I received an email about a potential customer in the US asking if I would consider posting there (I only sell to the UK).
I understand that this is a new feature (?) and if I don’t wish to complete the sale I can ignore the email and Folksy will automatically decline on my behalf.
So far so good.
However I currently have all of my items deactivated as I am taking a break over Christmas. My shop appears empty to anyone clicking on it.
How has someone managed to make a request for a deactivated item? If I click the link from the email the item page opens but states that it is unavailable.
Is this a glitch or am I missing something???
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Hi,
This has happened to me quite a few times, and unfortunately, it’s often a scam. Let me share one of my experiences:
A customer from the United States contacted me, saying they were interested in buying some of my boxes to resell and asked for my email to make the payment. I replied that they could purchase directly from my Folksy shop, where everything is handled automatically via PayPal.
However, they insisted that they didn’t like Folksy or any pre-set platforms.
Feeling a bit unsure, I gave them my PayPal email. Shortly after, I received an email that appeared to be from PayPal, asking me to confirm the purchase via a link because the payment was supposedly “approved.” However, I had no actual orders in my PayPal account.
They also asked me to check my spam folder, where I indeed found a message that looked authentic, but I knew this wasn’t normal. I contacted PayPal, and they confirmed it was a scam.
I hope my experience is helpful to you!
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Just ignore it if you don’t want to ship to that country. I recently had a similar experience, although the item was out of stock - the request came through twice from Australia for the same bag so I let Folksy know that I’m happy to ship to Australia but just not the bag they were interested in. They emailed the customer to let them, know that I was happy to ship to this country but not the particular item as I couldn’t remake it. This morning I had another request from Australia for a different bag so this time I simply amended the world shipping on that item and…they haven’t bought it (i can see from Google analytics that someone from Australia has looked at it, so I imagine the postage was too expensive!!). I like that I don’t have to message anyone directly, but I also imagine that the system will need tweaking for it to work fully efficiently. I wonder if they found yours via pinterest??
I’m sorry to hear about your experience Marco. It sounds like this is slightly different from the overseas shipping request system that Folksy have set up as the potential buyer contacts the seller through Folksy and not directly which feels safer than what you experienced. I agree that taking sales off Folksy and going directly can be very risky and open to scams 
Not a glitch just the way the internet works. Items that are hidden/ sold out/ expired but not deleted are still floating about on the internet but the page would show as ‘unavailable’ like you are seeing. So if the person had bookmarked the page on their browser, favourited it in their folksy account or discovered it on pinterest (it could have been pinned by someone else but linked back to folksy) then the link would still come back to an ‘unavailable’ item in your Folksy shop.
I’ve had people contact me about ‘unavailable’ items not visible on my shop front, they have normally found them on pinterest.
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Your shop does state it’s empty if I click on it, so I suspect someone has clicked on a link to the item from social media, or maybe they had ‘favourited’ it previously so it was in there favourites. Either way the link will take them to the listing but it will show as ‘unavailable’.
Apologies if this is derailing the thread, but my next question relating to this (and my comment above) is…how long do I leave the shipping box filled in for rest of the world? Because I have no idea if the customer is thinking about buying, or even if it’s a coincidence that an Australian buyer has looked at my shop since I changed the p&p on this bag. Because at the moment, anyone outside of EU and NI could buy it and there’s lots of places I’m not comfortable shipping to!
Thanks for the insights, but I’m now even more confused!
The email from Folksy includes a link to the item (https://folksy.com/items/8136770-Simplicity-3637-Marie-Antoinette-style-Deborah-Woodbridge-costume-sewing-pattern) which, when clicked, shows as being unavailable.
So if it’s showing as unavailable in my shop, how on Earth are they sending a request to purchase it from America??
I can see that someone may have a link stored somewhere or it’s shown up on a Google search, but if the page itself shows the item as unavailable where is the customer clicking/pressing/requesting in order for me to receive the automated email??
Surely this shouldn’t be possible. If the customer emailed me themselves I could understand it, but they’ve clearly used Folksy’s in-built system to request shipping to a usually not-shipped-to destination for an item which isn’t available for sale…
I’m assuming that there’s a shipping request button which is only visible for people outside of the shipping areas quoted as available on the listing. This would then be visible no matter what route the listing is accessed. And I’m also assuming that this request ‘button’ is there if the listing is unavailable for sale due to shop being closed or sold out.
Yes, that’s exactly what I mean!
Your charming mustard cat bucket is sold out. As a UK buyer I cannot request you send it to me, but if I was in the US I could. That doesn’t make any sense from a buyer’s perspective.
I’m assuming the request shipping button overrides the lack of availability. It does look a bit odd that something with a red Sold Out banner (or grey Unavailable one) also includes a button which proudly proclaims “This seller doesn’t currently ship to your location. Ask if they can ship it to you.”
@folksycontent (sorry if I’m tagging the wrong person) is this intentional or just a blip?
Edit: I’ve found this website (https://geotargetly.com/geo-browse) which allows you to see webpages as they appear to viewers in other countries.
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I did raise this as an issue in another thread a couple of weeks ago. I do find it odd that someone would request an out of stock items, but I guess they may be thinking that it could be repeated (lots of mine can’t). I generally like the system, but there are definitely improvements to it that could be made.
***Edit…great to be able to see what the system looks like from outside UK 
( and thanks for the nice compliment about my cat pot 
)
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Indeed. I think, as things stand, the only way around it is to delete listings that are not actively for sale.
But that isn’t convenient if, as you say, it’s something that you may be replicating in the future so don’t want to lose the text and have to start another listing from scratch.
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Hopefully as the system gets more use and issues identified, changes will be made to make it work better 
Could be they are still asleep since you updated your listing regarding shipping, as there is a bit of time difference 
, I would give it another 24 hours, if they don’t purchase, then revert back.
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