For the last almost 2 weeks I've been battling headaches and migraines. The headaches...they're more irritating than disabling. I've always had headaches for as long as I can remember so, sadly, I'm used to it. It's one of those things that's just always been normal for me and when I was little, I didn't realize that other people don't have daily headaches. My mom has always gotten headaches and migraines too...so that's what "normal" looked like to me. Luckily my headaches have only developed into migraines a few times in the last couple weeks. A couple nights I went to bed a lot earlier than normal because my head was hurting so badly. I even had to get up in the middle of the night at one point to get a new ice pack and more ibuprofen. BLAH.
The headaches are making me feel a lot less productive. There were a lot of things I'd planned to get done that didn't really happen. I did manage to design, print, cut, photograph, and list some Christmas sticker sheets in my Etsy shop, though. I have 4x6 Christmas sticker sheets and then 5x7 Christmas coloring sticker sheets...where you can color your own stickers. One is even a DIY color-your-own Christmas card with a blank Christmas tree and "Merry Christmas" on the front of a cardstock card (blank inside) and then a 5x7 sticker sheet with some Christmas decorations, presents, and gift bags that can all be colored and used to decorate the card. I thought it was a neat idea...especially as a craft project for kids. :)
I think now I've pretty much got all the Christmas stuff I plan to upload this year. Now I have a lot of other ideas I'm working on...including a lot more general sticker sheets, planner stickers, and of course more die-cut stickers.
Ooh! And I got my first Faire order on November 10th! I was so excited that I print and cut all 60 stickers that same night. Of course, then I couldn't get it in the mail until Monday because of the holiday...but I dropped it off at the post office first thing Monday morning. I really love doing wholesale orders so I hope my Faire shop is successful. :)
My Etsy shop is doing well. :) I have almost 350 sales from almost 290 orders in my CandiMakerStickers shop. I put my CandiMakerDesigns shop on vacation mode for now because I'm planning on completely revamping the products I'll be selling there. I plan to start making personalized planner covers, dashboards, folders, and even planner templates. I haven't decided yet if I'll be putting my planner-specific stickers in my sticker shop or my planner shop.
Oh and I tried setting up my TikTok shop...what a nightmare! After sending all my documentation, my shop got approved on October 31st. The following morning...I got a shop policy violation. When I clicked on the link for information on the "related policy" it sent me to the Negative Review policy. I hadn't even uploaded a single product yet...let alone had any orders or negative reviews. And then it stated that if I felt the violation was in error, to send in documents that were totally irrelevant to my business which consists of making my own products in my own home (like utility bills for my shop in my shop name, inventory invoices, etc). So I filed an appeal that same day on November 1st and it says on the appeal that they'll respond within 48 hours. Yeah well I STILL don't have a response.
So I started a support ticket. I explained that I got a shop policy violation for a completely unknown reason, the link took me to negative review enforcement, that the documents requested are irrelevant and impossible, and that I appealed the violation and still haven't received a response despite the appeal saying I'd get a response in 48 hours...and I included screenshots of the email, the link it took me to, and my appeal. Their first response to that ticket was literally within 3 seconds (I submitted my ticket at 11:16:18 and their response was at 11:16:21) was that if I believe the enforcement given was erroneous, to file an appeal. SERIOUSLY?! So I responded back that I ALREADY appealed and that was my entire problem. Then I get a message back the following day that starts with, "sorry for the inconvenience encountered with the ratings on your product," and that the buyer's review is compliant and I should reach out to the buyer to understand their concerns. WTF?! So I responded again to ask them what they don't understand about the fact that I've never even uploaded a single product yet and I've had no orders or reviews. Seriously...it's OBVIOUS that an actual person is NOT responding to support tickets.
So I tried using "live chat" but that was just as useless. They SAY that they're escalating my concerns to their specialized team...which is a load of nonsense. Basically they just create another support ticket with the live chat copied and pasted into it...but the same automated bots are obviously responding to those tickets. The first ticket created from the "live chat" agent...the response was, "Thank you so much for letting me know about that. I am totally happy with your situation that you have already approved and resolved the concern." Are you kidding me right now? I respond to ask what they're talking about because NOTHING has been resolved...and ask if there is even a person reading the support tickets. They respond again to say, "Good day! We do apologized for what happened on your account. Upon checking on my end that the violation is still on the process. Please bear with us about this concern that you had. We will reach you once of our relevant team will have ab update about this." All of those typos are theirs, by the way.
So I start ANOTHER live chat that is "escalated" and get another ridiculous response:
"Upon checking, the appeal already in success status, this will be reflected and all of the violation will be reversed within 1-3 business days, this should be fine now, if the violation still not removed after a couple of days, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. I know where your frustration coming from, but I just wanted to tell you that your emotions are valid and we are currently working on good for this to give a better resolution to each and everyone of you, but for this matter we want to give the best that we can offer to resolve this matter, I hope you even appreciate each of our services."
Seriously? It reads like someone is just using auto-complete in a text message to type a response. People think Etsy seller support is bad...obviously they've never encountered TikTok seller support because I don't understand why anyone would sell on that platform with "support" like this. So I doubt I will be doing anything further with my TikTok shop. I definitely wouldn't suggest it to anyone else, either.