One thing about having my own blog is, I can complain if I want to.

I made the mistake of going into the forums on Etsy. I click to open a thread to see what the discussion is about and it's a seller complaining that she had FOUR sales last night and not one customer used the coupon code she had in her shop announcement to receive a discount. She continued on to say she went and convo'd each buyer to let them know she was running a sale and refunded the discount to their PayPal account anyway.

I have several problems with this that have me fuming.

1. I can't believe she's complaining about her customers. I wish I had four sales last night. My sales are just next to nothing, so I am not happy about hearing her complain when she does get a sale.

2. Why would you put a coupon code in your announcement?

3. Using coupon codes, to me anyway, is asking your customer to do your work for you. It's no different than having to use a shopper's card in every single store you go into these days. For crying out loud, put the items on sale. You do the work, not the customer. I hate those shopping cards, they weigh down my purse and I just don't understand why we need them. Again, PUT the stuff on sale and stop wasting my time!

4. If you are running a storewide sale, then just say that and refund the discount to the customer.

I think I have the only grocery store that doesn't require me to have a shopper's card in order to get a discount. They have my business. Every drugstore, grocery store and just about anywhere else I can think of make you carry those cards in order to take advantage of a sale. Then, they can send you all kinds of crap in the mail and now at your email address. So, I go ahead and fill out their forms to make them happy but never give them the correct email address or my home address, I get enough junk mail from Capital One alone, don't need it from anyone else. Thank you very much.

Just do a sale and stop expecting your customers to do your work.