Friday, October 17, 2008

UPDATE on shophandmade.com

Hey folks. I posted just last night about signing onto shophandmade.com. I only listed one painting for $60 and woke this morning to an email from a friend wondering what the price of the painting was because it said $0 - she wondered if it had sold. Optimistically, I checked to see if it had and discovered it didn't sell, but the price of $60 was still showing up with an X through it and this new price of $0 next to it. What? I emailed them about the problem and didn't get a clear answer, just an answer about another issue I asked about. Feeling frustrated with the whole ordeal, I emailed again to request them to delete my account. I got a response that that isn't possible. I have never experienced this with any other site I've worked with, and I've been on plenty. I couldn't delete my profile picture or my banner, but I replaced all of my shop info to just repeat LiveFunky.com. If I have to be on there, at least I can redirect people to my own site.

So I'm sorry if my previous post may have inspired anyone to sign up. I hate to think that I recommended something that I didn't really explore every aspect of. Lesson learned, and to those who are using the site, I hope that they work out their kinks and sales start pouring in for you all. As for me, this first impression was not a good one at all, and I doubt I'll be back. Well, maybe after a year and lots of other people's praise from personal experience, but not until then.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sucks. It seemed like a cool site too.

Anonymous said...

Jessica, I am so loving your newest paintings that are showing up in your Etsy mini right now. The color work is magnificient.

Lately I'm craving color again. Could it be the economy is going to make us all want some color?

sop said...

I singed up for a shophandmade.com site myself but the other day I noticed something that really turned me off to using them. You may have noticed that when you listed your item and you viewed the main page of the website your item(s) will show up quite often in the featured product list. When I first noticed this I was very happy that my items would get this type of exposure, as I’m sure most other sellers would. That was until I visited the site from another computer and noticed that my items suddenly were not showing up. I originally thought that maybe they just dropped out of the list over time as Etsy.com listings do. This was until I went back to my main computer and noticed that my items were always showing up on front page.

What I found out is that if you are logged into the site or your session is still active the site knows you’re online and cycles your products through the main page for you to see giving you the impression that you are getting front page exposure of your products. However, if you are not logged in or your session has timed out (you wont see the “my store” link on the top right) your items do not show up. So in essence it’s all for show to make you think you are getting front page exposure and you’re not. I find that completely shady on their part to give a seller impression they are getting front page traffic and it's nothing but a deception.