clip art from some clipart collection that they purchased (if we’re “lucky”) and enlarged it beyond where they should have.
God forbid they find some nice etchings and scan them in themselves and then knock out the background. That would involve some actual, you know, skill.
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
That guy’s lawyer is, for sure, his uncle.
October 13, 2011 at 8:58 pm
It’s the talking bird!
October 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm
“Nonsense. We were not condescending at all.”
Just that line. Just that one line. Hahaha.
October 13, 2011 at 5:14 pm
October 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Has anyone looked at the feedback left for others? It is all the same.
Can’t even be bothered to personalize feedback slightly…
October 13, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Is anyone else entirely unimpressed by shit printed on antique books? Or is anyone else at least saddened by the fact antique books are mutilated for these derpy things?
October 13, 2011 at 5:22 pm
I can understand using old books for drawing paper if you are a starving artist and can’t afford good supplies, and the stuff you’re producing is “practice” or “sketches” – I believe this was something done in prior centuries.
But this trend is … I don’t know, akin to sticking empty wine bottles on a dead tree or something.
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
used to trap evil spirits.
October 13, 2011 at 7:10 pm
After they’re emptied of the good ones, of course.
October 13, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Of course!
We’re trying to trap and eliminate the evil, not get it drunk with us.
Well… depends on the level of evil I ‘spose…
October 14, 2011 at 7:24 am
oooh, pretty! I love that color blue, it makes me all tingly.
October 13, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Yes and yes.
October 13, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Saddened that Im not making $12 each to make them. Is antique book prints the new barn wood or mustaches?
October 13, 2011 at 5:31 pm
I love how she claims they are “very rare and very expensive” books. Not THAT expensive if she’s willing to rip them up and print random things on them…
October 13, 2011 at 6:59 pm
But they can be expensive—she just doesn’t give a shit. Besides, if a 100-page book costs $100, and she sells each crapped-on page for $10, then she profits $400.
I’m NOT doing math the way that seller did, confusing sales and feedback. Let me explain (I’m a book nerd, please forgive me). Technically what she’s selling is a “leaf,” since (for example) page 15 and 16 of a book are two pages, but she’s not splitting the paper. So, class, she tears out the 50 “leaves,” from the 100-page book that cost her $100, slaps some badly enlarged clip art shit on them and, wa-la, earns $400 profit in blood money from raped books. No, I’m not bitter, why do you ask?
October 13, 2011 at 7:02 pm
And then only charge $12 for them. Just thought of that a moment ago… if her materials are as expensive as she claims, she’s really undercutting her own cost-to-profit ratio. Derp.
October 13, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Many old books are just burned outright, though.
October 13, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Another wrong against books doesn’t make this poorly executed fuckery any less wrong.
October 13, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Yeah, and those books count themselves lucky because they didn`t have to get associated with this tawdry shit.
October 13, 2011 at 5:22 pm
I wonder what was so hard about saying “our prints are APPROXIMATELY 8×10 but may vary slightly due to the method of printing.” Too many words of more than syllable? Does it hurt?
October 13, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 14, 2011 at 2:32 pm
My allegiance was set in stone the moment the seller told the buyer “We know where you live”. Batshittery on an epic level was shat
October 13, 2011 at 5:26 pm
This is a little irrelevant, but something I intensely dislike about Etsy is that, unlike on eBay (or Amazon, where you can read the 1-star/2-star/etc. reviews separately – or any other site, on which you can ‘view from lowest to highest rating’), you’re unable to read the negative or neutral comments unless you go through all 175+ pages of feedback. Is there not a way to do this…?
October 13, 2011 at 5:27 pm
There’s not. They like to hide the ugly as deeply as possible. Informed buyers would be bad for business.
October 14, 2011 at 5:38 am
I whipped up a quick excel/vba macro to grab comments for a shop. Just paste it in, change the shop name at the top, and it will scrape etsy’s site and drop the comments in excel. It took about 5 minutes to get them all for the 175 pages of comments against this person’s site.
http://johnnevill.net/excel-vba-to-scrape-an-etsy-shop-for-comments
October 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm
JNevill, you are an evil genius!!! Thanks!
October 13, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Wait…I just had a horribly unsettling thought. They claim to have sold 12,000+ pieces of that bullshit. They sell them for $10 a piece. They’ve made near $120,000 (I’m sure there is some sort of supplies fees). I think I’ll go put my head in the oven.
October 13, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Not necessarily. They claim they use “very rare and very expensive” books, and many of the items boast free shipping. So profit margins would be awfully low, if all that is true.
I don’t know why I keep saying “they” when the other “seller” is her bloody dog.
October 13, 2011 at 7:29 pm
“…if all that is true”-You’re so funny. We all know it’s not.
October 14, 2011 at 5:44 am
All I got to say about the claim that she uses “very rare and very expensive books” is: that is absolute BULLSHIT. Unless she really IS batshit crazy, no seller in their right mind would ever cut up an expensive book for craft materials. She’s full of shit on a lot of levels and that is level #1.
October 13, 2011 at 5:27 pm
It reminds me of the time I ordered some hello kitty stickers on ebay…It took over a month and a half for the stickers to get there (Had to email the seller to remind them), and they didn’t send me what I ordered…So I gave them Negative feedback, and they responded by giving me Negative feedback for “being mean.”
October 13, 2011 at 5:28 pm
I lol’d at the person who got an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PRINT TO THE ONE THEY BOUGHT yet still only left neutral feedback. Wow.
October 13, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Perhaps they were CONVINCED by Customer Service into upgrading from negative to Nuetral.
October 13, 2011 at 8:44 pm
An angry lawyer dog at your crotch can be very convincing.
October 14, 2011 at 3:27 am
heh heh…”customer service”
Sadly, you’re likely right on the money.
October 13, 2011 at 5:28 pm
There is one phrase missing:
“Thank you. have a nice day.”
I missed it, if it was mentioned but, Is this from a Regretsian? If so, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep us up to date.
October 13, 2011 at 5:32 pm
HOLY FUCKING SHIT what is wrong with these sellers?
And what is wrong with Etsy? (ok, that could take a whole website or two to explain)
God, people piss me off.
October 13, 2011 at 5:32 pm
October 13, 2011 at 5:38 pm
All I know is that I would never want to meet this person in real life. Sounds like a deranged hipster. “Yeah, I use these books, they are really, really old and antique even. Oh and incredibly expensive, you could never afford to buy the whole book. However because I am such an artistic genius, I took the time to teach myself PhotoShop. Especially the copy-paste feature. I spent hours painstakingly creating and copyrighting these images just to print them on my home printer so that you, the feeble-minded uneducated masses may have a taste of what its like to be me. Youre welcome. ” *i only imagine this to be an actual quote, just like they imagine they invented Alice, and the idea of printing on paper. * <3 <3
October 13, 2011 at 5:39 pm
YOU’RE* GODDAMNIT!
Ahem.
While I do understand the seller’s initial response about cutting the paper, harassment? For fuck’s sake? Maybe this seller should team up with the Internet Copyright Protection Alliance or whatever the hell it is called to fight for civility on the internet or some shit.
October 13, 2011 at 5:47 pm
I know you’re not referring to me! I am typing from a phone and therefore exempt from the grammar police! I demand you stop harassing me! Also take back your comment, or I’ll tell Helen on you! I may know where you work.
October 13, 2011 at 6:15 pm
And if you don’t know where mad2physicist works, you know where Helen does, so THAT counts for something! I don’t know what, but SOMETHING!
October 13, 2011 at 10:11 pm
You’re right. I wasn’t referring to you. I misread the op as misusing ‘your’ instead of misspelling ‘neutral.’
I work at SUNY Buffalo. Where I teach math, not English. Primarily sober, although not always.
October 14, 2011 at 2:22 pm
“Primarily” sober?
Did you always work at SUNY? I think I may have taken AP Calculus from you.
October 13, 2011 at 5:40 pm
I sell vintage china and depression glass on eBay, and I leave feedback for sellers as soon as I’m paid. None of this “I’ll leave feedback once you leave feedback telling me you’re happy with your purchase” bullshit. The buyer has taken all the risk at that point–they’ve sent actual money, while I have yet to fulfill my end of the bargain. I tell them I’ve left positive feedback, and I don’t whine at them to leave me feedback. To me, that defeats the whole point of the process. Sellers who try to bully people into feedback piss me off. (But it does give me a little thrill when my number goes up one!)
October 13, 2011 at 5:45 pm
When I’ve bought from a seller with that policy, I generally don’t leave any feedback, and let the next buyer wonder why the sales numbers are greater than the feedbacks.
October 14, 2011 at 7:12 pm
I sell on etsy, but I leave feedback for buyers about once a month when the “you need to leave feedback!” link pops up and I go “Crap, I do need to leave feedback, don’t I?” It’s not passive aggressive, just forgetful.
October 13, 2011 at 5:40 pm
I don’t get it. I don’t care WHY it’s 10.5″ instead of 10″. If I ask the size of an item I want to know the size of the item.
October 14, 2011 at 12:54 am
More importantly; why didn’t the listing just say 10.5″ to start with?
October 13, 2011 at 5:41 pm
She’s signing her emails as Alexandra & Poni. Why are the emails from the DOG as well? Perhaps it explains the spelling and run on sentences. She is dictating the emails to Poni the dog.
October 14, 2011 at 12:53 am
Other way around.
October 14, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Hey, even though this person is a total nutjob, the Son of Sam joke is uncalled for.
…At least, I really, really hope it is.
October 14, 2011 at 9:23 am
IDK I think the dog would do a better job.
October 13, 2011 at 5:43 pm
http://static.regretsy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/blobfish.jpg
October 13, 2011 at 5:44 pm
i wonder if she knows she’s been regretsied??
October 13, 2011 at 9:05 pm
If not, she will soon enough when she checks her shop stats.
October 13, 2011 at 5:43 pm
October 13, 2011 at 5:46 pm
That seller’s logo is deceiving to humans and insulting to owls!
October 13, 2011 at 6:20 pm
I was innocently scrolling through Regretsy in the absolutely silent library, and when I saw this I barked out laughter like a seal.
Then the girl next to me glared, and she looked JUST LIKE the owl.
Which made me laugh even more.
Now I’m sitting here snickering from behind my hand and shaking silently.
You could say… it’s a hoot.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
October 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
glad i could bring u a lol moment
October 14, 2011 at 11:33 am
Oh man, thank you so much for that CSI: Miami reference! I usually don’t comment, but this hilarity is making my day! Except for the irrationally rude and condescending seller with the dog lawyer, printing on “rare, antique” paper, which just fills me with the fiery rage of a thousand suns.
October 13, 2011 at 6:46 pm
This really makes me so happy…
October 13, 2011 at 5:46 pm
October 13, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Took me a few views to figure out who that cat reminds me of. Now I have it—Rosie O’Donnell. Totally off-topic, I know.
October 14, 2011 at 2:40 am
ME TOO!
October 14, 2011 at 6:49 am
I did not see that until you pointed it out. Now I can’t unsee it. And I’m grinning like a maniac.
October 13, 2011 at 5:46 pm
I am gonna make sooooooooo many crying glitter eagles out of the constitution. Then sell the hell out of them.
This is my idea © ™
October 13, 2011 at 5:48 pm
October 14, 2011 at 10:05 pm
It took me a whole day to realize this was a joke about “slander”.
October 13, 2011 at 5:52 pm
October 14, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Bravo, I say.
I didn’t laugh loud enough to wake up my two “layers” asleep over on my bed, but one of them did stop snoring for a second.
October 13, 2011 at 5:55 pm
People may have pointed this out before, but check out page 23. The repeated entry on there pretty much proves that “3478 positive replies” is an inflated figure, not the real one. Someone that nasty wouldn’t be getting such uniformly positive feedback. The seller’s work isn’t even that great, if you ask me. Certainly doesn’t justify such an ego. Why do people suck so much?
October 13, 2011 at 5:58 pm
from the feedback…..”So rude when all I wanted was another print that wasn’t screwed up. Seller poorly and cheaply packages these prints and then gave me a 24 hour time limit to respond to them on labor day weekend. Didn’t work for me. Think I’ll make my own now. since i cant have the one i paid for. can’t be that hard right?”
October 13, 2011 at 5:59 pm
They have some lovely items, but the convo THEY initiated, then threatened harassment with, ensures I will never purchase from them.
October 13, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Precisely. Plus, I like to buy from sellers who own a ruler.
October 13, 2011 at 7:56 pm
October 13, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Awwww, I don’t wanna upset your tummy. I’ll try using bacon instead.
October 13, 2011 at 6:47 pm
wow, this is not supposed to be here LOL. I FAIL.
October 13, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Bacon is NEVER a fail!
October 13, 2011 at 6:10 pm
If someone who is in a business partnership with her dog and bird, threatens to call their attorneys, perhaps by “lawyers” she means the firm made up of herself, the hermit crab, and their ficus tree.
October 13, 2011 at 11:57 pm
or the voices in her head?
October 14, 2011 at 6:48 am
I really want to see a cartoon of that. I can see the lady (in a suit) sitting next to the crab and the ficus (also in suits). They all have little laptops and notepads sitting in front of them. Well the hermit crab’s suit is more painted on his shell.
October 13, 2011 at 6:15 pm
“We’re so confident in how great we are that we definitely don’t feel the need to bitch you out for your neutral rating, you complete and utter bastard piece of shit, we know where you work and live and what kind of person you are. What your Etsy step before we lawyer the shit out of you and your choice to rate us according to your experience which is how Etsy is set up. How dare you not do what we want you to regardless of how you feel!”
Mmmm. Consistent and rational.
October 13, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Wooops- I mean ‘watch’ your Etsy step.
October 13, 2011 at 6:34 pm
This is just as bad as when someone calls you, then puts you on hold.
Uhh.. didn’t you contact me??
October 13, 2011 at 6:35 pm
“BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY. ”
Nice.
October 13, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I want to go and buy every item in the shop now and not pay them… is that unEtsy?
October 13, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Very – and I applaud your idea.
October 13, 2011 at 6:36 pm
So I had nothing to do tonight but watch TV and went through all their feedback to find the negatives – because Etsy wants to hide them all and not let you read just those.
Basically ALL of the negatives are due to the seller being rude and unhelpful. This stretches back through 2010 – GET A CLUE LADY! Business, you’re doing it wrong.
October 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
October 13, 2011 at 10:40 pm
I hope velour is the next major Etsy trend.
October 14, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Not enough thumbs.
October 13, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Thank you Thank you Thank you for posting this so other customers can avoid her. Poorly done work can be forgiven and perhaps forgotten, but I HATE ASSHOLES.
I’ll go back to my corner now.
October 13, 2011 at 6:48 pm
page 128 comments classic!
“Very grumpy lady ordered some prints and they where printed on questionable text of a book me tined it to her, and she kinda freaked out in an email baack to me. It’s a shame because the prints are lovely and would have ordered more. Butworried about having to deal with such a sour personality ! ”
http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque/feedback?page=128
October 13, 2011 at 6:49 pm
oops i mean page 124
http://www.etsy.com/people/BlackBaroque/feedback?page=124
October 13, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Is Etsy listening? How dare they let a buyer be intimidated and threatened.
October 13, 2011 at 7:02 pm
By a seller, you mean, ’cause that’s Etsy’s job!
October 13, 2011 at 6:56 pm
what a bunch of BS… if the print is 8″x10″ the print is 8″x10″ if it’s 8″x10.5″ JUST SAY THAT!!! IN THE LISTING!!!
I have a few things listed that are not perfect sizes (sometimes when you hand cut something it’s not exact and I *gasp* SAY SO IN THE LISTING THAT THE SIZE IS APPROX (because it’s often less than a 16th of an inch off, if something is expressable in 1/4 inch or more increments that’s not “extra” paper… its the THE SIZE OF THE ITEM!!!
GAH! And yet people will keep buying from them.
October 13, 2011 at 7:02 pm
“Additional policies & FAQs…
♥The largest size we carry for prints is 8 x 10 inches. We do not and can not make them any larger”
October 13, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Thus furthering the inkjet print theory…
At least she hasn’t figured out the whole “wide-format printer” thing yet, though.
October 13, 2011 at 6:58 pm
OMG – the shop policies!!!
“Here is what to follow in the event that we do make a mistake:
♥If you email us a sweet note about our mistake, you get the mistake corrected and a free print.
B-If you email us a mean note about our mistake, you get the mistake corrected, that’s all.
C-If you email us an extra nice email about our mistake, well then if there is enough sugar in it, we may just give you a 2nd print for free.”
October 13, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I swear, I thought you’d made up C, but you didn’t! That’s direct from the shop policies.
*shakes head in disgusted disbelief
October 13, 2011 at 7:07 pm
This is what I imagine the seller looks like:
October 13, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Is that the bitch professor from Harry Potter (I can’t remember which one right now). Whether or not, she’s a good bet for the seller!
October 13, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Yup, Dolores Umbridge. Pretends to be sugary sweet, but SHE WILL CUT YOU.
October 13, 2011 at 7:24 pm
October 13, 2011 at 8:13 pm
I am dying over here. Brilliant.
October 13, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Marry me.
October 13, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Are you willing to convert to Hoboism?
October 14, 2011 at 12:51 am
This deserves WAY more thumbs.
October 18, 2011 at 1:15 am
Hahahaha this made my night! I can’t believe how long I went without reading through the comments on regresty.
October 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Nail + head = you.
October 14, 2011 at 1:54 am
IDK what SHE looks like, but I saw the inside of her house on another website. It is UNCANNY how similar it is to the picture above. Cracks me up!
October 13, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Palm, meet face. Good Lord.
October 13, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Tweekers gone wild!
October 13, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I clicked on the very first listing in her shop, an “Owl Bicycle Bike Print.” When I read the description I seriously thought it was something she copied from Regretsy:
“What a better way to pass the day then perched on a bike! Our Steampunk Owl with his top hat and friendly Octopus are taking a break from a day of fun on a antique bike that anyone with a love of bicycles would love to have.”
I mean come on, that has Regretsy all over it.
October 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 14, 2011 at 9:58 am
I’m still not convinced you get the joke.
October 13, 2011 at 7:25 pm
October 13, 2011 at 7:29 pm
“Oh and here is a nother thought for you, Etsy has rules about harassment and abuse so we suggest you do not email us again.”
I’m guessing that they don’t want to be emailed again because they don’t want to keep breaking those rules. Unless it’s only harassment if it comes from the buyer. Or if blatant threats are toats ok. With Etsy it’s hard to tell.
(Also the fact that there’s not a comma after the ‘Oh’, a colon after you and a period after abuse is really bugging me. It’s probably just a style choice – and this isn’t a term paper – but I still like my threats to have correct punctuation and panache.)
October 14, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I’m guessing they don’t want to be emailed again because they can’t stand not having the last word.
October 15, 2011 at 12:38 am
LAST WORD IS MINE!!
October 13, 2011 at 7:37 pm
The shop is Black Baroque
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackBaroque
I’ve had similar threats made from her as well.
Have a look at her saccharin shop description and enjoy knowing the truth that lies beneath. Knowledge is power or something.
October 13, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Yeah, I don’t think the .5 inch is what the buyer’s upset about. Maybe you should read the whole thing.
October 13, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Yeah seems like the buyer was willing to let it slide until the seller got nasty about it. And honestly, how hard is it to say 10.5″ in the listing? People buy 8x10s so they can frame them easily. Not everyone is comfortable taking a knife to something they just bought.
October 13, 2011 at 9:40 pm
I can’t cut straight worth a darn.
If I had to recut the print to fit the frame, I would have to find a t square, pencil, scissors, and still would screw it up somehow. It would take me forever!
If I knew the print was larger, I would just buy a larger frame and mat it , easy peasy.
I understand the neutral.
October 14, 2011 at 1:27 pm
X-acto knife (or a razor blade) and a straight edge/ruler.
(Your point is taken, by the way. This is just a suggestion in case you find yourself wanting to cut a straight line somewhere down the road!)
October 13, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Well, I understand the neutral. I wouldn’t be able to trim it without a lot of hassle and would probably mess up the print. I am inept like that. However, if the seller had told them the print was bigger, they could have gotten a bigger frame and matted it or something, no cutting needed.
October 13, 2011 at 10:06 pm
How did this post twice? Sorry.
October 14, 2011 at 2:20 am
there WAS no buyer butthurt – they answered the seller’s (hidden) butthurt question about why they gave her a neutral with just the facts and no name calling.
Then the seller’s butthurt came out all over the place, in response to the honest answer she’d requested.
So stupid because the point of customer feedback is NOT to get yourself a perfect rating, but to improve what you’re doing – in my non Etsy website, I’ve used complaints and feedback from customers to improve my service over the past 11 years.
October 16, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Half an inch is a non-negligible amount of space. Trimming that much would seriously throw off the proportions of a work of art.
Fortunately, clip art randomly shat out on an unrelated page of text (no matter how old) isn’t a work of art. But it’s still a fucking hassle and you don’t insult your customers and then tell them to do your job for you.
October 13, 2011 at 7:40 pm
October 13, 2011 at 7:42 pm
I wonder if that person is speaking with the Royal We or if she’s like that Neverending Story turtle. “We haven’t spoken to anyone else for thousands of years, so we started talking to ourselves.”
October 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
If so, I wonder if she reports herself?
October 14, 2011 at 3:00 pm
She talks to Poni. In fact, I think Poni’s in charge of the whole operation.
October 14, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Poor Poni.
October 13, 2011 at 7:43 pm
(My photo so steal all you want)
October 13, 2011 at 9:06 pm
I want this on a sampler.
October 14, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Kittys!
October 13, 2011 at 7:47 pm
MY LAWYER
lol you don’t have a lawyer you dumb cunt.
October 13, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Is there a field of law called “Butthurt Law”?
“Have you been insulted by a stranger on the internet? Received negative feedback on an eBay listing? Call the law firm of…”
Yeah, I know someone’s already shopped something along these lines.
I can’t wait until the seller sees this post, though. Her lawyers are going to have a field day with all of us!
October 17, 2011 at 4:44 pm
You mean, her dog and her bird.
October 13, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Quick, someone tell them that no feedback also equals neutral feedback.
October 13, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Beyond the vast expanse of fuckery in the seller’s emails, I don’t understand why she thought a neutral merited an email response in the first place. It’s neutral, for fuck’s sake – not good, not bad, just the normal condition.
I feel like this culture of it being the norm to leave positive, even if the experience was really just average and didn’t involve great service or an exceptional product, is part of the same attitude that dictates that even the losing kids soccer team gets foot-high trophies. These people don’t want to earn their accolades anymore, but they expect to just be handed them.
Pisses me off… yeah…
October 13, 2011 at 8:21 pm
exactly! I could not get over how she went on and on about how they make their prints – for the sole reason of saying, we hope you will think of all the positive things we did for you so reconsider your feedback. In other words, I deserve a medal for doing my job.
October 13, 2011 at 9:45 pm
In Etsyspeak, a neutral is bad. And a negative is ZOMG THE WORLD IS ENDING!
The fact that so many people didn’t leave any feedback at all says something in Etsyland.
October 13, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Goddamn straight. ‘Average’ service is expected, and doesn’t deserve any special accolade.
October 13, 2011 at 10:42 pm
But she’s a SPECIAL cupcake.
October 14, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Quick Regretsy poll:
How many people kept their participation ribbons for coming in last? We’ve all gotten them, I’m sure. (After all, we are fat, jealous losers.)
How many people kept their 1st, 2nd or 3rd place ribbons?
I think this is an interesting question. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to get a widely applicable answer here. We’re a self-selected group of cynics with standards. I suspect most of us lost our participation ribbons quite quickly through neglect or disinterest. Further, I suspect the general public, and cupcakes in particular, hang onto their faux achievement banners more conscientiously.
October 14, 2011 at 10:08 pm
I never got a “participation” ribbon. Hence my snarkitude.
October 13, 2011 at 8:05 pm
My lawyer is a jedi. Or at least he says he is.
October 13, 2011 at 8:40 pm
October 13, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I can’t even get to the part of the seller being a rude, self-important, cunt. I am still stuck back at the part where she is cutting up antique books to print over them. What in hell’s name craft is this? This is why we can’t have nice things. Some craftard with an ink jet printer is going to cause more damage than all my kids combined.
October 13, 2011 at 9:07 pm
theres heaps of sellers doing it, and they rake in 20 sales a day most of them.
October 13, 2011 at 10:41 pm
I just looked closely at her Urchin print “as featured in Coastal Living magazine.” That is a fucking old law book. The reason you have to look for them is that NO ONE wants them, everything is digitized or at least on fiche, and the books have red rot and smell funky (not good old books but nasty old book). With the exceptions of big research law libraries and maybe collectors, laws of the territories is NOT a desirable title. Make one feel better about the allegedly “expensive, antique” books just being old shit that she rips up, but shows she is a glitter sucking, lying twatwaffle.
October 14, 2011 at 9:11 am
Do any law libraries still have Matthew Bender books, especially the Bender Binder ones? I used to work for them, many years before computers, and it was such a pain to update those books, adding 89 pages between the old 59 and 60, skipping 200 pages when the new material was less, and having annoying cupcake law students (some were intelligent and serious about the work). I remember one who, when she had to fill out her timesheet, asked, “Is there a code for bullshitting?” No, she was not one of the intelligent ones. But I digress.
Red rot? Sounds creepy.
October 14, 2011 at 7:11 pm
I had a friend’s cousin who worked for them too, in the late 80s. MB was bought out by Lexis. Aspen, Wiley, LCP, CBC, Harrison, all gone or bought up by Lexis or West. Most online now so not so much updating. Red rot is very messy but not too gross – just decaying paper/leather that stains hand/clothes. Less gross than mildew or mold.
October 14, 2011 at 11:40 am
Good eye, aliceblue. She also appears to have come across an old “Collier’s cyclopedia of commercial and social information blah blah blah…” which you can get a copy worthy of destroying for less than $30. Collectible, if in perfect condition, but hardly “rare” or “expensive.”
Though I doubt the words “Poop or get off the pot” really adds to the value.
October 13, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Speaking as someone who’s tried to sell a very old book once, condition and rarity plays a huge part in value. If it’s common as dirt and defaced, might as well cut it up because it’s probably worth a dollar. If that.
October 14, 2011 at 5:53 am
Well thats some good news. Now I can just focus on her being a total twat who is a liar as well!!
October 13, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Totally had this seller and some of her prints in my favorites. Not anymore. Also, these prints would be incredibly easy to make, just so you know.
On top of that, I would be surprised if the buyer is the one that gets in trouble with etsy. I once was in a similar situation where someone was harassing me, and then told me they reported me for harassment! And of course etsy gave me a warning. Such bullshit.
October 13, 2011 at 9:14 pm
oh this oh this is so unfair!!
have a look at her sales for the 13th- she is raking it in!!!
October 13, 2011 at 9:43 pm
I am guessing it is going to be followed by a bunch of neutrals and negs with whimsicle ways to say how they felt the seller treated them.
I wouldn’t worry about her getting too much from this in the long run.
October 14, 2011 at 9:51 am
which will only amplify the seller’s shitty attitude.
October 13, 2011 at 9:20 pm
WOW! I would remind them that my place of work is on the corner of Crazy and Eff Off
October 13, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Cuntwrap supreme!!!
October 13, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Im surprised the seller hasnt come over here to threaten us all with legal action yet…
October 14, 2011 at 1:41 am
i can’t wait
October 14, 2011 at 6:01 am
I bet you my lunch money she’ll make an appearance….you think she was loaded for bear after an unexplained neutral? LOL This will give her rage boner supreme!
October 14, 2011 at 9:52 am
just a matter of time before some one sends her a link to this
October 13, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Print Size: The page size is 8 x 10 inches or 20.3 x 25.4 cm.
Well, actually, no it’s not. If you bothered to tell the truth you wouldn’t have buyers ‘harassing’ you about it!
Gimps.
October 13, 2011 at 9:59 pm
I searched around etsy for “antique book prints.” Is it not possible to screenprint on antique book pages or is that a lost art?
October 13, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Screenprinting would require some skill and actual work on the part of the producer.
October 13, 2011 at 10:11 pm
I thought this was just good, old-fashioned internet jackassery until I read the line about finding out where she works. Now it’s scary and creepy.
October 13, 2011 at 10:18 pm
OMG – the whole time I was reading this all I could think of was this seller HAD to be my coworker. The frickin attitude and psychosis was soooooo her. But then I remembered her writing style and knew it wasn’t her.
No. Said coworker self-published a book and gave me a signed copy which I tried to read. I couldn’t get past the first paragraph where she wrote the word I’ll as I’ ll. *shudder*
Wonder if she has a sister?
October 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
October 13, 2011 at 10:33 pm
All the buyer did was give them a neutral, because the product was not as described. S/he didn’t message them or give them a negative.
October 13, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Its kinda hard to get the side even if you have to take 1/8 an inch off each side to make it fit and still be centered.
October 14, 2011 at 6:40 am
Maybe if she just bought it after reading the description.
But she specifically asked the seller about the exact size before ordering<. (According to the above exchange.)
October 14, 2011 at 2:45 pm
TBH, the one neutral I got in my store, I did convo the giver myself – simply because I wanted to know what I’d gotten wrong, and if they would like me to refund them.
I don’t think it’s creepy to ask why a buyer isn’t satisfied, if you intend to try and put things right for them. On the other hand, if you then tell them that you know where they live and you’re coming for their asses with internet lawyers, that’s a different story…
October 14, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Notice the customer said that she did cut it to fit. But the thing is…she shouldn’t have to. The seller should have been straight forward and told her the exact size of the print.
What amuses me the most is how the seller seemed annoyed that a customer would e-mail her with a question. Like the seller is some superstar who isn’t to be questioned. I was honestly expecting to see this statement somewhere in the e-mail exchange: “How dare a customer have a question about one of my items!! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I’m BlackBaroque, bitch!”
October 14, 2011 at 10:30 pm
You mean “*WE* are BlackBaroque, Bitch!”
October 15, 2011 at 12:31 am
I’m sorry. It slipped my mind that her dog is her business partner.
October 13, 2011 at 10:23 pm
OMG! This is totally calling out! Quit it! You’re all going to get this thread closed down!
IBTL…oh wait, there is no thread lock. Continue on.
October 13, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Oh this is great! Take a look at the feedback SHE leaves. So posivie so “SWEET,”(vomits quietly) so the same fucking thing over, and over, and over – it’s a form thank you. At least rotate 2 or 3 of them you dysfunctional glitter-cunt.
BlackBaroque says:
Buyer, Buyer, we love you! Thank you for your purchase too! You made our day being so sweet! Doing business with you was such a treat! Excellent buyer in every way! Poni gives this buyer 4 paws up! XO, President Poni & Alexandra
October 13, 2011 at 11:22 pm
I know, RIGHT?!
MOST OBNOXIOUS THING EVER.
October 14, 2011 at 9:13 am
I suspect that one day Poni will get so sick of this that “four paws up” will mean that it committed suicide rathr than suffer one more day on Earth with that glitter-cunt (love the term, Aliceblue!).
October 13, 2011 at 11:29 pm
We shouldn’t be surprised she can’t count, bitch can’t even spell pony.
October 14, 2011 at 6:38 am
Seeing Poni over and over gave me an eye twitch.
October 14, 2011 at 8:52 am
Maybe it’s pronounced like “Pawnee”–in which case, she still can’t spell.
October 14, 2011 at 6:52 pm
I keep wanting to read it as Ponyo, which confuses my brain.
Maybe it’s Pon-Eye?
October 14, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Maybe she has a pony named Dawg?
October 14, 2011 at 12:44 am
I have many antique books; my most prized being a copy of Julius Ceasar’s ‘Gallic Wars’ from 1884. All the pages are the same size. I don’t understand what this woman is rambling about. Books have been printed using pretty much the same basic method since the invention of moveable type in the middle ages. So not only is she condescending, she’s a bullshitter to boot.
Also; 12,200 orders fulfilled? This makes me sad. Think of all the books that this evil woman has destroyed to turn into hipster douchebag art. Even mediocre books deserve a little respect
October 14, 2011 at 1:00 am
When I read back my own post, I can’t help adding “and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” to the first sentence.
October 17, 2011 at 4:53 pm
OMG, Puppy Sandwich… I so love it that you have a nineteenth-century copy of De Bello Gallico!!!!! I will now admit my dirty, filthy secret here– that reading this book gave me a decidedly un-dainty girl boner for Julius Caesar.
He can cross my Rubicon any day!!!
October 14, 2011 at 1:22 am
I really love some of the images BlackBaroque lists, but I’m not buying from her (them?) now.
October 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
You can probably find them as free clip art on the internet. Take them and some used book paper to Kinko’s or do it yourself if you have an inkjet printer, and there you go.
October 18, 2011 at 12:59 am
All of her images that I looked up are from clip artists. Some are free, others are sold in packages for relatively small fees. A few are even on iStockPhoto.
There are actually a lot of people selling prints on old paper from books on Etsy (with a lot using the same art). I’m sure you could find a seller who is actually nice to buy from instead.
October 14, 2011 at 2:12 am
Thank fuck there are still some sane people out here, so glad I found this site! After reading the crap on Etsy forums I seriously started doubting my sanity!
just sayin’
Oh and if anyone is interested I have some lovely correspondence on how to respond to negative feedback
October 14, 2011 at 2:17 am
ok, so I went through all review pages, and compiled all relevant negative reviews.
August 12, 2010
Admittedly I neglected to thoroughly read the shipping policies, however when I contacted the seller, instead of politely pointing me to the page I had missed, I was told that “You probably should not have ordered through us” if I didnt agree with their policies. Don’t worry BlackBaroque, I won’t anymore! A simple misunderstanding ruined by a terrible response. Not impressed.
August 23, 2010
Very Rude. Will not work with customer over shipping misunderstanding.
Oct 14, 2010
Incredibly rude!!!
Oct 14, 2010
Very grumpy lady ordered some prints and they where printed on questionable text of a book me tined it to her, and she kinda freaked out in an email baack to me. It’s a shame because the prints are lovely and would have ordered more. Butworried about having to deal with such a sour personality!
October 14, 2011 at 2:20 am
Dec 23, 2010
Print was great, but the sellers themselves were extremely rude throughout the process. I didn’t receive my package for over three weeks and whenever I would send them a message the overall tone was one of poor customer service and rude “bedside manner”. Although they did work with me, I always felt as if I were a bother to them and they constantly acted superior, using quotation marks to empthasize that I, the buyer, was wrong.
October 14, 2011 at 2:20 am
Jan 15, 2011
BEWARE!!!!! Extremely rude seller. I enquired about my missing parcel and was told it was my problem. They did not offer to help me in anyway whatsoever. I had asked for the parcel to be sent to my Mum’s address as she is home all the time to receive parcels. During checkout there is an option to choose the address the parcel is to be shipped so clearly within the rules of Etsy. The address I chose was my Mum’s address – the address was not some random stranger I could not trust. Regardless of whether the order was to be sent to my residence or my Mum’s, the fact remains it has not turned up at either address. Seller was extremely rude during each and every email and was not at all sympathetic to the situation. I put in a paypal dispute and heard nothing from the seller nor have I ever received the order. An extremely negative experience and my first on Etsy. Thankfully sellers like this on Etsy are rare indeed.
October 14, 2011 at 2:21 am
Mar 24, 2011
I received damaged product from this shop and they refused to replace the item or take responsibility to not appropriately protecting their product.
Jul 1, 2011
BUYER BEWARE!! Print I bought was sloppily printed so that image is crooked and “floating” on the page, when it’s supposed to appear as though it extends beyond the frame. Also, was packed and shipped poorly so it arrived damaged. Contacted seller to organize replacement. They are the RUDEST, most DISGUSTING people I have every dealt with. On a $12 order that was damaged and printed badly at (admittedly) their fault, they refused to either replace or refund and then sent a nasty, threatening email. DO NOT BUY from them if you ever expect any kind of customer service. I’m sure all will be well if your order has no problems but if you go back and read comments from anyone who has had an issue with their order, all comments are the same — these people are TERRIBLE. STAY AWAY.
October 14, 2011 at 2:22 am
Sep 6, 2011
So rude when all I wanted was another print that wasn’t screwed up. Seller poorly and cheaply packages these prints and then gave me a 24 hour time limit to respond to them on labor day weekend. Didn’t work for me. Think I’ll make my own now. since i cant have the one i paid for. can’t be that hard right?
*all errors made by the reviewers left intact.
October 14, 2011 at 4:26 am
Holy all mother of hell?!?
You know, I know I’m not an etsy superstar and I don’t write a fricking novel in my descriptions or have catchy titles or belong to admin’s 5 fav treasury teams. But I am an artist, and I do sell prints and this is why I just list the fucking image size and the paper size clearly in actual measurements. Because I’m persnickety – I also have a graphic that shows how the fucking image is positioned on the paper.
And you know what? Being literal and concise — I have never experienced this problem. I know, I’m dull as dirt, right?
After reading one of the (pauses to count) 18 paragraphs in one of their listings, well, my eyes glazed over and I suffered amazement that they have sold that much. Who the fuck reads all that?
I offer this customer my sympathies.
October 14, 2011 at 5:06 am
I love how the seller refers to “people like her” as pretty much idiots, but yet when the buyer suggests that the sizing could be explained better, it’s considered harassment.
October 14, 2011 at 5:47 am
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ponithepuppy/page2/
This is her flickr stream. Check out her house. omg
October 14, 2011 at 6:08 am
What the cock is this shit?!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ponithepuppy/2536758067/in/photostream/
October 14, 2011 at 6:21 am
What the shuddering fuck!?
October 14, 2011 at 6:37 am
1) Way too much white and pink.
2) Why on earth do you buy a golf cart for your dog?
October 14, 2011 at 2:45 pm
…because she’s made $120,000 off of Etsy buyers so far, and hasn’t paid a cent in taxes? Ya gotta do something to launder all that cash so the govvmint doesn’t find out…
October 14, 2011 at 5:10 pm
But how does the dog drive the golf cart? He has no thumbs, so he can’t steer and IDK how he’d work the pedals and still be able to see where he’s going.
October 14, 2011 at 6:37 am
“We pimped it out ourselves, spray painting it and all. Now Poni has inherited it. We love to have wine and go for a drive in our neighborhood. All the little girls think I am Barbie. The kids in the neighborhood love to go for a ride. Sometimes Poni and I just go out for a quick ride and end up getting home 3 hrs later so many kids want a ride. The price of fame!”
oh dear God, imagine her rolling down the street in that, wine in hand, screaming at the kids “nonsense! I am not drunk, now stop harassing me or I will ::hiccup:: call my lawyer.”
October 14, 2011 at 8:58 am
“We bought this for our other little boy Dakota before he passed away.” I thought she meant an actual little boy and was horrified that her young son had died. Then I realized she probably meant her last dog and was free to ask WHY you would “pimp it out” like a Barbie car for your little boy Dakota.
October 14, 2011 at 2:12 pm
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October 14, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Haha, damnit, Dakota really was a dog. A tricolor sheltie that died at 12.5 years old.
October 14, 2011 at 10:13 pm
I’m glad the kids in the neighborhood think she’s BARBIE when she’s really just THAT RUDE DRUNK BITCH FROM AROUND THE CORNER.
October 14, 2011 at 6:23 am
There’s an ice cream parlor by my sister’s house. Super old-fashioned, everything in a lacy-candy-Easter sickly green and pink motif, with some creepy-ass Alice in Wonderland murals. They haven’t redecorated the place in probably thirty years, maybe more. Now I see they were just waiting for this woman. She’s got that same quaintly feminine nightmare style, but hers is so much more modern.
I have to admit, the existence of the husband unnerves me. The decor is a symptom of a kind of crazy that shouldn’t get that far if anyone is around to stop it.
October 14, 2011 at 1:33 pm
“the decor is a symptom of a kind of crazy that shouldn’t get that far if anyone is around to stop it.”
YOU: KYSO42, Have MADE MY DAY. agreed.
October 17, 2011 at 5:00 pm
I… swear… that decor made me reconsider my definition of domestic violence. I think it is being perpetrated against the husband in the form of DECOR.
October 14, 2011 at 11:57 am
…for some reason I am flashing on Darlie Routier spraying silly string at her son’s funerals. This seller seems the same kind of unhinged.
October 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
I hate to point it out, but that isn’t her house. It’s her store. Err, Poni’s store.
October 14, 2011 at 2:29 pm
house, store, tomato, tomatoe…..lol
October 14, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Some of it is the house. Not the madly pink bits, but the lacey feminine parts.
There’s one picture with the husband, and my, does the poor man look ill at ease.
October 15, 2011 at 9:53 am
So she has a kitchen with unreal amounts of counter space, plenty of natural light, and a special stovetop unit for lobster pots, right next to the “cooking sink.” And she chooses to focus on her pink toaster and her “gorgeous goblets” that she bought at Bergdorf Goodman. Because actual cooking is too much trouble — but thank god, Handsome loves to cook!
When I look at that kitchen, I think of the nearly two decades I spent in New York City, cooking and baking in 18″x 14″ ovens, in kitchens with less than a square foot of counter space. I think of the Rube Goldberg contraptions I used to build just to have enough room to place my goddamn cooling racks. And then I want to set that goddamn pink toaster on fire.
(Disclaimer, because I have been to law school: The preceding sentence is not an expression of express or implied intent to actually set that goddamn pink toaster on fire.)
October 17, 2011 at 11:34 am
Is it bad that I would really love this house if someone hadn’t vomited Pepto all over the walls? She strikes me as the type to use up WAY too much blue painter’s tape. -_-
October 14, 2011 at 5:50 am
it means the iron heart.gallic wars 1884 was a first edition, signed by ceasar. i’ve got that one too. can’t put it in my bookcase because all the pages are different in size.. that’s because “special people” were hired to print this jewel. and apparently “special people”buy this, tear out the pages and sell them to “special people”….
October 14, 2011 at 5:52 am
and there’s your circle of desperation
October 14, 2011 at 6:13 am
Man, now I wanna be nosy and read their other negative feedback…
October 14, 2011 at 6:14 am
That buyer had no chance of getting a sane response out of this seller. Poor lady. She answered in earnest, honestly, nothing mean. Seller lady came into it purely loaded for bear and to lower the boom. What a sad, little, mean person.
Years ago, someone told me: Look at an argument. Odds are that the person doing the most talking is WRONG. Looks like this is a great example of that.
I’m new-ish to Etsy but have been selling on ebay since ’98. I have 100% feedback but over the years, you can’t help but get complaints and some negatives. And I have dealt with some genuinely dumb buyers. Examples: Not reading descriptions, breaking stuff and THEN wanting a refund. One lady blamed me for what the post office clearly did. Anyway…my point is I turned and told my family about my annoyance and shit but then wrote to the person and just politely asked what I could do to fix it and then DID it. And then put them on my “no fucking way” list for future sales. Done.
October 14, 2011 at 6:18 am
This seller needs formal therapy to deal with her issues rather than waiting like a spider to verbally jump on buyers with legit issues. She’s the definition of a grown up bully.
October 14, 2011 at 7:12 am
You find the account, it’s enlightening to ready the unhappy comments. Talking about damaged or poorly printed at the sellers fault, and their rudeness in return when you try to work out an exchange.
October 14, 2011 at 7:43 am
The seller doesn’t replace product that’s damaged when it arrives. The things are $12. Not $500. What shitty customer service all the way around.
October 14, 2011 at 7:59 am
I SAID any evidence of your arguing with me after insulting you would be punishable by death!!
Not surprising that the “thought gestapo” has jumped on the “anything not agreeing with what I do is bullying and harassment” bandwagon.
October 14, 2011 at 8:55 am
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October 14, 2011 at 9:00 am
This has already been covered.
October 14, 2011 at 9:12 am
LOL!!! See! I don’t read either!!! Point made. XD
October 14, 2011 at 11:37 am
The public is stupid. If you cannot handle it in a professional manner, don’t run a business that deals with the public.
October 14, 2011 at 8:56 pm
OT: I am lusting after your Cthulhu.
October 14, 2011 at 9:10 am
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October 14, 2011 at 10:27 am
Wow, this is a mean seller….I can see where he/she was provoking this situation way beyond what was necessary. And honestly, if the paper is 8 x 10.5 or 8.5 x 10, that should be clearly stated that there is ‘excess’ paper. A bit obnoxious. I’m an Etsy seller and I would have bit my tongue, apologized to the customer and promptly corrected my listing’s print information (since technically, antique paper or no, I would have been in the wrong). I’ve had some unreasonable customers that I wanted to say some not so kind things to (like the above seller) but I bit my tongue. I’ve almost always been able to have the difficult customer walk away reasonably happy with the discussion, not threatened. Many have been return customers.
October 14, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Yes, there is the whole issue of THE ITEM NOT BEING AS DESCRIBED, even if it is by a half-inch, which the seller refuses to take responsibility for.
I’m half-tempted to buy something from them, hope it’s “defective,” and then dress them down royally when they threaten to sue me. Harassment? Two replies to a conversation are harassment? Slander? First off, it’s libel, and secondly, you’d have to prove your business had been harmed by it. What a dope.
Actually, I think the buyer should have replied with, “Excuse me, dear, could you have your mommy or daddy come to the computer? I realize I’m discussing business with an 8-year-old who doesn’t understand legal realities and good business practices.”
October 14, 2011 at 10:28 am
Thank you for a hour of laughs…
Now to check the Flickr stream for moar laughs.
October 14, 2011 at 10:36 am
I’m gonna be kinda nice….
Their polices does have the word…Approximate size…in the description. But this is no excuse for not having it listed in the listing.
My favorite part of their policies is this…If your pkg is lost due to the Post Office, etc, we still deserve good feedback from you as your pkg was sent. If you feel you cannot buy from us in the event that your pkg may be lost, you are unwilling to buy insurance or a delivery confirmation, and you feel you would be unable to give us good feedback in this situation, then you should not buy from Black Baroque.
These are the terms of our shop. If you buy from Black Baroque you are agreeing to those terms. Thank you for stopping by our shop. Have a nice day!
HOW do I know they even shipped the package…I can easily get a paypal refund by filing a complaint!
October 14, 2011 at 11:38 am
I understand that it is frustrating when a customer doesn’t read policies thoroughly, but isn’t it the seller’s job to answer questions and make the customer’s experience as pleasant and hassle-free as possible, even if a problem pops up that isn’t technically the seller’s fault?
I’m going to guess that this chick didn’t do any research into starting a business before doing so, because any business professional will tell you that good customer service is one of the most important aspects of a business.
Also: those are some pretty intense threats she made in her final e-mail. I am hoping that this person reported her to Etsy.
October 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Yeah but at the bottom of the page it says “Policies last updated October 14, 2011″. What you want to bet she added that paragraph today?
October 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm
I meant the “Approximate size” part…
October 14, 2011 at 10:51 am
Between viewing that flickr stream of her living space, which looks like she’s a highly anal-retentive pink smurf who lives in a lacquered cupcake, and the negative feedback she gets (when it goes bad, it goes BAD), it really must gall Alexandra (not to mention Poni, who, while I love dogs I gotta say, looks like she was gifted with an extra puppeh chromosome) not to have 100% positive feedback. This is a “no wire hangers” bitch for sure.
October 14, 2011 at 11:08 am
Something very similar happened to me with my CardboardSea shop, I got a letter from a customer saying (in a less than positive way) that she had specifically asked for me for measurement, And that she was holding the item in her hand and I.had.measured.it.wrong! And you know, I was kinda pissed, then I realized, OMG, Gwen you dumb shit You measured that wrong – d’oh! So I apologized (very nicely) and sent her back her money.. and she sent me back my thing. And then she even left me nice feedback… What the hell, I had No Idea I coulda called Koppin and Pastin and sued her for being stupid enough to try to buy something from an idiot like meself…
October 14, 2011 at 11:11 am
I love that they “put it in a room” for us to see! Which based on the scale, those pictures are a lot bigger than 8X10. Photoshop expert indeed….
October 14, 2011 at 11:34 am
hold on, Maybe it Is 8 x 10 — I’ve seen the dog’s car, perhaps this is the bird’s room? That ceiling could only be three feet tall…
October 14, 2011 at 1:32 pm
October 17, 2011 at 5:07 pm
EIGHTEEN MILLION THUMBS-UP!!!!
October 17, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Much better!
October 14, 2011 at 11:43 am
This would be a perfect print for their shop:
October 14, 2011 at 11:56 am
Hold the goddamned presses…er, inkjet printers. I have a copy of one of the “Rare” and “Expensive” books she tore apart right here in my sticky little fingers, “Collier’s Cyclopedia of commercial and social information….” Guess what? All the pages are the same size. Now, there’s an off chance that the reason her’s is “rare” is that there was some printing snafu and so there was a limited printing of freakishly poorly sized pages, but honestly, I think she’s full of crap. ALL OF THE PAGES ARE 8″x10.5″.
October 14, 2011 at 12:19 pm
http://img0.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.277666548.jpg
*No actual books were harmed–only a plastic sandwich bag
October 14, 2011 at 11:57 am
The most beautiful thing about this lady, I think, is that she is printing on acid damaged paper (and badly masking it in her photoshopped example prints) and making money off it because it’s *~*ANTIQUE*~*. Twelve bucks for a trite little inkjet print that has a shorter lifespan than the average parrot?? SIGN ME UP.
October 14, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Yeah, I was wondering if she screened at all for acidity and brittleness when choosing books – the era I’d guess she’s pulling pages from, I’d assume her source pages are all pretty heavily loaded with lignin. But if they were already brittle, they wouldn’t make it through her inkjet, so there’s that.
October 14, 2011 at 12:13 pm
The first time I ever used Etsy, I had to cancel one of my orders. The seller accepted to do so, but since I had had no real interaction with them, I selected a “neutral” feedback. The next day I got a message, and all it said was “WHY U GIVE NEUTRAL FEEDBACK???” She wrote an awful customer review about me, and I felt forced to “kiss and make up” :/ I switched my review of her to “positive”.
I would have been glad to have done that if she had just talked to me like a normal human being– but she just freaked me out. I didn’t buy anything off Etsy for a long time after that.
October 14, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Intimidation of customers is the American way, I guess.
October 14, 2011 at 12:34 pm
The seller is CLEARLY harrassing the buyer. How absurd to threaten to call your lawyer when you, the seller, instigated the conversation and took psychotic to a whole new level by threatening the purchaser and finding out “where she works”. Creepy. Just creepy. Oh yeah, any lawyer would laugh at this. Good luck trying to find one to take it!
October 14, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Wow…reading the negative feedback she leaves for others is more terrifying than this even…long winded and threatening. Yikes. BITCH.
October 14, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Pages, please?
October 14, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Wow, just wow. That rivals my bank’s customer service, and I had a manager call me a stupid bitch and hang up on me once.
All she had to do was contact the buyer and offer her a replacement or a refund. Those “prints” can’t cost that much to make. My shit costs WAY more to make than a print and the only negative I ever had, I bit the bullet, offered a full credit for the item price, and got a positive in return.
October 14, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Her house scares me. It’s gorgeous, yes, but at the same time it’s… wrong. It’s like the inside of a doll’s house, it looks like no one lives there, and I mean she has a husband but there’s nothing of him there either. There’s just… frills. Seriously, it gives me the shivers.
October 14, 2011 at 6:29 pm
poor, poor handsome.
October 14, 2011 at 1:32 pm
This woman verges on stupidity. Given the prints, and what shes doing, the claims that shes a “graphic designer who worked for agencies in NYC” is a big fat lie. I say this based on the few negative comments – they out her about not knowing how to do a decent print job. A skill you need on a above average level if you don’t want ripped off as a Graphic designer.
October 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
It just struck me – I don’t know if anyone else caught on to this since you have to look at her store on etsy and her flicker stream.
Shes a Glorified Re-seller.
October 14, 2011 at 1:32 pm
I love how she first says that cutting the print down to 8 x 10 “would be impossible” and in that same paragraph chides the buyer for leaving a neutral over something “so easy to take care of.”
October 14, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Buddy Jesus, I’m just stunned.
I suppose if I ever get neutral feedback and it’s not explained right there in the feedback, I might convo them and ask “Is there anything I can do to make your purchase experience more pleasurable?” Short of giving them oral sex, I mean.
This seller clearly stalked the buyer from the get-go. It’s so surreal I still can’t wrap my head around it. I’ll toss in a guess of Borderline Personality Disorder. Nah, that’d be an insult to people with BPD!
October 14, 2011 at 3:12 pm
To me, neutral feedback means “I paid money and got the thing I was expecting and everything was adequate.”
I reserve positive feedback for something extra outside of the defined parameters of the transaction. I think that it’s a shame that we now live in a world where positive feedback is given out purely for just not fucking up. It’s like saying “I entered into this transaction expecting you to completely fuck me over, and I am pleasantly surprised to discover that you have done as the terms of our agreement required you to do.”
It’s like giving every kid at school sports day a medal just for turning up.
October 14, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Agreed. It’s one reason why I hate writing letters of recommendation; it conflicts with my senses of accuracy and honesty. I usually offer specific details about what the person did well, and try to be as positive and sincere as I can, but I’m just not a person capable of blowing rainbow bubbles with glitter and sparkles.
I mean, what’s more useful:
a) GREAT SELLER!!!!! A++++++ WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN!!!!!
or
b) Seller sent item properly; was as described. Packaged well. Would buy from again.
October 14, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Yeahhh, I’m just gonna leave this here and back away slowly …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ponithepuppy/2536758067
October 14, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I’m kinda torn between saying “OH HOW ADORB!!” or puking from all the pink and shabby chic shit all over the place.
And either I feel sorry for her dog and her husband not having ONE masculine THING anywhere in her house and store (note: She redecorated the “Men’s Dept” to something more Shi-Shi & Fru-Fru) OR figure it takes a real man to make that place his home.
OH THE DICHOTOMY! I either need more coffee or a stiff drink.
October 14, 2011 at 8:27 pm
That dog is seriously cute. He does somewhat resemble a pony. A fuzzy one.
My husband leaves the home decor to me, since he doesn’t care much about that stuff, but I am very careful to choose things that are not ridiculously feminine. I do like ridiculously feminine things, but those are either in “my” areas of the bedroom or packed away for when I finally clear the spare room for crafting space.
October 14, 2011 at 4:43 pm
It looked bad from the start when the seller has gigantic walls of text, compared to the buyer’s polite, succinct remarks. Very happy to see the Etsy buyer stick to her/his guns, don’t let the cupcakes get you down!
October 14, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I’ve talked to my lawyer and he says snort snort gimmie a damn beggin strip.
October 14, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Assholes are everywhere and they know you’ll tire before they do. I wish I could hug this customer. Not in a creepy way…well, maybe slightly creepy. She stood her same-ass ground in the face of Crazy and that is hard to do…especially over an extended period of time.
October 14, 2011 at 10:36 pm
She has no lawyer, plenty of BS, but no lawyer.
I am stunned by the fact they have sold in less than two years over $122,000 worth.
October 15, 2011 at 1:43 am
A negative comment she left for one of her buyers:
“Buyer noted in her feedback that our print was pixelated and it looked as if it had been printed on. This is one of our best sellers that we have been selling for over a year now and all have loved it. We are not sure what she meant by her comment about printing since she did not contact us before leaving feedback, but this is an art “print” and it is made by being printed. We question a person’s motive when they mark the box neutral, but leave negative comments. We state in our policies if for any reason you are not happy with your order to please contact us before leaving feedback so we may do all we can to put a smile back on your face and in your heart.”
JESUS.
October 15, 2011 at 9:51 am
hirefrank just announced Etsy’s abandoned lots of their new we’ll tell you again which sellers are faves from their lineup. They already nixed the value of Feedback, I never use it or look at it because there’s a more than a 50/50 chance on Etsy that you’ll never get what you thought you paid for. This seller/buyer conversation is indicative of the bottoming out at Etsy from inside out. The source of this crap is Etsy itself.
October 15, 2011 at 4:37 pm
I just have a mental picture of someone with way too much free time to dink with doily-land decorating and extra-lengthy butthurt emails. Waay too much free time.
And I suspect the “husband*” is buried in the cellar. Alongside all the other “husbands”.
[*UPS guy that delivers rare, expensive books]
October 17, 2011 at 3:56 pm
“You’re neutral feedback is so inconsequential to my thriving business that I am calling my lawyer. I know where you live, bitch.”
October 18, 2011 at 12:16 am
Goddamnit, I used up all my fat jealous loser quota on her flickr :/
Also, my twee-vomit bucket is now almost overfilled.
October 20, 2011 at 1:04 pm
December 6, 2011 at 10:10 am
what the frig.
where’d my picture go?
October 22, 2011 at 9:31 pm
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October 26, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I think it’s HILARIOUS that the customer was being harassed and the buyer threatened to file for harassment.
October 26, 2011 at 5:33 pm
how can you guys see her etsy shop? Hayor- seller instead of buyer..Yeah totally agree..what a shame on humanity
October 29, 2011 at 5:23 am
as a painter I see the value of not destroying someone else’s priceless artform (a book) to create your own. Truly imaginative, creative people create something from nothing–that’s one of the definitions of magic.
October 29, 2011 at 10:24 pm
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November 8, 2011 at 1:28 am
@#181… if she was cutting up anything other than crap that hobos wouldn’t even stuff into their trousers for warmth, I’d be inclined to agree. That she chooses to cut up old tomes of law etc., I have no real problem with. Calling it “art” and trying to copyright it, on the other hand…
What DOES get up my nose is quotes like this:
“♥Poni our puppy is the president and he handles all business matters. I am just a lowly artist. Please direct all inquiries to him.”
In other words, “Shit goes down, and the dog cops the flak. Sue *him* if you think you’re being shafted.”
The vitriol continues apace: “If your pkg is lost due to the Post Office, etc, we still deserve good feedback from you as your pkg was sent.” – excuse me?? By that logic I can stick a poorly-wrapped dog turd in a box and send it to the wrong address, and still expect positive feedback.
Side note: Am awaiting a reply regarding her blatantly contradicting S&H charges. Stay tuned!
November 9, 2011 at 8:57 pm
That seller is batshit crazy!!! Wow. Astonishing, just astonishing.
January 11, 2012 at 12:03 pm
how disgusting these vendors are! who the hell are they? just to make sure i never buy anything from them
February 6, 2012 at 10:05 pm
I work for a law firm and I am proud to say we do not employee douchebag lawyers that run around suing people for Etsy harassment or because you stole their crying eagle. Etsy is giving our profession a bad name. Can I sue for emotional distress now?