Archive for Email Notifications
April 23, 2008 at 12:40 pm · Filed under Customer Service, Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, The Storque · By GreenMamba
It’s here! The News you can Use! According to this Storque article by admin Vanessa, this improved version of Etsy News Alerts will be more streamlined and site-news-oriented, as well as being delivered more swiftly to in-boxes as the news ‘breaks’.
Excerpt:
Many Etsians have been asking for a cut and dry way to get only the important site news from admin. The Storque is great and all, you say, but there’s so much content, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s what in the Etsy News Section.
We over here at the Storque are up for the task. We are converting the Etsy News Email list to be an Etsy News Alert system. In the past, Etsy News was about a weekly or so collection of headlines from the Storque. Pleasant enough, but not instantaneous! Not hard-hitting!
That was then, this is now: just sign up for the Etsy News Emails listserve here, or by clicking on the envelope icon on the homepage of Etsy.
You will get breaking news headlines straight from Etsy Central, as they are published on the Storque, delivered to your email inboxes. Hello, synchronicity!
Included Topics:
- Downtime & site outages
- Cooperative Advertising announcements
- New site features launched
- Statistics
- Showcase announcements
- Policy & legal announcements
- Important Customer Support how-tos
- Major posts from Etsy’s founder Rob Kalin, aka Rokali
- Town Halls or other community-wide events
- Other news important enough for us to bug you
Sign up for this (and other) Etsy E-mail Alerts here. You can also find a graphic link to the sign-up page on the Etsy front page, beneath the ‘Ways To Shop’ left sidebar. The forum announcement thread can be found here.
November 17, 2007 at 3:08 am · Filed under Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, The Storque · By JB
reported in the Storque article here
We are very excited to announce the launch of our very own Etsy-centric list service: Etsy Email! We’ve got all the latest news, tips, finds, and team info rolled into one place and delivered safely to your email inbox, if you so choose! You can up sign up through the icon on the homepage or through this link.
This ain’t spam, y’all. This is strictly opt-in, coming from us Etsy admin personally to you, shoppers and sellers! We won’t be sharing, selling or otherwise disrespecting your private info. You won’t even know who else has subscribed. You’ll be able to opt-out at any time, if you so choose.
Look for the icon on the homepage of Etsy, right above the BuyHandmade.org Pledge!
There are actually 4 separate email lists:
1. “Etsy News emails”
2. “Etsy Finds emails”
3. “Etsy Success emails”
4. “Etsy Teams emails”
October 30, 2007 at 2:11 am · Filed under Email Notifications · By Lis
If you flag an item, will now receive an auto-response to your email:
Hi There!
Thank you for reporting your concern to Etsy.
We will look into your concern, and do our best to solve any problems on the site. This investigation will be a private matter between Etsy and the person you are reporting, but we really appreciate your help.
If you are reporting Copyright Infringement, or require a reply, please email abuse@etsy.com.
You will only receive one auto-response per day when you flag stuff! :)
Thanks,
Etsy
October 29, 2007 at 4:18 pm · Filed under Bills, Customer Service, Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, Laws & Regs, Payments · By The Janitor
Unfortunately, I had to post this info here at UEN as Admin locked down a thread that was posted to call to Etsy’s attention a possible gap in their billing system reminders. Perhaps Lauren misunderstood my OP. I was not asking for specific resolution of my specific billing situation on the thread (I had already dealt with that via email via the Etsy channels). Instead, I was trying to inform both the Etsy people in charge as well as the Etsy users of the situation encountered.
In a nutshell, my account is not in arrears. I paid the balance on my account (Sept balance) on Oct 16. On October 28, I received this boilerplate email (I was not the only one to receive it):
Dear Soap-
[editorial not: one or more discretionary sentences added by relevant admin, the rest of the email is boilerplate] I’m an admin at Etsy, and I wanted to
thank you for running a successful shop on our site.
I’d like to remind you that as of October 15 your Etsy bill of $46.55
(USD) is currently overdue. It’s really important that you pay this
soon. As of January 1, 2008 we’ll be applying penalties to overdue accounts.
To pay your bill, log in to your Etsy account, then go to Your Etsy >
Your Etsy Bill > Make a Payment Now. You can even make partial payments
to incrementally pay off your remaining balance. (If you’ve already paid
this off - thank you!)
It is our driving goal to give all artists the tools and technology they
need to make a living making things. Your success is testament to ours.
That said, running Etsy costs money, and we depend on our users to
promptly pay our reasonable fees.
I’m here to answer any questions you may have about your bill. Just
send me an email.
Thank you!
[edited out specific admin name]
Etsy Admin
Emailed to me October 28. The issue? My account wasn’t in arrears when Etsy sent the above email out to me. I had already paid the balance showing on October 16, as is showing on my bill page (page 5 of 10), and consistently have a smiley-face on my account page.
As I suggested on page 2 of the thread Lauren locked down,
[m]aybe Etsy can append the current boilerplate with something like “If you have already paid your bill, please disregard this email.”
EDITORIAL:
If Etsy/Lauren doesn’t want me (or anyone) to post these sorts of legitimate issues - which I wasn’t sure was a bug (the title of the section IS called BUGS) - I gladly will take the issues off Etsy next time they occur. The OP clearly wasn’t asking for a resolution to my specific problem. The title of my thread was “Is anyone double-checking before sending out erroneous emails?” in case someone missed it. THAT was the purpose of my post.
I would think Etsy’s legal department would be concerned about and double-checking internal procedures and policies regarding billing issues. But what do I know.
UPDATE:
Someone’s comment reminded me. I forgot to quote from Lauren’s parting shot -
The reminder emails being sent were generated with info from October 15 — which is when the most recent bill was due. The email should have stated something to the effect of, “If you’ve already paid this off - thank you!”
UPDATE: edited because I missed the verbiage. “(If you’ve already paid
this off - thank you!)” is in the middle of the email in the paragraph on giving instructions on how to pay, which I skimmed because I didn’t need those instructions (already paid up), so I missed it. It might be more noticeable off-set by itself or brought to the top of the email, before people are told they are in arrears.
October 19, 2007 at 3:30 am · Filed under Email Notifications, Etsy Communications · By The Janitor
From the Storque:
A very smart man I like to call George Bernard Shaw once said, “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.”
With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that we will be altering two of our rules for the general benefit of Etsy. Effective immediately, the admin reserve the right to include links and attachments in the emails we send out. We will soon be beginning a number of opt-in emails that will help drive sales and keep users informed. Including links back to Etsy will be essential in making these emails effective, and do not, we have ascertained, pose an increased security risk. Furthermore, we are exploring ways to improve the registration process, and have decided that link-based confirmation may be required. As before, no email from Etsy will ever ask for your password or credit card information. Thanks.
October 10, 2007 at 5:09 pm · Filed under Customer Service, Editorial, Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, Listings, Site Use · By The Janitor
This is an update to our prior coverage.
In a nutshell, Erin previously explained Etsy planned to
use a special tool that was just developed to help us work on tag abuse cases.
She further explained in that same thread
But we thought we would use this tool to see if it is more efficient. We still send an e-mail and an explanation for how to handle things in the future, but the job gets done right away.
(editor-added emphasis)
Around the same time, the Etsy reported via a Storque post on the same topic that they wouldn’t notify sellers of any changes:
Due to the extraordinary volume of mistagging, Etsy will be correcting tags without email notification, but we are happy to assist you in any way if you have questions. Simply email support@etsy.com. We will email you if there is a problem.
(editor-added emphasis)
Erin’s posts and the Storque entry are saying 2 slightly different things. Maybe someone from Etsy can further clarify officially whether sellers will or will not receive prior or after-the-fact email notifications a tag has been removed from their listing.
Here’s the full Storque entry:
Hi everyone!
We have great news. Etsy has responded to the community need for an improved search by developing some tools that will allow us to correct or remove tags that either don’t qualify or that confuse the search engine.
Searching on Etsy will now be more efficient due to Admins’ ability to crack down on tags.
We receive a huge volume of emails about items that have been flagged because they are tagged incorrectly. We understand that most mistagging is a mistake and that when you are tagging your items that you are attempting to get the widest exposure possible for your item. There is no fault in that line of thinking.
However, mistagging items, albeit accidentally, is making it difficult for buyers to search for things. For example, an item tagged as “stocking stuffer” (that is actually a bar of soap) makes the search for handmade stockings impossible. The buyer looking for a stocking finds soap and gets exasperated — and they might leave and not come back.
Due to the extraordinary volume of mistagging, Etsy will be correcting tags without email notification, but we are happy to assist you in any way if you have questions. Simply email support@etsy.com. We will email you if there is a problem.
As we improve this system, we should be able to provide resources that help people learn how to tag. Best of all, we are all going to see a highly improved search function just in time for the holidays.
(editor-added emphasis)
EDITORIAL follows: The part I found a little confusing is the sentence emphasized in the last quoted block. The way the Storque article is written, it sounds as if the tag “stocking stuffer” is meant to apply to “handmade stockings”? I assumed the tag would apply to anything gift-appropriate in the size which would fit into an Xmas stocking. Consistent with my understanding of the term “stocking stuffer,” I’d expect many small items - spanning a range of diverse categories - to be pulled up with that tag and NOT handmade stockings. Using Etsy’s example of the soaps, yes, I’ve used the tag “stocking stuffer” in my listings because based on past experience with retail buyers, including retail outlets, many of my smaller soaps indeed are bought, considered and marketed as stocking stuffers. If a search for “stocling” is pulling up items tagged with “stocking stuffer,” that seems to be a definitional problem (read: search engine parameter) with “stocking” and not with people who are appropriately using “stocking stuffer” for items which are bought for that very purpose.
Maybe someone from Etsy can further clarify officially what is considered a “stockingstuffer” (do they really mean “handmade stocking”?).
October 6, 2007 at 11:57 pm · Filed under Bills, Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, Payments, Site Use · By The Janitor
Read full info here.
See related UEN post here.
Your Etsy Bill
Article Header Image
Story by CustomerCare, Dillinger, RevolvingDork, TechUpdates
Published on October 5, 2007 in Etsy News
We’ve just implemented our reminder system about paying your bill. You’ll now see an alert bar just below the header and, if you have fees more than 3 months overdue, an interstitial screen letting you know.
Until the end of this year, reminders are the only consequence of having overdue fees. Starting in January of 2008, accounts with fees that are 3 months overdue will not be able to list new items, and having fees 4 months overdue (or greater) will lead to account suspension. We’ll always contact anyone with overdue fees several times beforehand to makre sure things are OK and see what we can work out.
Please see the handy chart [in the Storque article] for a reference guide to overdue-ness.
[chart not displayed here]
Once again, until the end of this year, reminders are the only consequence of having overdue fees. The text in the image above that’s light grey & italics show what will happen in 2008.
August 17, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Filed under Bugs, Email Notifications, Site Maintenance · By JB
haim says:
We have to take down the convo system for work this evening. The estimated downtime will be 2-3 hours. This will only affect the internal convo system, and will NOT affect email notifications for sales.- H
Posted at 7:14 pm, August 17 2007 EST
Update:
Convos are down.
http://www.etsy.com/convo_down.php
update by JB
haim says:
Doing the last of the work now, after that we test and then hopefully bring them back. I’m hoping we should be done by 12:15ish EST….
He probably means EDT not EST
July 18, 2007 at 3:25 am · Filed under Bills, Customer Service, Email Notifications, Etsy Communications, Payments, Site Use · By The Janitor
[UPDATE 7/23 - people might want to check their charges diligently - please read my post of 7/23 about how my bills have been altered]
Rokali says:
We are finally all setup with our new merchant account provider, which means that we’ll be running the Etsy bills on a timely schedule once again.
It’s been several months since we were able to successfully auto-charge bills (though you have been able to manually pay your bill if you chose to do so).
We realize that some people’s bills have added up over these months, and we’re here to help you sort everything out.
Our plan is:
* Bills from $2.00 to $200.00 will be auto-charged on the 27th of this month.
* Any individual bill over $200.00 will *not* be auto-charged this month. We’re going to contact every seller with such a bill and help to make sure everything works out.
* Bills below $2.00 will not be auto-charged at this time. The amount is too small to reliably collect, and we’re doing this to avoid declined charges with this as the cause.
Please note that the above amounts are *per bill* and not the total amount owed per seller. This is how our current billing system functions.
Questions? Need help? Please email billing [!at] etsy.com.
Posted at 3:15 am, July 18 2007 EST
Here is the copy of the email I received regarding my account (with all personal details edited out):
Dear soap,
This is an important email about your Etsy bill. Please read it
carefully. We have not been auto-charging Bills, which means that unless
you manually paid your bills they have not been paid at all.
Over the past several months, as Etsy has been growing, we had to setup
a new merchant account. This has prevented us from auto-charging, but
we’re happy to say we’re back on track.
Your account status is good, but please note we’re going to be
collecting on all your bills over the next 10 days. If you need
assistance with anything, please email billing@etsy.com right away.
———————————
You have a total of *3* unpaid Etsy bills:
Bill #[edited out] $[edited out]
Bill #[edited out] $[edited out]
Bill #[edited out] $[edited out]
TOTAL DUE: $[edited out]
———————————
We will be auto-charging the amounts you owe. Each bill will show up as
a *separate charge* on your credit card statement.
Want to see more details about your Etsy bills?
1. Login and go to Your Etsy.
2. Click Your Etsy Bill on the left (under Money).
3. Look in the Unpaid Bills box, on the bottom half of that screen.
4. Click the Month name of the bill, and you’ll see a full list of all
charges.
You’ll see any bills that need to be paid. If you don’t see any, you’re
all paid up. If you do have unpaid bills, it will show you the total
amount due. This is what we’ll be auto-charging within the next 10 days.
*What to do now?*
A) You can do nothing and we’ll auto-charge your bills according to the
schedule below. Please make sure your bills are correct and your credit
card is OK to accept the charges.
B) You can login and pay your bill(s) manually.
*Auto-Charge Schedule*
This schedule is based on the total amount of the bill. For people with
larger bills, we’re giving you more time to contact us and make sure
everything is in order.
- $2.00 to $200.00 bills will auto-charge on July 27th, 2007.
- Bills over $200.00 will not auto-charge this month. Instead we’ll
contact you directly and work out the best payment solution.
If your bill is under $2.00, we will not be charging it at this time.
There’s nothing you need to do for now, and you’re free to continue
using Etsy as you’ve always done. When your bill grows to something
$2.00 or over, that’s when we’ll charge it. (We’re doing this because
many credit card companies will not accept charges this small.)
If you have any questions please email us right away at billing@etsy.com.
Thanks!
Etsy
June 15, 2007 at 7:59 am · Filed under Bugs, Email Notifications · By starrydesigns
If you have not received any Etsy notification emails since 12am EDT on June 15, please post in this thread.
RevolvingDork says:
We’ve seen some reports of people having problems receiving Etsy notification emails today. Our tests have shown that they appear to be working, at least at the current time.
Diagnosing email problems, however, can be tricky from an internal standpoint. It’s possible that the slowdown issues we experienced today affected the emails going out, and that they are working fine now that the site is back in shape.
If you are still not receiving emails for events that happened after 12:00 midnight EST, please let us know here so we can look into it.
Posted at 2:25 am, June 15 2007 EST
