April 23, 2012

I have a confession. I recently had a dissatisfied Flower Jewelry customer. I have been selling these flowers of mine for about 4 years now. I've made them for friends too. I sold quite a few on Etsy before I moved my shop to Artfire. I not only have never had a complaint, I've had nothing but glowing compliments. Most of the people who buy them, absolutely fall in love with them. The wearer usually feels beautiful and gets so many compliments. I always add extra business cards, because I know they will want to tell their friends where they got their flower jewelry.

This buyer shocked me with her request. She wanted to return her flowers for a full refund. I reminded her that my policy is to not accept refunds, because of the personal nature of jewelry. I was very nice though, and offered her a shop credit for her return. It wasn't a lot of money, because she had used every discount she possibly could on the merchandise. She said that she didn't want any of my junk. She said that she could stick a piece of felt on a pin and the bead wasn't even in the center of the flower. I don't actually put my beads in the center of the flowers, because I think they look a little more natural and beautiful that way. But I really didn't think that pointing that out would help with this buyer. She said that she would never buy anything from my shop again. As I had a sneaking suspicion that this buyer was a user, I just thanked her and never heard from her again.

It still haunts me although I really think this person was buying to see how things were put together. I'm sure she would not be able to reproduce my flowers. I do cut them by hand and shape them with an artists eye. They are not assembly line made and would not have the same character or personality if they were. Each one is slightly different.

Yesterday I did so much work. I finished sewing Aprons. I did a photo shoot and listed new Aprons. I made some new flowers, and worked on flower orders. I also updated by website by adding a revised version of my yesterdays post. And I revised a drawing for a client.

You can see my added page at akacinders.com there is a link to it at the bottom of THE ARTIST page. Just click on my new logo.