Who Rates the Rater?

Historically, sellers on the handmade e-commerce site were able to leave tiered reviews for customers that were negative, neutral or positive; however, with the establishment of starred reviews, this ability was removed by the site and later replaced with only the ability to block buyers rather than provide any feedback. A site that was helpful when making decisions about how to engage with a customer was called “KarenCheck.com” — this site has now been hobbled, as it has been blocked from accessing reviews connected with usernames on the e-commerce site in question. However, for a time it was useful to see the history and types of reviews left by a customer to check their expectations and ways of communication they were most likely to positively respond.

Figure 2. Screenshots of KarenCheck.com before it was effectively banned by the marketplace. The image shows one reviewer with a mix of positive, neutral, and negative reviews, and another reviewer with all positive reviews.
Figure 2. Screenshots of KarenCheck.com before it was effectively banned by the marketplace. The image shows one reviewer with a mix of positive, neutral, and negative reviews, and another reviewer with all positive reviews.

Additionally, in 2021, social media sites such as TikTok encouraged customers to scam sellers to get free items by leaving negative reviews and demanding returns, only to return trash from their homes or something else to the seller. Our small shop personally received a box of hair and another customer used glittered paper to fill their returned package, causing us to have to do an additional round of completely sterilizing and cleaning our workshop.