Etsy CUSTOMERS FROM HELL and How to Avoid Them | How to Handle Rude Customers

About this video

Drawing on what she says is over six years selling on Etsy, the creator lists red-flag customer messages and gives a polite script for deflecting each. Red flags include: a buyer sending another shop’s photo of a $500 item and asking her to make it for $50; a buyer saying the shop is overpriced and asking her to ‘do it for cheap’; a buyer demanding an exact replica with no differences, when handmade items always vary; a buyer asking before ordering whether they can return an item if they find it cheaper elsewhere; an all-caps demand for delivery tomorrow, which she answers by noting transit speed is out of her control once the carrier has the item; and the self-described very picky buyer who sends around 20 rapid-fire messages with circled photos — she says such customers can take 15 to 20 times more of your time and drag your effective hourly wage down to about 50 cents an hour. For picky customers she recommends offering a paid photo proof package for $50 to cover the extra back-and-forth, noting roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 150 customers are interested and about half of those offered will pay. She also covers buyers who want the cheapest, smallest size to look exactly like the largest, most expensive version (a $200 difference in her example), advising sellers to set expectations about differences up front. Her final tip is karencheck.com, where sellers can look up an Etsy customer by username and see all the reviews they have ever left to spot patterns before accepting an order.

Key takeaways

• Treat deep-discount requests as a red flag: when a buyer cites another shop’s $500 item and asks for it at $50, politely explain your materials and time cost at least as much and let bargain hunters move on.
• Never promise an exact replica of a handmade item: set expectations that no two handmade pieces are exactly alike and offer the reference only as inspiration.
• Reiterate your shop policies verbatim for pre-purchase return questions and decline guaranteed delivery dates, since transit speed is out of your control once the carrier has the item.
• Charge picky, high-touch customers for your time with a $50 photo proof package so they approve the item before shipping instead of consuming 15 to 20 times a normal order’s time unpaid.
• Check a suspicious buyer on karencheck.com by username to review every review they have left and spot patterns before taking the order.

Episode details: published July 24, 2022 · 10:02 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dylan Jahraus’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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