In March of I contacted Jaime Flannigan-Cool, owner of The Backporch Boutique (AKA Backporch Threadz on Etsy), about the possibility of ordering a dress & shirt from her Etsy shop. I asked if the two items could be made with a slightly different waist than they normally were done, and she said yes. To be sure she understood what I meant, I sent her sketches, as well as photo's of her past work where she'd done the type of waist I wanted. She assured me that it would be no problem.
On 4-06, I paid just shy of $200.00 to Ms. Cool, who said the items would be shipped within 2-3 weeks. She reiterated this in the listings she set up for me on Etsy, & on the receipt for payment.
About 4 weeks later, I had not yet received the items, or heard from Ms. Cool. I contacted her, and she stated she would begin my items the following day (at this point, they were already past due)- no explanation, no apology. This was a red flag for me - in the past, when I’ve bought items with custom details, the sellers always kept me updated about the item's progress, and sent photo's of it for me to approve - but once Ms. Cool had my payment, all communication ceased, and any attempt I made to reach her took days to weeks to elicit a reply. A few more weeks went by after she promised to start them, without any word, so I emailed her again, and she again said they'd be shipped shortly. At this point, I asked she email me when she shipped them, so I knew to go to the rental box to look - she emailed me to say she would.
She never did. I finally got a call in July from the UPS office I rented my box at, saying they'd arrived.
Unfortunately, things got even worse from there.
The dress & shirt were not done with the empire waist alteration we'd agreed on (which was also the reason why I’d paid more than her normal price for these items), and one of the applique's I'd paid extra for was missing too. On top of them both being significantly not as described, the dress was in such terrible condition, it was unwearable.
I attempted to have them fixed at a tailor's, simply b/c I didn't want to deal with Ms. Cool again. The tailor fixed the shirt (which, with the repairs, had now cost me some $150.00 total - that doesn't include the dress, which was $128.00). Unfortunately, the tailor who did the shirt repairs, and later, 2 other tailors, all refused to touch the dress, saying that it was so poorly made, it could not structurally sustain any attempts at fixing it. Two of them actually tried to cheer me up, b/c they thought I'd bungled the dress in my first attempt at sewing - telling me I'd get better. I had to explain to them that no, I'd actually paid someone to make them.
I finally emailed the seller, and explained the issue. I also sent photo's of them. I told her I would like to return the dress in exchange for either the one I ordered, or a partial refund (I did not ask to return the shirt, since I’d had it altered, but I did tell her about the issues with it too). She wrote back saying that she did not take returns after 30 days of payment - even though she hadn’t even started my items 30 days after payment - I have the email she sent saying so!
She also said her policies stated this - I had checked her policies prior to emailing her, though - all they said then was that she only took returns when the flaw was on her end. However, she updated the policy page the day after I emailed her (etsy reflects this), to state the 30 day policy.
Etsy won't get involved, claiming it's between the seller and I. The seller won't even reply to my emails, let alone try to remedy her mistakes; and my credit card company claims it's between me and Etsy - so I’m stuck. When I left negative feedback for her, I was honest, but I never swore, name called or did anything that would otherwise be construed as offensive - yet the day after I left it, I got an anonymous email saying “nice try - feedback's removed, b%$@*! Good luck trying to buy from anyone on the festival circuit again”- and sure enough, when I went to look, the feedback had been removed.
Etsy's the only one who can do that, but I haven’t heard from them as to why - I did email then though.
The real irony is, I bought from this seller b/c she had almost perfect feedback - and I couldn’t understand when she wasn’t willing to fix her mistake how someone with perfect feedback could be such a terrible thief. Now I can't help but wonder how many OTHER times Ms. Cool has successfully had feedback removed that wasn't in her favor. It certainly would explain a lot.
I'm not a mean person, or exceptionally picky, or hard to please - people make mistakes, they have bad days, they get overwhelmed. I waited to leave feedback for the seller, because I sincerely wanted to work this out amicably - and I don't think I'm asking for much - all I wanted was what I paid for. I offered to return the damaged dress, in exchange for the one I ordered, or a partial refund - but I stressed I’d rather have the dress - I would have taken the refund if she preferred though. I wasn't asking for anything but what I paid her for.
Had Ms. Cool been willing to remedy her mistakes, I'd have happily left positive feedback; b/c I believe it's not the mistake, but the way you handle it that determines what kind of ethics you have.in this case, Ms. Cool has clearly demonstrated she has none.
$200.00 is a LOT of money for me too - this was a special occasion, and I thought I was getting something high quality, that would last many years; which is why I spent far more than I normally would. I feel conned, and incredibly disappointed that someone would flat out take my money like a common thief, and there's nothing I ca do about it. Any help would be tremendously appreciated.
Thanks
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