In the last two years, my Energy Shop on Etsy has evolved from a hobby into a second income for my family. It’s been a great success, and because it’s an important part of my livelihood I have always been careful to honor Etsy’s terms of use. However, last week and without warning, my shop was suspended by Etsy’s administration.
This is how it happened: About one week before my shop was deactivated, Etsy’s integrity department sent me a questionnaire which included 3 parts and about 15 questions. The person who wrote it thanked me for my time and for being part of the community. The email went on to explain that they had reason to believe I wasn’t complying with their rules. It was made clear that I needed to defend myself, but they did not state what they were accusing me of.
At the Energy Shop, my jewelry is handmade by me in my home, and I have one person working for the shop who does all of my shipping and handling from their home. I thought I was complying with all of the rules on Etsy, so I was very confident in filling out and returning the integrity report. They required receipts for my supplies, pictures of my workspace, and photos of myself and the person who works with me. I had the entire questionnaire filled out and returned practically upon receipt. The day after I returned the investigative report, I received a reply that thanked me for my response. Case closed, or so I thought.
One week later and without notice, Etsy deactivated the Energy Shop. The email stated:
“Unfortunately, your shop does not appear to qualify for the Etsy marketplace. We are a venue for independent artists to sell their own handmade goods as well as Vintage items and Craft Supplies.
As your items do not appear to meet the criteria to sell on Etsy, your shop has been deactivated.”
And that was that. I’m not going to lie, I actually wept. I had invested two years of dedicated work and tens of thousands of dollars. All of that vanished in an instant, and my site was replaced with this message on Etsy.com:
“Uh oh! A stitch has gone awry. This page is temporarily down. Please check back later.”
I replied to the suspension email as calmly as I could, begging for them to tell me what had happened. I still had no idea what I had done wrong! I frantically started searching for a phone number that I could call; I wanted to square things away as fast as possible. I found a corporate listing for Etsy’s Brooklyn office through an internet search, but it went straight to voicemail stating that they don’t respond to phone calls.
Stunned, I was forced to sit down, wait for their reply, and let sink in what had happened. To be honest, I felt betrayed! Not only had I built this successful shop on Etsy, I had brought hundreds of customers to the community. I’ve paid thousands of dollars in fees. I have ruthlessly promoted the site and the promise of success to its sellers on my blog. And with a single click of the mouse, they erased me.
Over the next 24 hours, Etsy admin replied to me, sending one excruciatingly vague piece of information at a time. They were accusing me of “drop shipping” because my shop announcement stated, “Handmade in New Zealand, shipping out of Pittsburgh.” In my integrity report, I verified that I was outside of the country at a military address, and I did make everything by hand in New Zealand and ship stock packages to Pittsburgh.
Etsy’s Do’s and Don’ts are 29 pages long and made up of 10,918 words. About halfway through those 29 pages, I found this bullet point: “Drop shipping is not permitted. All items must be shipped under the direct supervision of the seller.”
From Wikipedia: “Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in retail businesses, the majority of retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price but some retailers earn an agreed percentage of the sales in commission, paid by the wholesaler to the retailer.”
Technically, I feel the accusation they have made against the Energy Shop could be argued–there is no outside manufacturer or wholesaler involved. However, I don’t care to ever discuss my operation with Etsy admin again, so I have decided to comply with their request and ship the stock I sell on Etsy myself. After about 24 hours down, the Energy Shop was reactivated on Etsy.com.
The point of this story is not to bash Etsy as a selling platform. This was a wake-up call for me, and I wanted to turn it into a friendly warning for you. I thought I owned my small business, but by having my only presence on Etsy, it turns out that I didn’t. Etsy owns the shops they host, and they reserve the right to manage them however they choose.
Think about it, if your shop was suddenly closed on you right now–without warning or explanation, what would you lose? How many hours invested in your listings? How many positive reviews? How much of your hard-earned credibility?
If you’re serious about your small business, you might want to see Etsy as your starter house, not your permanent home.
Source: http://www.handmadeology.com/etsy-shop-suspended-what-you-need-to-know/
I had a customer open a case, she didn't read that shipping to the US can take up to 30 days as I am not in the US, especially at this time of year.
She never messaged me before opening a case, I explained to her the shipping times. She escalated it and Etsy asked for proof of shipping. I sent all shipping receipts to show it had been sent and to the right address.
I had no reply from Etsy.
After contacting USPS, I was told the package was out for delivery today, I was so happy it was going to make it for Christmas.
I updated the case to say this. A couple of hours later Etsy closed the case and issued a full refund!
I am so annoyed about this. The package was going to be on time both for Christmas and according to my shipping policies. At no point did they respond to my shipping receipts. Now the customer gets a free order just because???
Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/eeqid2/etsys_just_giving_away_orders_for_free_now_huh/
For over a year now I've been fighting with Etsy's legal division.
I first had an item removed for alleged copyright infringement. I have spoken with someone who deals with copyright legalities and he was even confused how Etsy allowed the opposing party to file a claim against the design, but I did have a name that was trademarked and that was likely the cause. No problem, changed it and I filed a counter notice which Etsy states after 10 business days if you don't hear anything from the opposing party you're able to relist. Waited about 3 weeks just for safe measure and relisted. A week later I received another takedown notice for the same item, same party.
Repeated the steps of waiting to relist just thinking Etsy's system was wonky and maybe slow. This became an every few week occurrence. Going back and forth with the Etsy legal team I was informed once you file a counter notice and it goes in your favor, the opposing party can not file another claim against that listing. Cool, I felt like I was in the clear again knowing I was in the right. What do you know, it happened about a month later. Aggravated with the whole situation I was discussing the issue with the Etsy legal team again and I have in writing from one of their members stating once a specific listing has a counter notice filed and the opposing party doesn't respond after 10 business days, that same item with the same URL can not be filed against anymore. You'd think that would mean I'm safe. Months later, another notice and this time Etsy closed my whole shop. Wow. Etsy totally going against their own word. Every single notice was against the exact same item every time - same URL and all. After my shop being closed for weeks because the Etsy Legal team does things on their own time and me losing tons of sales, one of their members finally restored everything for me and stated they would remove the infringement strike - which they should have removed every single one anyways.
That was in February. Just had the same listing removed. Again. Surprise. It has been over 2 weeks and the legal team won't respond to me. Clearly they are in the wrong, even going against their policies AND their own statements in their emails.
Does Etsy even really care about their sellers? I understand a company not wanting to get mixed up in everyone's legal matters but at the same time have some faith in the people who keep you running - sellers - and stand behind us a little. At this point it's harassment and incredibly ridiculous. I could just stop listing this item but it's a huge portion of my income(this is my full time job) and I'm not in the wrong here so I shouldn't need to stop selling it.
We’ve been one of the top personalized bracelet sellers for a while on Etsy, but they have officially made it impossible to do business.
With their new ODR policy, sabotage will and is becoming more and more rampant.
Basically the 1% they expect you to stay under, means you have to have less than 1% of cases and low reviews. Most people who open a case also leaves a bad review, so you can have a maximum of 1 disgruntled customer for every 200 shipments.
This also doesn’t count customers who make a mistake “I accidentally clicked one star”.
We had a customer who accidentally typed in the wrong address, she opened up a case because she didn’t know any better. We made her a new one and sent it immediately, free of charge. She immediately cancelled her case. We still got dinged.
Remember, even when a case is closed or even if the shipment gets lost - still counts against you.
So right now more and more stores are sabotaging each other, and it’s only a matter of time before most shops are off Etsy. Tons of stores are getting shut down and Etsy refuses to even talk to them.
We’re officially starting our plan B, I suggest you all do the same.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EtsySellers/comments/ex0gzv/close_to_exiting_etsy_and_you_should_be_doing_the/
First of all im Colombian living in Medellin, me and my dad have a family business about making leather belts for local apparel stores.
Finding the way to get more source of income to my family i get and idea to offer handmade leather belt braided and engraved (western Styles) And i open a shop on etsy, here is photos of the product i try yo sell. Store
When i hit the first sale, post of my first sale, Etsy start to question the belt manufacture process.
How many people are involved in your shop, and what role does each person play? This includes design, production, managing the shop, and shipping items. (Don't forget to talk about the role you'll play in your shop.)
Where are you and your members located?
I'd like to learn more about how your items are made. Please provide a brief description of the types of items you are selling as well as a little about your handmade process.
Do you outsource any part of your production process? We do allow members to use outside manufacturing assistance to produce their items, but you must first fill out an application and be approved by our team of Maker Specialists. You can read more about this here: https://www.etsy.com/help/article/4644
Do you have any other Etsy accounts? Please list all the usernames you are associated with.*
I answer all of this questions and send them real photos of the small business. Photos.
After that they respond me this.
*Thank you for sending along that information. I appreciate the time you put into this.
However, after careful review of the materials you sent, my team has determined we will not be able to approve you to sell on Etsy. The information you provided in your response did not adequately demonstrate the process in which these items are made. As a result, your account will remain suspended.
Although we are unable to accommodate these items, we wish you the best in finding an alternative venue for them*
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/6alvwz/why_etsy_close_my_store/
My store was closed down 3 days ago along with a handful of others, including 2 stores in Etsy's top 1%! 11 stores in total and counting, turnover exceeding $500,000
We were closed down through no fault of our own, we were closed down because Etsy's algorithm is simple and does not factor in that some Etsy stores use consultants to help optimise their store. There is no tiered login, as oppose to Amazon where there is. So Etsy has no idea which stores use consultants and which don't.
So what happened is a store on Etsy repeatedly broke IP and got several warnings from Etsy before being thrown off the site. Etsy's algorithm then did a sweep for IP addresses associated with that store. It highlighted an IP address owned by a consultant who all the effected stores use. They then searched for other stores linked to that IP address and closed us all down - as we were all clients of the consultants. No warning, no email, nothing. We all found out because we couldn't access our stores.
We all called Etsy to ask what was going on, and we were all met with an extremely rude reply which went something like 'You have broken IP infringement, your relationship with Etsy has ceased, do not contact Etsy any further, I am disconnecting this call'. It felt like I was talking to a robot.
I filed a case and was met with a generic legal email which literally had been copied and pasted. The only personalized bit about it was my name at the top. I felt like I was conversing with a bot. And their final email told me they would not respond to any other emails.
I called a further 2 times and spoke to 2 different agents and both acknowledged the issue and were on my side! yet neither would escalate it to a manager, neither would do anything to help. it was one of their agents in the first place who told me what had happened - yet still they won't act!
The service I have received is mind blowingly AWFUL, I cannot believe that no one will simply open their eyes and look into what we are saying. I personally spent 7 years building this store, I create genuinely hand crafted items, it is my sole income. What, now Etsy can just take it away? Yes they can and they have....
Just this week Amazon have been forced to change their T&C's for exactly this reason, now store owners get 30 days notice. See this article https://tcrn.ch/2SpmThb Etsy must be forced to follow suit.
I'm not going down without a fight. Please support your fellow Etsy store holders by marking up and spreading this news. Strength in numbers. Thank you!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/cff0ey/etsys_ip_algorithm_is_shutting_legitimate_stores/