08/26/2020
**I want to apologize ahead of time for the ridiculously long post. 😳 I guess I didn’t realize how much I had to say! Lol**
Hey y’all! It’s been a little while since I checked
in here, so I apologize for that. I have been extremely sick/stuck in bed for weeks and was terrified because I was experiencing several coronavirus symptoms, but I went and got tested last week and thankfully it came back negative! I don’t know what I caught that had me so sick and miserable, I’m just glad to know it’s not the virus. (Let me tell you though- the few days it took to get my results back felt more like a YEAR. But like, imagine the worst year of your life+worst anxiety of your life.) I am finally starting to feel better, and now that I know I don’t have the virus, I can get back to doing what I love! I am also catching up on messages and emails now, so if you sent one and haven’t gotten a reply yet, you will shortly.
Now there is one more thing I’d like to touch base on which isn’t going to be fun, and that is USPS issues. I’ve shared some update posts in here and in my shop announcements over the last few months where I explained what’s going on and how it’s impacting OCVB orders, and I think I even mentioned in one of them something about feeling like things were getting better and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? Unfortunately I was wrong and that’s not the case anymore. If anything, I feel it’s gotten worse. Many orders are still being shipped without showing any kind of scan/tracking update sometimes until the very end, and sometimes not at all. They are also extremely delayed. I’ve had packages take anywhere from 2 weeks to over a month to be delivered, and I’ve even had to remake a few orders because they didn’t arrive at all. It has been an incredibly stressful and frustrating situation for both sellers and for our customers. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I’ve made to USPS trying to get answers, but I’m always just told basically to be patient. Most of you who have had orders delayed have been so patient and understanding about it, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for that.
Unfortunately not everyone believes/understands that this is a common issue right now. Packages that aren’t scanned show up in tracking as “Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item” and because of this, buyers think their order was never dropped off. Trustworthy sellers are getting bad reviews and cases filed against their shops because they are being accused of scamming people out of their money, and then not shipping their order. On top of that, we are having to come out of pocket to give refunds on something that was made and shipped, or to cover the cost of materials to remake an order and then the cost to reship it. And there is literally nothing we can do about it. I truly love what I do with a passion and enjoy being a small business owner, but this is the first time in the 3+ years I’ve been in business that I have legitimately questioned if it’s even worth it, and considered closing my shop so I can just be done. I hate that I feel that way. I had to put my shop on vacation mode a few weeks ago, because I didn’t want to risk taking anymore orders and possibly having more unhappy customers later. Once all the current packages are safely delivered and things at USPS start to get better, I will reopen. (*If you placed an order before I closed my shop, this won’t impact you at all. Don’t worry!)
I’ve attached some screenshots from a couple different Etsy seller help groups and also from the USPS Inspector General website, just to share a little more of what’s been going on and what sellers have been dealing with. If you order from a small business, no matter who it is, and there are shipping issues, please keep this in mind and show the seller a little compassion. We are all human, and we’re all just doing our best to get through this crazy, uncertain time. ❤️ If you made it this far, you are amazing and I appreciate you SO much. Thank you for taking the time to read this!
