Hi, my name is Pamela and I am a buyer mainly for my five-year-old daughter of eBay's custom boutique. I have been buying custom made clothing for over 2 years now, and have had the continued great pleasure of buying from many fine designers, meeting great buyers like myself, and sharing common interests with fellow ebayers, especially shopping for clothing. During this time I have experienced mainly good to excellent transactions, but let me nicely say, there are some problems I and other buyers have experienced after we have purchased custom children's clothing. To be fair, some custom boutique designers, especially new designers, may be unaware of all the things that would bother a buyer like myself if I experienced. To make selling and buying more POSITIVE for all, I am writing a little guide to help designers KNOW what many of us buyers would be annoyed with.

CUSTOM BOUTIQUE DESIGNERS PLEASE AVOID IF YOU WANT HAPPY CUSTOMERS ON EBAY!!!!!

1. Late customs.... Some buyers specifically buy sets for special vacations, trips to Disney, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Patriotic holidays. birthdays, pageants, weddings, etc., and if the clothing comes so late it is after the important event, good luck having the buyer come back to buy more goods from you unless you refund or offer some sort of remedy.

2. Changing design details from auction and NOT MENTIONING it to the buyer, and sometimes even going as far and rudely calling it "artistic liberties".

3. Offering OOAK sets, seeing they sell for big money, and later on eBay for all to see offering more of the same "OOAK" you just sold, without asking the original buyer of the OOAK if it is kosher with them. Some of us buyers will not mind if two or three of the same set we bought are out there in "boutiqueland" so I kindly suggest you ask the buyer first.

4. Finishing custom sets for other buyers who paid you later and more than likely sent measurements later. I am not talking about a week or so difference, I am talking about differences of two weeks or more, especially if the first buyer who paid and sent measurements custom clothing order is now late according to the designer's stated terms.

5. Telling different excuses of why custom boutique items are late to different buyers. We (buyers) are almost always understanding if things happened (illness, broken sewing machines, etc.), but many of us know each other, and talk, so simply email people if you think you are going to run late, and after you are two weeks or more behind, give them an option for a refund, kindly ask them if they are okay with the extended turn-around, and/or offer a freebie of some sort.

6. Samples being sold as customs without buyers knowledge. Many of us buyers, including myself, don't mind buying the modeled set, especially if it fits and comes quickly, but just let us know.

7. Sets where the fabric or premade shirts/ jeans have not been washed prior to being sewn together. They rarely look the same after they are washed. Buyers complain about this a lot with appliquéd sets.

8. Clothes that smell, whether it be smoke, perfume, or pets. I understand "smelly clothing" can not only occur because of the designer's work area, but sometimes due to shippers who smoke around the packages they handle.

9. Dirty modeled sets; makes buyers wonder if it is simply used.

10. Not returning emails, even though you are chatting in groups, and listing new items.

11. Not leaving feedback for your buyer(s) after they left you positive feedback. I understand leaving feedback is not required, but to me, it is like tipping at a restaurant, you do it unless the transaction went south within a month or two. I think many buyers understand if a seller forgets to leave it within the sixty or so days one is allowed to leave it, if they have family issues, and are not repeatedly listing items during the sixty day period after positive feedback was left for them.

12. Not helping with resells; this matters very little to me, other than I would like to be able to have my future seller to be able to use the original auction photos. Some buyers expect sellers to also spam everyone on their mailing list too. I am personally of the mindset that this is not owed, but just perks that may make me be willing to spend more, knowing the resells will do better. KWIM? That said, I know other buyers that hate getting resell spam's (doesn't bother me), and I know sellers may be afraid their creations have been treated like junk, therefore whoever buys it will possibly think they are not great. Any how, the nice thing to do IMHO is to at least offer the original auction photos if the buyer also agrees to take photos of the set how it looks currently after they bought it.

13. Blocking bidders; this is an odd one since surely some buyers deserved to be blocked. That said, sometimes "blocking" bidders will offend other buyers too, and generally speaking if you had a BAD transaction with one buyer, the feeling is probably somewhat mutual, and they will probably avoid bidding on your items. Again, I know this statement is ODD and I completely understand that it is any sellers' right to chose to "block" bidders, but I just kindly suggest one use this option sparingly and/ or with good cause.

14. Sellers who have the appearance or who do shill bid. Shilling is eBay illegal and considered a crime that in some areas of the USA will be prosecuted in court. Please refer to eBay's rules if you are unsure of what is allowed, but to make things easy, do not bid on relatives (or your own items) unless the item has the option of a BIN and you decide to take the bin and pay for it.

15. Sellers who send out spam saying they will not be offering more of a design, getting bidding crazy high in $, and than within a day or two emailing all the bidders and their good customers saying they suddenly found the "elusive fabric" or "time" and will sell to all at closing auction price.

16. Custom boutique clothing poorly made that almost instantly falls apart.

17. Poorly fitting custom boutique clothing that does not come close to SENT measurements. I need to add, some buyers do not take their child's measurements often enough. I think it is a good idea to always ask for the child's common worn size in mass-produced clothing, and if the measurements were taken recently. Buyers make mistakes too, and I do not think any buyer would be offended if asked these sizing questions.

18. Blaming the postal service for seller's mistakes in shipping.

19. Sellers (mainly outside of the country the buyer lives in) not knowing how to accurately handle shipping to the buyer.

20. Not getting the paid for custom boutique clothing PERIOD. I think this is extremely rare and normally the seller does eventually get Naru'd if the transactions were done on ebay and the sellers do not offer a fair remedy (like a refund).

21. Not properly packaging custom clothing for shipment. For instance, it may rain, the postal person may smoke, etc., and gosh forbid the clothing gets somehow damaged during shipment. To avoid many of the above scenarios, place the clothing in plastic bags, plastic seal, etc.

22. Not ironing clothing before carefully placing in package... it is annoying to have to completely iron and press "new clothing" before it is ever worn. I understand clothing will not look like it just was picked up from my dry cleaner, but it should not look completely crumpled up either.

23. Not sending washing and handling instructions with custom clothing. Not only should care instructions be sent, but also seller's contact info is helpful too. If I am paying for a clothing set, I expect to be informed how to care for it. And to earn customer service points, and maybe even repeat business, a nice and simple "thank you" note. :o)

24. Not returning emails if problems arise when the customer receives the custom clothing. If there are REAL ISSUES, the designer should offer to fix stuff. If the clothing has MAJOR issues, than the seller should offer a full refund.

25. Intentionally insulting the customer.

26. Intentionally lying to the Customer.

27. Large shipping and handling fees. I am not talking about $2.00 over what USPS or UPS charges, I am talking about paying $3 or more for "handling fees" on a package that fits into a standard free box these shippers provide. Many buyers will simply not bid if they see sets where the shipping fees are very inflated from the actual costs.

28. Using preappliqued fabric and not mentioning in the auction description that the fabric was not appliqued by you (the designer). Many sets using preappliqued fabric are very cute and are nicely made with quality materials, but honesty is the best policy. Some preappliqued sets that have characters or animals in them lose their desired look when they are resized and/ or made for a different sized child than the model pictured in the auction. I do not think designers need to mention what the preappliqued fabric was originally made for (valances, quilts, etc.), they should just simply state the appliqued fabric was not made by them.

29. Clothing with more than a thirty day turn-around from receipt of payment and measurements. Though some buyers may still bid, many buyers realize after 30 days Paypal will not do a chargeback if buyers do not have the goods they pay for, and after 45 days, buyers can no longer open a Paypal dispute. Some buyers will completely avoid bidding on sets with a 4 or more week stated turn-around because of the above-mentioned issues.

30. Auctions which state sellers "are not responsible for lost packages goods". This statement is untrue according to ebay rules, which basically sides with the idea that a buyer deserves what they paid for, even if they did not purchase optional insurance. If you are afraid of lost goods, or even scam artist buyers (sadly there are a few), charge extra for "USPS delivery confirmation", insurance, and/ or a carrier like UPS (UPS allows for free insurance up to $100 and easy tracking).

31. Auctions where the seller has harsh wording or an unhappy tone. If sellers read as if they are difficult and/ or unhappy people to deal with, many new potential customers will be weary of bidding.

32. Auctions where the bidders' IDs are marked "private" and it is not a simple BIN auction, and/ or items that are personal in nature. Unfortunately shill bidding does happen, and I know for myself I often do not trust these sorts of auctions with designers I do not know and trust because if any wrongdoing is being committed, it is almost impossible to tell.

In all, I really do think many of us buyers have experienced mainly good transactions when buying custom boutique clothing on eBay. Great transactions is why many of us continue to shop for fine custom clothing, often repeatedly buy from the same designers, and refer other buyers too! :o)

If the above mentioned things are not being done by designers, many of us buyers will not only leave POSITIVE feedback, but will often bid and BUY MORE, and tell our friends of the great clothing and service we received too. :) Many of us buyers are understanding too if small mistakes happen, and the designer freely and nicely admits these and offers a way to fix these issues if they are larger. On a personal note, I too make mistakes, and understand no business runs perfectly. If you have questions about custom boutique items you are making for your customer, please feel free to ask. Many of us buyers really do not mind and actually appreciate open communcation with designers.

This guide is to help let custom boutique designers, especially newer ones, know what to avoid, without having to experience bad transactions themselves. I LOVE shopping eBay's custom boutique, and have bought some very, very FINE clothing and accessories, from not only talented and honest sellers, but also truly WONDERFUL LADIES I have come to know as eBay friends! I was told I should write an e-book or guide by a few others to help make both the designers and the buyers all better informed and to help facilitate better eBay transactions on both ends. I am not trying to upset, offend, and/ or scare any designers (or potential ones) from creating and selling on eBay, I am merely listing observations many buyers and myself have made while buying. Many of us buyers really want to support and buy from fine designers, and I wish all of you newer designers success and happiness creating, selling, and meeting new people on eBay. :)I hope you all found this guide "helpful" and please feel free to leave a comment or suggestion to me. ;o)

Kind regards,

Pamela