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Creating awareness about coexisting with nature and raising money in our Etsy shop is our primary focus at IntoBirds.

Besides sharing stories, videos, and photos on this site and our SM accounts, we pour our heart and soul into our IntoBirds Etsy store. We design and create handmade earthly goods inspired by birds and nature. And sell vintage items we’ve owned for over 20 years to upcycle and give them a new home.

What matters the most to us is giving 25% of the proceeds to support bird advocacy groups and wildlife rehabilitators that depend on donations to help birds and wildlife. So you can say we’re working for the birds. And for us, that’s a noble ambition.

So you might wonder what’s the deal about the 1-star rating in my headline.

IntoBirds’ Etsy Shop Supports Our Mission

We take pride in running a 5-star rated Etsy shop and bend over backward to appease buyer requests and ship items promptly. We’ll spend our money paying extra to ship items, ensuring they arrive on time for events and holidays. And until 3 pm EST yesterday, we were a 5-star-rated shop. Then a customer from Washington brought that achievement crashing down.

During the peak of the holiday season, the customer left us an unwarranted 1-star rating in our Etsy store. We enjoy making our customers happy by creating customized items, but a person buying a vintage 1955 TV clock complained that the clock made too much noise and claimed we didn’t disclose this detail in our listing.

It’s not our nature to be shady or swindle customers buying vintage items. But, unfortunately, it’s assumed that a 67-year-old clock will make some noise, unlike the silent digital clocks of today. After back-and-forth discussions where the buyer kept repeating that “she would not have purchased it if she knew it made so much noise,” she left our store a 1-star rating, effectively plummeting our seller rating.

This delicate clock was packaged with great care to arrive safely across the country in good working condition. We even provided insurance to ensure all parties were covered in the worst-case scenario.

Yet, this person felt 1-star sums up our service and attention to detail. But what’s worse was that their review was worded in such a way as to make other customers question our integrity.

Old Clocks Make Noise

Here’s what they posted in the reviews section of our Etsy Shop.

“An important detail was not disclosed. I would not have purchased it if it had been. Seller was less than appreciative of this. Glad that my money is going to the birds, though. That makes me happy.”

The buyer fails to disclose the important “detail” that the clock makes noise, just like every other 67-year-old clock. The buyer has the right to leave whatever review they choose, but in this case, a 1-star rating is unwarranted. Our only sin was not “disclosing” an old clock makes noise when it runs.

To be transparent, here’s the link to our listing. The video we included shows the clock running, but since Etsy forbids sound, it was silent. The lack of transparency is on Etsy for removing the sound from the video, not us. We have nothing to hide. Expect our dismay at encountering this unpleasant situation and the loss of our 5-star rating.

In this case, the buyer knows our mission to use funds raised in our shop to help save birds, as she notes in her review. So why bother leaving such a review?

Impact of Negative Etsy Shop

Think about the consequences before leaving a negative review on Etsy or any other platform. Calm down, and get a clear head before doing something in haste that can have such negative consequences.

The result is that the 1-star rating is not for the birds and goes against our mission to help save birds.

This incident aside, if you’re looking for bird and nature-inspired gifts for the holiday, please visit our shop. All motorized products that make noises like the TV clock are gone. And kidding aside, we have a fabulous holiday collection of customizable engraved gifts that turn your holiday gesture into a keepsake moment.

And please remember wildlife rehabilitators in your holiday gift-giving. We give thanks to them every day.