There are so many comments on this video I now have deep-seeded fears that my own comment will not even be special. This fear is so powerful that it has overwhelmed my ability to leave a comment that is even on-topic. Thanks a lot Etsy, you swine-feeding weasels, if you would just not talk out of both sides of your idiot faces and be remotely reasonable people without being tricked into it I would have never have felt as dumb as I do right now.
I'm so glad you got it worked out. I swear this video would have made a good Squarespace sponsored video for why you might want to build your own website and shop! What a nightmare to have to deal with the Etsy fools. I hope you have success having other product runs in the future!
I know I'll never use Etsy. I think what they did is indicative of how all these organisations are run. The only care they have is about the bottom line. Very selfish human beings who run these companies. Completely overpriced tat.
Mate I admire your persistence. We need more people like you to stick it up these o/s corporations who don’t give a rats ass about us the customer. I have followed you for some time and congratulate you on the quality and honesty of your presentations. We need more Aussie content providers and suppliers so we can become less reliant on the other mobs. Keep in up😊!
I reckon a lot of sellers would have given up and written off the loss. I am pleased you got the money you were owed for the items you made and sold. Stick it to the big corporates!!!
Josh Silverman was previously the CEO of shoppingdotcom, an ebay company. As I'm sure you will understand, I am unable to disclose the specific indicator of bad vibes detected by my system.
You definitely don't need them Paul, and well done for persevering, I don't think many folks would be as persistent. My store is still up, but every day I have this constant expectation I'll get a message saying, sorry, we suddenly think you are bad, go away. On to bigger and better things.
I've got mixed feelings about preserving - I'm glad of the result, but isn't it a sign of madness repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? I'm not judging you for having an Etsy store still James, but I am making funny faces at you 🤣
@@TheWoodKnight I am sucked in now, my D&D digital products have taken 100's of hours to develop and Etsy is the only viable pathway I know of to reach the audience best suited for them. It is paying off for now, but for physical products... I'd be a lot more worried.
Hey mate. I had the exact same experience with eBay. Exactly the same, calls, links hidden, never having calls returned even down to the exact same wording used in their email about why they can not tell why. I feel thet may be the same company After a long battle i ended up in the same position you are with my funds returned. Well done mate.
Sounds almost identical what I went through with them. I gave them a bad review over their policy changes with drop shipping and people selling trash. But after my “suspension” it took 3 months to get my account back. Then a week later they deleted my entire store listings. So I had to redo the main couple that I rely on sales from. But I’m also in process of my own website so I can give them the finger once and for all
Glad it is over Paul. To me it seems that an error was made at the very beginning, either human or computer, but Etsy didn't want to believe that it happened, so they suspended all correspondence. The legal person's response on the other hand is standard double speak for "the fuck-up was at our end, but if I gave you any details, we would be liable". I saw it all the time when defending employees against bad managers. In the end you have managed to recover your losses and move on. More power to you.
There is a legitimate reason to not give out details about fraud detection. It’s a cat and mouse game, and information only aids in people perpetrating fraud against your platform. However, companies use that legitimate reason as a way to hide their own failures. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter why somebody gets flagged; what matters is how mistakes are resolved, and in the world where your value add to the profit margin in measured in pennies, they are going to provide support commensurate with that. It’s not a great world, and it’s part of the reason I’ve spent much more time writing enterprise software instead of direct-to-user web software. We can actually provide support because companies will pay for it.
I'm seeing so many videos on YT of exactly this happening to more and more creators and the all say the same thing, etsy has no customer service for the sellers. The fact that they hide their contact links is especially vindictive.
Wow. That is absolutely insane. I have an Etsy account. I’ve not really had any issues with them. But it’s a small account. Definitely makes me want to look into other options of selling my items. I was about to launch some new items for the fall/winter holidays. Definitely not going to now. Will be looking for an alternative. Thank you for sharing your experience
My store/account would count as a 'micro' account - I've only ever sold 10 items total, and it was the last 5 that 'triggered' the ban. Maybe my account looked "suspicious" doubling my sales in one night? 🤣 Accounts with more sales *might* have more luck contacting support, but it feels like such a dice roll!
I’m so glad for you sounds like being persistent paid off with that said no business should make that kind of statement business wise! Regardless we call this falling on deaf ears hopefully you will just go away! Horrible business tactics! Thanks for sharing this follow up and congratulations!
What a disgrace. I'm astonished that you had to go through all that just to get money that was owed to you. I live in scotland. The last thing I bought from etsy (definately the last) was a "hand made in uk" product which turned up months after I paid for it covered in chinese shipping labels.
I had something similar happen with my Amazon affiliate account I used for my podcast for years. Banned with no specific reason given, appeals repeatedly denied/not eligible for appeal, ignored in all communication. At least they didn’t owe me money (or if they did it was little enough that I forgot about it). Eventually I decided the income I was getting from them wasn’t worth the time and energy I was putting into it. These companies suck.
Thanks for putting this up, when I saw your 1st video on this I immediately stopped using my Etsy account. I would love to collaborate with all the other makers to collectively put out a warning to the entire social media community based on your story.
I think the real tough sell to the general maker community is finding an alternative (or two) that replaces Etsy. I think many are willing to risk it - so to speak - because of what Etsy offers. Others are out there, but I'm not sure if they tick all the boxes (no monthly fees, digital+physical objects, marketplace) :(
just a couple days ago I had a similar (not quite, 'cause I do not sell anything - I bought stuff) with eBay - they sent me an email saying "your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk. We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly.. yada-yada-yada". I usually do not use eBay for purchases but I used it once almost a year ago to buy some power supplies for our office switches in London and I never used it since. And now they sent me this nonsense. Of cource, this cannot be compared to your experience with Etsy - in my case I didn't lose anything and just laughed - but if I'd be a seller on eBay I could get in a similar situation I guess.
eBay delete inactive accounts, scammer hijack old ones. It makes their $100 iPhones look legit when coming from an old account with good feedback. Although a year seems a bit short, and normally they send you a warning. Might have changed.
Once companies like this get too big the people don't really matter anymore. I believe the only reason you ever got a resolution is because you've got an audience - most people would never have seen their money again. Makes you wonder how much this heavy handed practice makes etsy every year.
How bloody frustrating but I see more and more of this don’t care in my “business” dealings. Completely against my training, but then again I am ole skool
Great work persisting. I hope people take notice of this and do avoid Etsy. I've never personally shopped on there or tried to sell, have been really turned off by the obvious drop shippers, impossible to find things that are actually hand made. When it does come time to figure out an alternative way of selling stuff online, I would be happy to help out. I'm a software engineer working on the web for over 10 years, so will be able to provide some assistance :)
I'm so pleased you finally got your money. Very painful lesson learnt. Fortunately I don't make things form money, just the joy of making. If you still want to stay in a 'Market Place', I hope you find a reputable partner that will not screw you. BTW is ETSY American? Just thinking about there ethics.
They are American, but I think they're just operating "as per normal" for late-stage-capitalism corpos. Can you imagine how much worse it'd be if somebody like Gerry Harvey ("the poors should die") ran Etsy?
eBay is just as bad. I got screwed out of hundreds of dollars despite me highlighting their own policies which the buyer admitted to violating, yet they continued to find against me without any justification.
Good result! ..... Sounds like every time i have to call Council for something.... Why you got banned is an unknown - but how you got it resolved, is by emailing people high enough up the chain that they got annoyed and forwarded it directly to the right person who just re-instated it to get rid of you... Good Result!
Great news after persevering so long and getting your money back. Im not on Etsy or a RU-vidr but by geez it pours a sour taste in your mouth and a good warning to others. Sit back have a beer and tell em to FO! 😂😂
If Etsy was run by the government, this is what I'd expect it to look like. What's weird is that it looks like this and they're a for-profit company. Not a good look. What alternative platforms are more communicative, transparent, and helpful to us makers? Thanks for going through this slog....
As @PriceyBuilt said below, the "best" option is to run your own. The issue is not having the potential customers come through a marketplace search like on Etsy. I have been looking into SquareSite (not Squarespace, though Squarespace is fine just expensive) because the fees are very very low but they don't offer digital items - it'll be what I go for when I sell more physical products (hopefully later in the year!). Though I have no plans to sell at marketplaces, SquareSite integrates with Square, so all the stock management links together if you had a Square reader/POS at a market. Gumroad is OK and what I use for digital plans. I've heard good things about BigCartel too WooCommerce is free but runs on top of Wordpress so you'd need to pay for Wordpress hosting
I'm actually shocked that Etsy doesn't have competition for the actual creator sales. There are a lot of people for whom having their own site doesn't make a lot of sense. In principle, a site that offers a platform makes sense for everyone. Shame that Etsy is such a words that'll get this comment deleted.
There's something incredibly wrong with the company not paying you. Even if they detect something they don't like, if they don't pay you what your customers paid to them then that's outright theft. Sure, suspend someone's account and never let them sell again, but keeping the money already paid by seller's customers, even if it's in their ToS, is totally unethical if not illegal
The line they fed me is "it'll eventually get paid out", but when asked 'whats a ballpark for the payout?' they could only respond with "We don't have that information right now". Based on this experience, I'd say Etsy does a fair bit of theft from sellers and deliberately obscures anyway to contact them in the hopes that people just give up. Amounts that aren't worth the cost of legal action, but in volume to prop up their bottom line.
Hello, Welcome to the world. I fought the Catholic Clayton's Church for 11 years. The crime was witnessed by a football team and known violent religious brother organised and orchestrated the crime. 44 years later, after fighting them for 7 years, I quietly forced the removal of the Catholic Cardinal of Sydney. Today, 31 years after my initial action, they are still in law law land and I still am not compensated for a shattered spine, fractured skull and brain stem injury. I will not go on. Your an intelligent person and I am sure you understand. Congratulations on your win.
![I fought the law [Etsy] and I won [they eventually paid me my $400]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
