Funky Hair Clips – A Review
19 Mar
It’s not often that I buy something on Etsy and find myself disappointed. Sometimes I’m surprised when colors are off (I have a really good eye) but it’s usually a case of photography and creative photoshopping. I really thought I’d trained myself how to spot that sort of thing when looking at listings.
I can’t tell you how let down I was when I received my order from Funky Hair Clips.
I ordered an Anne Boleyn portrait hair clip. I always try to carefully observe the way things look, do I think it’s just glued together? Is it flimsy? Has the image been shopped? Looking at this one, as well as what appeared to be great feedback I felt confident in spending the 8$ on the clip. It seemed sort of expensive to me, which I admit, tricked me into thinking it was a quality item.
Shipping took a while, it took about two weeks to receive and it was mailed in a plain mailer, no invoice or anything else.
Looking at the photo in the listing it looks like a mini enameled portrait set into a metal button. Reading through all her listings they are exactly the same, so I assumed they were all cut and paste.
What I got was a shoddy hair clip that fell apart just after I took these photos and wore it.
What it is is a wood button painted silver, no. It’s not even silver it’s grey. It’s not even painted well. I saw in the listing it said each piece would be different.
Every clip is custom made at your order so what you receive may vary slightly from the sample shown – depending on the availability of findings and gaming pieces.
Typically on Etsy that means that something is HANDMADE, when an item is handmade there are variances from piece to piece, since it’s made by an individual not a machine. I didn’t take it to mean the piece would ACTUALLY be different. The portrait size on the barrette I received is much smaller then the one pictured.
What they’ve done is take this small painted button and wrap a silver twist tie through the button holes. Then they wraped it through the barrette to secure it, gluing a shoddily printed picture of Ann Boleyn over the ties and shellacking the whole thing over. The image of Ann is printed on thin paper and done so poorly it’s blurry. There is a lump under the image where the twist ties are and the shellac was done so sloppily it’s collected at the ends of the portrait and looks like dried school glue.
The barrette itself is so cheep it barely opens and closes and the second time I bent it closed it caused the button to rip off.
Although I am incredibly disappointed with this piece and feel it was literally junk, I don’t know if I should leave feedback about it. I’ve gone back to look at the feedback now, and it seems like in general people are alright with their items, so I worry it’s my impossibly high standards.
However, in no way shape or form do I recommend this seller to anyone.
ETA :
Apparently not only does this seller not leave feedback for it’s buyers, it prefers NO feedback to bad feedback.
If you have no thing nice to say, it’s probably because your product is junk…
ETA :
So often times a seller will get a negative feedback and come back with OMGYOUSHOULDHAVETOLDMEFIRSTIDHAVEFIXEDTHEPROBLEM. So I sent a small convo explaining I was unhappy and planning on leaving negative feedback. I’m going to wait for a reply (if I get one) before I post it.
ETA April 10 :
Left the following feedback :
Poorly made. Piece broke the first time I went to wear it. Portrait is printed very poorly and was blurry. Seller never responded to my convo regarding my disappointment. I paid immediately and tried to contact the seller before leaving negative feedback
Tags: Etsy, Funky Hair Clips
I dunno, reading through the feedback, there’s a lot of it with no comments, just as positive rating, which to me, doesn’t speak well, since if someone really liked their items, I would assume they should have something positive to say about it. You could always go the neutral feedback route, citing less than impressive quality, and how it broke after a single wear.
Not to mention the fact that she has twice as many sales as she has feedback. I’m thinking that the people who were disappointed just didn’t bother leaving feedback. I realize that you might not want to ruin someone’s business, but if she’s consistently turning out substandard products, people should know about it, instead of being duped by inaccurate photos.
Those are all really valid points. But is it silly I’m worried she’ll leave retaliatory feedback?
I mean, I really think it’s utter crap, and I don’t want anyone *I* know to waste their money with them.
And anyone worth their salt will look into bad feedback to try to find out what happened before dismissing the person. I’ve discovered plenty of buyers new to ebay who really didn’t know what they were doing when I’ve researched sellers’ negs.
Screw that. You can post pictures, can’t you? Post one of your own and leave negative feedback. You paid $8 for that piece of crap.
You might get retaliatory feedback, but anyone who investigates it even slightly will see that’s what it was.
I might just copy and paste my review!
Thank you so much for this review! You just saved me $8. I was actually looking at this very same hair clip a few days ago and I was going to buy it once I got paid. At least I now know that I could probably make something similiar myself and probably end up with a better product.
I almost actually bought a SECOND before my first ever arrived. I’m SO GLAD I did not. Utter garbage. I found just the clips themselves for sale for 100 for 5$. Ug. Cheep.
I think Etsy’s rating system is a little wonky to be honest. I don’t believe that every single seller I come across should be 100% rated and there are many times when I see that there have been some negative feedback I’d like to read but I can’t find it in the 100 pages of feedback they have. Amazon’s sellers are usually reputable if they are above 90% lifetime ratings and they can leave messages explaining problems with customers directly on the feedback which I like.
Granted, most of the sellers I have seen deserve amazing ratings but I something feels weird to me when all the shops I’ve seen are almost always 100% rated. I ordered from Orglamix a long time ago before I realized how small the sizes were and I left some negative feedback but I was 1 of like 7 people who had left negative feedback and then Orglamix’s owner complained to me. :/
Weird.
I agree. I’ve seen some 100% and then I go to look and there are like a DOZEN neutrals. Doesn’t seem right at all.
I don’t think expecting a piece to look like the picture and not fall apart after one use constitutes “impossibly high standards.”
I know I’m really anal about some stuff so I worry I force my standards. But really, if people are paying for a product, it shouldn’t BREAK, let a lone be poorly made.
I hear you; I’m the same way. But I think any reasonable person would conclude this product is not worth 8 bucks.
Wow, what an attitude! Her ‘positive’ feedback isn’t all that great when you consider some of the comments, but I can see why you thought it would be worth purchasing — the pictures look good. I’m sorry you ran into a seller who thinks more of appearances than they do of making a quality product.
Yeah, now that I’m not WOWed by Ann Boleyn I see my own mistake…
I think you should leave feedback because if a clip can’t last past one open and close, then what’s the point in buying it? You might as well have made your own
I’m thinking I might actually make one…
Better.
I just noticed someone leaving a neutral saying that theirs broke the first time they wore it.
Honestly, who makes barrettes out with those silver foil ties? It doesn’t make any sort of sense.
Actually her own photos of the clips she has on sale look to me as if she simply shopped in the images she was going to print out for the actual clip. It’s sad that she’s such a shoddy craftsman, this could have easily been done so much better.
Could be. I hadn’t thought of that.
I noticed that too. Talk about misleading.
actually, grey, if you may look at page number two. A buyer said that she “would leave a neutral” if she could and came to explain how the barette has flaws. Shame really, some of the etsy sellers are shady, like th0se repackers. LOL
Why would anyone leave a negative comment in a positive feedback? Ug, my own fault.
I guess I do that too…. It’s just that I do not like retaliatory feedback. And not all employee (ebay, etsy) is nice enough to overturn that. besides, tehy know my address and email, sooo… maybe I’m thinking too much. I think it’s understandable. i dislike people ripped off by seller like this.
♪ Chuck that funky hairclip, white girl… ♪
Boogieing.
Thats just sad. It’s one of those things that always makes me sad . Like jewelry thats glued together
But now you have me trying to figure out a better way to make something similar . I’m thinking rivets and resin.
My favorites on Etsy is so full of amazing stuff, it’s sort of freaking me out that maybe I didn’t check as carefully as I should have, you know?
I looked at the website, and some of them look gorgeous, but if you look closely, you can see the similarities on the material underneath. Some had been placed in the EXACT same place. But this is the work of photoshopping.
Thank you for posting this review! If I hadn’t have seen this, I probably would have bought some….
GAH. I can’t believe I missed it, but honestly I only looked at a few.
Wow… personally i think that deserves bad feedback, it’s pretty shoddy :/ If it just looked different from the picture then maybe it would be you being fussy, but as it broke so easily i think you’ve got every right to complain! Also who make jewellery with twist ties?
I have a quandry about feedback too. I bought a present for my girlfriend (she reads your blog so i can’t tell you what it is) and it said on the listing that she would modify it slightly if you asked, which i did. It arrived without the modification i requested so i left neutral feedback, saying that i really liked the item and had a good transaction but because she hadn’t done my request i wasn’t 100% happy. I thought this was fair enough. Then she emailed me basically saying ‘it wont happen again, please change your feedback to positive’. Now i don’t know what to do because i worry i was being over critical, but then i don’t think i should change my feedback just because the seller asks me too.
See, in the case like that I’d request she FIX the mistake and then you might change the feedback.
Hi Claire!!
Stick to your guns. You were being fair and honest, which is what the feedback system is for. She’s guilt-tripping you in to changing it, which is completely dishonest for anyone else browsing her shop and trying to do a little research. How do you know, after getting that email, that she hasn’t asked other people that have left her neutral/negative comments to do the same? A sincere attempt to “never let it happen again” would be to send you a replacement complete with the modification you requested, at no extra charge. THEN changing it to positive would make sense.
i agree with you Tea. if it is the sellers error then it is their responsibility to go above and beyond in rectifying the situation. I’ve had instances where i’ve accidentally sent the wrong size, and in that case i send the correct one and say “perhaps you could pass the incorrect size onto a special friend”. The customer shouldn’t feel obliged to contribute to the resolution when the seller made an error. Lillian, if i were you i’d leave the feedback as is. You were truthful and thats all future buyers can ask for.
Cheers for all your advice everyone!
i think i’ll just leave it, i think i was fair enough. I did say lots of good things as well as the one negative.
I am grateful I haven’t had any bad Etsy experiences so far. Their feedback system does look a bit iffy though. I think that Ebay has the right idea with the feedback, where negative and neutral feedback WILL show up, you can explain why you’re leaving it, and the seller can respond to your feedback where other potential buyers can see it.
Her shop policy says she takes refunds..
Not for ‘used’ items, ie BROKEN.
They’re clearly faulty and she SHOULD do something about that. It’s not ‘used’ if you try to use it and it breaks. Even retail companies with really strict return policies will replace or refund if something’s faulty. For her to sell you something that breaks barely out of the package is horrendous. You should definitely leave negative feedback if she won’t fix it.
Ugh, I wonder how many other people have been disappointed by her ‘handiwork’.
Oh woops. The page that I read just says “will happily take refunds”.
Ya know, I love Etsy, I really do. But you really gotta be careful with whom you purchase from these days. I bought a really cute green flower ring from a seller and part of it was chipped on arrival (PACKED that way) and I know I paid $12 for it, but dang! C’mon.
I also once bought a X-wing toy necklace only to have one of the wings break off as I was unraveling the chain from it after I received the package. Bah. Anyway, I feel yer pain. Don’t even know what the point of my story was!
I do about 75% of my personal shopping on Etsy, you know, jewelry, accessories, health and beauty stuff. It’s FILLED with amazing things I know no one else I know will have.
That being said it fluxuates. Some things become popular and then suddenly there are a dozen new shops selling crap copies. Like the resin flowers now. Everyone sells them for, literally, a dozen for 2$ and then people glue them to other crap and sell the item for 16$. Boggles my mind, cause if you have any craftiness about you you can make certain things, probably better, yourself.
Some concepts are SO original I like to respect the designer by NOT coping and buying directly from them, but some stuff is just, yeah, anyone with a glue gun these days.
I’m curious as to where you found the 100 clips for $5? I’ve really been interested in making some hair pieces for me & a friend. Getting 100 clips for that price is amazing!
Search Etsy under supplies and you can find them!
I also hate how Etsy lets some sellers go all psychotic… I gave negative feedback to a repacker because the person had told me the colours were 100% original. Plus she was supposed to make a custom colour for me which turned out to be identical to a colour she already had! I left negative feedback and she started sending very aggressive e-mails to me. I e-mailed Etsy, the legal department contacted me and I sent them copies of the e-mails. They told me to tell the seller to stop harrassing me and inform them if the seller would still continue e-mailing me. I still received e-mails from the seller and informed the legal department as they had told me to. They did NOTHING.
Wow… that’s pretty awful
Know something? i reported to Etsy in my first email saying “there’re some repackers who don’t make their makeup and is therefore not considered handmade. I hope I am not being nosy, but could I report them?”. The personnel replied me back nicely saying that I’m welcome to. Then I emailed, nothing. nothing came or anything like that. I first thought maybe it’s the lack of evidence or just they don’t believe me. however, I think this act is questionable. I am not blaming etsy for this; they want to expand their reputation and I think tehy weigh in their profit more than customers. Oh well, i still shop at Etsy for some real nicely made stuff I can’t find elsewhere.
When I emailed them about it, they said that because they were responsible for ‘branding’ the item then were considering it handmade and allowing it.
huh, so does that mean if i buy americal apparel stock and sew in my own label it makes it “handmade”? Etsy is a great site, design wise. but i have very little faith in the people running it.
American Apparel has rules against doing that … but yes, you could do that with a different company, and I bet etsy would allow it. LOL This is why I don’t shop on there anymore …
People like this seller show me more and more that it’d be a good idea to move my shop elsewhere. I just cannot believe how poorly that hairclip was put together.