Another Store Sale & Yet Again No Payment Received

[CreativeXpression1]

Dear Admin,

My store had its 3rd sale 16 hours ago. I'd be celebrating, except that just like my 2nd store sale, this 3rd order has not been paid for either. I've emailed buyer and advised I'd be happy to ship his order once I receive payment. I gave buyer a January 10th deadline for me to receive payment or I will be cancelling order for nonpayment. Just like with my 2nd store sale, all info on email notification indicates the order was paid for through PayPal, but it was not.

My question is this - how many other sellers here on iCraft have repeatedly had the issue of products ordered from their stores with those same orders not being paid for?

I can understand it happening occasionally, but this has been the case with my last 2 store sales! Would make me wander if there's an issue on my end (with store or PayPal), except my 1st store sale went through without any issues at all.

That leaves me asking Admin, is there a bug/issue with the checkout process for buyers? If so, how long will it take for IT to fix it?

I love the iCraft site; however, that being said, with the 3rd store sale being an exact duplicate of the 2nd store sale in less than one month has me rethinking whether or not I should continue to have my store on the site. It's very frustrating to receive notification of a store sale only to discover the order went through the iCraft website without being paid for. There has to be something Admin can do to prevent this from happening to its sellers.

Frustrated ~ Rita

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Rita,

I didn’t hear about many unpaid orders before until you and Lisa reported them recently.
3 unpaid orders sounds strange, but I don’t think there is a bug, as others are paying for their orders.

We’ll check who is placing those unpaid orders. Could be the same person.

There is not a lot we can do about unpaid orders, especially if people are non-responsive.
We are open to suggestions. Thanks!

[CreativeXpression1]

Dear Admin,

Thank you for checking into the unpaid orders. My second sale was from a woman in North Carolina and the 3rd sale was from a man in South Dakota. I still haven't heard from the buyer in SD; have a little time until close of business on Friday before I cancel the order. Have you considered adding direct checkout so buyers don't have to go through PayPal? When I was on the other marketplace site, my sales increased when they added direct checkout. Is it clearly explained to buyers somewhere in their checkout process (maybe a pop up dialog box) that they do not have to have a PayPal account in order to checkout with PayPal? Maybe buyers are confused and think they must have an account with PayPal in order to purchase from iCraft stores. Kind of grasping at straws here to coin a phrase; just trying to figure out why orders are allowed to go through your system without being paid. Maybe I'm hoping for too much, but I think there could be a safeguard implemented within your system to prevent this from happening. I think that if continued, unpaid orders/cancelled orders would serve to discredit the reputation of iCraftGifts. Your thoughts?   

[Shellys Handmade Creations]

Hi Rita – I hope that everything will all worked out soon. I had a similar incident when I first started on the site. I had a sale “so I thought” but in the end the order was not paid and I had to canceled and relist the item within the required time frame.  What I found confusing is that my item showed up as “Sold” under the “Recently Sold Items” listing. At the time I really didn’t think much about it, but looking back on it, I feel that an item should not be considered as “sold” unless payment has been received and processed in the system.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Rita,

As far as our system is concerned, those orders went through, as the buyer went all the way to the last step, PayPal payment page, where it says that you don’t have to have PayPal to pay.

We started work on the new platform to improve Payments, among other things.

There might be a delay from removing cancelled orders from the Recently Sold list. I’m not sure what rules are applied there.

[CreativeXpression1]

Hello Shellys Handmade Creations,

I'm also hoping everything will work out soon. Yes, I agree it's confusing after having to cancel an order that it still shows up in "recently sold". I personally do not consider a product as "sold" until after the seller marks the order as "Shipped." There are too many variables that can and does happen between an order being placed and the order actually being shipped to buyer. That's just my opinion and experience from having sold on another online marketplace platform. As a matter of fact, that site also did not consider a product as sold until the seller marked the order as shipped. There was also an issue on that site of buyers leaving negative feedback on the seller before the shipped item was received by buyer. Buyer would purchase product and 1 day later leave negative feedback. Of all my sales on that site, this only happened once with me, which was for an international order to New Zealand. I was able to work things out with buyer. Apparently this problem of buyers leaving negative feedback was tracked and found to be a common issue, so that site blocked buyers from leaving feedback until the estimated delivery time has passed. At that time, the site sent buyer an email to let them know they could leave feedback for the purchased product from seller. Unfortunately, this decreased the number of reviews sellers received, but at the same time it nixed the issue of buyers leaving negative feedback before they ever received product. 

I did not have this issue of unpaid orders on the other site, so to have this happen twice in less than a month has left me a bit more than confused and frustrated. My hope is that improvements to Payments on the new platform will resolve the issue of unpaid orders. 

Blessings ~ Rita

[CreativeXpression1]

Hello Admin,

I understand you're working to improve payments on the new platform and I appreciate that fact. However, do you have any suggestions as to what sellers are to do until the new platform becomes available?

I also understand there being a delay in removing a cancelled product for nonpayment from the "recently sold" section on the site. My second sale, which was for a Keychain - Shout Joyful Praises occurred on Dec.17, 2019. I cancelled this order on Dec. 31, 2019 for nonpayment from buyer. I checked the recently sold section before writing this post and as of today, Jan. 9, 2020, this product is still listed as being "recently sold" - 5th sold product on top of page. I would like to request that this product be removed from the recently sold section since it never sold, but had to be cancelled due to nonpayment from buyer.

I have not received a reply email from buyer regarding third sale, which was for a photo button magnet - Mustard Seed Faith. If I need to end up cancelling this order as well for nonpayment, I might have to make the request to also have this removed from the recently sold.

Blessings ~ Rita

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Rita,

I put a request to fix the issue with cancelled orders being listed under Recently Sold items and to add Unpaid Order line in the email subject. I can’t remove products individually.

You can cancel order and relist your item if no payment has been received in a few days.

We don’t rely on items being marked Shipped, as not all sellers do that.

[CreativeXpression1]

Hello,

Thank you very much for both requests and also for understanding my frustration.I understand not all sellers mark orders as shipped, but this is something I've gotten accustomed to since having done so with every order on the other site. Some habits are hard to break, but on the flip side of the coin, some habits make for good business practices.  Blessings ~ Rita

[CreativeXpression1]

Hello Admin,

I just cancelled my 3rd store sale for nonpayment. Am requesting Mustard Seed Faith Photo Magnet be removed from the "Just Sold - Recently Sold" page. Thank you, Rita

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Rita,
I can't remove individual items from that list, but we'll fix the issue with what's considered sold soon and your item will be removed then.
Thanks for understanding!

[CreativeXpression1]

Thank you.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Rita,
I saw another sale for your store. Wondering if you got payment this time.

[CreativeXpression1]

Thank you for noticing!! Yes, I did receive payment for this order. However, I had to email buyer since the order is personalized (customized with name on card). Also called buyer and left a voicemail message. I'm waiting to receive a return phone call or an email reply that I sent to buyer asking for confirmation of what name is to be on the personalized scripture card. Am hoping to hear back soon. I've stated in my product description that high resolution jpeg file will be emailed to the email address listed on invoice within 24 - 48 hours of receiving payment for order. Order came through on Sunday, January 19th; I need to email completed order by tonight to meet by processing deadline. Once I receive a reply for name confirmation, I'll revise card, email the high resolution jpeg file, mark order as paid/shipped and will also leave positive feedback for buyer. I know iCrafts gives sellers 3 days to ship/email digital products, but I've always made it a practice to meet the deadlines I've set in product listing descriptions.

Blessings ~ Rita

[CreativeXpression1]

Completed order, emailed jpeg file to buyer and left positive feedback for buyer.