Friday, February 7, 2014

So Here's an Enthusiastic Endorsement: Etsy

Those of you who don't like blatant product endorsements and believe all of them to be sellouts to the corporate elite, let me suggest you read elsewhere for a while.

I'm going to endorse a company called Etsy right now, before another minute goes by. You can take a look at this lovely little Canadian company that brings together craftspeople from all over the world right here.

Make up your own mind, but let me tell you my experience.

Last year, I ordered some charms from Etsy to give teachers at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference, which I direct. We don't pay the teachers and this is our small way of thanking them. I got the old-style typewriter charm that I wanted at a fair price and didn't think much about it.

This year, I ordered another set of charms, a quill and inkwell. Nice little piece. It didn't come for a while and so I wrote an e-mail to customer service, explaining that I needed the charms pretty soon because of the event. About 10 minutes later I got a response from a perfectly lovely person who explained that the charms were having to come from outside of the U.S. and the mail tends to be slow when that's the case. She reassured me, apologized and asked me to e-mail her personally if I didn't get the charms soon.

About three days later, the charms showed up. I had ordered 24. I got 80. Shortly afterwards, I got an e-mail from the young woman I had chatted with before, asking if I received the package.

If somebody wants to conduct a seminar on customer service, let me suggest Etsy's group. They just won not only my praise, but also my loyalty.

Now, you can go back to your other reading.

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