Weddingbee boards

A few weeks ago I posted about my Etsy invitations designer, who has been almost completely noncommunicative for the past two months.  You can read the full story on my blog, but the punchline is this: while I am still attempting to contact her and get her to finish my project, I suspect she will not come through, and I have already given her money (note: this was a stupid, stupid, STUPID thing to do, and I encourage everyone else to learn from my mistake -- NEVER put down more than a small deposit up front!).

Has anyone else been through something like this on Etsy?  Is the site able to help you at all?  I paid via PayPal with a credit card; my window for disputing on PayPal has closed (again: stupid on my part, very, very stupid), but my credit card company may still be able to do something.  To be honest, I do not expect to get my money back at this point, but I am curious to know if anyone here has experience disputing transactions on Etsy, and what I can expect if I have to go that route.  Any advice would really be appreciated -- I was so excited about the beautiful design she came up with, and I'm kind of crushed right now, and really angry at myself for being so foolish.

As an Etsy merchant, myself, (and frequent buyer from other merchants), I know that the Etsy developers are dedicted to making sure their merchants are on the up-and-up. I have never had a dispute, but the Feedback system is in place to handle these. Here's more information about it: http://www.etsy.com/help_guide_feedback.php. Since you've made the purchase, you should have the option of leaving feedback. Go ahead and leave negative feedback, explaining your reasons why. This should get your merchant's attention. AND it will get the attention of potential buyers from that shop (if they check those things before purchasing from a shop, which I HIGHLY recommend). If that doesn't work, this address is on the Etsy Contact page for this type of thing: "abuse@etsy.com: report concerns about site misuse and get help with disputes."

Good luck! I hope one bad merchant doesn't ruin the rest of the site for you--that really is NOT represenative of the whole bunch!

@FirstComesLove -- I have had one e-mail from her in the past 8 weeks, in response to 5 e-mails from me requesting updates.  In the last e-mail, she apologized for the lack of communication and promised to have proofs to me by the end of the week and to have me on press shortly after that.  That was a month ago, and I have not heard from her since, even though I have tried contacting her to see where things stand :-(

@avdillard -- Thanks for the advice.  Part of why I'm so freaked out is that another buyer left feedback last week complaining about non-delivery of a custom order!  She had 100% positive feedback before I placed my order; I suspect something has happened to interrupt her work and she may be having a hard time getting back on schedule.  Maybe it's too early to freak out, but I don't want to find myself invitation-less 6 weeks before my wedding and have to scramble to throw something together.

What a nightmare.  The worst part is, my fiance tried to argue me out of doing this because he didn't think it sounded reputable or reliable.  I should have taken his advice, I feel like such a moron :-(