A couple weeks ago, I posted an entry about my very poor experience as a shop owner on Ruby Lane. You can read it in its entirety here
That post has received a plethora of responses, including some from other former Ruby Lane shop owners with similar poor experiences. Additionally, I’ve received a number of email messages from shop owners telling me their tales who didn’t want to post them. Sadly, what I discovered was that my experience was far from unique. My original post did NOT berate or in any way make derogative comments about the other shop owners on the site.
Yesterday, I received this comment from another Ruby Lane shop owner, who, whether he/she wanted to or not, speaks volumes about the Ruby Lane vibe. Unfortunately, this alleged Ruby Lane shop owner didn’t leave an email address nor a shop URL link, so I can’t respond to him/her directly. I’ve not edited any content and am publishing in its entirety.
***Lavender says:
Kirsty, I’ve been on RL for years and can say nothing but good about the site and the CS personnel. I can understand their viewpoint. They are managing with the same level of staff, but have to deal with this explosion of little shops who are trying to make some money by stringing some beads together and who obviously don’t possess a background in jewelry making. I am not saying your shop was like that, but RL has too many of such shops, making the same types of jewelry. The reason there is an artisan jewelry section is because there is demand for all types of artisan jewelry, even the simple string the beads together. But at this time, maybe because of the economy, or maybe because of sellers exiting eBay and trying other avenues, there are way too many such shops for this stringing beads type of simple jewelry.
I can understand the frustration of the RL customer service, because they get asked the same stupid questions over and over again, and most of it comes from the jewelry shops. You merely have to click into the Forums to read the published questions and all of the articles they take the time to write about everything the jewelry sellers are doing wrong. Yet strangely, there are very few articles written by the CS staff about the antique shops. All I am saying is I can understand the CS side of it and empathize with their workload. There are some very good artisan jewelry shops on RL and I am not referring to the shops that string beads together; I’ve made quite a few purchases from a few of the better shops and I can sing their praises.
Anyway I love RL. I make a lot of money on the site. The eBay type of sellers who open a shop tend to last just a few months and then the shops disappear. The shops who are really skilled and knowledgable are able to last and endure with steady and constant profits.**
and then, one more from my pal Lavender:
**
Lavender says: I should add it was another RL antique shop who passed me this link, and she got it from another RL shop, so the link to your expression of dissatisfaction towards RL is making the rounds among the better antique shops on RL.
I wish you luck on this site.
**
All righty then. As I stated in my original post, Ruby Lane has been around for 10+ years. By outward appearances, a respectable, well organized, established online shopping site. Those things were part of the reason I opened my shop in the first place. I expected a level of professionalism and customer service that I did not receive. Clearly, Lavender places the blame for my poor experience on the artisan jewelry shop owners, not the Ruby Lane staff. If I received less than stellar service, then, well, it was my own fault apparently.
If Ruby Lane feels like these new artisan jewelry shops are too small-time for their site, or that they are overwhelmed with “small” shops asking “stupid questions over and over again”, then perhaps Ruby Lane should consider more strictly jurying the site. As it stands, RL took my fees and did not, in my opinion, live up to its proclamation of “excellent customer service” as stated on its “Why Sell With Us” reasons.
I’m pleased to know that my blog post is “making the rounds among the better antique shops on RL”. I also checked today, and, you remember the link error that started this whole thing? It’s corrected, sort of, finally NOW. Power to the little people. LOL Hooray for the power of blogging. 
(The shop page STILL says “Ruby Lane is home to over 1900 independently-owned online shops from around the world, showcasing exceptional Antiques, hard-to-find Vintage Collectibles quality Fine Art, and fabulous Antique & Vintage Jewelry. “ Artisan jewelry is not mentioned in this tag line UPDATE 11/6/2008: RL has finally added a link to the shopping page for Artisan Jewelry.)
My original message of Caveat Emptor remains the same. Additionally, artisan jewelry shops should probably be aware of the animosity towards your art that exists with some of the older Ruby Lane shops.
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Well said.
“Little shops who string beads together…” Hmmm… seems to me that any time one has to repeatedly issue a disclaimer insisting that they are not being insulting only points out that that WAS quite obviously their original intent. “Stupid questions”?? Apparently Ruby Lane (and those who blindly support it) has divided their customer service endeavors into two categories: those who they deem are worthy of respect and rapid response, and those who THEY deem only “string beads together without a background in jewelrymaking” and ask stupid questions. Perhaps Ruby Lane might do even better if they use their vast profits to hire some customer service personnel who actually know something about KEEPING customers.
Will not be shopping on Ruby Lane any time soon and will make a point of “making the rounds” about my feelings among the many, many sellers (and buyers) I know who probably do not not fit into the world of the (snobby, self-satisfied) “better” antique shops of Ruby Lane!
Hmmm…convenient that “Lavender” didn’t supply you with any real info to check her out.
I keep getting emails from RL begging me to come back saying they will waive the opening fee, but when I asked them specific questions regarding changes, I get no answers…oh, except, “no, handcrafted rosaries are not allowed in the jewelry lane”…Umm, no thanks!
I find the original customer service response from Ruby Lane to be more than a bit rude. And the comment you shared here, Kristy, more of the same. It’s definitely rude to come to someone’s blog and tell them that their question is stupid, and that their passion is small-time. That is just classy. NOT
Even putting all of that aside, you still have a VALID point – Ruby Lane isn’t helping anyone selling artisan jewelry because their search doesn’t work! At least on Etsy, who isn’t known for providing stellar customer service themselves, makes it possible to at least FIND the entire jewelry section – Ruby Lane does not, and that’s pretty shady when a jewelry designer is paying the fees.
le sigh .
All I can say is WOW!!
(string beads together without a background in jewelry making = asking stupid questions)
Poor poor Ruby Lane. I really feel sorry for them. NOT. They have kept the artisan lane because it generates money for them. The artisan lane should not be treated any different than any other lane.They pay their fees & should be represented.Other lanes have been dropped for only one reason- they did not generate enough cash.
Again, I would never go back to Ruby Lane-ever. We were treated very badly and lost a significant amount of sales at our own website when they threatened to take our website down. Etsy is a much more positive marketing savvy site. I would suggest it to anyone over RL. There are so many RL dealers afraid to speak out because they fear reprisal. I am disgusted by the way they conduct themselves.
Interesting response Kristy! What I see, and I was thinking of opening a shop on RL but now hesitant, is that Lavender doesn’t feel that paying money for a service to RL isn’t expected because they are under staffed. If I have to pay out good hard earned money to RL for their services, then I should get them. I shouldn’t be told that they have the same amount of staff as they did 10 years ago and they just can’t seem to handle all the emails, questions or problems. If they can’t provide the service, then what good are they? They can’t take your money and only pick and choose who they are going to promote, EVERYONE should be promoted if they are going to allow that type of item on their site! Not a very friendly site!
Thanks for trying it out and taking the punches for us
You go girl!!
I’m glad I read your post as I had considered opening a shop on Ruby Lane. Well, at least that’s one headache I don’t have to deal with.
Just want to say . . . . . Way to stand up for yourself and speak out! I love that about my girlfriends! Don’t know much about Ruby Lane and have just returned from a business trip, but will read up on some of this stuff! Thanks for sharing! Have a great week all!
Ug…what a condescending and snotty comment. That drives me bonkers.
It isn’t just anyone in the world who can “just” string together beads and make a GOOD quality long lasting and artistic piece of jewelry. I play with metal (I can solder) and do “real” jewelry (at least real apparently according to that person) but I LOVE to “just” string beads together to create beauty. What an idiot.
That kind of thing just ticks me the heck off. Can you tell?
I wasn’t just a fly by night shop on RL. I stuck it out for nearly a year. And I rarely even contacted them for help or to ask “stupid questions.” I got very little traffic and it was too cumbersome. Etsy is a lot easier even if it is saturated.
Glad your post is making the rounds though. =)
Thank you so much for your review of RL. I am sorry that you had to go through what you went through, however, please be it known that you have saved so many of us aggrevation and further let-down by putting your neck on the line. I have learned my lesson with them through you. I hope you are doing great and successful.
Thanks for the comments everyone. My experience with Ruby Lane just goes to prove that prior to investing one’s time,energy and cash with ANY online sales venue, one should perform a bit of due diligence first. Hopefully my experience is but one data point in your evaluation.
we also have a shop on Ruby Lane, and our jewelry is extremely unique and sophisticated.
It’s far far far from being “beads-on-a-string”.
RL is ripping people off!!!
To pay $60 per month for 100 items and not getting sales, not even inquiries…??!!!!!!
It’s a pure hwy robbery. Period.
I’m not going to publish our shop here for obvious reasons, not to create an avalanche of responses. We received a lot and a lot of compliments from other shops owners who were amazed at our designs.
With all this, our sales are non-existent since around August 2008. The first sales started coming about 3 months after opening, which was just right according to RL advice.
We were adding items almost weekly.
The moment we stopped adding items, the sales also stopped.
Not that the sales were great, not at all. Only about 2-3 sales per month.
So, this is a reason why there are no sales for many Ruby Lane shop owners.
RL system is all WRONG! We’re getting punished for not submitting new items. What does it mean to RL?
It means, that if you don’t submit new items, you’re dead.
Because if you don’t submit, RL looses money. This how their system works.
It’s a system that sucks our money to their pockets.
Sure, the whole website is looking great, attractive… it is to create an illusion, to attract visitors, but mostly to attract suckers like us, to open the f.. store.
They do it on purpose of course.
Ruby Lane traffic ranking according to Alexa.com is steady with no changes, and far far below Etsy, which is basically the same only with very simplistic crafts.
RL sends emails from time to time about charging “no submission fees” for a particular day…ha..ha..ha…these fees are really peanuts, compared to their monthly “maintenance” fees……60 BUCKS a MONTH for 100 ITEMS and NO SALES!!!!?
Screw them.
I wish all jewelry people leave them.
We are going to leave by the end of this year. There are plenty of free sites and even you can build your own with today’s free sites.
I’ve compared end auction prices on ebay to the Ruby Lane shops and Ruby Lane had so many more true quality items that were far LESS expensive than ebay which anyone can buy right away! No hassle, no bidding, no worrying, no losing and in a flash the vintage brooch or artisan bracelet is yours.
As a buyer I always had a great experience there. I just purchased some celluloid and victorian jewelry at the shop Years After at Ruby Lane. They’re the nicest ppl on earth and I love my gorgeous items. They really know their stuff. If you’re going to put down Ruby Lane then remember you are steering customers away from the quality sellers who will be the ones to suffer, not Ruby Lane. It may be a harder place to sell but if you can make it on Ruby Lane then you can make it anywhere and that means you are really really good.
Catherine (above) says “If you’re going to put down Ruby Lane then remember you are steering customers away from the quality sellers who will be the ones to suffer, not Ruby Lane. It may be a harder place to sell but if you can make it on Ruby Lane then you can make it anywhere and that means you are really really good. “
Catherine, I think you missed the point of my post. I don’t disagree that the buyer experience may be a good one and I didn’t “put down” Ruby Lane, per se, but my less than stellar experience with their support team as a seller on that venue. As you describe above, your BUYING experiences sound positive. Again, my original post wasn’t targeted at the buyer’s experience, but to that of a seller. With the myriad of venues available online to sellers these days, I think it behooves venue owners to treat their seller customers with respect.
And your statement that “It may be a harder place to sell but if you can make it on Ruby Lane then you can make it anywhere and that means you are really really good “ might strike a cord with many other very successful shop owners I know that sell on other venues. As a seller, why would I want to utilize a site that was described as “a harder place to sell” because of the way the venue ownership team treats its seller base? Or be made more frustrated by how certain categories of sellers on that venue view and speak about other category sellers on that site?
Your statement that the sellers on Ruby Lane will suffer but not Ruby Lane is somewhat flawed I think. Sellers on Ruby Lane are already suffering, from the economy and a dip in sales. My little post doesn’t affect those two factors. Ruby Lane suffers when sellers choose to sell on other venues. This may occur for several reasons, but the economy certainly doesn’t help. When a seller with a drop in sales also experiences poor customer service from that venue, it’s just salt in the wound. When that seller leaves Ruby Lane due to that poor customer experience, it has direct P & L impact to RL’s cash flow.
As said previously, my experience as a shop owner on Ruby Lane certainly isn’t unique, unfortunately.
I thought snobby was the operative word here also in my experience. They have snobby fellow shop owners flagging items in stores and they can be erroneous flags. You still get penalized and if you try to dispute a flag, forget it. They would never go against their “pets”. They offer NO help or even answer your e-mails or questions. It is a very confusing site to master if you are a newcomer. As far as the rosary beads, I would defineatly consider them a form of jewelry What else are they? They contain beads. In my case I was selling a collection of lockets which were Xmas ornaments. There is no way they could be even worn as jewelry unless you dismantled them, yet they wanted to classify them as jewelry because they opened up and were lockets. So they are talking out of both sides of their mouth. They also do not allow hair ornaments because they are not jewelry, according to them. I think that they should re-look at the definitions of what is jewelry and what isn’t. And it is true, the looks at your items drop to very minimal unless you constantly update with new items. This tells me that the same people are the ones who are looking ( they probably pay people to look, or maybe these are the flaggers) because how would the general public suddenly know that you have new items.
“Years After at Ruby Lane”
Catherine, what a way to plug your shop. You aren’t a customer. How would you know it’s harder to sell there.
Just to let you know the customer perspective. I spent thousands of dollars at Ruby Lane over the years and I just cancelled my account. Ruby Lane has changed and I don’t even recognize it anymore. The reason I shopped there in the first place was because I wanted to be treated like a customer, not someone to scam. And the only reason I kept buying there were the few really good store owners who made me think the whole place was nice, so when I went to buy from them, I would stop and look around at the other stores. Well, one day I went to buy and found out that I was blocked. Since I had never bought from that store, I discovered it was another store blocking me from buying from this other store. I went to complain and was told customer service was not around so come back some other time. I was really upset that I had been treated this way after all this time, so I started actually reading the fine print on the site and I thought, you know, I don’t like the way you are doing business, Ruby Lane. So I canceled my account. Over the years I had encountered quite a few bad sellers on Ruby Lane and just gave the stuff to Goodwill and didn’t complain to anyone. I only stood up for myself on rare occasions, but apparently that was too many times for Ruby Lane. The thing is, I want the nice store owners to know that I didn’t stop shopping there because of them but because of Ruby Lane. Please, sellers, consider alternative venues so your loyal customers can find you when something like this happens. I’ll never shop at Ruby Lane again.
I have to post a comment here about Ruby Lane. I do not sell artisan jewelry. I see antiques. I have had nothing but a great experience with Ruby Lane. I add items weekly and sell a great deal of our inventory every month. I love Ruby Lane and every thing I have purchased has been wonderful and described correctly. I could not sell antiques and vintage items online if there were not places like Ruby Lane. Very professional site and I have always received answers to questions quickly from the Ruby Lane employees.
thanks for all this great info, being a jewlery artist and always on the lookout for places to sell, I want to thank you all for saving me lots of headaches on RL. I will not be setting up shop here. Thanks for sharing your stories
I just started on there as a seller so its early days but the Customer Services have been fast and informative.
John Hutchinson.
Stringing beads together? What is wrong with people? I do know some
People do not recognize real artistic talent.My mom used to say
“Like Class , an Artist is born with it” so even though people
Go to school to learn a style some people are born with it already.
Stringing Beads Together,hmm sounds like a Shop Name,
I Love stringing beads. Peace, Dee
So on the same train of thought, I’ve heard of Ruby Lane but thanks for the
Bead On, Dee
heads up. I was going to check it out, no appeal now. Come on over
To 1000 Markets,people seem to get along pretty good and there
Are some talented bead stringers
Note from Kristy:
This comment’s author requested that the comment text be deleted, so I did. If you need to find this text, you will have to do so via the cached page on Google while it is available.
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Note from Kristy:
This comment’s author requested that the comment text be deleted, so I did. If you need to find this text, you will have to do so via the cached page on Google while it is available.
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As a veteran seller and buyer on Ruby Lane, I have to disagree with much of some the responses I see here, particular those from the person “Ruby Lane Sucks.” The service is excellent, and it is defintely a change from the culture and business traditions typical to ebay and ebay-like sites.
I take it “Ruby Lane Sucks” is not too pleased with his/her experience with the service. But who doesn’t have their occasional problems? What really disturbs me is “Ruby Lane Sucks,” clearly disgruntled, also clearly does not know what he/she is talking about regarding Ruby Lane’s return policies and terms of service.
In fact, Ruby Lane Sucks, you could have easily gotten a refund from the seller to whom you allege you did business with – particularly after the policy changes ebay made a few years ago for the benefit of buyers.
I have coincidentally done business with the seller that you mentioned, Jewelsunique (Camilla Nasr), and she was one of the most professional individuals that I have worked with on Ruby Lane, despite her joining much after I initially joined during the site’s early stages.
I conclude that “Ruby Lane Sucks” is part of the reason why great services like ebay go down the drain after many years – people fail to notice and follow simple policy and procedure for business.
[...] UPDATE 2: The saga continues here http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/ [...]
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[...] Blog post [...]
[...] Blog post here [...]
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Note from Kristy:
This comment’s author requested that the comment text be deleted, so I did. If you need to find this text, you will have to do so via the cached page on Google while it is available.
http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us” rel=”nofollow”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dPcD1DpB8SQJ:shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/+http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Thanks for posting a follow up. Glad to see that the CUSTOMERS are doing better. Wonder how the SELLERS are feeling now?
Note from Kristy:
This comment’s author requested that the comment text be deleted, so I did. If you need to find this text, you will have to do so via the cached page on Google while it is available.
http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us” rel=”nofollow”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dPcD1DpB8SQJ:shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/+http://shinyadornments.com/simplyshiny/2008/10/ruby-lane-a-former-shop-owners-saga-continues/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Hello Kristy,
I enjoyed reading your perspective on Ruby Lane. The best decision I made was to open my own eCommerce shop.
Wishing you all the best!
Thank you and regards,
Malcolm Hudson
we had a shop on RL for about 2 years. I can tell one thing about RL: they are Crooks with capital ‘C’. No question about that.
UNLESS you keep adding items daily, at least 5-8 items to your store, your gallery will buried very very deep, and nobody will ever see you.
In addition to this, you pay a fee(I think $35) for co-op advertising in American Style magazine. It’s one page ad, with many smaller ads that are very small. We had an small add like that, and it didn’t produce nothing!
So EVERYBODY have to pay this coop ad of $35 whether you participate or not. So, basically it’s a forceful fee.
To create some sales you need to have at least 100 items with continual daily addition. That will cost you AT LEAST $60-$80 per MONTH!!!
IMHO, it’s much better to have a shop on Yahoo or Amazon for this amount.
OR, pay this amount to a professional web designer to create a smooth looking gallery.
I have been on ruby lane for years and am tired of the fees. There are so many sites that have more reasonable fees. Would love to hear from Artisan jewelers who have left Ruby Lane to go to another site. Or.. sites that people really like and are doing well at. thanks
I wish I had seen these comments before I ever considered Ruby Lane. I’ve been disabled and tried to sell on Ruby Lane, I’m disgusted with them and their nasty attitude. I will not do the nonsense cut and paste research that other sellers do. I was a buyer first on Ruby Lane and found the information given by one shop in particular to be garbage. I couldn’t recommend Ruby Lane, I too have moved to Etsy.
I have shopped at Ruby Lane for a few years and spent 1000′s dollars. I chose Ruby Lane because I thought it was an upmarket shopping site. I had only 1 or 2 problems during that time. I now find for some reason I am blocked from purchasing from half of the regular stores I have purchased from. I have done nothing wrong, owe no money and have no idea why this is happening. Customer service does not exist and on the one occasion I have contacted them they were at best disinterested and at worst rude. I have come across 2 shop owners who can only be described as hostile, paranoid and lacking in social etiquette. I will be closing my account and the very decent shopowners will be losing a great deal of business. Just goes to show never judge a book by its cover.
Update – I have just had an email from one of the wonderful shopowners who I have contacted about it and she advised me that there is gossiping amongs some of the unprofessional shop owners and if they are upset in anyway they get the ‘cronies’ to block you – three blocks and you are dead.
Thank you to all of the support I have had from the professional shop owners. I cannot believe this goes on. No wonder there is an economic crisis. What happened to ‘the customer is always right’. Customers beware Ruby Lane do not care!!!
oh my! I don’t know the details, but that doesn’t sound good at all.
I see you might be into weight lifting as effectively! You should have a look at my blog, and other people articles!
[...] the original article hereby Dewey (Green Cove Spings, FL ) Need tips on how to sell your handmade jewelry to stores? Here you…do I go about taking my handmade jewelry to stores and shops to get them to sell my jewelry?And, can [...]
Was considering opening a shop on Ruby Lane.. After all the cpomments i’ve just read i’m giving it a second thought…
I was under the impression that you pay no fees to RL for selling only a small item listing fee that decreases when you add more items and a $20 monthly maintainance fee…
So what could it cost per month ? with only a $20 maint fee and 60-70 items for sale..Maybe $35-$40 ?